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by **tom1992** » Thu Feb 18, 2021 9:52 pm

Hi everyone,

I'm involved with a team restoring this old railway maintenance personnel trolley called a 'Wickham trolley' it was somewhat run down when it was discovered abandoned in an old shed so with a little TLC it will look something like this...

It needs rebuilding from the chassis up as a lot of it is not salvageable. but we'll see how it goes.

Note: I don't own this trolley, it belongs to J.Goss I just help out as a part of a team working on the project.

by **tom1992** » Fri Feb 19, 2021 10:42 pm

Hi Guys,

So after a total strip down of the old Wickham trolley to find which parts are salvageable, we are left with half a chassis, 2 body panels, a roof, a set of wheels and axles, a brake gear set and a radiator.... not bad eh!?

Starting with the chassis, we sent it away to get the damaged parts refabricated and a new set of springs made up, then it was a case of bolt the axles up to the wheels and chassis and fit the gear sprockets and fit the brake rigging. simples! right??.... :think:

Wrong!!

after getting the axles backwards! and the springs on upsidedown... we eventually got there with a few :angry-chillpill:

and bad language!

ah well!

Next step is the bodywork.

by **Mark** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 10:09 am

It’s smaller than I imagined! What’s the power unit?

by **Morris** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:14 pm

This is so cool! Popcorn out....

by **tom1992** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 8:54 pm

Mark wrote:It’s smaller than I imagined! What’s the power unit?

Aye, it's only about 8ft by 5ft... they were only designed to carry up to 4 guys and a toolbox as they towed work trolleys for all the gear. this particular one had only a driver seat, tool chest and a rack in the back for bottles of OXY/ACT bottles as it was the rail welders unit. we are modifying it to have a bench in the back and making up a towing trolley to add two more benches to it.

the original engine would have been something like a 3 cylinder lister like I'm currently restoring providing about 30HP odd, we have fitted a 4 cylinder engine from an old Ford Anglia to it as the original engine has long since disappeared.

by **tom1992** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:18 pm

Hi all,

So after a couple of weeks work rubbing down and repainting the frames, we now have the frames forward and back fitted and the engine mounted, brake gear sorted and are now starting with the electrics.

so much of restorations like this goes on behind the scenes with needle gunning, stripping, sanding, priming and painting, it's hard to appreciate the work that goes into them when all you can see is when it all goes back together! but she's making great progress.

it has to be said though, it may only seem like a couple of days when I'm posting like this but in actual fact, this has been going on for months.

by **Morris** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:37 pm

Taking shape nicely...

by **tom1992** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:56 pm

Morris wrote:Taking shape nicely...

absolutely! in the last few weeks she has rocketed along! hoping to get the roof on it tomorrow and finish the wiring for the engine to get it running on the key start!

by **tom1992** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:50 pm

Evening guys,

Today sees the roof going on the Wickham trolley, complex process needing all 4 corners to line up perfectly and then gently lowering it in position making sure the bolt holes line up with the frames.
got it backwards the first time as the roof has little hatches cut into it, we believed these to be used by the driver to get in and out easily.... however, they are actually not original and are modifications made by the steelworks to enable the gas cylinders to be loaded as the curved roof prevented them going in straight!

So off came the roof again!! :angry-banghead:

Finally it went in the right way round and all bolted up. job done!

The engine and electrics are all sorted meaning we can now run it off the key start!

happy days!
there's a video of it running here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!At6G-62Zc3oQpxkZKl85UI6XT5wI?e=SZr6Sc

Next job is to get the floor cut and fitted.