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 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