Author: rloades109

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. The Catfish has consumed more welding rods and plate, the tanks have have some buffers changed and a we’ve prepared a base for the Fish van body that is currently in Rothley car park.

I began by finishing the big patch from last week which hadn’t been welded across the bottom joint. While I was doing that Ernie started cutting out the last patch on the East side, on the end under the hopper door control wheel.

Nick and Charlie looked at the tank train which is now in the Down Ly-by. Three buffers were stuck in on two of the ‘Airfix’ Esso tanks, two on 3777 and one on 3711. Having applied the appropriate protection, between them they moved the replacements into position and loosened the bolts on the existing buffers, making them ready for changing.

Ernie had got the plate cut out for the patch, which we fettled to fit the hole and got tacked into place.

On Sunday with Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan, we started off with exchanging the buffers on the tanks so they are fit to run at Railways At Work. All smooth sailing however one bolt got damaged so had to be re-tapped before the buffer was fitted.

Once this once done, I got back on with the welding on the Catfish. The plate was welded around its perimeter and into the corner of the hopper. After a fantastic barbeque lunch (and time to let the welder cool down) I welded the last twelve inches on the side of the plate and Dan opened the door and swept out the bottom of the hopper. The access boards were removed now that the welding is finished on the inside of the hopper. Just the outside of the hopper to go!

While I was welding, Nick, Tom and Oliver went to Rothley to get some sleepers to sit underneath the Fish van body destined for the dock. This is destined to be moved on the 5th August as part of the Railways At Work pre-event shunt.

Next week, we’ve got a bit of prep for Railways at Work to do and potentially some work at Rothley to finish off work on B954268’s re-planking. Thanks for reading, and join us next week to see what we get up to.

Evening everyone, and thank you for joining us. We’ve finished off the braking system on DB993560 and have begun welding the side panels back into the hopper.

Nick and I picked up where we left off last week by finishing the install of the refurbished vacuum cylinder. A release valve was put on from our overhauled stash and the branch pipe was reconnected. We put some temporary vacuum hoses on the wagon and performed a vacuum test.

The vacuum test performed well, though we had some issues with the temporary vacuum hoses so only managed 19″ rather than the usual 21″. The brakes applied and released as per spec and once applied held for more than an hour which is more than adequate.

After this point, Ernie and I started preparing the replacement plate for the hopper. Working from the pieces cut out, Ernie cut the plate using the cutting gun and ground up the edges. I welded some tabs on the back of the plate to stop it dropping back out the hopper once laid in.

We got the smaller of the plates tacked in, and then cut out the larger plate. The larger plate took a bit more fitting, and required some manipulation of the existing hopper to get it to line up. With the plate positioned, it was tacked in to suit.

On Sunday I continued with the welder, welding around the inside seams of each plate, well until my supply of rods ran out anyway. The smaller of the plates was welded all the way round on the inside of the hopper, and the larger plate was welded around the top and down the 2 sides. Dan very capably assisted me in the hopper, and just about managed to stay awake.

That leaves the bottom of the large plate to weld on the inside, then just a case of doubling up and welding the outside of the hopper. We’ve identified another panel to replace, and have got some localized panel beating to do on the other panels on the East side. Then the wagon is ready for another clean down and a paint.

Thanks for joining us and reading the update Join us next week where it could be more welding, and finishing off the work on the hopper. I think this is a first for us, where we’ve welded up a wagon at Quorn. Its rewarding to learn new things and continue to practise them. Have a good week!

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for another update from Quorn. Work on the Catfish progresses, with more bodywork attention and new skills learned in making safety loops. First though, I’ll cover some work on B954268 by Nick and Tom. The cladding on the East side of the van has rotted, so is being removed to be replaced.

Richard, Dave and I started by removing some safety loops from DB993560 to use as a template. Catfish have 3 safety loops per axle, and these serve as secondary retention for the brake bow girders and pull rods. In the unlikely event that a pin fails in the brake rigging, these safety loops prevent any loose components dropping down causing damage to the wagon, or event derailing it.

DB983393 arrived on site with none of its safety loops, so we’ve had to manufacture them. Dave found some steel stock which was suitable, and between himself, Richard guided by Ernie got cracking on heating and bending.

I worked on the Catfish. After reviewing the time taken trying to cut and close up the stretched material, we decided that it would be quicker and easier to cut out the damaged material and weld in new.

I got the first bit cut out, and decided to cut out a section of the bigger panel. Dave managed to catch the panel mid drop.

Richard, Dave and Ernie made good progress and got the two centre safety loops and one ‘outer’ loop made.

Encouraged by progress on Saturday, Dave and I with various assistance continued to make the rest of the safety loops.

Nick, Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver processed our other lorry sheets, getting them ready for use on some of the vans. They cut the rivets hold the straps into the curtain and removed the straps. The sheet was then folded and cut in half.

By the end of the day, we’d made all safety loops required for DB993560. The next stage on these is to weld prepare some bolts to weld to the top of each loop to mount them to the wagon.

Thanks for reading everyone, join us next week were we should be trying to weld bits in to the Catfish and finish the safety loops. Join us then!

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for another update. This weekend we’ve managed to find a dry enough spell to paint the Palvan roof, investigate the Test Car’s fuel tank.

Tom has been doing some work on B954268 during the week while its in the shed having its suspension looked at. A new roof sheet has been laid over the van to re-waterproof it.

I started off by finishing connecting the new batteries in the GUV with crimps ordered in the week. Its a pleasure to be in there without the hum from the charger running all the time as the power supply. I finished the modification off with a Voltmeter to show us the battery volts inside the vehicle so we can monitor the charge level.

Dave made a start by looking at the fuel pick up and return lines into the fuel tank on the Test Car. The pipe fittings were welded to the top of the tank, so looking at them became a little more tricky. The fuel was drained out so we could check for sludge at the bottom of the tank. we found the end of the pick up tube nestled in the tank’s drain bung, so it was just a case of cleaning out the drain bung, rather than the tank.

In a dry spell in the afternoon, we used our new oxy-propane heat gun to look at the sides of the Catfish. The gouges imparted by digger buckets were slit with the grinder and then heated and whacked to flatten the crease. Its all trial and error at the moment, and we’ll have some welding to do at some point, but we’ve made a start.

Sunday was by far the drier day so much so, we got the roof painted on the Palvan! That now only leaves the 2 vacuum hoses to replace before the acceptance exam. Tom, Mark Dan and I hit the roof with the PVC canvas paint and quickly got it covered. Dan carefully painted the edges and above the doors, and did the same with bauxite once the roof paint had dried. Nick used the bauxite brush to touch in some of the body.

With the Palvan requiring minimal attention next weekend, we’ll hit the two Catfish, continuing with how we’ve started the first. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. Work has focused on the small bits to get the Palvan ready to run, though with the list dwindling, some work was done on the GUV too.

Nick and Charlie continued with Operation Grass Cut, finishing the section between our two coaches and the running line. Once completed, the newly prepared chalkboards were fitted to the Palvan.

Ernie concentrating the under-frame details and touching in the black, including scraping and painting the bottom side of the headstocks.

I disconnected and removed the current batteries in the GUV. It was thought the cells were life expired, however, one of the cell connections had corroded and broken, so there might be hope in them yet. However, with some new batteries sat there waiting to go in, the decision was made to replace. We can then look at the others at our leisure. I made up new connection tails, and am just waiting for the copper tube terminals for the cable ends.

On Sunday, being that it was just the two of us, Dave and I treated ourselves to breakfast on the train, not before we surveyed the van train to get an idea for the work needed on the vehicles in it. Some new ply sheets and some new planks to do, so we’ll get those planned. For the most part its a sand and a repaint for several of the vans, which is positive.

After a quick look round at Loughborough, we went back to Quorn and got on with the signwriting. Dave on the wagon plate, and me on the vacuum release chord star.

With the paint drying, we shuffled the vehicles back down and started the formal brake test of the Palvan. The brake test was mostly good and functioned correctly, though the leakage rate is not up to spec.

We also recovered a set of our steps from the yard using ‘George’, it reminded me a cut price version of the steps you have for aircraft!

With that done, the last job to tick off on the Palvan is painting the roof, which hopefully will be done next week. Thanks for reading!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s second May Bank Holiday update from Quorn. We’ve worked around the weather and got the Palvan into its second coat of gloss, signwritten, and the underframe painted in black.

Saturday saw Jack and Dave continuing the work on Madge, getting more stripped off of the vehicle including all the wiring and petrol tank. Dave also cleaned off the wheels and got them painted into primer.

Jack removed the levers in the cab and refurbished them on the bench.

For me, the main event was spraying the gloss on the Palvan. I had a few issues with the pressure pot initially, but once working and with Ernie’s help I got the two ends and both sides coated in the lovely bauxite colour we know so well.

Sunday was fairly damp, but to continue sign writing we improvised a shelter from the LOBO scaffolding and an old gazebo Dave dug out. This enabled Dave, Dan and I to get the doors mostly sign written.

Initially Dan worked with Mark to paint the underframe into black, and they made good progress on the accessible side.

Dave took care of the vehicle number, while I applied the PALVAN lettering. Dan started applying the “Return to” branding on the van. Unfortunately the weather closed in before this could be finished.

I finished off the branding, and applied the XP, wheelbase and tare mass to the other end of the van.

Nick got the black paint back out and painted both headstocks, and the north wheel pan on the west side.

The light is very much at the end of the tunnel with the Palvan, the other side needs sign writing, the east side underframe a scrape and paint, and then its details, details, details. Though we shouldn’t forget about that pesky roof!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Hello everyone and welcome to another warm weekend from Quorn. The push on the Palvan continues, with primer being applied and more paint removed simultaneously.

Oliver, Mark and Dan made a start by applying undercoat to the framework that Nick and I prepared on Bank Holiday Monday.

Ernie applied red oxide primer to the west side under frame, and was joined by Oliver and Mark once they’d finished with the undercoat.

Tom was gainfully employed with the needle gun tackling the north end framework and the east side metal work, getting them ready for primer.

Barry and I decided to remove the fuel pump from the Test Car’s generator so it is ready to take for testing or maybe even rebuild. Dan assisted by removing the belt guards and inspection plate to allow the pump to be disconnected from its drive gear. We also cleaned the engine with some degreaser, so its easier for us to see future issues.

Dan finished off by cleaning up the belt guards and applying some etch primer to them.

Nick and I finished off preparing the iron work on the Palvan. Nick scraping and me spending the day applying primer to all the uprights and north headstock.

There is a little bit of needle gunning still to do on the east side, put we are firmly in paint territory, although there will be some keying to do on the glossed woodwork to ready it for a second coat. Thanks for reading!

Evening folks, and welcome to another update from us. This weekend has been another one where we’ve opened the Test Car up for everyone to come and have a look and learn about how and why rolling stock was tested. For those that visited its been a pleasure to talk to you!

Dave was at the NEC with West Hill Wagon Works, which left Barry, Richard and myself to give Test Car tours, and the rest of the gang to man the sales stand, all of which helps to put money back into the wagon fund.

Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver did really well on the sales stand, though also found plenty of opportunities to get snaps of all the diesels running past the Test Car. Dan found some time to give some of the yellow vehicles a wipe over as well.

Sunday ended up being a very quiet day due to the weather, so the team started to find ways to amuse themselves. Some went on a ride on the trains, others started to investigate features of the Test Car, including swapping one of the speaker boxes, investigating the reed switch on the Slip Brake Application handle and seeing if we could find the other end of its cable to re-use it as the remote start on the Time/Speed/Distance Unit as was the case when slip brake testing. Another thing that was dug out and measured was the spare tachograph, which we are cooking up some plans for…

Given the weather, Nick also looked into the rebuild container to check for any leaks. Aside from around the door, all seems to be well and dry.

One of the visitors was PurpleVision who came through on the Sunday once the weather had cleared.

We’ll be back to wagon work next week, so back into the normal swing of things. Join us then where we are planning to pick up with where was left off on the Palvan. Thanks for reading!

Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us for this weekend’s work from Quorn. This week, we’ve given the Palvan a rest while we concentrate on getting A1610B stable and usable after its relocation.

We moved the container to use as storage on the dock for some of our access equipment. The container was felt to be too far gone at the moment for use being lifted and put on a wagon in a train, but could be shored up for use as a period appropriate shed.

Nick and I started by fitting the door flap which didn’t get finished last week. We then continued at the corner started last week and finished off drilling and putting bolts in.

We looked at the the corrugated end sides and found most of the bolts had gone, or were trying to tie together rotten wood. We cut some ply to replace the unhappy interior and exterior cladding and cut new supporting wood where requires.

The middle framework supporting the floor ended up not being attached to the rest of the container, so we replaces the bolts on both of these, and added new spreader plates on the outside to support the wood which is getting a bit on the fragile side.

Dave joined us on Sunday, where we concentrated on the wood across the back, and tying the end back to the sides of the container, which also supports the floor. We started by removing more floorboards, where I found some where to use more of our wood hardener.

Dave and I selected one of the last few bits of loco shed roof to act as the bottom support for the end, which was denailed and then cut down. Before fitting this we Dave and Nick cleared the way under the container.

We fixed one end to the corrugated end. Dave and Nick leveled the container using jacks and crowbars. The other end of the plank got fixed to the metalwork.

I started cutting a piece to graft into the side rail on the other side which had long disappeared having suffered from a prolonged water leak in that corner. I also manufactured two plates to sandwich and support the graft.

After this was bolted in, Nick and Dave added 2 large L shaped brackets between the sides and the end to fully tie them together. We moved to the other final corner to finish its repair. Nick and Dave added a right angled plate.

With all the lower framework shored up, Nick started to put the floor back down.

There’s still about a mornings work left to do on the container, putting more bolts in and such like. At some point the door flap could probably do we being remade, but that was definitely a job for another day! As nice as these containers are, you can really see why Freightliner and ISO type containers quickly became adopted!

Next week, we’ll have the Test Car open in the yard at the Road Rail so do come and see us! Depending on who we have with us we may also have the sales stand up and running, or more work on the container will take place.