Author: rloades109

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.

Hello everyone, this week with the weather being as cold as it is we’ve followed the tanks to Rothely to continue progress. A6090 is the first one out of the two in the queue.

A little bit of cleaning down was done on the underframe by the four of us until after tea when the black gloss came out for the first coat.

Most of the rest of the day for me was applying the paint, while Nick, Dan and Oliver supported.

On Sunday, Nick and I continued starting by finishing the east side underframe, and then a second coat all over the tank.

By half past two, we’d finished the second coat and cleaned everything up so decide to head to Quorn to remove some more things from the Palvan.

A6090 now awaits signwriting, and we should be moving on to 3777 next week starting with a bit of prep work. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Hello all! This week, its been the railway’s Last Hurrah gala where alongisde the usual intensive service both the Vans and the Tank train have been running up and down the line. This also marks the Pipe’s first gala back in traffic, and it looked resplendant as one of the barriers for the tank train. Speaking of tanks, both 3777 and A6090 remain at Rothley awaiitng our arrival but we are very much looking forward to continuing these.

This week, the Ops team (thanks guys!) have delivered our next project after the tanks, Palvan B781908. With just me on site on Saturday, progress was limited but I was able to open the padlocks and free off the doors to get in. I got Danny positioned and started to off load some of the very damp surplus PPE and other items into the skip.

Barry and the Baldwins joined me on Sunday where we were able to make better progress. Danny and the team made 3 trips to the skip and the van is looking a lot tidier and the floor able to dry out a little bit.

As darkness descended, we got the painting stuff together ready to start a short stint at Rothley to progress the 2 tanks, starting with A6090 next week. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone! This week at Quorn the team have been working on getting B954268 and B852838 ready for traffic at the Last Hurrah.

Saturday saw the team working on B954268, which is due back into traffic on the van train at the Last Hurrah gala next weekend. As detailed by C&W on their facebook page, the van has received its new wheelsets, had the brakes re-assembled and then a successful test run to Leicester North and back. upon inspection at Quorn the roof of the van was found to be leaking, so a temporary repair was fashioned to see the van through next weekend. The van is due to be withdrawn after the gala for restoration, and obviously a new roof.

Some of the bow girder safety loops were also adjusted on the van to remove restrictions on their travel when the handbrake was released. The smaller of our scaffold towers has also been dismantled and stored for winter.

With the tanks having made their way to Rothley, and rain falling from the sky on Sunday morning, Barry and I busied ourselves fitting the final two lights in the GUV, which is now all LED lit. The environment is much brighter and the lighting system draws a fair amount less power. Next step for this vehicle is to fit some new batteries.

For the afternoon Nick and I attended to the brake adjustment on B852838, which was found to be out of adjustment for its annual exam. All for push rods were adjusted by half a hole which removed the slack from the system.

That wraps up this week’s update, next weekend the Vans and the Mixed goods will be running at what is the last gala of the year for the railway. We should be getting B781908 up from Swithland to start on plus we’ve still got the tanks up at Rothley. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone and welcome to another Quorn update. We thought it would have been a wash out, but we’ve managed to do quite a lot! The main event was the annual exam of the Van Train, ready for the Last Hurrah gala.

I’ll start with some good news though B954268 has now received is new wheelsets, fitted by the C&W department. The brakes have been re-assembled and adjusted and it’s had a test run with the Class 10. The van is due to run at the Last Hurrah before an external refurb in the new year. Sadly, years stood stationary not in use have not been kind to it.

Saturday was a wash out, so we ended up continuing to fit LED lights in the GUV. We got 2 fitted, so that leaves 2 left to do.

On Sunday, we got to the annual exam on the vans. Mostly small defects, but one suprising major one, fortunately all able to be fixed. Tom, Dan and Oliver got started on oiling the brake rigging, Mark on the screw couplings and Nick and myself inspecting.

On to the defects then: B852838 required a brake adjustment, B850498 had 3 loose bolts on the underkeep/tiebar, B786348 had a minor repair to the vacuum release cord, M730562 was booked with a loose veranda floor plank, B777728 also had some loose bridle bolts for which the hot spanner had to come out to tighten the bolts which were re-assembled with spring washers. B777171 ended up with the major defect, this being a cracked disc in the drawhook rubber arrangement.

Oliver and I tackled the veranda floor in the LMS Brake van while Nick, Mark and Tom tackled the broken drawgear disc, initially by searching for a spare disc then dismantling and re-fitting the spare disc. One of the cracks is quite old, but we think it happened as the disc had been mounted the wrong way round, increasing the stress on the disc beyond its limit.

Unfortunately we lost the light before adjusting the brakes on B852838, so this will be caught next week so that it can join the ball. Thanks for reading and join us next week to see what we do alongisde the brakes on B852838!

Hello all, and welcome to another of our updates. Our focus has been getting A6090 coated in grey undercoat, ready for a coat of black gloss.

Looking forward, we want to put our BRUTE Trolleys in covered accommodation. That’s the six restored ones and the two that require further work, to stop them deteriorating further while their time comes. The 6 restored ones will end up in the BR Palvan, whilst a home had yet to be identified for the unrestored BRUTEs. For ease of access, B784409 was chosen. Nick and I moved various items on the floor and lifted the trollies in, and backfilling the trollies with the stored items. Lastly some timbers were wedged between the trollies to prevent them moving. We’ll check these when the vans have run at the next gala.

Whilst in a tidying up mood, Charlie and Ernie gathered the wood removed from the Pipe wagon and placed it in the pile of wood for the railway’s Bonfire Event.

Sunday ended up being the warmer and drier day of the two, so we used that to be able to paint the tank. We let the tank dry in the morning sun and got the undercoat sorted out, then we all hit it, managed to get round the whole tank before 4pm.

Well, I say all of us, Dan did spend the morning finishing off the signwriting on the tool van, B854097, before joining us on the tank.

We’re working on a plan to finish off the tank, but for now it will stay in undercoat. Painting a lot of gloss paint at this time of year would be a folly. We’ll leave it there this week. Now that A6090 is now in undercoat, we’ll focus on getting 3777 further cleaned down and possibly primed. Join us next week to see how we get on!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s update. This week we’ve concentrated on A6090, ending the weekend with the wagon in primer ready for the next stage.

Being the Leicestershire half term week, the Baldwins and Nick came down to Quorn during the week and started to apply primer to the underframe of the tank. They also managed to tackle the south end of the barrel.

Nick and Ernie concentrated on the final cleaning down of the barrel of the tank, with a final blow down on Saturday afternoon.

I took the opportunity on to have another play with the Brake Test Rig, testing the brakes on the Sturgeon and on 1408 following a procedure I’d written based off of a BR document. There are still some tweaks to make to the rig and procedure, including a suite of new gauges, but we’ve got the makings of a good set up. I refitted the castor on the test rig and fitted a bung in the Brake Pipe of 1408, removing an extra Schrader test point.

With 8 of us on site on Sunday, we made the decision with the weather being good to hit the rest of the tank in red oxide primer to carry on the good work.

Dan focused on finishing the signwriting on B854097.

That about covers us for this week. Hopefully next week we’ll be able to get the tank undercoated but with the nights drawing in and the clocks falling back we’ll have to see how we manage. Join us then!

Hello everyone! Our little end of Quorn yard has seen the Pipe wagon completed this week, and more progress has been made on readying the two tanks for paint.

The last thing to finish off the Pipe was the axleboxes and 2 split pins on the underkeep under the dock side of the north axle. I attended to these, giving the wagon a clean bill of health. This can now join the mixed goods train, releasing space in the siding for another project vehicle.

Nick and Charlie started the day by continuing to eradicate the last remnants of algae from the outside of the tank, and then Nick moved on to finishing the repairs to the filler necks on both tanks, filling in the holes left by two different methods of filling the tanks.

Barry and Ernie continued the clean down on A6090, Barry back on the needlegun. After finishing with the needle gun, Barry then picked up a linishing disc for the grinder to see how it would finish the surface of the tank, whihc left a surface good for priming.

I spent some time on the vacuum test rig, continuing to explore the air brake side of the rig and testing it with the Vanwide/VEB. All seems to have worked a treat, so now just a case of writing up a procedure of how to use that side of the rig.

I also spent some time cleaning up the other Hydrovane plate.

Harry and Andy came by on Sunday to carry on work on the GUV, doing some more filling, sanding and painting.

Barry and I finished off by sorting out the BEVs, topping up batteries, and looking at bit more in depth into Kiki as its getting a bit warmer than it used to when motoring.

That covers this week’s activities, join us again next week to see what we get up to! Its looking like there is the prospect of at least some primer on one of the tanks. Thanks for reading!