GWR 52243 Open Goods Wagon Restoration The Avon Valley Railway Wagon Dept

28/01/2026

First update of 2026! While we are a bit late to the party and all that, there's been plenty of work going on behind the scenes, but we've waited until now to share this. So let's begin firstly the inside frames have progressed well with more metal beams being measured, cut and bolted into place, few areas will need heating up and bending into position as the photos demonstrate. Andy has been busy welding sections too, which always makes a good capture. With the weather naturally becoming a pain, Matthew has resorted to the pod for any smaller painting tasks, any bigger jobs will have to wait until the temperatures and conditions improve. Ollie and Martin have been busy measuring and trialling the heights of the axle boxes alongside other important measurements too, as our Jon Miles says measure twice, cut once. This Temporary fitting is to make sure the horns are all aligned, this will help work out how much wear to take take out between the horn guides plus each box. Next update coming in a weeks time. AVR Wagon Team. Ollie, Andy, Martin and Matthew

05/02/2026

Today was a quieter start for the team with Matthew doing a very early spring clean of our container, while Martin was preparing more original parts ready for painting. Once Andy and Ollie arrived, the whole team was put to work to start heating up several beams that required bending into place. This required a lot of heat to get the metal to be flexible enough to bend into position, as you can see the appropriate outfits came out while the winter weather wasn't kind at times. Next update to follow very soon, as we start to get back into the swing of things with the wagon. AVR Wagon Team. Ollie, Andy, Martin and Matthew

11/02/2026

Steady progress as we approach the middle of February, Martin has been busy on painting duty as Matthew was absent with the flu, as you can see the brand new brake gear plus hangers are looking very smart already. The first stages of cutting out metal for the draw gear spring has been drilled and cut, we had the delivery of the brake linkage and will be painted into primer very soon. As we approach March, fingers crossed the weather improves then the frames will get further painting plus lots of areas touched up before we start undercoat painting. AVR Wagon Team Ollie, Andy, Martin and Matthew 01/03/2026 Hello everyone…little weekend update for you all. We have finished drilling and cutting the new brackets on the Bath end, these have been painted and fitted now. We have started on the Mangotsfield Junction end but weather stopped play sadly. We are hopeful on the March weather improving, so everyone’s tasks especially Matthew and Martin’s painting tasks can really kick on. Ollie and Andy have been busy bending vacuum pipes for the wagon, but also for our other Great Western open wagons that have the same pattern. Finally four more strips of steel have been cut in readiness for bending in the next few visits. AVR Wagon Team Ollie, Andy, Martin and Matthew 09/03/2026 RDW for our Matthew today, more brackets and beams all prepped, painted and ready to be fitted later in the week by Andy and Ollie. As you can appreciate we are going through another period, where stuff is going on in the background but not enough to justify sharing yet. Later on this week our heavy metal duo will be back at adding more to the frames, which it’ll look even more like an open four plank wagon but with a slight Aussie twist. AVR Wagon Team Andy, Ollie, Martin and Matthew 27/03/2026 So this will be the last update for March as we approach hopefully better weather and conditions for working on the GW four plank. 52243’s top and tail middle cross beams have finally fitted, new channel sections were also cut and trimmed to accommodate the draw hook springs at each end. Shortly after these sections were wet sealed and painted by Matthew, currently there’s no plan to undercoat anything until we have everything in place and fitted. Andy is busy behind the scenes creating a jig that will allow us to bend the brand new draw gear spring brackets, this will allow the spring to be held into place once fitted. Unfortunately the originals like a lot of other parts are too far gone and corroded, but at least we have salvaged quite a bit of the original pieces to be used once again. AVR Wagon Team Ollie, Andy, Martin and Matthew