At Garmendale, we work on some very interesting engineering projects and this latest one is no exception. It’s the first of four railway chassis refurbishment jobs we are undertaking.

Garmendale made their name in their early years around 1980-1990 designing and building railway engines and chassis that are still in operation. So we pride ourselves on knowing what is required and how to engineer machinery for rail that is designed and built to last for 20 years and beyond.

The first of the chassis arrived with us in quite poor condition with some rot in the structural beams and a degraded wooden surface. There’s plenty of space tool storage and carrying other equipment. It’s designed to be fit the smaller standard ISO shipping container, which is 8ft (2.43m) wide, 8.5ft (2.59m) high and 20ft (6.06m) in length.

It’s probably easiest to see it in pictures to explain the process.

The chassis arrives as the Garmendale Workshop ready for stripping.

The chassis arrives and all of the rotten wood is stripped back to see the extent of the work required.

All of the measurements for the key components are taken and then drawings created so we have a plan to work to when it is being built back up again.

With the drawings approved by the client, the deck is stripped right down to the chassis frame.

As the previous build was, in our opinion, a little flimsy, the new spec has been designed to be over 10x stronger with the use of 4×2 channels and 4mm steel checker plate for the top surface.

The cross members have been designed so that all of the support components above will fix directly to them, rather than just sit on the deck itself. This makes it stronger and more durable into the very long term.

The new decking is completed and the stays reinstalled before painting in our in-house spray booth.

And the job is completed.

And with the work completed it’s delivered back to the client ready for another long working shift on the railways.

Finally, with all of this done and all of our usual quality checks completed, the unit is lifted to be delivered back to the client.

How long does it take for a complete Railway Chassis Refurbishment?

From start to finish, including all aspects of the strip, redraw, rebuild and repainting, the Garmendale team completed the job in just two weeks.

Quality railway chassis refurbishment doesn’t happen overnight, but it needn’t take a lifetime.