Hello all, welcome to our news from Quorn. A busy week with various activities, making progress with two vans, a vac cylinder, a sticky release valve, some general housekeeping and also Madge.
It was also great to see some of our wagons out running in the mixed goods for the first of the Goods Experience Day events; and we wished Charlie a Happy Birthday for next Tuesday, with cake of course.
During the week Nick and Tom dealt with a sticky release valve that had been reported on Conflat B505313. The valve was replaced with an overhauled one from our stock. The faulty valve will be subsequently overhauled and put back into stock.
The roofs of two of the four vans that had their roof sheets replaced over the Christmas period were painted by Dan, Harry and Nick. P18422 and B779978. The other two will be dealt with when we have got some more paint.
Ernie finished of cleaning up the previously assembled vacuum cylinder, then gave it a coat of re-oxide primer. By the afternoon the red oxide had dried allowing a coat of black gloss.
After tidying up the garage, Jack, Charlie and myself got stuck into some needle gun work on the cab floor framework of Madge, taking it back to bare metal. After cleaning down, this was followed by a coat red-oxide primer.
We also applied some black to the previously primed rear hubs and brake drums. The inner faces of the rear wheels were painted too.
Ernie spent some time sharing his many years of experience, teaching Harry and Charlie the art of chisel and drill bit grinding. Both of them getting quite a bit of practice as we have very many blunt drill bits and somewhat used chisels.
The tidying up continued throughout the weekend; we also had some very kind donations of tools, a vice, storage racks and two sturdy workbenches from Richard, thank you.
Mark and Tom also sorted out and recovered quite a few paint brushes.
Madge’s rear wheels were re-fitted and some further needle gun and scraping was carried out inside Madge’s cab and also on some of the inner areas of the rear framework. This again was cleaned down and treated with red oxide primer.
That wraps up this update, as a reminder the Test Car with be open for the next two weekends:
– Road Rail Steam – Saturday 19, Sunday 20 and Monday 21 April 2025
– Spring Diesel Gala – Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 April 2025
Find us at the south end of the station yard at Quorn, through the gate just past the turntable.
Pop in and see us for a guided tour of this unique piece of railway history, and find our how & why British Rail tested goods wagons.
Along with our popular Test Car 2 booklets, we also have a new booklet covering the history and use of another British Rail Test Coach, Test Car 1.
Both are available from a member of the team at Quorn, or when you visit the Test Car, only £5.
Keep and eye out for our Donations Lamp outside the Test Car; your support is very much appreciated.
For more info about these events, and more, please see the GCRs website – https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/whats-on/
Thanks for reading! all the best, Dave
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