Welcome to our ‘Last Hurrah’ update from the team at Quorn; this week we have finally completed the restoration work on the two Catfish wagons. We have also progressed the with the west side of the GUV.
Between 1954 and 1961 Metro-Cammell built a total of 716 Catfish ballast hopper wagons in 6 batches. Of these 16 Catfish are believed to survive in preservation, not may of which have been restored.
The last Hurrah weekend meant a busy goods train service through Quorn, it was great to see our tanks and the van train running throughout the weekend, however we didn’t get too distracted.
Dan and myself got stuck into the remaining areas of the Catfish east side signwriting.
Mark and Ernie continued with removing the stubborn crusty paintwork from the west side of the GUV.
The showers didn’t deter us either, using our Gazebo to enable continuation of the signwriting.
Sunday continued much the same, with Mark, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and Nick concentrating on the GUV.
Whilst Dan and myself completed the signwriting on the east side of both the Catfish.
I also added the 2024 paint symbol to both wagons.
Mark got tired after all the GUV work…..
And Dan quite rightly felt proud of his signwriting achievements on the Catfish.
Charlie and Oliver helped me fit the vacuum release chords to both wagons.
To celebrate the ‘Last Hurrah’ lets have a few more pics of the good trains.
Tom then carried out the final vehicle checks on the Catfish and completed our restoration completion check forms.
All that remains now is a couple of maintenance items such as vacuum hose replacements and brake gear oiling; the two Catfish will then be handed over to the C&W department for final sign-off before entering traffic.
Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave
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