Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. The Catfish has consumed more welding rods and plate, the tanks have have some buffers changed and a we’ve prepared a base for the Fish van body that is currently in Rothley car park.
I began by finishing the big patch from last week which hadn’t been welded across the bottom joint. While I was doing that Ernie started cutting out the last patch on the East side, on the end under the hopper door control wheel.
Nick and Charlie looked at the tank train which is now in the Down Ly-by. Three buffers were stuck in on two of the ‘Airfix’ Esso tanks, two on 3777 and one on 3711. Having applied the appropriate protection, between them they moved the replacements into position and loosened the bolts on the existing buffers, making them ready for changing.
Ernie had got the plate cut out for the patch, which we fettled to fit the hole and got tacked into place.
On Sunday with Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan, we started off with exchanging the buffers on the tanks so they are fit to run at Railways At Work. All smooth sailing however one bolt got damaged so had to be re-tapped before the buffer was fitted.
Once this once done, I got back on with the welding on the Catfish. The plate was welded around its perimeter and into the corner of the hopper. After a fantastic barbeque lunch (and time to let the welder cool down) I welded the last twelve inches on the side of the plate and Dan opened the door and swept out the bottom of the hopper. The access boards were removed now that the welding is finished on the inside of the hopper. Just the outside of the hopper to go!
While I was welding, Nick, Tom and Oliver went to Rothley to get some sleepers to sit underneath the Fish van body destined for the dock. This is destined to be moved on the 5th August as part of the Railways At Work pre-event shunt.
Next week, we’ve got a bit of prep for Railways at Work to do and potentially some work at Rothley to finish off work on B954268’s re-planking. Thanks for reading, and join us next week to see what we get up to.
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