For previous year's progress see Restoration progress 2008/9

For the the next year's progress  see Restoration progress 2010/11

Another good day was had by Paul, Jim and I.  Jim carried on rubbing down the roof ribs on the interior and Paul and I concentrated on fitting more ceiling boards.  I got two more done quickly and the ceiling is starting to look rather nice inside.  It will look even better when it is all varnished.

The next task was to finally drive home all the wedges that hold the monitor ribs and pillars in place.  This was a tricky operation using several cramps.  These have to be positioned at the correct angles to make the bird mouth joints close up.  There are 4 sets of wedges on each side and we found that by driving them in various different orders the joints to be adjusted to make the best fit.  One of the problems is that the monitor ribs have slightly 'relaxed' in the 4 years that they have not been under stress and fitted into the structure.  Here you can see along the top of the ribs showing some of the wedges near the camera and further away the ribs that had been finished and the wedges cut and planed level with the ribs.

Here you can see the cramps used to close the joints up. 

My apologies to readers for the poor image quality, a certain person not a million miles from the keyboard left his camera on standby so the battery had gone flat.  These were taken on my mobile phone.  Hopefully next week we should get the A side finished and then carry on with the C side.

Almost five years to the day since we first met at the tram shed to discuss the possibility of doing something with 107, and what a lot has happenned.

Today I managed to get another two ceiling planks screwed down and Jim spent time rubbing down the monitor ribs on C side.  The ceiling is starting to look very nice with the alternate light and dark colours.  We also spent some time sorting out the modified design for the seats, in the light of the recent research trip to Crich and also information from photos of other Milnes cars.

Most of the day was spent talking to the group from Leicester who are just starting to restore Leicester 31 which has been a pig and chicken shed for the last 60 years.  Apparently the pigs lived upstairs.  We had a very good time and exchanged a lot of ideas.  We wish them all the best with their endeavours. their website can be visited at http://www.leicestertrams.org.uk/.

Another good day and I even managed to remember my camera. Jim and Paul spent the day rubbing down celiling boards to remove the almost invisible machining marks that showed up when we stained them.  Jim also brought some samples of offcuts that had been rubbed down, stained and varnished.  They look superb.  Stephen and I spent the morning working out how to fit the canopy bends.  This involved rubbing off paintwork from the bulkheads so that we could be sure how the landings fitted.  Then everything became clear.

This is how the tram is looking at the moment you can see  the canopy bends stored inside. The rubbing rails are all on.  At last we are starting to see what the finished vehicle will look like, even on the inside.

This is what B end is starting to look like.  The fixed screen on the right is propped in position and is varnished and ready for fitting.  The refurbished door is ready for fitting when we get the door brackets cast and finished.  The left hand screen is made except for one rail and then will be finally assembled and varnished. 

After lunch Stephen and I started to fit the ceiling boards and put the centre one in first putting two screws at each rib.  Some of the ribs have twisted slighty so a sash cramp was put on them to get them vertical before the screw holes were drilled.

Here you can see the patent rib straightener in action.

Here you can see what we are trying to create with alternate light and dark timbers. The dark centre one is fully fitted and we made a start on the light one to its right. The clamps are holding them tightly together.

 It was good to see this progress and away fron the tram we have now managed to find how the seats were made thanks to the staff at Crich who let us look at the seat construction on Chesterfield 8.  It was also good to see Bernard back today after his recent stay in hospital.

Apologies to all readers I forgot my camera again so no new pictures till next week.  However we had a team of four of us and the good news that Bernard is getting better and came out of hospital this afternoon.  Stephen spent the day rubbing down the roof sticks with fine grade paper ready for varnishing.  Jim spent the morning trying to get the B end screen to fit and Paul finished polishing the brackets for the canoipies and landings.  I fixed the A side upper cantrail and then in the afternoon trimmed the ceiling bpards to length and then with the offcuts checked the centre point for the ceiling.  Hopefully next week we will be able to start fitting the ceiling.   Not a great deal of spectacular progress but some vital preparation work.  Away from the tram work has concentrated on Jim doing the screens and me working on the drawings and specifications for the wheelsets.