Hello all and welcome to this week’s update; after many years waiting we finally welcome the arrival of our Lowfit wagon into the fleet.
Lowfit B452718 was built at Shildon in 1957 in Lot No.2729, to Diagram 1/002.
It was last used on the main network at Basingstoke as an internal user wagon numbered 083473 and entered preservation in 2007 at the Mid Hants Railway. The wagon arrived at Quorn during the week loaded with a D-type open container that had been constructed during preservation. Although the floor of the container looked quite rotten in places, our initial thoughts were to try and lift the container off the wagon in readiness for some necessary underframe and floor repairs.
The Volvo was positioned and we attached some straps to the lifting eyes; gently raising the forks however pulled two of the lifting eyes straight out of the framework; it was somewhat more rotten than we had realised.
So onto plan B; we decided to dismantle the container in situ on the wagon. Whilst the floor and side framework was rotten and not saveable, the side panels, corner framework and doors were quite solid. With most of the team on-site on Saturday things happened quite quickly, the doors were removed, end panels unbolted from the sides and the parts lifted from the wagon onto the Volvo forks for moving to storage.
The remainder of the rotten framework was swept off the wagon and disposed of with the help of Hector and his trailer.
The south east corner door frame of the Lowfit, catch pin and loop had taken a bash at some point in its life. Ernie got out the gas bottles and heated up the bent loop which was straightened with Nick’s favourite item from his toolbox. Once cooled the area was treated with re-oxide primer.
With most of the team on-site Mark treated us to some fabulous turkey & duck Christmas baguettes for lunch, thanks Mark and the chefs helpers.
Further progress was also made on Test Car 2s generator; Ross and myself drained the coolant out of the engine, removed the rocker shaft, the cylinder head, and finally got to the bottom of the poor starting and lumpy running. The cylinder head gasket had totally failed between cylinders 1 and 2.
The cylinder head studs were removed from the block and surfaces cleaned, cylinder bores cleaned & hoovered out, checked for condition and the engine set to No.1 piston at TDC.
On Sunday myself and Ross dismantled the cylinder head removing the cam followers and valves; the large pillar drill made an excellent valve spring compressor.
The cylinder head was then soaked in a bath of warm degreaser solution and as much of the gunk removed as possible. Further cleaning up is planned for next week.
The repaired corner on the Lowfit was given a coat of gloss Bauxite.
The two Catfish wagons are planned to leave Quorn next week, in readiness we completed a vacuum brake test on both wagons, finding a slightly suspect vacuum cylinder branch pipe on DB983393 which was duly replaced.
Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave
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