24/03/24 – The final Palvan door

Hello everyone! This week has been another one focused on the Palvan, where we’ve completed the rebuild of the final door and started to sort out the wheelsets required to allow it to run.

After reviewing the parts of the door, Richard and I concentrated on shaping a new corner post, which is the only complete post we’ve had to replace on this van. Nick had found us a suitable lump of wood, which got cut to length, and them cut to the correct profile. We then had to replicate the 4 mortises from the original post.

We managed to rescue one of the diagonal bracing pieces. This had split due to the bolts rusting and expanding. Dan clamped, doweled and primed this part so it is ready for fitment.

Nick, Mark, Oliver and Dan went to Ruddington to pick up some spares including four buffers, a vacuum cylinder and UIC screw couplings. The wheelsets will follow, but would have been a bit much for Nick’s Transit.

The door side post took most of the day, so on Sunday morning Nick and I started cutting the new horizontal parts of the door, where Richard took on cutting the remnants of the tenons. I cut the ply sheet for the back of the door to size.

Nick cut down some channel rod we’ve had in store to use to strengthen the bottoms of the doors currently fitted to the van. Richard showed Tom and Oliver how to mark and drill these using the pillar drill. These were fitted later on in the day.

The team assembled the door in the Palvan, which was then stood up to allow the timber for the bottom of the door to be measured and cut.

Much of the glue used in construction leaked out of the door, which Nick duly tidied up. The door will now sit and set for the week until it can be fitted next weekend. We’ll also, provided the weather is clear, finally sort out the roof sheet and re-fit the door top frames so the doors will actually latch into the van once again.

Thanks for reading, and join us next week to see how we get on.