The weather was fighting us for a few months over Summer, but our volunteers have made some significant progress on the restoration of Refrigeration Van MBC22959 with the final colours now being applied to the exterior.
To get to this point, our volunteers have completed a huge amount of work, including:
🔹 Replacement of missing and rotten timbers on the exterior of the van
🔹 Repair and replacement of damaged or rotten wall structure
🔹 Replace missing or failed screws on exterior timbers
🔹 Descaling of the steel under frame and bogies to remove rust and build-up of debris
🔹 Repairs to brakes and couplers
🔹 Surface sanding of exterior boards to remove old paint layers and repair surface damage to existing timbers
🔹 Treat and prime all metal surfaces to prevent further rust
🔹 Prime exterior timbers in preparation for paint
🔹 Paint interior roof structure
The final coats of wagon grey are being applied to the exterior timbers before we continue on with the frame, bogies, roof and various steel components around the body. On the interior, the roof timbers have been repaired and sanded, with final coats of paint being applied. Work continues on the remediation of the internal floor surface.
The van is starting to look amazing and our volunteers have done a great job to get it to this point. We look forward to seeing this one finished and on display at the museum in the very near future.
🤷♀️ Why haven’t we replaced more of the external timbers? To maintain the heritage integrity of the item, we try to leave as much of the original heritage material in place as possible. It would be very easy to just replace everything and make it look like it just rolled out of the factory, but it wouldn’t be the same van any more.
