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Part Two - January-April 2000

In March 2000 work was in full swing to restore the unique Wickham two-car diesel multiple unit - a project which was to take three years to complete. Two people were now working full-time on the project with volunteer assistance and finance from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The first job tackled was to strip the old floor from the power car and wire brush and sand it so it could be painted. The inner skin and roof was also sanded and painted. Everything was found to be in good order, although there was some corrosion between aluminium and steem parts. The only corrosion found was in small areas of the floor.

All the mechanical units, eg the engines, gearboxes, exhausters were removed and were despatched to specialist contractors for refurbishing. The engines appeared to have last been looked at some 30 years ago and were in poor condition. The radiators, fuel tanks and air tanks were also removed so that they could be examined and if necessary repaired.

The bogies were disconnected but the body was not planned to be lifted until the following summer when work to completely rewire the car was due to start.

All the wiring was old and required updating to modern standards.

Within a short time the inside of the power car was painted. The cab area was stripped and priming and painting carried out. The original insulation was then replaced by new materials and work carried on to replace the floor inside. This made the interior easier to work on.

This work was carried out under contract at the Midland Railway- Butterley, which is near Derby.

At the rear of the vehicle the corridor connection steelwork was returned to its rightful place after an absence of some four years. The steelwork had been refurbished but it still needed its canvas covering.

Also missing were the vertical exhaust stacks. However inspection revealed that the whole exhaust system required replacing as the 20 years of storage had rendered it useless.

This striking photograph shows the cab area of the power car which had been stripped down and painted. Individual components were being shipped to various places as volunteers tackled them as "homework" projects. Amongst these are brake parts, controls and electrical installations. It was to be almost two years before they were all reunited again.

The Wickham Railcars were built on a revolving jig so that workers could easily work underneath as well as on the sides and the top.

All Wickham cars were insulated with deadly blue asbestos ( although the dangers were not known at the time). This was sprayed on to the cars at the factory which was itself insulated with the material.
When the Wickham Project obtained the two car unit almost Ł10,000 had to be sunk into removing the material before the cars could even be moved.

If the Wickham is finished on time it should carry passengers again in 2002 - that will be 32 years since its last public passenger run.

Former employees of the Wickham organisation - including former officials - have supplied most of the photographic evidence which is being used to recreate the unique art-deco interiors of these two cars.

A former guard, who used to work on the Wickham sets when they were in traffic, has told us that they were not popular on market days as their small guards vans did not hold enough boxes of tomatoes!

All photographs Chris Lings for the Llangollen Railcar Group