We’ve finally sorted a right pane for our visitors. If you’ve been on one of our sold-out trains, you might have noticed one niggle with the experience: a certain window in our 450 railcar through which you could see… absolutely nothing.
That’s because these railcars use a double-glazed window system, and the seal between the two sheets of glass had failed, leading to significant fogging. It’s been on our to-do list for a while, but we couldn’t risk tackling it during the busy summer season in case something went seriously wrong, like every bolt being seized or sheared, and we couldn’t get it fixed in time. And, to be honest, everyone was just a little bit scared of it…
So, we’re doing #WindowWednesday today – on Saturday past, a small team finally set about getting rid of this foggy frustration, naturally choosing a day with a yellow weather warning for heavy rain, because of course that made sense.
Jack and John started by dismantling the trim and valiantly trying to undo the machine screws that held the frame together. Fortunately, all but one came out. Having stolen Robert away from the 80 Class for a few hours (as he’s had experience with similar windows on 69), the team debated how to free that one stubborn screw, until Robert had the brainwave that the trim was loose enough to actually get the unit out without undoing it.
With the old pane removed, a new window was brought over from stores, and the team took the opportunity to fit new window rubber. Then came the careful job of sliding the new pane back in, cue a certain amount of colourful language as the gang tried to wiggle the rubber into the frame without it twisting or the glass shattering into a million pieces.
But in it went – and the whole job turned out to be a lot less scary than feared, finished just before the rain arrived, and now all our passengers can enjoy the County Down countryside instead of a scene straight out of 1960s London-esque fog.
