Welcome to this week’s update from Quorn Wagon and Wagon! The weather was excellent the weekend just past, so we managed to paint B850498, the first van to be painted this year. Looking back to last year, we painted B852838 into undercoat on the 2nd April, so we are one week ahead this year!
Warm sunny weather!
On Saturday, we finished preparing the wood work on the van while the temperature rose sufficiently to begin spraying. The wood was painted with wood primer, where special care was taken to sand down the temporary numbers so that they wouldn’t show through. The iron work was painted were is was bear with red oxide primer.
On Sunday, we went one step further and painted the van into undercoat. Sadly we must mourn the loss of our beloved compressor, Edward. This van proved too much and the motor burnt out!
Despite threats of the “Beast from the East 3.0”, we are hoping to paint the top coat next weekend, whilst the Railway’s Easter Vintage Festival is taking place. Thanks for reading!
A small update this week due to the weather. Last weekend, we had to turn the heater off in the yellow coach, this weekend we could have done with another!
This weekend has focussed on B850498 to ready this vehicle for paint. We started by stripping old layers of paint by using a heat gun, as was successful on B780282. the heat gun proved of limited success, due to the wind and the temperature, so we cracked out the gas blowtorch. The gas torch proved very successful if a little vicious especially near the new roof sheet.
Following the paint stripping, we sanded every panel using 40 grit paper. This cleared the small slivers of paint left during the stripping process and leaves a fairly even surface on the ply, ready to receive some primer when the weather is warmer. Unfortunately, we also killed our 2 sanders prepping this van, so the hunt begins for more!
A few small jobs were completed: Fitting wagon label clips and repainting the number after sanding, in order to abide by GCR rules. This has been stencilled under the chalkboard so that it won’t be seen when the van is painted up.
At the tail end of last weekend, I mentioned that we had prepped a roof sheet ready for fitting onto B762855. As it was still very much frozen upon arrival at Quorn, we shunted the vans down so that we could get the scaffold tower round all side of the van and be on even(-ish) floor.
The Roof end hoops were stripped off, along with the old roof covering. The roof boards were scraped of roof adhesive and then brushed off all debris.
The new sheet, having been rolled up in the week, was hoisted up on the roof and rolled out and positioned. One end of the sheet was fixed to the van using one end hoop, and then tensioned north to south, and fixed in place with the next roof hoop.
The roof sheet was fixed along the side using stainless steel staples through the sheet and into the roof boards. The west side of the van (the side facing the running line/GUV and yellow coach) was positioned such that it could just be tucked up and fixed, which left the east side of the van with a huge curtain, as in the photo above. Curtainsides work for lorries, why not for box vans?
Today, the roof was painted black using black bitumenous paint and the leftover sheet on the sides were trimmed level with the frame of the van. Other tasks completed today was the scraping of B850498. It was hoped the van would have tripped to Loughborough in the week for the welding to be completed. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen so it is hoped that the van is moved to the loco shed this week.
Quorn Wagon and Wagon have had a busy weekend, we have worked on B850498, B954268 and prep work has been started for B762855. The van train has also been de-branded following the 2 recent photo charters and the Winter Gala.
Matt in the distance removing branding posters from the van train.
As mentioned here previously, the donor chassis is that of a tank wagon. We know this was a saddle mounted tank wagon, built in 1942 for the Air Ministry. These had non-coacting push brakes. this means both sides can be applied independently of each other. Originally the push brake rods had wooden spacers, these were found to be rotten and could rotate and fall onto the railhead.
Push brake rods, modified to the BR style spacers.
The wood was removed and replaced with galvanised steel pipe, as was used by BR to repair these items.
It was decided to replace a single floorboard in the south end of this van. The old plank was removed and a suitable replacement found and cut to fit in the hole. The new plank was then dropped back into the hole, and the hole drilled for the bolt. Job done, you would think. Unfortunately, as with many jobs in preservation the 5-minute jobs often take much longer as was the case here. In the end, 5-floor planks were replaced in this van. Under some of the boards was found some pea gravel, evidently from its time as a grounded body at Swithland Sand and Gravel.
The imitation shock-gear the Matt has conjured up has now also been removed in anticipation of the vehicle moving to the loco shed at Loughborough for the completion of the body to chassis welding. B954268
After the photo charter on 12th Feb, the van train was deposited back to us with B954268 as the brake van for the set. It was looking a bit worse for wear, with some planks under the East side ducket having rotted through, and a layer of green slime covering the north end of the vehicle. Whilst cleaning a step board was found to be rotten, and this was replaced too.
Matt has also spent some time tidying up the letters on the side of this van, which are currently stickers. If the resources can be found, it is hoped this van could be repainted this year, once B850498 and B854782 are completed. In other news
Whilst having a hunt for props to fill the theatrical van, it was found the B762855 has a few holes in the roof. This occurs when the roofing felt has cracked, due temperature cycling hot and cold, and the flex that the vehicle is put under when running in the train. We have obtained another lorry sheet on site and spent this evening cleaning this down over the turntable pit, ready for next weekend, where it is intended for the roof covering to be replaced. Watch this space!
Just because it has been a Gala weekend, it doesn’t mean we have stopped work! Having two of our number as Travelling Post Office crew does hamper progress a small amount, but it is also very nice to see the van train running up and down. When walking around today, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the van train, with a few people mentioning their new branding posters, fitted on a few vans by Matt on Friday.
This weekend saw the first run in preservation of B784409, and work continued on the imitation shock gear for B850498. Matt has replicated the brackets he has made for the West side of the wagon and they are now fitted on the East. There is one bracket left on the east side before that is finished.
Other first run in preservation this weekend is the Esso Tank, 3436. This vehicle ran in the mixed freight. Before it could run this vehicle had the vacuum cylinder configuration changed so that only 1 of the 2 cylinders operate. This had fixed a long standing issue with the vehicle.
The next outing for the vans is a Photo charter in the coming week.
This weekend, the group’s efforts have been directed in two directions, on B784409 and on B850498.
Last week the previous secluded dockside underframe of B784409 was brought out into the open and scraped down ready for paint. Saturday saw the compressor repaired and the underframe spray gun brought out to finish this van off. Today sees the handbrake end picked out in white and the bearing end caps picked out in yellow.
Saturday’s work on B850498 sees the end panel on the ‘blue end’ of the van removed. This was removed due to having a soggy bottom, and a British Rail bodge panel in the middle which covered over a hole in the sheet. The removed panel was drawn around on a new sheet of plywood, then cut out. it was then offered into the van to check the fitment and then taken out and primed inside the GUV.
Today the new end panel was fitted to the van, and ended by being painted into undercoat
Matt has also undertaken the task of producing some ‘shoc’ gear for this vehicle. This is a purely cosmetic item, but is an important part of this van’s profile.
