This week the team at Quorn have finished the restoration of the Shoc-High and made a start on the LNER Tube wagon.
Saturday started with Charlie finishing off lining the builders plate on the Shoc-High, and the East side paint symbol, whilst I applied the last of the bodyside stripes; quick drying undercoat first followed by gloss white.
Nick and Thomas adjusted the brakes on the Shoc-High, where necessary removing and cleaning up linkage pins to ensure smooth and even operation; all parts of the linkage were then oiled-up.
Charlie started up the vacuum brake rig, and with Ross’s help the brakes were successfully tested.
Ross and Charlie then did a small maintenance job on the Volvo, adjusting the drive belts; I joined Ross to swap the distributor back to the original one on Test Car 2 which is part of the fault chasing challenge we have with the air brake system.
Nick and Thomas progressed the sticker removal from tank 1802.
The tank barrel end plate which had been removed previously was straightened and the number stickers removed.
Ross and myself fitted the last six bodyside/end bolts to the Shoc-High, then painted them with Bauxite.
Ross, Charlie and myself then got stuck into the very rotten floor removal from the LNER Tube E301588. The floor planks in these wagons are held in place by solebar top metal strip plates; the bolts attaching these were badly corroded so all had to be cut and punched out.
By the end of Saturday afternoon the whole floor had been removed; some of this will no doubt go to help with the Bonfire on the 5th Nov; however a considerable amount fell into pieces and was just swept into a pile.
On Sunday Ross and myself varnished the body of the Shoc-High wagon, protecting the solebar ends, then starting with the door edges, completing the bodysides then the ends.
Charlie and myself cleared out the south end toilet in the mess coach with a view to using the sink for hand washing. A plywood shelf was cut and installed over the top of the toilet as this will not be used. At some point we will complete the plumbing from the coach’s main water tank.
Ernie continued with his machining and assembly of the door locking bar parts for the Palshoc van.
Nick, Mark, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and Thomas made their way down the yard to the van train to replace the rotten doors on 12T Van B763305 with those we’d prepared a few of weeks ago. The old doors were removed, some of the bolts needing a little help from the grinder.
The door furniture parts were cleaned up then given a coat of primer.
The new doors were trial fitted and measurements taken for fitting the door furniture.
The door top noggin had to be adjusted slightly, and with the doors removed the apertures were routed and chiselled out to accept the door furniture parts.
The first new door was then fitted, drilling the hinge bolt holes and bolting up.
With the second door hung, we fitted the door locking bar so the van could be secured. The final door diagonal timbers, bolts, door furniture and door holdback catches will be a job for next weekend.
Charlie and myself attended to a vacuum pipe clamp bolt replacement on the south end of the Shoc-High. The swan-neck is now secure.
After our final inspection of the Shoc-High wagon we are happy to report that the restoration is essentially complete, with only a couple of missing split pins to be attended to before the wagon is released to the Carriage & Wagon department for operational acceptance inspection. We look forward to seeing the wagon in operation once it makes its way back into the mixed goods rake.
Join us again next week, all the best, Dave
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