Author: Dave Bower

Hello and welcome to a damp and chilly weekend of progress at Quorn. We dismantle a very corroded vacuum brake cylinder to provide parts to save other cylinders; and make a start with the signwriting on tank 3621.

During the week I spent a day at Rothley helping the C&W team with some finishing touches to TSO E4982 which was needed for Santa Special duties over the weekend.

The weather was not kind to us on Saturday, so Harry, Charlie and myself worked in the dry overhauling vacuum brake release valves to put into stock.

Ross made a start removing the studs from the very corroded vacuum cylinder; some of which were very stubborn and needed a bit of heat to release.

Once the studs were removed the trunion sections were cut around the edges and will be cleaned up and stored as spares.

The next step was to cut off the cylinder dome, cutting from the inside using the lower edge of the dome as a guide.

Centurion ‘Loades’ demonstrating what could be an alternative use for vacuum cylinder parts !

As the day brightened up Ross cleaned up the edges of dome before this was also put into store.

The steps that we use to access the Mess Coach have suffered somewhat with rot and need some urgent repairs; in the meantime we moved the steps normally used for visitor access to Test Car 2 into place next to the mess coach.

Sunday saw more of the team on-site and despite the cold start good progress was made with the tanks.

Mark, Tom and Oliver cleaning and drying out the chassis end pockets on 3854 ready for paint; and Dan finishing off the Overhead Warning sign on 3606.

Ross took a look at the re-wiring of the big welder, however on powering-up it became clear that we need a bigger generator to provide it with enough power to work.
The piston was removed from the Lowfits’ 18″ vacuum cylinder that was started last week and found to be in good order; the marking on the piston confirming that it was last attended to by the Mid Hants Railway in 2008.

With a little help from Nick aligning the template, I marked out and painted the speed rating stars on both sides of tank 3621.

Using a bit of spare 3/16″ plate, Ernie flame cut a circle big enough to use as a patch repair for the dome of the 18″ vacuum brake cylinder. Once cut, the plate was placed on an old steel car wheel, heated and given a few blows with a hammer to create a dish shape.

Nick cleaned up the top of the cylinder and the patch laid in place; Ernie and Ross then made a start welding using the smaller welder.

Dan picked out the Empty-Load changeover valve lettering on both 3606 and 3621; whilst I added the Commuted Charge Star and logo square to both sides of 3621.

Oliver, Tom and Mark did some gutter clearing on the Mess Coach and also Test Car 2. They also applied some red-oxide to the cleaned out chassis pockets on 3854.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to this weeks news from the team at Quorn; one wagon has departed to pasture new, and we welcome a new arrival.

Grampus DB984713 has departed, heading to a new home at the Northampton Ironstone Railway Trust.

Esso tank 3689 built by Hurst Nelson in 1959 has arrived from Shillingstone; it’s currently sporting a fictitious number (6069), however we plan to restore it to its original Esso Petroleum Company condition.

This tank had been used by British Rail (numbered DB999083) at Bournemouth EMU depot as a waste oil tanker before it was saved for preservation at the Swanage Railway; moving to Shillingstone in 2010.

Initial inspection confirms that tank is in good order, the handbrake works well and the buffers / drawgear are serviceable. It however seems to have a little issue with its identity, and when it comes to the vacuum brakes we are faced with some challenges.

The current plan is to complete the restoration work on tanks 3606, 3621 and 3854 before we start in earnest on the new arrival.

Concentrating on 3606 on Saturday, the stars were marked out and painted on both sides of the barrel.

The Commuted Carriage Charge markings on both sides of 3606 were then applied.

Followed by the Tare and Wheelbase solebar lettering.

The new ladders that have been made for us by Lauda Fabrications were collected.

Two welding plants have been kindly loaded to us by Roger Hibbert; these will be commissioned and no doubt help greatly with future repairs work.

On Sunday the signwriting continued on 3606, with the east side wheelbase text and the west side builders plate being completed. The vacuum release designation stars were also applied to both sides.

The last of the repaired spark guards for 3854 had its mounting holes drilled and was painted in red oxide.

The new ladders were fitted to both sides of 3606, and the original ladder from 3621, that had been loaned to Lauda as a template, was also re-fitted.
A little adjustment was required to 3606’s bracket holes to accept the lower bolts.

The ladders for 3606 had been painted by Lauda, however the one re-fitted to 3621 needed a coat of black.

Looking ahead, a start was made on producing another set of Esso plate brackets that will be required for tank 3689. Plate was cut for 16 brackets and a few were heated an bent to a right angle.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week for more tank wagon news.

All the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to the news from another busy weekend at Quorn, as we progress a little further with the tank wagons.

Saturday started dry, with Nick, Ernie, Charlie, James and myself on-site.
Charlie helped me set out the Esso company lettering on the East side of 3606. Once we’d checked the position it was chalked up and traced.

Ernie and Charlie continued with the splasher repairs for tank 3854.

I made a start on the Esso Petroleum Company lettering before the rain brought proceedings to a halt for a while. The splasher repairs were however able to continue in the garage.

The rain cleared after lunch allowing the lettering to continue.

Nick and James also painted the swan necks, lamp brackets and lamp irons.

On Sunday (after an extra hours’ sleep) we had many enthusiastic hands on site, with Nick, Harry, Ernie, Mark, Dan, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and myself.

Despite the weather turning cooler and with occasional showers we still managed to make good progress.

Mark, Oliver and Tom getting stuck into more paint removal from tank 3854.

Ernie and Charlie continued with the splasher repairs.

Dan applied the empty-load lever position teardrop to both sides of 3606 and made a start on the west side builders plate; whilst Nick took a look at the two label clip blocks for tank 3621, having to modify standard hardwood blocks to suit the mounting holes on the tank.

I finished off the east side Esso Petroleum Company lettering, then marked out, undercoated and yellowed the Commuted Carriage Charge markings on both sides of 3606.

Last week Ernie designed, cut and welded-up a little clamp bracket. All was revealed this week as he brought the assembled bracket to show how it will be used to clamp steel pins into his milling machine vice to allow flats to be machined on the pin heads. All in aid of producing a set of new pins for use by the S&T department.

At some point we’ll need another set of Esso oval plate brackets making; however after a tidy-up the drawing I had made previously has been put somewhere safe, very safe; so I decided to re-measure, cut, drill and bend a bracket to confirm the design before we go about making another set.

Well that rounds up another week for the team at Quorn, despite the weathers’ best efforts we do continue to progress. Join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to our news from the Autumn Steam Gala weekend. The weather has been kind enough to allow us to get the second coat of gloss black on both tank wagons 3606 and 3621. We’ve also progressed preparation work on tank 3854.

The Steam Gala weekend was a great opportunity to see some of our goods wagons in operation, with the mixed and the vans operating throughout the weekend.

On Saturday Nick, Ernie, Mark, Harry, Tom, Oliver and Dan made good progress with the needle guns cleaning up the underframe and the west side of the tank barrel on 3854.

Red oxide primer was applied to the cleaned up areas of the underframe.

On Sunday whilst myself and Ross prepared the paint and spraying equipment Charlie and Ernie continued with their work repairing the spark guards for tank 3854.

Nick spent the day continuing with the needle gun cleaning up the East side underframe of tank 3854.

The tank barrel of 3606 was sprayed first.

Then the barrel of 3621, followed by the soldbars of both wagons.

The next stage for both 3606 and 3621 is touching up and painting the details such as axlebox covers and brake swan necks, followed by the signwriting of the Esso lettering on the barrels and solebar information.

Join us next week to see how we get on; all the best, Dave

Hi all, welcome to a Railways at Work weekend update. Whilst some of the team supported the event, the rest continued with work on two of the tank wagons; and at Rothley the C&W department team have progressed repairs to the Lowfit and also the Steel High.

At Rothley the repair work on the wagon end sections of Steel High B724570 was well advanced. Thanks again to Jamie, Pat, Kyle, Rob, Noah and Steve.

Also the C&W team had welded new metal into the dragbox of the Lowfit B452718, (thanks to Pat for the photos)

On Friday preparations for the Railways at Work weekend involved getting the barrels and Brute Trolleys out of the van train at Quorn.

Over the weekend Mark, Tom, Ernie and Oliver continued to progress cleaning down and applying red-oxide primer to tank 3621.

Oliver had a birthday celebration; and of course there was cake involved….

Tank 3606 also received attention with some primer and undercoat applied to underframe areas.

The Railways at work is always an enjoyable weekend; here’s a selection of our pics.

and the Railways at Work team.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to another bumper update from the team at Quorn. We have a new arrival, 22T capacity Esso petroleum tank 3854, built by the Cambrian Wagon & Engineering Company in 1958. The tank arrived on the 22 July from Llangollen, whilst Grampus wagon DB985884 departed on the same day being transferred up to the GCR(N) at Ruddington on loan.

Tank 3854 joins the others of this design we have in the fleet, with six of this type now at the GCR. The plan is to restore this along with 3606 and 3621 to match the three already completed 3436, 3711 and 3777.

On the 24 July our friends at Lauda Fabrications made a start welding the tank barrel of 3606 onto the underframe, the north end seams on both sides were completed.

Lauda Fabrications also brought along the the supports that they had fabricated up for us using the drawings that Ross had produced. Ernie set to work trial fitting these around the wagon to sort out which of the 4 supports fitted best in which location. The mounting holes were then marked up ready for Lauda to drill out.

The 26th July was a busy day with a few tasks on the new tank 3854, including replacing a missing handbrake pin, fitting lamp irons, grinding off the odd tubes that had been welded to the side of the ladders, and giving the tank barrel and underframe a good pressure wash.

The painted up 3d printed Owners plates were fitted to tank 1919.

Work on tank 3621 continued with barrel, scraping, sanding and red oxide primer application where necessary on any areas of bare metal.

Some progress was made with the tank side logos and commuted charge signage on tank 1919.

The south end tank mounting was welded up on the 28th July and the drilled out supports returned from Lauda ready for painting and fitting. The step ladder mounting brackets that Ernie had made up were also welded into place.

Dan painted the air brake valves and pipe connectors on tank 1919; and also applied some gloss Bauxite to the planks on Brake Van B954268 that had been previously undercoated.

In the week after his wedding Ross was busy back at work looking after the Hydroflex train at the Greatest Gathering weekend in Derby.

The fabricated tank supports were primed and undercoated before having some black gloss applied to the undersides on the 2 August.

The ladder mounting brackets and barrel welds on tank 3606 were cleaned up and red oxide primer applied, and the tank barrel support pads got some black gloss.

Further work was done on the tank barrel logos on 1919 including the green on the BP logo on the east side getting a second coat, and the commuted charge signage completed.

Suitable bolts were chosen and the tank supports on 3606 were trial fitted one by one, ensuring alignment and packing where necessary to give even contact in each case with the tank barrel.

Once all were aligned then they were bolted down securely.

Sunday 3rd August I continued with the west side BP logo on tank 1919.

Some more sanding and cleaning up on tank 3621 was progressed.

Ernie ground off two extra pipes that had been welded to tank 3606, then cut out two blanking plates that will be welded to cover the resultant holes.

I marked out and applied the running number to the north end of tank 1919.

An inspection of the van train that was stabled in the Down siding at Quorn revealed a damaged roof felt letting in water on the Southern Brake Van S56010. A new piece of felt was cut, sealant applied and stapled in position across the affected area of the roof. This should keep it water tight until a full roof covering replacement can be affected.

That about wraps up over 2-weeks work for the team, I’ll leave you with pics of the four tank wagons, all progressed a little bit further.

Cheers of now, Dave

Hello and welcome to this weeks update from Quorn as tank 1919 gets its original 1966 as-built identity back.

The top coat of gloss had applied really well last week, therefore we were able to make a start with the lettering on 1919. Over the last few weeks the templates have been prepared and printed. These were carefully cut to size and assembled as necessary.

Working on the west side of 1919. the positions of the templates for the tank barrel and solebar lettering were marked onto the wagon, then templates chalked and attached in place.

The chalk was transferred to the wagon by tracing the lettering.

I then set to work painting the lettering, starting with the running number; thereby giving the wagon back its original 1966 identity of 1919.

Whilst I was busy with the signwriting, Ross and Nick removed one of the ladders from tank 3621 that will be used as a template to produce the two new ladders required for tank 3606.

Ernie cleaned up the ladder mounting brackets on 3606 in readiness for fitting the new ladders.

A stuck buffer on the Iron Ore Hopper wagon B439708 was attended to.

Mark, Tom, Oliver , Charlie, Dan and Daniel oiled and tested the operating wheels and brakes on the Dogfish and Herring engineers wagons.

After a short break out of the sunshine, they continued, oiling and testing the handbrakes on the mixed freight and van train.

I continued with the tank side lettering, using our gazebo for a bit of shelter from the sun.

Whilst Dan applied some white undercoat to the axlebox covers.

The solebar lettering for Wheelbase, Load and Tare weights were next.

On the east side of the wagon Dan, Ernie and myself marked out the positions for the two Shell/BP logos. The templates were positioned and the outlines chalked onto the wagon, then tape applied to the outline.

The logo areas were keyed with a scotch bright pad then undercoat applied; light grey to the left hand box and white to the right one.

The axlebox covers were given a coat of yellow by Ernie whilst I picked out the west side builders plate and foot valve instruction plate.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week for the GCRs Rail200 event where we’ll have the Test Car open to visitors on the Saturday 5th July.

All the best, Dave