DMU Update (M51937), Spring '25

In this update we can show you the change in appearance of the two carriages after five years restoration work by our members. Taken from slightly different angles, but the difference can be clearly seen.

The first photograph shows both carriages on the 16th March 2020. This was the day they arrived at NPL by low loader from Butterley.

The second photograph was taken on the 22nd March 2025. It has taken longer than we expected to get to this stage but looking back at old photographs shows how much progress has been made.

Power Car M51937

The rest of the photographs are all of the power car M51937.

The 2017 photograph of M51937 outside the sheds at Butterley, was taken during one of our routine visits to the Midland Railway Centre to check on authorised work being carried out on our behalf.

The recent 2024 photograph shows work underway to repair the Smith's carriage heater, sort out wiring and the replacement of the window rubbers. The first coat of gloss green paint was applied during 2024 with a second coat now underway.

Guard's Compartment

The 2017 photograph of the Guard's Compartment was taken when the unit was still located at Butterley.

This area was used, by the previous owners and Midland Railway Centre, as a storage area, for parts not only from our DMU, but several parts for DMUs owned by other heritage railways.

Some work was required to identify what was ours and what belonged to other groups.

As can be seen the interior had become very delipidated with damaged woodwork on the doors, peeling paint, stored seat frames and clutter everywhere.

Moving forward six years to 2023 and the transformation is very apparent.

New woodwork has been fitted to the opening double doors by our carpenter, Clive.

The walls and ceilings have been repainted, the vacuum brake gauge refitted, along with flip up seat.

Much work has also been carried out relaying the floor to allow the doors to open without catching.

Escape Ladder

All DMUs were supplied with an escape ladder to help passengers detrain in the event of an emergency.

The ladder from our train had disappeared many years ago so we went looking for a replacement.

Fortunately, some were for sale down at the Bluebell Railway in Sussex and we purchased one and had it shipped up to Lancashire.

The photograph demonstrates how the ladder would be used. Eventually it will be secured to a wall in the Guard's Compartment.

Driver's Cab

The first photograph shows the driver's cab in November 2017 during one of our visits to Butterley to carry out some tidying up.

The area had undergone some cleaning and removal of debris, but none of the driving controllers had been removed at this point.

The more recent 2025 photograph shows the driver's desk with most overhauled controllers and dials reinstated.

Quite a number were seized up or damaged, and our members have stripped them down, cleaned them, painted them and where necessary made new parts.

All have been tested as much as possible by starting up the engines.

The cab area has undergone a significant amount of other restoration work: Window and door surrounds have been restored to a varnish wood finish, the roof has been resealed to stop rain water ingress, the walls and ceiling have been repainted, lighting and control electric circuits checked and tested, and the floor recovered.

There is still some work to do on the door cards, to reinstate the driver's chair and replace other fittings.

Corridor Connection

The previous owners had removed the corridor connection along with the exhaust silencers, to gain access to the rear of the carriage to cut out and replace some corroded metalwork, and then paint the bodywork.

The 2020 photograph shows M51937 on the 16th March 2020 arriving at NPL from Butterley.

The door had been damaged by vandals plus was not located on its runners properly.

A couple of brackets which support the corridor connection had been removed from the bottom of the body work to allow the welding of new metal work and painting.

After much searching we located all the corridor connection parts at Butterley and loaded a kit of parts into the DMU and we recently started work overhauling and repainting them.

We had to do a bit of a detective work to locate exactly where the lower corridor connection brackets should be fitted.

Fortunately, we found evidence of the previous holes, so these were redrilled, and the brackets refitted as per the May 2025 photograph.

Other Work Planned for 2025

Work has just started to apply a second coat of gloss green to the bodywork.

We hope to provide further updates during 2025 as more of the restoration work is completed.

Nigel Kirkpatrick