From a report by Geoff Pethick on the South African National Railway and Steam Museum (Sanrasm):
“Major efforts have been made with the dining car Shashi. The entire floor is suffering from wet rot and will be removed and replaced. About a third has been done already. This involves removing the tables, seats etc, a big job in itself. The ceiling also suffered from water damage and all the hardboard panels will need to be replaced as will some of the ceiling boards. All the lights have gone and will need to be rewired and replaced, and the wall panels will also have to be renewed. The textured material is Rexine, which it is hoped can be replaced with similar blue material to match the seats, which all need to be re-covered.
“A most important task has been the renewal of several metres of teak waist rail which has rotted badly. Replacement teak was sourced from scrapped coach bodies and sent to SA Timber in Booysens who did the profiling to match the rest. Colin Jenkins, an expert coach builder with 40 years of wooden coaching restoration much of it on the Severn Valley Railway in the UK has been supervising this and other jobs.
“E-13 type second-class coach 2123 has had its roof remalthoided and painted. One side of the exterior has been patched and repainted, a new kit of parts for a set of droplights has arrived and will be assembled and fitted shortly. Much effort went into trying to match the original paint colour. This coach has some major problems in one end and also the bottom stringer has rot and damage on one side.
“Private saloon no 15 Wesvaal has had a great deal of her roof timbering replaced including one whole side of the clerestory. There are two different construction methods along the whole length which makes replacement of timber a long job. Half the malthoid has been replaced, and more material from the suppliers is awaited.
“A-18 diner no 161 Phantom Pass had all the old malthoid removed and replaced, but only after a lot of rotten timber had been removed and new timber fitted.
“All this and more has been going on to try to secure the future of Sanrasm’s assets. Once the coach roofs are weatherproof then work can continue on repairing the ravages of time and weather on the exteriors and restoring the interiors which have suffered from theft and vandalism as well as water ingress.
“But it’s a far dry from the doom, gloom and dereliction which was the norm twelve months ago. Even the security situation has improved thanks to some fancy solar lighting, changes of security personnel and roving patrols around the area.”

Original article [Railways Africa]