Category: News

Good evening everyone. I'm writing this report from my office, early on Sunday evening. I'm telling you that because several things haven't changed since yesterday; the first thing being that I am very proud of what was achieved at Strawberry Hill only 24 hours ago. Yesterday felt like a huge leap forward for the unit and for the SETG (I'll elaborate as we go along). Secondly, I'm still knackered; this preservation stuff isn't simple, but then again anything worthwhile is rarely easy. How lucky are we to not only have a dedicated and talented team backing the unit, but to have so many of you following our progress on Twitter and Facebook. It's astonishing. None of us are doing this to look cool (after all we're railway enthusiasts and as…

Good morning, followers of VEP! I apologise for not keeping a tighter rein on the updates to the website, but as always I have been finding (or have been found) other things to do or simply neglecting to sit down and write when I should have. As those of you who follow us on Twitter and Facebook will be aware, work is progressing well at Strawberry Hill. For those of you who don't have access to those sites, you'll find below a brief outline of the past two months' work and what has been achieved. We are extremely pleased with our progress, and despite extremely limited funds we are making steady headway. As our Chief Spanner Monkey rightly observes, "there are things we can do for pennies and we've got…

  Normally writing would involve a keyboard, but alas I find myself keyboardless. So pen and paper will do. And they have the added benefit that they don’t need a charger. It does mean that at some point in the future I’ll have to translate my own handwriting - your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated. Normal service for the SETG News page would involve my writing something daft/amusing regarding our progress on 3417. But today is different. Because today 3417 is lacking one of it’s most Senior Minions. Driver Gwilym Jones, depot driver at Wimbledon Park, ex Euston West Coast driver and part of the original ‘Three Musketeers’ who decided one evening more than a decade ago that 4VEP No. 3417 could not be allowed to slip quietly away,…

Good morning, Followers of Gordon! A very brief line to let you know a few things: Firstly, Minion Darren reports that we have the first of the new batch of inner window trims ready for fitting. As soon as we can arrange a work day, we will make a test fitting of the first batch. Pictures will be provided! Secondly, we have been notified that our friends at Siemens and SWR that they will require the spare road at Strawberry Hill for maintenance work on part of their fleet. While this is going on, in accordance with our arrangement with both parties, we will be unable to access the shed. However, work such as production of window frames and so on can take place off-site. We hope to regain access…

Good day, folks! A few quick updates for you rolled into one, because I have been rather lax in updating the news. I apologise - please blame the deliciousness of biscuits, the Big Railway, finding free bricks (it's a long story - don't ask) and many other varieties of mundane stuff which get in the way of Playing Trains and telling you lot about it. For those of you who follow the exploits of 3417 on Twitter these little nuggets may come as old news, but I know there are many who don't. So enough excuses; we have things to share.  Firstly, the long-standing AWS fault in both cabs has finally been remedied. Thanks are due in huge part to our friends at the Southern Preservation Group at Tunbridge Wells West…

      Good afternoon, Oh Children of the VEP! Harken all ye here assembled, for we bring you glad tidings of Work Completed, Tea & Pasties Consumed, Ice-ed Buns sent Home, Wood Fitted, Filler Applied, Horns Sounded and Floors Swept! Right - that's enough of the Town Cryer nonsense; on with the news. Minions Darren, Trousers, Potter, Lynn and Maggie were in attendance at Strawberry Hill on Saturday for the first work day of 2019, where they made significant progress towards completing the interior restoration of Driving Trailer No. 76262. After the first order of the day was completed (tea and biscuits, folks - very important) Darren, Trousers and Potter set to the work. The first task of the day was energising the unit; making working conditions for several…

Today, children, we will see exactly how many Mark One coach cushions can be stacked inside a VW Transporter van, how long it takes to unload said van, how many times Potter can change his mind about where the fresh cushions should go and how long it will be before Lynn and Maggie tell Potter to stop being a prima donna and sod off while they organise things properly. Also in this issue; 4VEP Light Fittings - Do They Have Vampiric Tendencies?, What Has Gone Wrong With Pret a Manger's Bacon & Omelette Rolls? and Do You Know How Many Cups of Tea & Milk Chocolate HobNobs the SETG Can Force Into a Delivery Driver's face Before He Begs for Mercy or Drowns in Tannin?" Before we start, the SETG would…

Sorry folks - I'm on holiday. Talk amongst yourselves until I get back. If you're good, there may be a fridge magnet for you when I get back. Regards, Senior Scribing Minion. PS: Despite being 1,715 miles away from Strawberry Hill I still got a message from our chum Peter Spokes asking if he could borrow slammer parts... Railway Preservation: it's the hobby that just won't bugger off and leave you alone for a bit. TTFN

Welcome to today’s edition of “Playing With 1:1 Scale Toy Trains for Fun and Frustration." Prelude: "It's all good fun playing trains, until someone asks you to fit a four-wide seatback to a bulkhead that has decided that it doesn't want to have a seatback fitted to it, thank you very much. At this point the fitters get cross, drivers find themselves grateful that they never became a fitter and everyone wonders exactly how, in years past, pairs of drunken teenagers managed to throw the bloody seat backs out of trains in the first place. Fitting seats isn't for the faint of heart, folks. For the record, we managed to refit the seat after using two shoe paddles, two screw drivers and a lot of railway-grade language. (And a brief…

Today was another busy day at Strawberry Hill, and a very productive one too. After a hiatus of a few weeks thanks to shift work and the usual non-railway Real Life intrusions, we were able to put a small team together to move work forward on coach No. 76262. But before we could begin work, depot procedures had to be followed... After the obligatory tea (and optional chocolate biscuits) and lead by one of our senior fitters Darren Franklin we continued restoring the standard class seating area. This has involved removing all the water-damaged fittings within the coach and replacing them with 'good' fittings  - either freshly made or recovered from elsewhere along the unit. The previous workdays have made good progress towards this goal, and today has moved us…