INSTITUTE OF MATERIALS FINISHING
Southern Branch of the IMF
On Wednesday February 17th , the Southern Branch of the IMF held a “ Zoom ” seminar on Learning to Paint the Train .
The first speaker , Mike Booth ( Indestructible Paint ) gave a presentation on the Painting of Railway Rolling Stock . In his introduction he gave an overview of the UK Fleet as of 2017 , covering all Generic Types of Locomotive , ( Short , Medium & Long Distance Powered Units ) and the London Underground .
Mike described the Industry standards for paint application used on the Mainline and , Underground together with the Fire Performance expected of the types of paint used .
Paint systems used in the 1930 ’ s , 1947 – 1997 and 1998 to present day were discussed and how different the formulations of today compared with that of the past .
Different areas of the train were looked at with reference to the conditions that they have to survive and the types of application that they need .
Mike finally showed the future trends that will be expected such as the fleet size , the substrates that will be used and the paint systems that will be required to meet these needs .
Our next speaker was Dr Paul Lansdell who is a very keen railway enthusiast and a member of the Dean Forest Preservation Railway .
I am sure that we all enjoy riding on these wonderfully preserved railways but Paul highlighted to us some of the hard work that goes on in the background in order to make this possible .
Railway Preservation societies obtain wagons , coaches , engines and all the ancillary equipment needed to make it all possible but the condition that they are received in is often worse for wear and all most difficult to imagine how they can ever be used .
Paul took each section of a railway , wagons ,
Locomotives , carriages , and miscellaneous such as platform waiting areas , signal boxes , footbridges etc and described the way that each would be tackled with regards to bringing it back to useful life , the types of preparation and the different types of paint that would be used .
The evening was very well received with about 35 attendees and the Southern Branch would like to thank our speakers and organisers who put on the event .
John Burgess FIMF
As always , the IMF is looking for new members . New members are the life blood of helping to ensure that the IMF continues to prosper and support people who wish to learn more about the interesting world of Materials Finishing .
Telephone : + 44 ( 0 ) 78 763 47787 Email : info @ materialsfinishing . org Visit : www . materials-finishing . org
8 APRIL 2021 twitter : @ surfaceworldmag