Hello and welcome to this week’s update from the team at Quorn.
The week started with us assisting the operations team during some shunting at Swithland sidings, to get some of our wagons sorted ready for our upcoming Open Weekend on the 22-23 July.
The Heavy Tractor Group’s 37714 was in charge of all the wagon movements.
The work on Test Car 2‘s bogies continued at Rothley, cleaning out rust and muck build-up in the bolster spring seats and re-packing to get the ride height within tolerance. The Test Car is now back on its bogies and ready to take part in our upcoming Open Weekend.
Tank wagon 3711 that has been at Rothley awaiting a replacement buffer was also attended to. This is now ready to go into traffic.
At Quorn the work on getting Kiki ready for the Open Weekend continued.
A new seat was manufactured because the old one was not fit for purpose anymore. The seat base and back boards were cut from an offcut of 3/4″ plywood, and new 2″ seat foams cut to shape. Coach bolts for mounting the seat were fitted with countersunk nuts, and the new seat covering material was cut to size.
The foam was glued to the back board then seat covering stapled along all sides of the seat back. The corners were trimmed as necessary, folded neatly and stapled into place.
The same process was carried out for the seat base which was test fitted into place on top of the battery box cover.
A back board trim panel for the seat back was measured, cut to size from an offcut of 1/8″ plywood, then covered and screwed into place.
The whole seat was then assembled with the frame pieces and bolted into place onto the battery box cover.
Kiki‘s front panels were then re-assembled.
The rear load bed was cleaned off and treated to a final scrape before being painted.
Some replacement treated wood planks for the doors of Pipe Wagon 740654 were collected from the timber-yard. The top and bottom planks on each door had new timber whilst the other planks to be replaced were selected from our stock pile.
The south west side door was then dismantled. Some of the seized and stubborn bolts had to be ground off.
One of the hinges needed straightening which required a bit of heat.
The new planks were trimmed to length and the edges bevelled. The door was then re-assembled inserting the new planks and using new nuts & bolts.
The door capping strips were re-fitted to the south west door tops.
The door retarders were fettled, positioned, holes drilled and bolted into place. Bolts were trimmed to length as necessary.
The north west door was then dealt with in the same manner, dismantled, planks cut to length, bevel edged and slotted into place.
The planks were bolted into place, then the retarders re-fitted. The capping strips were then re-fitted.
Pipe Wagon 740654 west side doors are now complete.
The final job on Kiki was to apply the temporary logos of our friends at West Hill Wagon Works who will be supporting us at our Open Weekend on the 22-23 July.
I know we don’t usually like using vinyl’s, however on this occasion it’s the best solution for the temporary livery; and will allow easy removal of the lettering when we get Kiki ready for application of her final colour scheme later in the summer.
Don’t forget to add our Open Weekend date to your diary, 22-23 July 2023.
- Over 20 of our restored goods wagons will be displayed in Quorn yard,
- Visiting wagon groups will have stands inside the Quorn yard marquee along with ourselves and our friends from West Hill Wagon Works,
- Get your camera’s ready on the Saturday (22 July) as Test Car 2 will be out for a run up and down the line representing a typical 1980s British Rail test train. Test Car 2 will also be open to the public for guided tours all day on the Sunday (23 July).
- Our van train will be running on the Sunday too.
There is more information on the GCR’s webpage here – Quorn Wagon & Wagon Open Weekend.
All the best, Dave.
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