For a week in February, Bluebell Railway’s Carriage and Wagon department hosted a group of six students for their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Residential experience.

Members of the Goods Division supervised the students – Finley, Toby, James, Jacob, Theo and Alfie – working on the heavy body overhaul of the SR Vacuum fitted box van No 47588.

They carried out tasks including painting, needle gunning and grit-blasting.

The students also worked with Bluebell Director Richard Salmon to machine five body planks. This gave them insight into the various processes involved in restoration and woodwork.

At the beginning of the week of 15-21 February, the van was a bare metal frame. Over the following days, the students worked on: applying a layer of primer and undercoat, dry fitting the planks; drilling the bolt holes; painting the frame and most of the planks with another undercoat and a first coat of gloss.

They completed their week’s work by fitting the north end and west side with sealant between the metalwork and the planking to provide extra waterproofing.

The week’s efforts made a lot of progress in restoring the van, but there is still more work to be done. This will centre around building a new set of doors, which will replace the life-expired doors that the student group removed. The painting also needs to be completed.

The recent cold weather has hampered the work, with the only work taking place being on smaller components in the paintshop.

The students came from around the southeast of England from various organisations that are part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme all over the southeast.

A couple of them expressed an interest in returning for a further part of their award and perhaps beyond that as well.

The Bluebell Railway, which will hold its own Railway 200 gala later this year, has expressed its appreciation to various people and bodies who helped the residential placement to take place.

These include the 13th Bromley Boys Brigade for setting up the placement and dealing with the administration; the Railway’s own Loco department for letting the group use their clean mess facilities during the week; and the Carriage and Wagon department for providing undercover working space.

The Loco department is working on overhauling Southern Railway Q Class 0-6-0 No. 541 formerly British Railways No. 30541.