Author: rloades109

Hello everyone, and I start with apologies for last week. We weren’t able to get onto the hosting portal to write a post, so have made this one a bumper update.

Four vehicles left Quorn for Swithland, these being 3689, 3854 B452718 and B507489. In their place we have received the Palshoc, Shock high and the LNER Tube for us to work on.

Dave did some more work on the Esso Plates, getting the blue ring round and the red letters on another.

Dan, Daniel, Nick and I started work on B777171, removing the rotten door and constructing a new door.

Dan and Charlie took to removing the stickers from 1802.

Ernie and Dave got the gloss paint out and painted all the undercoated panels down the van train.

Dave and I started to look at B855568 to see what it needs for its restoration. With Ernie we also measured out for our tent and see what we need to do to fix it down

Okay so onto this week!

We’re waiting for some screws to be able to manufacture more doors for B763305, so we’ve opted to take a look at B724570, with Charlie and Ernie leading the charge on wire brushing and needle gunning the metal work. They also started sanding the wood work.

Nick and I looked at the sealed door on B855568. The door bars were seized into position so we released them from the woodwork and lowered the door out of the hole and over onto some trestles for stripping down. Nick got the hot spanner out and un-seized the door bars. Some of the door bogies fell apart so these will need some parts ordering.

I made some improvements to my profile measuring device and trialed in on some of the smallest wheels in fleet (these being the Salmon, the Sturgeon and the Lowmac) which it was able to clear.

Charlie, Ernie and Mark carried on with the cleaning down and priming the metal and wood work. Nick and I went round and spot replaced planks on the shock high.

That wraps us up here for the past two weeks, and thank you for your patience. We’ll get back on the vans next week as we are hoping that the screws will be sat waiting for us at Rothley. Join us next week to see what we get up to!

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. We’ve been working on the vans this weekend, progressing with the replacement of the rotten sides identified on the theatrical vans which had been loosened off last week.

We got set up around the goods shed and removed the last few bolts holding the sides from B852838, B854782 and B786181. Three new ply sheets were retrieved from the Palshocvan and taken to the dock to be cut to size.

The measurements were checked for each van, with both Shocvans using the same size sheet and the standard van using a taller sheet. Oliver and I cut the sheets down to the correct height and width using the circular saw under the careful supervision of the resident House Martin.

While Oliver and I cut the new panels, the metalwork of the van was scraped and prepared back then primed with red oxide primer, inside and outside the van.

Each panel was dry fitted to check it for size and then painted into primer and left get touch dry. We started in fitting the panel into B786181, first applying sealant to the metal work and then letting the panel in before drilling all the holes and getting the panel bolted up.

The panels for the two shock vans needed some relief holes drilling for the rivets joining the corrugate end. The panels were fitted to the shock vans on Sunday morning, and then we moved our attentions to one of the doors on B854782 which had a rotten corner. We think this is the first of our ‘re-designed’ doors to have rotted and come up for replacement.

We dismantled the existing door and got the required measurements to cut down another plywood sheet to make the door. We drilled the hinge bolting holes using the old sheet, then fitted it to the van and checked the operation of the door before giving it a coat of primer.

Dave trimmed some of the side sheet bolts, then Ernie came and painted all three replacement panels into the deep red undercoat for the bauxite gloss. Dave also went back up to the workshop to clean out the thread on the door bolts

Next week should be more of the same, with more van sides and doors to be replaced which is good as we’ve now found our rhythm with them again. Join us then and see what we get up to!

Hello all, and thank you for joining us for this week’s update from Quorn. The focus for us has been on the signwriting on both 3854 and 3689.

Dave took the lead on the signwriting, tackling the ‘Esso Petroleum Company Limited’ wording on both tank barrels. The wording doesn’t quite do the task justice!

During the week, and with help from Eireni I’ve now designed and 3D printed era appropriate OLE warning flashes to replace those on the tanks. I coated them with 2 coats of varnish which yellows the white PETG a treat and should protect them a little bit more. I went round both tanks and fitted the three I’d printed, thankfully we got a new old stock flash which had already been fitted to 3854.

Nick fitted the 3D printed registration to 3854, then Charlie went round and painted the black plastic with container black and then painted the bolts heads with white paint.

I tackled the barrel end numbers on both 3854 and 3689, getting both sorted on 3854 and one end on 3689

Tom and Oliver oiled the brakes on both 3854 and 3689, then Dave got them both doing the fast traffic stars, getting both stars on both tanks on the east side.

Dave got some of the solebar details done across both tanks

I snuck in a well overdue car clean for my Volvo , but then got onto a project Dave and I have been talking about to improve the use of the Test Car’s generator and air compressors. Nick and James painted two lamps repaired by Ernie in the hot weather last week.

Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with a picture of the two tanks together from the west side, looking nearly finished, with just the plates left to fit on that side. Next week it will be more of the same with the last few details, and then onto the Esso plates to get them fitted before the tanks are released to traffic.

Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us for this week’s happenings from Quorn South Yard. Some more signwriting has taken place on 3854 and we’re getting ready for starting the work on the van train.

I started off by putting the number on the dockside of 3854, I had every intention of doing some more but got a little distracted!

Ernie and Nick started sorting through some recently donated hand tools to file them, and then moved onto sorting out our spanner collection and segregating the Whitworth and the metric spanners.

Ernie and I got to making some more label clip mounting blocks for stock, with Ernie cutting the board downs down to shape. I then put each block through the planer/thicknesser a few times to get them to the correct thickness.

Nick and Charlie went to collect 8 sheets of plywood for us to use in the repairs of the box vans, Ernie, Daniel and I went to assist with unloading them to store until required in the Palshocvan.

After tea, we got to clearing room in B852838 and B854782 moving the parcels out of the way. We then started undoing the bolts from the side sheet in B854782. Fortunately we’ve been here before and all but a few bolts undid.

For B852838, the panel we are replacing hasn’t been out before so is believed to be original fitment. We had to split each bolt and nut to be able to loosen the board sufficiently. the final act in this van was to use a small circular saw to cut the side sheet which was originally made the full length of the side. Easy for construction, however makes replacement a bit trickier!

That wraps up this weekends activities. One last reminder that next weekend is the Reunification Weekend where you can take trips on both halves of the railway linked by heritage rail replacement bus. We’ll have Test Car 2 open for you to visit, and we’ll be replacing the sides on the two vans some people can see what we do. Do stop us and ask question about the wagons or indeed the Test Car! See you then

Evening all, and thank you for joining us lot from Quorn for another update. This week 3689 has received its second coat of gloss and both tanks have started being detailed. We’ve also got the Lowfit and the Conflat ready to re-enter traffic which should be some point this week.

Saturday wasn’t the day for painting, however we had another mission after an accident last week. Charlie had a go at testing gravity last week and fell between the dock and the toolvan. Charlie is, thankfully, okay with a dent to his pride and a sore shoulder. Its a sobering reminder of the environment we work in however and as such we’ve taken another look at the high traffic doorways onto the dock and made some changes to ensure that this can’t happen again for the high traffic doorways. Nick constructed an extended step for the toolvan which sits on the dock and the van’s chassis. We may look to make a more permanent solution in due course.

Looking at the GUV, we decided to weld the stepboard brackets back onto the vehicle to put a stepboard on. The stepboards and brackets were removed by BR when the GUVs went into BRUTE traffic. Ernie prepared some brackets ready to weld into position from a scrap brakevan step bracket.

I took a decent look over both the Lowfit and the Conflat to sort out the paperwork to release them to traffic. All was well aside from an aged vacuum hose on the Conflat. These wagons can now enter traffic and clear some space in the yard for us to bring a few more vehicle up in need of our care.

Sunday was the better day weather wise so Oliver and I set about painting the second coat on 3689. The painting went well however the radiator on the Test Car’s generator has sprung a leak from one of the cores so we’ll have to sort that out before using it again. I suspect its the same leak that we had when we first fired up the generator back in 2018, so might just be a case of more Rad-Weld. Thankfully we were able to fire up Edward for a short stint to finish painting the tank.

Ernie got the welder out and welded the stepboard brackets back onto the GUV and Nick sorted out a step board and bolted it down.

Charlie (on light duties) washed Hector, looked at the defective horn button and then fitted him with a two tone air horn. We also took Danny to sort out some rubbish and recover some barrels from the yard.

Mark and Tom made light work of detailing the two tanks, removing the overspray from the buffer shanks then painting the axle end caps, the white bits (handbrake ends, lamp brackets etc) and the red on the vacuum swan necks. They also went up to the Conflat and Lowfit and repainted the swan necks on them after not being happy with the shade of red used.

With the paint on the tanks now sat hardening, we can now look at starting the signwriting on the tanks and make a start on working down refreshing the east side of the van train, plus the endless work on the plant which seems to keep us on our toes! Join us again next week to see what we get up to! Cheers, Ross

Hello everyone and welcome to this weekend’s update from Quorn. As you could expect its been all go on the tank front, thanks to co-operative weather, with both tanks looking good in their black top coat.

With just me holding down the fort on Saturday, it was down to me to get both tanks into top coat, spraying both barrels top to bottom and all underframe pockets. Nick and Charlie each had a go with the spray gun on the underframes.

Charlie undertook a pad exam on both the Conflat and Lowfit with no issues found and also oiled all the brake rigging.

We noticed that the pins in part of the brake rigging on 3854 were too long for their intended function, we set Ernie onto cutting them down and re-drilling the split pin hole. Nick and James refitted the pins once they’d all been cut down.

Dave and I made a start on second coat on 3854, this time with Oliver assisting. Oliver has expressed an interest in learning how to spray paint, and we are only too happy to pass on the skills. After talking through the set up, Dave and Oliver took the reigns in applying the paint, as I got a bit distracted…

To celebrate an upcoming birthday I put on a BBQ for the gang with plenty of food to go round. The team were well equipped to assist with the eating but also helped a lot with prep and the washing up!

The rest of the gang set to work in the GUV, removing a woodworking machine and rearranging the paint cupboards to give some more room for storage. Dan also got the two repaired splash guards for 3689 painted up into undercoat, ready for a coat of gloss.

Dave and Oliver ran out of time to get 3689 up into its second coat, so that’s what we’ll focus on next week. Join us then and see what else we get up to!