Author: rloades109

  • 23/02/25 – Less green, more gleam!

    23/02/25 – Less green, more gleam!

    Hello all, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve been getting ready to wash the tank train by testing out our new pressure washer and some chemicals on the newly arrived 3621. The pipe run on 1919 was also finished off after the last two brackets were manufactured.

    To start off with, I started to assemble the pressure washer which went together a treat. While I did this Ernie laid out the brackets in the positions they required welding into, which I then cracked on with. Nick and Harry started to strip off the extraneous rubber pipes from under 3621 and then fitted a temporary branch-pipe to enable us to check the cylinder that was installed last week is working satisfactorily.

    With the vacuum system check complete (a formal test will be conducted before the tank is put into traffic), Charlie and Harry set to work on 3621, rinsing and washing the tank with some snowfoam and TFR.

    The north end buffers on 3621 are non-functional, so Nick and Ernie started to remove them by heating up the nuts, though ran out of gas after the first two. After getting more gas, they continued getting these off on Sunday morning, after which the buffers were removed and the wagon shunted down.

    A scaffold tower was set up to allow safe access to the top portion of the tank for cleaning by Oliver, Dan and myself, which continued throughout the day.

    Tom and Mark set up the needle gun and removed the 5 layers of paint from the north headstock of the GUV, and a portion of the west side solebar. This was followed with a bit of primer, which also made its way to the fish van body.

    I spent a portion of time measuring up the side tank supports on 3621, as a bit of an exercise in 3D modelling. After looking over both 1802 and 1919, the handbrakes on both wagons had the potential to cause injury due to the proximity of the end of the lever to the suspension links. One wagon require the pins to be removed and rotated to give adequate clearance, while the other had a piece of the lever cut off and dressed, all ably done by Ernie.

    That wraps up this week’s happenings at Quorn. With 1802 and 1919 now waiting their turn in the paint queue, we’ll move using the time to clean the tank train next week to get them looking nice before the train gets moved away to Swithland. Join us next week to see how we get on!

  • 09/02/24 – Happy birthday, Tom!

    09/02/24 – Happy birthday, Tom!

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. We’ve finished the through pipe on 1802 which is now fully fitted but not yet tested. This just leaves the same pipe to make on 1919, which we’ve made a good start on.

    Firstly, we wish Tom a happy 18th birthday!. Tom’s family very kindly sent along some lovely cakes last week (which I should have mentioned, sorry!).

    First action on the tanks was to remove the pipework as fitted to 1802 to use as a template for the pipe on the 1919. While the pipe was in I measured up to make the last pipe bracket. We also got the heat gun out and adjusted the two dummy brackets fitted to 1802.

    With the heat gun out, we shunted the Lowfit on to the end of the tanks to sort the last remaining bent corner on the west door.

    Ernie and Nick started looking at the bits of pipe we have in stock to match them up to the pipe from 1802, then the pipe cutting and threading continued, with new recruit Harry having a go on the pipe threader.

    I welded up the pipe bracket, getting it ready for fitting. The team got the pipes fitted back into position, while the 6 pipe brackets were fitted with locking nuts. Some hardwood packers have been fitted in some positions to minimise the stress to the pipework.

    Some of the pipe remnants seems quite hard, so required annealing with the heat gun before being manipulated for 1919.

    The Baldwin lads (with some interjection by Charlie) started a secret project on the dock with some scrap wood. Dan was caught having a sit down… Tom and Mark did some touching up on the undercoat north end of the GUV. Dave and Ernie had a brief break by fixing one of Nick’s lamps.

    Last thing to do was christen 1802 and fit some vacuum bags. Next week this will be leak tested alongside the air brakes, and the pipe work on 1919 should be very close to being finished. we’ll then get organised for the TEA, maybe with a brief interlude to play with a recently delivered new toy! Join us then and see how we get on!

  • 02/02/24 – Finally, a blow through!

    02/02/24 – Finally, a blow through!

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve finished fabricating a through pipe for one of the two TTA tanks, plus we’ve made more progress on painting the GUV.

    Dave and Ernie made a start making the set piece of pipe for the south end, first trying a recovered piece of pipe with a set, but then found that two 45degree elbows would work. With the set pipe made, it was onto cutting a section of straight pipe to fix to the centre section. Plenty of threading action for the three of us!

    Nick, Charlie and James tidied up the bit of yard behind the signal box, and also adjusted the door to the grounded fish van. Dave drilled one of the trollies to mount a large vice as some of the piped were too short to hold and thread in the pipe vice.

    The straight piece of pipe over the south axle was measured, cut then fitted. Even Charlie had a go on the pipe threader…

    Nick started on Sunday painting the south end of the GUV into black gloss, as befitting a brush painted carriage. Ernie and I started to fabricate the last section of pipe, a straight section across the front of the air brake equipment.

    Mark and Oliver took over the black gloss, while Tom worked on the north end of the GUV and primed the metal work. Dan started work on tidying the A type Container, applying primer and scraping the side.

    Nick and Ernie started adjusting some dummy brackets to fit to the now through piped tank, one required a bit of heating, straightening and re-twisting. While they did that, I measured up to alter a pipe bracket for the tank.

    That about wraps up this weekend’s activities on TTA number one, unfortunately we’ll have to repeat it all again on TTA number two. On the plus side, we’ll be well practiced at pipe work! Join us next week to see what we’ve got up to. Thanks for reading.

  • 26/01/25 – Winter Gala Pipe Wrangling

    26/01/25 – Winter Gala Pipe Wrangling

    Hello everyone, and welcome to the update from the Winter Gala. We’ve been progressing in our little yard while watching the freights whizz up and down the line.

    The team set up a handrail and platform at the north end of the GUV to continue the repaint. After this was ready, Mark and Oliver started to undercoat the south end of the GUV.

    Ernie, Dan and I carried on with the through pipe on the TTA, finding a helpfully shaped bit of pipe to sort out the north end of the pipe run. It required a bit of fettling and trimming to suit.

    Mark and Oliver continued with the temporary north end scaffold, adding a rope barrier and a shelf to sit their paint bucket on. They then used the temporary scaffold to scrape and prime the wood on the north end of the GUV, but rain stopped play for any other painting just after lunch on Sunday.

    Ernie, Dave and I measured up to alter the pipework bracket, cutting bending and then welding up the bracket. Dave altered the bracket for the headstock with Nick and Ernie unbending then re-bending an existing bracket to make it suit.

    Nick and Charlie started stripping down the other pipework to make them less of a trip hazard and to ready them for use on either the other TTA or for the TEA.

    The pipe was set back underneath in its new brackets and measured against the next piece along. both was cut to suit and threaded for the two pieces to be married together.

    In the fading light the pipe was hung back underneath ready for the next bit to be measure for and made, but that’s a job for next week! This leaves two pipe lengths still measure, cut then bend. Oh and then we’ll have to repeat it all again for the second tank! Join us then and see how we get on.

  • 12/01/25 – A very cold weekend!

    12/01/25 – A very cold weekend!

    Hello everyone, and welcome to another weekend update from Quorn. Saturday was a bit of a cold one, with the below 0 temperatures precluding any meaningful external work, though I did design a part for the cut off saw to accept the commercially available abrasive wheels. We laid some more carpet inside the cage area of the mess coach. At least the tank train looked very picturesque in the Down Lie-by!

    With my newly designed and 3d printed parts, I got the cut off saw working and ready to work. Dan and I used it to prepare some of the pipework found last week, cutting away the flame cut ends to square up them up.

    Mark, Tom and Nick did some more work on the south end of the GUV, re-fixing some of the hinge strapping back to the doors, and scrapping the iron and woodwork.

    Danny was uncovered and started for the first time this year to take some items to the vans in the yard. His sheet was unfolded and measured and found to be suitable for a van roof, so this was stripped of components and folded for storage.

    Lastly, we also assembled some pallet racking in the fish van to increase storage space.

    Thanks for reading, and join us next week where we should be starting to fit vacuum pipework to the TTAs.

  • 22/12/24 – New projects…

    22/12/24 – New projects…

    Hello, and welcome to another update from Quorn. Now that the Catfish have departed Quorn destined for the Mixed Freight set, we’ve received the two TTAs, and the TEA has been brought down from the top of the yard. We’ll be looking at vacuum through piping these over the coming weeks and months. We’ve also been preparing for a short spell at Rothley to give the roofs of four of the vans some attention.

    First off, the team set about locating our 21″ vacuum cylinder spares, which were spread across a few locations. During this, the yard area was tidied up to release a complete (but not very well cylinder) from inside the Volvo’s bucket.

    This cylinder was removed from 3711 when it arrived, for obvious reasons. Now we are restoring a handful of engineer’s vehicles, which usually all have a 21″ cylinder, we felt that we’d need to check the condition of all available parts, which includes that cylinder…

    With a lot of brute force and occasional ignorance but without heat (surprisingly), the cylinder was dismantled. It remains to be seen if this cylinder will resurrect, but we can only try. Plus it gives us a chance to try soda blasting it!

    Dave removed the cylinder head from the de greaser and gave it a rinse off with the pressure washer. This was left to dry out in the heated mess coach. We’ll begin to assess the rest of the parts as time and other projects allow.

    As the light was falling, Dave and I took a brief look at the through pipe route for the three green tanks, the two TTAs having a well defined route in a bit of a contrast to the TEA.

    All that leaves us to say is Merry Christmas from us. We’ll have another update for you before the New Year with a bit of a wrap up and to cover what we’ve done over the Christmas and New Year period, do join us then!

  • 01/12/24 – Wash and brush up

    01/12/24 – Wash and brush up

    Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. We’ve been able to progress a few jobs this week, with mechanical work culminating on the Catfish, the GUV has had another coat of paint and the coaches have been cleaned.

    Continuing the progress on the GUV, the last few patches of GUV were cleared back to bare metal, then sanded and primed. Dan, Ernie and Tom concentrated on fixing the loose body side rubbing strips.

    Reflecting the fact that the Catfish are cosmetically finished, Nick got them ready for a vacuum test by fitting vacuum hoses. We had also made a start extracting two sheared bolts in the hopper door on DB983393, which need to be extracted to refit one of the door mounting saddles.

    I continued looking at the generator and replaced the starter solenoid and double checked the timing, hoping I’d find the cause of it not running, sadly at the end of Saturday this was not the case, but I put the battery on charge for the night.

    The rest of the team made good progress and got the west side of the GUV covered in undercoat, ready for a coat of maroon gloss when the weather allows.

    Sunday’s weather started on the wet side. Mark and Tom did the usual gutter clearing, after noticing the water running down the side of the two coaches. After the worst of the rain, the pressure washer was used to jet the gutters, after which the coaches were cleaned using a bit of snow foam. On the west side a look out was used to ensure the group were away from the running line.

    I did a little bit more on the generator and got it running, which is a huge step given were we were with it some time ago. There is some fettling to do with the idle speed and fine tuning of the timing before we can put this back into use.We are starting to look at some improvements to the generator like an electric lift pump and maybe an alternator instead of a dynamo.

    We’ve ended the weekend with two clean coaches, a running generator and the GUV in undercoat on the west side. We’ll see what the weather brings next week, but we should are looking at completing the mechanical work on the two Catfish and hand paperwork over the Carriage & Wagon to begin their acceptance. Thanks for reading!

  • 24/11/24 – Hiding from the weather

    24/11/24 – Hiding from the weather

    Good evening all, and welcome to another update. With the Catfish finished, and the weather taken a turn for the worst we’ve looked at inside work, though the GUV did get a bit more attention.

    I concentrated on re-assembling the genset in the Test Car, bleeding the fuel system, replacing the coolant and of course trying to start it. Sadly, still no joy with getting it running so still more work to do on this.

    In a gap in the weather on Sunday, the Baldwins managed to get some more of the west side of the GUV stripped back and prepared.

    Thanks for reading! Fingers crossed for better weather next week, join us there and see what we get up to.

  • 10/11/24 – The GUV and the nearly finished Catfish

    10/11/24 – The GUV and the nearly finished Catfish

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn.We’re doing a little bit of work behind the scenes on the website, so things may change in the near future but for now we’re using what we’ve got. This week, signwiriting has continued on the Catfish and with some help, we’ve continued cleaning up the GUV.

    Firstly, to Mark we wish a happy birthday, and thank you Alison very much for the tasty cake in the shape of our very own 3711.

    Dan, Dave and I have pushed on with the signwriting, getting stuck in with the Straw letting, and Dan the white on the solebars.

    A team of volunteers from the Young Rail Professionals applied a coat of Maroon gloss to the east side of the GUV. Thank you to those who gave their time!

    Mark, Nick, Oliver, Tom and Ernie all started work on the West side of the GUV. Due to the condition of the west side, we’re having to bare metal a fair portion of the vehicle, which got a coat of primer once cleaned of all paint.

    By the end of the day, the south-west side of the GUV had been bared and primed, along with parts of the panel the other side of the door. The west side of the Catfish are now complete, with just some signwriting to do on the dock side.

    Thanks for reading, next week we should have finished the Catfish and made a good progress on the GUV. Join us then!

  • 27/10/24 – Two Black Catfish

    27/10/24 – Two Black Catfish

    Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. Thankfully, the weather has been such that the Catfish have both been able to have been painted in top coat. While we did that the rest of the team made the dock a bit more habitable and tidier. We’ll start with the work done by the lads in the week on the LMS brake van.

    Tom, Dan and Oliver joined Nick and finished off the last bits of painting and undertook a pad exam as the last jobs on the brake van. This should be heading back into traffic very soon.

    We rocked up on Saturday morning to two very wet Catfish, both having a coating of dew on them. Everyone was out giving the wagons a wipe down with dry rag to aid the drying process, with some last bits of cleaning down also taking place. The vacuum hoses and Instanter couplings were removed to limit over spray clean up.

    Nick, Ernie, Tom Oliver, Mark and Charlie made a start tidying up the dock, making 8 trips with the dumper to move all the wood we’ve removed from wagons to the bonfire pile.

    I started talking Dan and Dave through the equipment we used for spray painting to start teaching them how to use it. We thinned down the paint to the right viscosity and got everything ready to start painting. With Dave and Dan on the gun, they started spraying from inside to out. We had some issue with the paint not flowing evenly, but they persevered and got DB983393 painted, barring the east side panels at the top of the hopper.

    The other team sorted out the garden area, making a parking space for Danny, and sorting out some extra steps for both the GUV and the Tool Van.

    The van train was taken away to Swithland for a few weeks while the Railway holds Bonfire Night in Quorn Yard. This allowed us a bit more room and more light around the wagons.

    With Dan being unwell on Sunday, it left it to Dave and I to finish the wagons, starting with DB983393 which in the cold light of a new day was looking a bit patchy.

    While Dave and I got cracking, Oliver and Tom cleaned out some of our paint kettles, getting them ready for future usage. Nick and Mark started the process of following Dave and I around touching in bits where the spray gun couldn’t quite get. Tom and Oliver join in with this. Tom hung up the 4 removed couplings ready to be sprayed.

    Oliver went round the top of the hopper edge to paint the upper flat face.

    After all that, we gently shunted the wagons back down, and stood back to admire two smart looking Catfish, in Satin Black.

    We’ve got the sign writing left to do, gloss paint the white areas and to pick out the roller bearings on DB993560; all of which we’ll get to next weekend. We’re also popping by the NVR to meet up with their wagon group, so if you are there do say hello. Thanks for reading!