NER Autocar - restoration progress

[Autocar Publicity]

Very nice! Any chance of a polo or t shirt?

It's possible, but the sweat-shirt is similar, so I think we'd need several people to be interested (for each size) to justify an order. When we have proper stocks of sweat-shirts and fleeces, I will look at taking some pictures, possibly including a 'volunteer' modelling them...

[Rlangham]

Received the newsletter today (need to get around to having membership address changed as it's my parents) - great as ever. Did like the front cover image, is it an original or a modern photo touched up?

[Autocar Publicity]

Thanks, the cover picture is an original, from a postcard, postmarked Darlington 1904. I've not seen it myself but was sent a scan. I did have to put it through Paint Shop Pro to get it to acceptable standards, the unedited scan was rather faint.

[Bryan]

From "Britain from above" Shot of Pickering Castle.
In the centre of this photo isolated at the end of the siding.
Is this an Autocar?
Or could it be a camping coach?

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/imag ... ring&ref=0

[jwealleans]

I think it's one of the Clayton coaches built for use with the steam railcars. As shown on this very forum here.

[Autocar Publicity]

I can't get a good enough view to be sure, but I doubt it's an autocar. If it was, then that would contradict what we know of their history, as it's 16 years after the date we believe to be when the last (ours) was disposed of. A camping coach is a possible, but could be checked relatively easily. My gut feeling is it's either an engineer's mess saloon or another type of railcar or trailer as Jonathan suggests.

[Autocar Publicity]

Just a short one today, we've lost a few of the regulars to "Family" obligations recently, can't think why...

On the autocoach, some doors have been rehung and more ceiling panels installed. Unfortunately, no photos as yet, but these panels are curved and have holes cut in them for the ventilators. Less interestingly, more paint scraping has been done round the door frames and window beading.

The next newsletter is due this month, the copy date was (officially) a week ago, but the serious work won't start until next week, so there's still time if you're quick.

Thanks to Royal Mail losing a bundle of mail before Christmas, I've had to do a lot of the work for the fund-raising section of the web-site again, so we're still not up and running there ( ) but hopefully it won't be much longer. Today someone suggested producing mugs as one of the items for sale. What do you think? Is there any autocar themed item you'd like to have? If we can source supplies of the 'base' material and make some money for the autocar, we'll do it.

[Rlangham]

Mugs a very good idea. North Eastern Railway hotel/refreshment room mugs are available but I don't know how accurate they are - I did, somewhere, have some images sourced online of plain white mugs with black text stating 'soldiers and sailors canteen North Eastern Railway' or similar which I was considering having produced to tie in with the book but can't find the images now which is a pain. A decent sized mug would be a bonus, a lot of railway mugs, although great designs, can't satisfy my tea cravings for long!

[Rlangham]

Here's the mug

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/w ... -276839639

[Autocar Publicity]

Thanks. We'll have a look at this and see what sizes are available. In terms of decoration, the feeling from my (highly unscientifically selected) survey last week was that a colour picture would be better than a black & white - which could be awkward in the near future as the only coloured photos we have are of models, either Robin Taylor's model autopair or Richard's autocar. I haven't forgotten we have some of the prototypes from the shunt at Embsay, but these show a half-complete autocar - do we really want that on a mug? Any thoughts?

[richard]

I believe I saw that pair at Clecki-fax back in May.

I'm not sure if either model is good enough? Getting a good depth of field on a photo would also be difficult.
I guess if you had an artist who could do a decent painting for free...

[Autocar Publicity]

A painting would be nice, to use for all sorts of things. I know a couple of artists who may be able to do a picture, but neither has a lot of time available at the moment. So if there is anyone else, do please come forward.

[garryluck]

Re coloured image, possibly I could help with this? I have some expertise in digitally-colouring monochrome images as per example below and would be willing to produce something for you free of charge.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/northernbl ... 9261403514

To do this, I would need a high resolution scan of an original print, specific criteria here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/northernbl ... 6293140254

I would also wish to publish the completed image with an appropriate acknowledge on my Flickr site (it would not be used for any other purpose). You are welcome to contact me directly as below but please note that I will not be picking up messages between 19-24 January.

Garry Luck
garryluck@yahoo.com

[Autocar Publicity]

Thanks Garry.

I have taken up Garry's offer and we're working on an image that we can use for a mug - and other things. We may need to ask readers some technical questions - such as the shade of paint used on NER lamps say - and check historical details.

Other progress, the newsletter is coming together and I hope members should receive it in February. Engineering work continues at Loughborough. Wiring is one of those labour intensive jobs, it's easy for me to write a quick sentence but that might well cover several days' work! In many ways, our engineering team are breaking new ground and they can't always consult a manual or think, "Oh, the seventh one of these this month". At Embsay, activity is focussed on the autocoach and we're currently hanging the doors. Again, another easy sentence to type, but it describes many hours work. The beading round the windows is being painted on the warmer & dryer days - we have actually had some, unlike less fortunate parts of the country - and more ceiling panels have been installed inside.

Publicity, we should be at the Scale 0 Rail Bolton - North West 7mm Show 2014 on the 16th February - http://www.alsrm.org.uk/events.html - if you go, do drop by and say hello.

[Autocar Publicity]

Work continues on the autocoach doors.

Photo courtesy Alan Chandler.

Down at Loughborough, the powerunit is being wired up and the engine housing is starting to look crowded...

Photos courtesy of Peter Van Houten.

The short sleeved sweatshirt/T-shirts being modelled by our Chairman.

The fleeces are starting to arrive. We have the Large size in stock, with the XLs to follow shortly. They look good. I've tried mine on and it's thick, should keep me warm in all these winter winds. There's elastic cuffs and 'hem', with a zip up the front and zipable pockets at the front so you've somewhere to put your hands or to keep keys secure. I'll post a picture as soon as I can find a suitable model...