Author: rloades109

Hello all, and welcome the first update 2023 update from Quorn Wagon & Wagon.

We started this week on New Year’s Day. As Matt mentioned last week, Nick and Thomas were there but I was there too. Nick and Thomas concentrated on the tank underframe and painting any bits missed.

I concentrated on the details, all the standard stuff. White gloss on the hand brake end and lamp brackets, red on the vacuum swan necks and yellow on the roller bearing end caps. Only one axle at the moment as the other is planned to be changed due to the flange thickness on one wheel. I also painted a second coat on the Esso plates after flatting it back, and undercoat and gloss on the OLE warning plate.

Tuesday saw Dave and Matt on site. Matt concentrating on the Esso plates, with Dave setting up the other signwriting and making a start on the east side solebar.

Saturday saw Nick, Dave and I on site, also joined by Dan, Tom and Oliver. Dave was again on signwriting duty, with me assisting.

Nick had to go and do a shunt with the Class 10 to move the Grampus to Rothley for their annual exam, and the other Esso tank 3436 came back with them for some planned work. The Esso plate removed as a template before Christmas got put back on as well.

Dan, Tom and Oliver made a start on the next wagon, the 21t Coal Hopper. Out came the scrapers and the wagon body and underframe was scraped to get it ready for paint.

While Dave was signwiritng, I taped up the big stars, keyed the paint and applied the first coat of white on both sides of the tank. This will need another coat on another day. I also taped up and applied some undercoat for the Commuted Charge symbol.

Dave got one side of the ‘Esso Petroleum’ lettering applied, which leaves the other side for next week.

Unfortunately, nobody was on site on Sunday so we’ll have to leave the update there. There is more planned for the tank next weekend, so join us then and see where we get to.

Matt has once again pushing on with Lilibet on Monday. He fitted the new seats, which still await upholstery.

He was on site awaiting an arrival, but had time with assistance from wife Michelle to complete the interior Blood, Custard and Grey, as well as adding a leather patch to the nose access panel as the paint work gets touched by the left foot when operating the clutch. Any guesses regards the crimson square?

What of this arrival? A little job from our friends at the Nene Valley Railway Wagon Group. They have recently purchased an ex Cadburys diesel 6T Scarab including trailer. While they focus on the tractor unit, Matt has taken on the trailer as a side task. The agreement being the trailer can leave once their Scarab visits for a Railways at Work Gala. We will cover this restoration as one of our own, with Matt being heard to say he wants it structurally complete by Christmas, he does like to challenge himself.

Although one task at a time, Lilibet’s internal repaint continuing Wednesday and completed Thursday. The original seat being refitted as the new ones go away for reupholstering.

Matt also restored and repaired a few of the cab fittings.

On to the NVR trailer, Matt removed the floor and the side sheets to inspect and prepare the way forward for the frame.

On to Saturday with Dave, Matt and Nick on site. Matt carried on with Lillibet, signwriting the cab. Now you’ll see the reason for the Crimson square!

Dave and Nick fitted some different vacuum felxible hoses from the train pipe to the cylinder release valve and tested the brakes on 3711 using our trusty vacuum rig.

Unfortunately the brakes had some resistance to applying, so Dave had to deploy a jack to give it some encouragement. One pipe joint was found to be leaking, so this was also attended to at this point.

Dave continued the signwriting on the dock side of the tool van, dodging the showers!

I was there on Sunday alongside Nick, Matt, Mark and Dan. Nick, Mark, Dan and I continued looking at the breaks on the tank. We tried the rig again after issues with the test hoses, and applied and released the brakes a few times. It was noted that the piston had risen above the reserve stroke, which points to the brakes requiring adjustment. We did this and much as could be done and tried again.

Matt continued on his push on the NVR’s trailer, making new wood framework for the rear and the side frames.

Back to our brake test, the cylinder seemed to be applying and releasing better, but was found to fail the slow application test. Unfortunately this means we’ll need to take the cylinder off again at somepoint to investigate.

Now relased from the brake test, Nick continued the scale removal from the inside frames of the tank, finding a nice little hidey-hole. I stripped down and cleaned our vacuum test cocks, which have become stiff to operate of late.

After all this, we found time to replace the sign Matt adopted as a secret project.

Hello everyone! Following the excitement of our open day last week, we’ve had a quiet week with just Matt and I on site on Sunday. We carried on the sorting out from last week, and took delivery of yet another new arrival of Matt’s (Matt says Sorry Stu!). We started off however by unloading our site pick-up for wood recovered from the bonfire pile and stacking it neatly next to the dock.

We now present ‘Elizabeth‘, a diesel Scammell Scarab. You may have seen this one before as it has visited us on loan for Railways at Work and very recently at our open weekend. This arrival also takes the pressure off of Madge’s looming restoration as we’ll still have something to move trailers around with.

With Elizabeth having touched down (again), she was very quickly put to work moving the 3 trailers back into our compound ready for the railway’s bonfire. We also used one of the trailers to pick up some more wood from the bonfire pile which is the perfect size for wagon floor and bodyside planks.

Next week, we’ll be back to normality and drawing up our plans for winter work.

Hello and weclcome to another QWW update. This week, we’ve had the first batch of overhauled buffers back from Crowle Wharf Engineering, which means only one thing…

This week, we’ve been changing/refitting the buffers on the van train. Between us we’ve got 16 out of the 17 vans back in traffic and the last movable. All ahead of the upcoming Bonfire Night.

We’ve also made more progress with the BRUTEs. I replaced the melted part of the stick welder and got to work sticking the BRUTEs back together, welding up cracks and re-attaching mesh. I quite enjoyed it and look forward to doing more welding in the future. Matt and Richard got to work with the paint brushes, first painting the ‘finished’ one, then moving onto the ones I was welding back together. We now have two more blue BRUTEs and one red one, courtesy of Richard, Matt and on Sunday Owen.

In other news, we’ve been making a headboard! Matt sent me the letters as files, and during the week I extruded them in CAD software and then set about 3D printing the letters and the crests. Matt has done the rest fo the work, cutting out the wood, priming in and sticking each letter down.

Another thing Matt has done this weekend was a commission for our friends at Chasewater.

That brings us to the close this weekend. Its been a variety filled weekend, we’re all obviously pleased as punch that most of the van train is back in action. Matt, Nick and I won’t be on site next weekend, so Dave might update if he’s there. See you then!

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week our road vehicle progress continues, and the van train finishes off its annual exam.

The wagon fairies have been in this week and stripped the paint off of 2 and a half BRUTEs, which means the these are now ready for welding up and new paint, with Dave finishing the other half.

Matt started by taking the trolley that he and I modified last week, striping it a apart and applying primer to all the upper surfaces.

Dave then selected one of the stripped BRUTEs to start with the welder. While Dave started with the baby MIG set, I got the stick wleder and the other MIG to see what would be required to get them working. The stick welder needed some new cable crimps and the MIG just needed a bit of fettling.

Once the primer was dry, Matt then got the black paint out to paint the floor and chassis of the trolley followed by the Yellow for the body work. The chargers also got a coat of yellow as well.

Dave was having issues with weld peneration so switched to the other MIG set that I’d repaired. This only partially resolved matters, so we’ll have to see what else we can do to improve our welding.

We lined up the yellow vehicles just behind the gate for a small part of BR at the railway’s Autumn Steam Gala.

Nick arrived early on Sunday to get a good start on the inspection of the van train. Some vacuum bags also required replacement, so these got replaced as and when Nick came across them.

Matt finished the ‘Tug Support Trailer’ with a bit of signwriting and stencilling.

I carried on the welding of the BRUTE, opting to use the generator in the Test Car to provide the power, which improved the welds a small amount. I did however run out of gas, which was probably the main reason we had weld issues. I then moved to the stick welder, which went well until the part of the electrode holder melted, so welding had to stop.

I tidied every thing I’d used away, and joined Matt in priming a BRUTE, taking one each. Nick retrieved 2 buffers from our store to put on the Shochood B, which has 2 buffers failed on its annual exam.

That just about finishes us up for this week, I’ll sign off with a remind about our Open Weekend on the 22nd-23rd of October. Come and see us and find out about some of our wagons, with visiting wagon groups and the Test Car will be open. Thanks for reading and see you around!

Hello everyone, welcome to another weekly update from Quorn. This week alongside Saturday’s bus rally, we’ve continued our work on the tool van and Hector.

Before I get into the meat of the update, we’ve got another new arrival to mention. We’ve taken delivery of another Brush Pony, this time a long bed variety. We have a plan for this after stumbling on a 1953 sales brochure for said Brush Pony truck. Now that we’ve got Hector, we’ve gone with other characters from ‘Hector’s House’ for the other tugs. The short bed has now become Zsa Zsa, and the new arrival, Kiki.

Matt has received the Enigneers Olive green. He’s applied it to most of the tool van, covering the west side and both ends before running out of paint on the east side. There will be some more on order. Matt also finished the West side signwriting.

I did some work on Hector, fitting the new indicator flasher unit and the new rear light clusters. This involved a bit of rewiring thanks to a previous owner hacking the wiring to bits. Hector now has a full complement of lights, with only a brake overhaul and a repaint to see him finished. Matt fitted a new seat, and as Matt says “It’s fully adjustable!”. I also drained and filled Hectors drive unit with fresh ATF.

Nick scraped down the underframe of the tool van, and I followed behind applying underframe black once finished with Hector.

Sunday saw Matt apply the wasp stripes to the north corrugated end, showing again the attention to detail and time taken to something so impactful.

Nick and I continued with the underframe paint, completeing the south end headstock and east side. Matt picked out some details in white including the drawhooks, wheels and the handbrake ends.

That about covers our work this week. next week we’re looking at doing some roof repairs on B765272 and B786348. Join us then and see what we manage.

Hi all, and welcome to another update from a rather crispy Quorn Wagon and Wagon. This week we’ve progressed the van train and yet another support vehicle. First though, the Bogie Bolster is finished! Matt had finished the red stripe on the bearing end caps last weekend, which was the last thing to do before the wagon is released to traffic. It’ll be good to see this in the next mixed freight!

Okay, and now onto Saturdays work, with Nick, Matt and I on site. Nick concentrated on scraping and then applying a coat of PVA to the next van in the rake, B765272.

Matt finished the signwriting on B777728, which completed the repaint of that van. Another few vans had their signwriting attended to as well.

Matt then went on to finish off a small pet project, a new sign for our gate.

I finished off re-assembling Danny, by putting more bolts in the panels that were re-fitted last week. I then adjusted his brakes and the brakes on the Tug. Sadly, no pictures of this!

On to Sunday, with Dave rejoining us after his holiday. Nick and Dave both started by applying primer to the panels that had been PVA’d yesterday.

Matt and I got stuck into finishing the repaint of Danny. Matt started by applying the BR Double Arrow to Danny’s skip.

I started de-greasing the engine, ready for it to be painted. This was done by Dave and myself.

Unfortunately, I also managed to apply most of the tin to Matt, his trousers and the floor. That stopped any ideas of a second coat on the engine and diff! Sorry Matt!

Once the east side of the vans was in shade, Nick and Dave took out the southmost panel on the east side. This was only held in with 5 bolts and hadn’t been sealed to the van. This has now been fully bolted and sealed.

We finished the day with the obligatory big tidy up and a small photoshoot for the 3 BR vehicles. There is still a little bit more to do on Danny, including a very new requirement to replace the clutch!

Thanks for reading and catch us next week to see what we get up to, fingers crossed it will be a bit cooler!

Good evening all, and welcome to another blog post from us at Quorn. This week has been a busy one, including one new arrival, and several vans having had their west side repaint completed. We’ve also added another BRUTE repaint to the growing number.

Firstly, Nick has taken delivery of a 1988 Mk3 Transit van. Christened Tom, the plan is for it to match Jerry. There is currently no timescales for this, it needs a little bit of work before we can get to that stage.

Dave has progressed the repaint of the van train, first applying a layer of PVA to a panel on the GW Shocvan. We are trying this to seal the panel, so we’ll see what happens with that. This PVA solution dried relatively quickly so Dave then applied undercoat to both north end panels.

Both Matt and Dave also did some signwriting on the vans and once Matt had finished that he carried on the repaint of BRUTE number 3, or QW1284. This got a coat of our Trolley Blue and later in the day the details applied, like yellow brake handle and black for the chalking area.

I concentrated on the Volvo, removing the very tired and broken exhaust silencer and trying to sort out some of the niggling issues as a result of that. The exhaust silencer was very rotten and damaged and I’ve come up with a temporary soltuon until we can find a new silencer. I also tried to push grease into all the grease nipples I could find.

After painting Gloss on various vans, Nick and Richard got started on the next two vans to in the queue; B777171 and B783082. The doors and panels got scraped, then spot primed/PVA’d. I also got in on the action with the PVA solution.

That marks 4 more vans with the west side having had a repaint, these being B784409, B850498, B779978 and B780282

Matt and I also took some time to mock up our stand for our visit to Gwili Railway’s Rail Oddities gala next week. We’ve looking forward to visiting and Jerry is looking forward to making more railway friends!

Thanks for reading, Matt and I will report on our trip to Gwili, and we’ll see what we can get done on Sunday. See you then!

Good evening all, and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. Dave has been attending to a BRUTE, Nick and I have repainted the west side of 2 vans, and Matt has sorted out the west side bearing end caps on the Bolster.

Nick and I started preparing the 2 selected vans, B852838 and B854782. Scraping the frame work and giving the previously glossed woodwork a key.

Dave set to work upon QW1282, attacking it with a brush cup on an angle grinder. Later some degreaser was used on the base to remove the caked on stuff that was there.

A brief interlude for me saw Dave and I repair a small MIG welder we had been donated in order to repair some of the mesh on the BRUTE. Admittedly with both need some more practise, but there is now more meshing attach than when the BRUTE arrived so that can be classed as a win!

Dave got to applying the primer, whereas I rejoined Nick to start painting the very familiar purple/red shade of undercoat to the two vans mentioned.

By the end of Saturday, Dave had finished priming the BRUTE and Nick and I had finsihed undercoating both vans. Sunday saw Matt join us after a work doo on Saturday. My first job on Sunday was to fit a new radio in Jerry, to be a much more period appropriate looking item. Jerry then went to join some other younger Fords in the main yard.

Matt sorted out the end caps on the Bolster, masking, keying and applying the red band to the caps. We are led to believe that the red band denotes that lithium based grease is used in the bearing.

Before starting the Bolster, Matt mixed up a further batch of paint for the second BRUTE which Dave started applying.

Nick and I applied the gloss coat to the shock vans, starting with B852838. We finished the day by applying a layer of undercoat to the next van, B780282. Between them, Dave and Matt had the Brute finished and with the other it really does look splendid!

Thanks for reading, and join us again on Sunday to see what we get up to!