Author: rloades109

After last weekends excitiment, this weekend has felt a bit slower and relaxed. Nick is away at summer camp, but that doesn’t mean progress is any less!

I started off with a last bit of tidying up after our open weekend with collecting a set of our steps left by the marquee. Dave, with grandson Oli to assist, removed the Deceleration meter bracket from the Bogie Bolster, B928135.

Joined by Mark and Dan, we then took a look at B740654 to see what further cleaning was required prior to paint. With a bit left to do on the North and East side, the Hydrovane was started and the needle guns deployed.

Along with the needle guns, I sanded off the east side and south end and started scraping paint of of the retained planks. Cut End preservative was applied to all cut plank ends on the wagon to help prolong their life. Dave drilled out one of the door reatrder pins for a split pin as it was noticed that one was missing.

The last job for the day was to remove the air driven pump from 3777 as this wagon will be reverted back to its Esso livery. The pump won’t be thrown away thoguh, I’m sure we can find a use for it.

Dave and I started applying wood primer to the ends and outward faces of the planks, the inner surfaces will have some clear preservative applied before the wagon returns to traffic.

All bare wood surfaces aside from the East side were painted in primer.

Next week will see the east side sanded and painted into primer (weather permitting), we might even start to apply some undercoat. See you then!

Hello everyone and welcome to the update after our open weekend. We had a good weekend despite the awful weather on Saturday. Thank you to everyone for the work put into make the event a success. It was great to see so many people visit us and to see the Test Car out and about the line behind the Heavy Tractor Group’s 37714.

Dave and Richard spent some time getting some props sorted for the looming Railways at Work gala and going along with the shunts for our event.

We also had a new arrival this week, a 3rd Esso tank wagon, 3777. Initial impressions of this are that it is quite solid, this got a wash and brush up on the Sunday when the weather allowed it.

To finish off this update, I’ll put up some pictures from the Open Weekend. Thank you again for all those who came to see our wagons and us. Next weekend should see some more work done on the Pipe wagon weather dependant, if not, I’m sure we’ll find something to do. Join us then!

Hello, and thank you for joining us for another update from Quorn. This week we’ve been progressing both the Pipe wagon and Kiki, plus some additional work by C&W on Test Car 2 in preparation for our upcoming open weekend.

As Test Car 2 is hoped to be running on at our event, we’ve got to make sure it has an annual exam and FTR, which will be its first annual exam. The guys at Rothley have been carrying out the exam and have lifted the coach to inspect the bogies. Thank you guys!

Back to Quorn and the weekend. The first job for Nick and I was to lift the A type container from the back of Nick’s lorry. This has been a long term resident next to the locomotive department’s mess room and has now become surplus. We’ve got a condition assessment to do, but more on this in future updates.

The container now safely on the floor, we moved onto continuing the floor in the Pipe. The now regular de-nailing, cutting and fitting went well, and barring a few reliefs to make in the end plank and the fixing down, the floor is completed.

Dave, Mark and Dan joined us on Sunday, and the team were able to split in two, with Nick, Dan and Mark finishing the Pipe fixing it down with the edge strips.

Dave and I continued the push on Kiki, Dave touching in the black and red paintwork and cleaning the lift up bed, with me re-wiring the hydraulic pump and tidying the main feed cabling.

With the wiring done, it was time for the big switch on, or in our case plug in…

Nothing went bang, so I’d call that a success! Thank you for reading, and join us again next weekend where we’ll be on the Pipe, or piping. See you!

Welcome to this week’s update and wasn’t it a hot weekend! We re-adjusted activites so the team didn’t melt. Our open weekend is 4 weeks away now, and we’ve started making prepartions for this by painting Kiki into a new livery. The Test Car has also gone to Rothley for an annual exam in preparation for our event

Oliver and I made a start on preparing so more planks for the Pipe, but after 2 we decided it was much too hot to continue.

Dave, Mark, Tom and Dan started stripping Kiki down to prepare the panels for paint using a mixture of scrapers, sanding and a trial of some spray on paint stripper from CTEC.

The team started applying paint to the tug and its removed panels, which I looked at the bed lifting gear which hasn’t worked since we’ve had Kiki. thankfully this was an empty hydraulic reservoir which was filled up.

I found some broken down insulation on the wires running to the pump so the hydraulic pump will be fully rewired. I also topped up the battery cells with deionised water.

It was just me on Sunday, so I re-coated all the panels on the tug and those removed. At the end of the day I re-assembled the panels on to the tug, so it is just waiting for detailing and the seat to be remade.

Hopefully its a bit cooler next week so we can get back on with the last planks in the floor of the Pipe. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Hello, and welcome to another Quorn wagon update. This week we’ve been starting a few smaller projects to tide us over until the next wagon arrives. We’ve got some during the week news to cover before I get to the weekend.

During the week, using the wheelset Nick took to Rothley on the lorry, the C&W team swapped the failed wheelst on the Coal Hopper, B425356. I’ll cover more work on this wagon later on.

Dave started the weekend with a touch of signwriting, finishing off the dock side of the tool van.

Nick and I relocated our other sign from our shed to the signposts next to the turntable. Charlie then painted the uncovered brown wood on the shed in black paint so this then matched the rest of the shed.

I then got stuck into a fact finding mission in the mess coach, ADB977107. For as long as we’ve been based at Quorn, we’ve used water carriers for our water. We’re now looking at re-commisioning part of the water system to be able to have a hand wash basin and the kitchen tap to be able to be used for cold water only. I started by removing some ceiling panels down the corridor and outside the toilets to have a look at what was already there.

Nick and Charlie went off to Rothley with the black paint to paint the replacement axleboxes and part of the Coal Hopper. Dave came to assist me in the coach, we found a long length of rubber hose used as a balance pipe between the first class water tank and the tank at the other end of the coach. This is a feature not normally found on Mk1s, and is a part of its converison to a mess coach. This got cut at a convenient point and bunged as it was found that the north end tank is unserviceable. While above the ceiling I also tidied a few loose lighting cables.

Sunday saw Nick go off to Rothley again to paint the yellow bearing end caps on the Coal Hopper axles. This now makes the vehicle fit to go back into traffic, having now passed its annual exam.

Armed with supplies from Screwfix, I stayed at Quorn to start some plumbing in the coach. Starting at the south end toilet, I plumbed up the cold water tap removing any redundant pipework, and adding a freeze drain to prevent any damage in the winter.

I then made a start on the kitchen sink pipe run, but had to stop short of connecting this up as we plan to put in a UV Sterilizer. Again, this has a freeze drain off point as well.

Mark, Dan and Nick finished their day by scraping some of the leftover spoil from the nook and crannies of the Grampus wagons.

Thanks for reading, we’ll be back again next week for more of the same, although hopefully the Pipe wagon will come in. See you then!

Hello everyone, and welcome to our 2nd Bank Holiday update. In this 3 day weekend, we’ve been maintaining the van train in between the showers. During the week, Nick went to Coalville to pick up some donations to go into the theatrical vans.

Dave started Saturday by completing the signwriting on the Plate, taking care of the final D plate. Now this wagon is finished we’re looking at what will be next, which is likely to be the Pipe wagon.

The team of Nick, Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan started sorting out some ladders for each van in the train while also locating the roof sheet required for B852838 which we’ve decided is the next to get a next roff covering. It was found while doing this that door of the doors were stiff to open, so they went along the train oiling the door hinges and mechanisms to ensure that the doors don’t seize up.

Having finished the Plate, Dave assisted with the sorting, but also fitted a door pull handle to an sticky internal swing door in the Yellow Coach.

Nick and I were on site on Sunday, and we put up the scaffold towers to look at the failed roof covering on P18422. It was noticed when the Test Car was last open that the roof felt had opened up. We had some roofing felt in-store, despite preferring sheets these days. We stuck the flap back down with felt adhesive, then overlayed 3 panels of roof felt with copious amount of adhesive to stick the panels down, and then to seal the joins. Pictures show the before and after taken from the scaffold tower.

After the roof was done and the adhesive setting, we looked at some lose body planking and a trim strip on the end of the east side siding door.

Mark and Dan joined Nick and I today, but due to the weather this ended up being a sorting and tidying day. I did manage to investigate Kiki’s wobbly tiller. I think a nylon bush is required to take out any play, so will have to measure up for this. Nick and I took Danny for a skip trip to end the day.

That’s the end of activities this week. Next week, weather dependent, we’ll be looking at the roof on B852838, wish us luck with the weather! Thanks for reading.

Hello and welcome to the first May Bank Holiday update from us! This week, we’ve been fixing some arising work on the Dogfish, which was picked up after their annual exams.

On Saturday, the team started by identifying 5 spare buffers from our stash to replace those identified as failed on the wagons. Nick, Mark and I worked on the buffers, using the oxy/propane to heat the nuts up prior to removal.

Thomas, Dan and Tom started the process of oiling the wagons, starting with the doors, their oil pots and then moving onto the oiling the brake rigging and handbrake mechanisms. Their size was an advantage here!

While the hot spanner was out, we also tightened up some brake safety loops the had become loose.

Thomas, Nick, David and I were on site on Sunday, and I started with a bit of signwriting!

The south end of DB986166 was reported as having no brake safety loops. Nick, David and Thomas found some and fitted them to the wagon to make this complete.

Having finished the D plate I was signwriting, I started to take a look at the Generator again, draining some of the fuel tank to check the contents, and replacing the engine fuel filter and bleeding the fuel system up to the injector pump. I also replaced the rocker cover gasket.

Monday was more work on the Dogfish, taking a closer look at some of the stiffer doors and further oiling them up as best as access permisses. Oh to have a pit! Thankfully some of the doors freed off an amount which should help when they come to be used in the near future.

I think that covers this weekend. 5 buffers have been changed, 21 doors have been maintained, one D plate painted and 3 safety loops fitted. 5 of the Dogfish have now re-entered traffic to jon DB993412, with the 6th one awaiting replacement wheelsets. Next week, weather dependent we’ll be looking at some box van roofs, and there is still one D plate to signwrite. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn! This week has been has seen the signwriting on the Plate wagon ,E212315, nearly finished and the 2 TTAs, 1802 and 1919, got washed and an initial survey of the vacuum pipe routing.

As we are opening Test Car 2 up for both a visit in the week and at the Diesel Gala, Dave spent the day freshening up the interior, making it ready for visitors. The flies that have made TC2 home over the winter have also been evicted!

Nick started by picking out the white details on the plate wagon, these being the handbrake ends and vacuum pipe swan necks. He then joined Mark, Oliver, Dan and I in washing the 2 TTA wagons.

Dave, now finished in the Test Car, continued the signwriting on the Plate, writing the tare weight on the east side and chalking out the wheelbase on the solebar for me.

As menitioned previously, I was in the main yard with Mark, Dan and Oliver washing the tanks. These look a bit better having had judicious application of Traffic Film Remover, agitation with a brush and being rinsed with the pressure washer. There is still a fair amount of bedded in brake dust to remove, so suggestions welcome for that!

It was just Nick and I onsite on Sunday, so I first spent some time on the Plate, signwriting the wheelbase which Dave had kindly chalked for me. Nick used the time to talk Rothley’s BEV back to the shed.

I also took a look at the air outlet on the Hydrovane. After the needle guns had become full of condensation, I have put a water trap between the outlet and the hose connection to better control this.

Thanks for reading. We’ll have the Test Car open on both Saturday and Sunday next week, so do pop down and see us if you are visiting!

Hello everyone, welcome to another QWW update. This week, we’ve continued work on the LNER Plate wagon, E212315.

The paint on the Plate is quite cracked and crazed, which means we’re having to strip it back to bare metal before we repaint it. To that end, Nick and I decided that we should make a start looking at the air equipment and making sure it was all working, including 3 needle guns.

We’d managed to get the generator in the Test Car going to use the coach’s compressor, but the engine didn’t really sound too happy, though it started and ran the compressor. Two out of the three needle guns we’ve got worked so we made a start on the east side of the wagon, you know, just to test them. By the end of the day, we’d completed three quarters of the west side doors.

Sunday saw more of the gang here, Nick and I were joined by Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver. Sunday was a trying day on the equipment front. The genset in the Test Car would not start, so we had to try the Hydrovane. The battery I put on it ended up being flat, so we got the charger/jump pack out which promptly decided it would let some of its magic smoke escape.

Thankfully, we found another battery and the Hydrovane sprang into life after around a 3 year slumber. It did spring an air leak later in the day, but this was patched with a piece of rubber and some jubilee clips as a temporary repair.

Finally, we got back to needle gunning the wagon. We concentrated on the West side today due to the very much reduced train movements while the bridge job is still underway. Everyone got both doors stripped down, plus 3/4 of the west side solebar, and then moved around to the head stock and the final 2 panels Nick and I left yesterday.

In anticipation of a couple of pending arrivals, I made sure the pressure washer is still functioning after its winter in the shed, which thankfully it did. All being well, we just have 2 TTAs arrived next week that need a wash!

That about covers this week, join next week to see if we’ve been cleaned some new tank wagons, or continued with the Plate! Thanks for reading.