Author: rloades109

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!

Hello everyone! After the excitemnt of fitting the new doors to B763305 last week, we’ve started looking at the other vans to see which of those need new sheets. B777171 and B780282 have both been selected to have two panels each to be changed, both panels also being adjacent to each other.

Dave kicked off by continuing the signwriting on B854782, it being the only van that didn’t get signwritten last week. There is quite a lot on this van, with us having gone with the Later style BR-era livery when this vehiicle was painted.

Nick and I, assited by Eireni, checked the measurements for the panels we are about to change. Over the years we’ve got quite a few measurments jotted down for the van body panels, but like the age old expression goes measure twice, cut once! B784409 has also been selected to have another side sheet changed, but for this we had to dismantle it’s internal racking. This will initially be stored, but then redeployed.

With four sheets of ply retrieved from storage, we set to work cutting them to suit the aperture. Once cut, Dave sanded the sheets then Nick and I treated them to a coat of wood primer, coating the front faces and the edges.

I, unfortuantely, couldn’t be onsite Sunday but Nick continued on the side sheets by painting them into undercoat. Nick also straighten out some of the racking dismantled yesterday. Dave washed and polished Madge, ready for Railways at Work. Matt was also onsite and sorted some of the prop items for the gala. Nick and Dave also removed a piece of the Plate that was dangling off. This will be re-attached when we get round to doing this wagon.

Next weekend is our Railways at Work gala, come and see us and the railway come to life with a pick up goods and a Mixed freight. We’ll be re-enacting and Madge will be on static display.

Good evening all, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week, being as the weather has been quite good we’ve go on an replaced some of the side sheets on some of the vans in the Van train. If you’ve been following our progress we cut, prepped and painted some plywood sheets some weeks ago for B779978, B850498, B784409 and B854782, all of which we deemed to be the most in need of replacement. Eddie has also spent the weekend continuing the prep on the internal surfaces of the Bogie Bolster which is really comming together, and I’m looking forward to painting.

Nick and I made a start on B854782 where we whipped out the side sheet with relative ease, the impact gun again make its usefulness apparent. In not too much time, we had the sheet out and Nick was scraping the frame of the old sealant and any other contamination. By this point Richard had arrived, and assisted me in drilling and attaching the new side sheet to the van.

Moving onto B779978, well in our stride. Again the side sheet was removed and the new one fitted. Both of these now needs signwriting to replace any markings lost.

We ended Saturday by undoing most of the bolts on the GW-designed Shock Van, and Sunday was more of the same. Having now done it, its probably the easiest van to have replaced a side sheet on. All the bolts undid with just the impact gun, no need to grind or split nuts and only bolts up the sides of the sheet.

Richard and I then made a start on the ex-VEA. We’ve not replaced a side sheet on one of those before, so it was a bit of a learning curve. In this case, the impact gun didn’t help, the coach bolts ended up spinning in the wood. Out came the grinder to slit the nuts and then the hammer to push the bolts through. Some of the bolts were hidden behind the top door runner and took a bit more work to remove.

By the end of the day, we had the new panel sat in the hole, and fastened to the van by 2 of the bolts behind the top runner. Next weekend, we’ll start with un bolting that, applying sealant and then bolting the panel in fully. After that we might be moving on to fitting some doors, exciting stuff! Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Hello, and welcome to another update from us. We’ve got some admin to sort before we get into the meat of the update. Firstly, we’ve found out the we’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Heritage Railway Association Awards. We put in for the Morgan Award for Preservation for the completed 17 vehicle van train. Our friends over at Quorn Transport Films have also been shortlisted in the External Communications catergory. We wish them and all others that have been shortlisted good luck, and look forward to seeing you on the night.

You may have seen us in the latest issue of Trackside Magazine, we’re featured in a fantastic six page spread, resulting from a visit earlier in the year. If you haven’t already, pick up the latest issue from all good newagents.

Right on to business, this week we’ve contiued painting the replacement doors and side sheets. Last week we got them all cut and primed, so this week was the turn of undercoat and top coat. On Saturday, Nick and Richard took care of undercoating the edges and I covered the fronts. The shed really helped here, keeping the sheets and us nice and dry while we were applying the paint.

Once we’d got those painted, we cleaned out the brushes and put the paitn way, and picked up some odd jobs. I looked at the air system on the Test Car to fix a leak that had become apparent on the filter/oiler. Matt did some work on the generator room door where the frame had become dettached from the wallk of the coach. Nick and Richard continued the tidy up in the Tool Van, resuting in a much improved Woodworking drawer.

Sunday saw Nick and I apply the bauxite top coat to both doors and side sheets, and then continued the odd jobs. I sorted out the workbench in the Yellow Coach, attaching the magnifying light to the bench kindly donated by Richard. Nick continued the tidy up in the tool van. I fired up the Test Car’s generator and tested the air system tweaks I’d done for leaks. There is one small one to sort out, but nothing major.

That’s it from us for another week, Dave will be back again next week to tell what we’ve been up to, join us then!

Good evening and welcome to another update from Quorn. This weekend has been the railway’s Winter Gala, and a busy one it was too! Both the van train and the minerals have been out to play, along with several passenger trains. We’ve been holding off on undertaking work on the van train whilst they’ve been wanted at photo charters and galas throughout January, so we’ve been spending some time as you’ve seen wokring on other things.

This weekend has seen most of the team finish building ‘the garage’, our temporary building. Last weekend we had most of the roof on and all of the north end and side cladding, so we picked up where we left off, by finishing the roof. The wind on Saturday didn’t help with this!

The roof was finished, then Dave concentrated on getting the cladding for the eaves rivetted to the structure. Firstly on the North end, and then the South. Matt, meanwhile started Madge up, and we tried her through the shed door to see if she fits.

We also shifted our wooden shed everso slighty, to turn it 90 degrees and to line it up with the back of the steel shed. After this we generally pottered around the shed until dark.

With fewer of us on Sunday, we concentrated on sorting out the last few bits fo cladding, including cutting some steel to fill in where a few panels have been lost. Thomas and I rivetting the bottm of the west side panels, and then went round and rivetted where holes where. Nick cut the replacement panelsfor the south end in the eaves and above the personell door. Nick and Thomas rovetted the south end panelling to the structure.

Eddie was also onsite, and carried on the prep work on the Bogie Bolster.

Next weekend, we’ll be making a start on the bodywork repairs on the van train now that they are free of commitments until March. We’ll either be manufacturing doors, or starting to cut some bodyside sheets. Join us then and see where we get too!