Author: rloades109

Good evening all and thank you for joining us on another update from Quorn. As has been the theme for the past few weeks, we’re focusing on the doors on the Palvan.

We started by removing the clamps from the door that had been assembled by the end of last weekend, which had sat with the copious amounts of glue curing all week. This was then lowered onto a temporary support on the floor and offered into the frame and to the hinges. All looked good, with the old holes lining up again where they were re-used. The front of the wooden frames were primed and the hinge offered back over with sealant applied.

The door was slowly drilled and bolted into place, Ernie then followed and painted the rest of the door into primer while we started on removing and dismantling the other door of the pair.

The other door wasn’t in as bad condition, and only 2 pieces needed to be remade, one horizontal member and one diagonal. While Nick cleaned down the hinges and Ernie applied red oxide primer, Barry and I made the horizontal member between us all we got the framework back together.

We opted to cut the ply sheet for the back of the door and then finish the door with the diagonal bracing as this isn’t jointed so could be put in later. We also cut the replacement door bottom, in the same fashion as last week which was glued, clamped and screwed together. The now fitted door had the excess length of the bolts removed.

The door was given the rather cold night to cure, until it was again lowered into position. I looked at the diagonal bracing that we removed and thought it wasn’t too far beyond hope, so applied some wet rot wood hardener to it. It may not last long, but it may outlast some of the other wood we’ve had to use; we shall see in time. Oliver helped me apply some glue to the bracing and it was fixed into position.

The same process was followed with this door, framework primed, sealant applied to the hinges, and then drill and bolt. Oliver can be seen greasing the shaft of the bolts prior to fitment,

Dan and Tom started priming the door while the lock staple was refitted. Tom and Oliver had to make 3 trips to the nut and bolt van to find the right length bolts! The undercoat then came out, starting with the door fitted yesterday.

Dan, Tom and Nick continued undercoating, managing to cover both doors.

For now, that is where we will leave these doors until we are ready to gloss them. Our attention now turns to the East side to continue the work there, so hopefully more of the same next week. Thank you for reading!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve continued with the Palvan, making a start on the doors. We started on the dock side, and got cracking removing one of the two doors.

I went round the door and tried to undo any bolts that would with the impact gun (which is still one of the best tools I’ve ever bought!). Michael and Nick followed with the grinder to cut any bolts that had spun.

The door sort of crumbled off and was taken apart to its consituent parts. The top and 2nd horizontal members were salvageable along with the uprights, leaving everything else to be made new.

Before doing so, Barry and I retrieved our radial arm saw from the GUV and fixed it up ready to use. We dealt with a stuck motor and a non-functional start switch to get the machine fully functional. Its been invaluable to sorting out these doors because it makes it so easy to cut the tenons for the frame work.

Ernie cleaned up the hinges on the van and painted them in red oxide, making them ready to receive the door once remanufactured.

Nick, Charlie and Michael de-nailed some of the remaining planks from the loco shed roof to use as the bottom of the doors. These are the right deopth and thickness to use for a re-designed door bottom. We are having to do this as we have no pattern for the bottom of the door.

Barry and I managed to finish the day with the new horizontal members cut for the door, and dry fitted into the uprights. Dave and I started by measuirng and cutting the ply sheet for the back of the door. The frame was then glued together and the ply laid in and screwed down. The door was clamped together and then rolled over so the diagonal bracing could be cut and fitted.

Nick, Mark and the lads began by making a kit of parts for one of the Catfish, which has a cracked spring pocket on the top of the axle box. The lads had a small lesson from Nick on how the axle box is assembled, much easier without the axle there!

The diagonal bracing was cut and placed into the frame, with plenty of glue and 2 screws each just to hold them in place. Between the 3 of us we cut out the plank from the loco shed and made it into a pretty good door bottom, which we fixed to the bottom of the door with copious glue and screws.

The other half of the team replaced a foot step on each one of the Catfish, removing, cutting a new one and then treating them with preservative. Then the scrapers came out and they got to cleaning down more of the Catfish’s bodywork, getting them that one step closer to paint. Nick also finsihed off by undoing or cutting most of the bolts on the other door of the pair, getting it ready for next week.

Next week we’ll be continuing with the door, getting the finished one mounted and its partner off and rebuilt. Thanks for reading, and see you next weekend!

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s update. We’re still continuing our charge on the Palvan, this time repeating the activities of last week, though this time on the West side.

First job on Saturday was to empty out one of the other Palvans at Swithland, lending assistance to the S&T team to move the stuff out of the van and into their stores.

Once back at Quorn, we made a start on fitting the side sheets into the Palvan. After some last minute trimming, the panels started to be dropped into the van, with me drilling the holes and Dan and Nick on the other side trying not to get the point!

Oliver, Mark and Tom put the nuts on the bolts and tightened the bolts down and therefore the sheets into the van, making the fixed walls now water tight once again.

The chalkboard rotten for this side so Charlie and Nick manufactured a new one and primed it. Dan finished off the priming. The chalkboard mounting position was measured on the east side and was replicated on the west ending up with one bracket being bolted on, waiting for the board to be fully painted up. The door hold back hooks were also fitted.

The interior boarding was refitted to each end using most of the original screws. Dan and I found and cut down some bolts for the vent that went through the top inner cladding board.

The inside of the van was tidied, ready for the next stage of the van’s progress which will be to start the doors. I also semi-dismantled one of our free standing lights to put up inside the van so that we can see what we are doing to repair the doors.

The injectors from the Test Car were also tested this week and passed all tests, which on one hand is great news but on the other it means there is something else wrong with the engine which we need to dig a bit deeper into.

I finish with some excellent news on the awards front, which you may have already seen on our Facebook page. The Heritage Railway Association awards were yesterday evening and both the railway and our friends at the National Wagon Preservation Group have walked away with awards. The railway won it’s award for the Railways at Work gala which we are very glad to be a part of, and the NWPG won their award for their fantastic MGR train. Congratulations to those and all other winners and runners up.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week for more antics from Quorn

Hello everyone. After the excitement of the gala last week with goods trains running around, this one has been a bit more sedate on the train front, but just as productive for us.

We’re continuing with the Palvan, and made a start this week by removing the interior boarding on the south end of the van, so that we could start removing the side sheets on the west side.

Now that all bolts could be accessed, the team made quick work of cutting the nuts in half with the grinder and then splitting the remaining portions so that the bolts could be removed. Some bolts had to be split using a chisel due to a lack of grinder access.

Once the side panels had been removed, the team split into two. One side focusing on cleaning down the metalwork and priming it while the other half fitted the side sheets that had been cut last week.

With the east side looking quite smart with the side back in, the finishing touches were added including the chalkboard and the door restraining hook, which had been missing when we’d got the van.

Nick and I started cutting the boards for the East side, after first checking the measurements on the removed panels. The 3 boards were cut in quick succession, with Nick able to prime them to get them ready for next week.

Dave and I started to have a look at a patch of rotten plywood on the south east corner of the van. As we’d have had to remove some of the interior framework we opted to perform a patch repair, cutting out the old board as best we could and then making a new patch to fit in.

As we had to slide the pieces in, this had to be made in 3 sections that slotted together. As we did this, we discovered how the woodwork of the van was initially built. The hardwood framing was built in the carpenter’s shop at Wolverton complete with cladding panels screwed to the frame, and then the entire assembly bolted into the uprights of the van. As such, we’d have had to have stripped down all the interior frame to have replaced the plywood, so this is something for us to bear in mind with this van in the future!

Nick cleaned and primed some of the metalwork while Dave and I cut the bits of board out, and then the 3 of us fettled them to get the 3 pieces to fit in the whole nicely. The pieces were then slathered with both wood primer and PVA with a few woodscrews for good measure!

With the patch finished, there was just enough time to have a cuppa before heading home. Next week we’ll get the East side in the van, and probably get some sealant around all the edges. The next step is the doors, which will have to come off one by one to make sure we get them sorted as best we can. Thank you for reading and see you next week!

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s update. We’ve focused on the Palvan this week, with the main push to get the roof boards on. Firstly, thank you for all your comments on the Palvan. We are aware of their mainline reputation and as such, the van will have a load and we are planning a wheelset swap as the profile on the current wheelsets would fail a fitness to run exam.

Nick went early to Harlow Brothers in Long Whatton to collect the four sheets of 10ft by 5ft plywood we use for the roof. Originally this would have been one big sheet of plywood, but somehow we struggle to find a source for those so make do with joining sheets together.

While Thomas Oliver and I cut the boards to the right sizes, Nick and the rest of the gang changed another buffer on the north end of the Palvan. The other buffer was found to be very soft, to the point of compressing when buffering up to the tool van.

With the sheets cut, we started to get them onto the roof, starting with the north end. The first sheet took quite some lining up, and we had to accept a squiffy side over hang to get the sheet square with the end of the van. Thankfully we can deal with this before the roof sheet is fitted.

The first sheet was bolted down, and a joining strip fixed to the loose end to aid in fitting the 2nd sheet. Dan and Tom painted the first sheet in an aluminium roof paint we’ve had kicking around for ages. The second sheet was fitted in short order and was bolted down in the failing daylight.

The last 2 sheets were bolted down on Sunday morning, and got a coat of paint. The last sheet needed some trimming due to the issues we’d had getting the first sheet lined up.

We then unfurled a lorry curtain and set Tom and Dan to removing the straps from the curtain. This was while I worked on trimming the board edges to remove the worst of the stepping between each board.

Once the strapping was removed, we cut a 20ft section from the curtain and got it onto the roof. There wasn’t time to fix it down, so we’ve used 3 ratchet straps to hold the roof sheet down while we get to fixing it.

Last job of the day was a tidy job, which involved 2 trips to the skip with Danny. Next week should be more of the same with either the roof sheet being fixed down, or a start made on stripping the side sheets out for replacement.

Lets take a look back at the last 12 months. Despite some appalling weather during 2023 we have still completed quite a few restorations, the team has grown too. We had a well supported Open Weekend during which Test Car 2 made it’s first demonstration test train runs in preservation. The team also played a big part in the organising and re-enacting during the award winning Railways at Work Gala Event. Both events featuring the display and operation of many of our fleet of restored goods wagons.

During the GCRs 50th Anniversary Event, we were proud to see 34 of our restored wagons being used in the 9F hauled 50 wagon demonstration goods train.

We’ve had a few new arrivals during 2023; four tank wagons, 1802, 1919, 3777 & A6090; an A type container, and George (our 3rd Brush Electric Pony). We’ve also had one departure as well being the Warflat, 8127.

Restorations completed during 2023 were: Tank 3711, Plate Wagon E212315, Pipe Wagon B740654, Coal Hopper B425356, Electric Pony Tug Kiki, Tank A6090 and Tank 3777.

Other work has included making a start on the preparation for repaint of the GUV M94052, and clearing out Palvan B781908 ready to start restoration.

Repairs have been carried out on Test Car 2, Brake Van B954268, ShocVan B852838, Van B777171 and Edward the Hydrovane Compressor Trailer.

We opened up Test Car 2 to visitors on a number of occasions, including the Diesel Gala, our Open Weekend, the 50th Celebrations and for a Nottingham Trent University students day.

Ross and myself took a trip up to see the Barrow Hill Engine Shed Society and spent a very enjoyable evening talking to a group of 25 society members about our wagon restoration work at Quorn and also Test Car 2.
We released updated versions of both our Pocket Stockbook and also the Test Car 2 booklet.

Thank you Dave for compiling the end of year review! Onto the what’s happened this week then, and unsuprisingly it was more work on 3777. The Tank Train has been running betwixtmas, which was a welcome sight!

On Tuesday I popped to Rothley to carry on signwriting, this time applying the number to the tank four times. I also marked out and masked the Commuted Charge symbol and the Yellow star for Nick to apply white undercoat to. Nick also fitted the vacuum release chord.

The ‘Fast Traffic’ stars were applied on Wednesday, along with the first coat of yellow on the CC and Yellow star.

On Thursday Dave came down to signwrite the ‘Esso Petroleum Company Limited’ wording on the East Side of the barrell. I had set myself a side project of making a portable speaker box to play music through for which I collected the speakers and identified a box for.

On Saturday Dan, Dave and I finished off the solebar signwriting and the Commuted Charge Symbols. The was one slight hitch with the vacuum release chord start, so this got painted out to be re-applied. Nick, Mark and Charlie went to Quorn to tidy up the Mess coach, ready for us to reutrn to it.

The tank was pulled outside on Sunday so we could wash off the dust generated by the DMU Group, after which it went back inside the shed. Dave re-applied the vacuum relase star, just a touch to the left of where it was. Dave and I finished off by applying yet another coat of black gloss to the upward facing parts of the solebar to remove marks of where we’d all been leaning to do the signwriting.

Afterwards, the three of us headed to Quorn, put the remaining stuff away from Rothley, and then pumped the tyres up on the Volvo.

That leaves the only thing to sort out for 3777 to be the Esso plates which I have a plan for, but you shall have to wait to see what I do. That wraps up this update, and indeed this year. Thanks for all your support over the year, and hope you have a good evening. See you next year!

Hello all, and welcome to this week’s update. This week, both tanks are in the shed slowly getting to the stage that its just signwriting to progress. We’ve also updated our stocklist this week, which should be more refelctive of our fleet.

Tom and Barry popped in on Thursday to paint some of the details on 3777. Between them, they painted the yellow on the axle box end caps and main res pipe couplings; the white gloss on the handbrake ends, lamp brackets and air brake cocks; and then the red on the vacuum swanneck and the air brake pipe coupling.

Dave sorted out the templates for 3777 in the week as well, taking a fair while to piece together.

One of the last mechanical jobs on 3777 was the vacuum brake cylinder overhaul. Nick, Barry and I tackled it, finding a cylinder that was in good condition internally and went back together without any issues.

On Sunday, it was signwriting day for Dave and I on A6090. Dave started with one of the big Esso logos, while I did some some more solebar writing. Once done, I moved onto the other Esso logo while Dave painted the number and Esso address.

Mark and Tom painted the final section of underframe around the re-fitted vacuum cylinder, both into undercaot then gloss. Tom also started scraping and cleaning both ends, before applying some paint.

Tom oiled up the brake rigging on both tanks. Nick and Oliver finished the vacuum system by connecting the flexible hose to the train pipe.

Dan picked out the the builders plate on 3777, picked out the SKF lettering on the bearing end caps and then painted the release chord stars on both solebars. He was even caught painting with a cat on his lap!

That about wraps up this week, we’ve still got a fair way to go on the signwriting but we’ve made a good dent in A6090. Join us again next week to see what we get up to.

Hello all, and welcome to another update. We are still continuing our push on the tanks, with this week picking up where we left off with 3777. Tom and Mark both popped in during the week to paint some more of the difficult areas, and then carried on with both headstocks and both solebars!

I treated us to a new spray gun, and made good use of it on Saturday. I spent some time getting the equipment set up and talking Barry through the set up. Dave put together the templates for A6090 so that we can make a start on the signwriting. Barry and I got to the stage of mixing the paint.

Nick, Oliver and Dan ended up going to Loughborough to respond to report of a droplight not working, worthwhile as there wasn’t a lot that could be done while the wagon was being painted.

Barry very ably assisted me while I was spraying the tank, moving steps, carrying the pressure pot and making sure that I didn’t get tangled up in my own hoses. Dave avoided us and started to paint the W irons and underframe on the opposite side to where I was spraying.

Dave also tweaked the south end air brake hose as this had been fitted 180 degrees out, and also made a start on picking out some of the plates on A6090.

Sunday was a little more sedate with Nick and I on site. I concentrated on some of the signwriting on A6090, while Nick used the portable lamps and touched in any area of underframe that had been missed or needed a second coat.

That’s where we wrap up this week’s update, we’ve made excellent progress on 3777, and A6090 is on the finishing straight with sginwriting having been started. Join us next week, where I’m sure more signwriting will be done!

Hello everyone. After the quick turnaround last weekend on A6090, this weekend we’ve made a start on 3777.

Some mid-week work to cover first though where Tom popped to Rothley in the week to finish the details on A6090 including touching in the black paint and the white paint for the handrbake ends and the vacuum swannecks.

First on the weekend list is an initial scrape down with everyone getting stuck in.

Dave and I escaped for a little while outside to A6090 to measure up for the signwriting templates.

One of the wooden air brake pipe supports was found to be rotten, so a new block was made and fitted, though with only me able to get in and drill the new mounting holes.

One label clip and block was retrieved from Quorn and fitted

Dave and I took a side and an end each to sand with the rotary sanders to smooth off the surface ready for undercoating.

The main event on Sunday was of course the undercoating of the tank, keeping me busy all day.

Not wanting to be left out, Mark and Tom each grabbed a brush and got stuck in with the boxes behind each headstock and then the south end.

The tank is sat in undercoat, curing in the safe confines of the shed. I’ll leave you with a wintry, festive picture taken by Tom. Join us again next weekend and see how we get on with 3777.