The first part of the project was to carefully dismantle the car.
No plans or workshop drawings exist for the car and many parts such as the platforms, staircases, and running gear were missing. Therefore there were several objectives set for the dsimantling process.
a) To assess whether or not is was feasible to restore the car.
b) Could the car be restored to running order and be fit to carry passengers.
c) To assess the condition of every piece of the vehicle.
d) To gather evidence for the design of missing pieces.
e) To compile an accurate list of each piece.
The car was at the back of the garage where it had been for 30 years. The first job was to clear the rest of the garage of accumalated parts of other trams and buses and then to carefully remove the wooden lining that had been put on when it was a summerhouse. We also rubbed down the paintwork to find details of the original livery.
The rainbow rings show the 10 layers of paint. Only the bottom 3 were original. The bow collectors were from Leeds Trams and one of them has now gone to Heaton Park Museum for fitting to the ex Leeds work car that's there.
When the panelling was stripped from inside the ribs were exposed. Also a 5 amp socket that had been fitted to the summerhouse. (So our horse tram had some electricity.)
The ribs and framework were all numbered and removed. In all 36 of the original 48 ribs were fit to be reused. The roof structure had sufferred from rot where a stove chimney had been put through. This meant that 3 of the 12 roof sticks were rotten. The structure was then removed for storage. We recorded what wood each part was made from and also how it was held together by measuring each screw and taking note of the length and diameter. Removing each screw carefully was a difficult process as we had to be careful not to damage the woodwork round them.
The car was then stripped down to it's underframe and the garage partially cleared.
Once the space had been created we constructed a mock up of one end using a mixture of original timbers and some scrap wood. The cost of this nearly gave our society treasurer a heart attack, a grand total of £11.68p for ex demolition timber and some threaded rod.
The next step was to erect the front framework and put some old wardrobe doors on to act as a platform. Bernard then did some marvellous calcualtions, by photogramatry, to produce a design for the staircase. This used up some more old wardrobe's and at the second attempt we got it right.
The mock up was also used to make a pattern for the new crown boards and was well worth the effort involved as it helped us to design most of the missing parts for the platform area.
The garage was then cleared to make way for the construction of the underframe and during the process we undearthed this:-
This was found under a pile
of old wood and polythene.
Its a compressor from a Leeds
Horsefield car. All 3.5cwt of
it was loaded into the late
Brian Pickup's campervan
and taken to Crich.
Just to prove it here is a picture of the cleared garage to show that we actually did clear it.
We also painted the floor while it was clear.
Follow the story on with this link:-Restoration Progress 2006/7