Author: Dave Bower

  • 11/10/26 – Shock Completion

    11/10/26 – Shock Completion

    This week the team at Quorn have finished the restoration of the Shoc-High and made a start on the LNER Tube wagon.

    Saturday started with Charlie finishing off lining the builders plate on the Shoc-High, and the East side paint symbol, whilst I applied the last of the bodyside stripes; quick drying undercoat first followed by gloss white.

    Nick and Thomas adjusted the brakes on the Shoc-High, where necessary removing and cleaning up linkage pins to ensure smooth and even operation; all parts of the linkage were then oiled-up.

    Charlie started up the vacuum brake rig, and with Ross’s help the brakes were successfully tested.

    Ross and Charlie then did a small maintenance job on the Volvo, adjusting the drive belts; I joined Ross to swap the distributor back to the original one on Test Car 2 which is part of the fault chasing challenge we have with the air brake system.

    Nick and Thomas progressed the sticker removal from tank 1802.

    The tank barrel end plate which had been removed previously was straightened and the number stickers removed.

    Ross and myself fitted the last six bodyside/end bolts to the Shoc-High, then painted them with Bauxite.

    Ross, Charlie and myself then got stuck into the very rotten floor removal from the LNER Tube E301588. The floor planks in these wagons are held in place by solebar top metal strip plates; the bolts attaching these were badly corroded so all had to be cut and punched out.

    By the end of Saturday afternoon the whole floor had been removed; some of this will no doubt go to help with the Bonfire on the 5th Nov; however a considerable amount fell into pieces and was just swept into a pile.

    On Sunday Ross and myself varnished the body of the Shoc-High wagon, protecting the solebar ends, then starting with the door edges, completing the bodysides then the ends.

    Charlie and myself cleared out the south end toilet in the mess coach with a view to using the sink for hand washing. A plywood shelf was cut and installed over the top of the toilet as this will not be used. At some point we will complete the plumbing from the coach’s main water tank.

    Ernie continued with his machining and assembly of the door locking bar parts for the Palshoc van.

    Nick, Mark, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and Thomas made their way down the yard to the van train to replace the rotten doors on 12T Van B763305 with those we’d prepared a few of weeks ago. The old doors were removed, some of the bolts needing a little help from the grinder.

    The door furniture parts were cleaned up then given a coat of primer.

    The new doors were trial fitted and measurements taken for fitting the door furniture.

    The door top noggin had to be adjusted slightly, and with the doors removed the apertures were routed and chiselled out to accept the door furniture parts.

    The first new door was then fitted, drilling the hinge bolt holes and bolting up.

    With the second door hung, we fitted the door locking bar so the van could be secured. The final door diagonal timbers, bolts, door furniture and door holdback catches will be a job for next weekend.

    Charlie and myself attended to a vacuum pipe clamp bolt replacement on the south end of the Shoc-High. The swan-neck is now secure.

    After our final inspection of the Shoc-High wagon we are happy to report that the restoration is essentially complete, with only a couple of missing split pins to be attended to before the wagon is released to the Carriage & Wagon department for operational acceptance inspection. We look forward to seeing the wagon in operation once it makes its way back into the mixed goods rake.

    Join us again next week, all the best, Dave

  • 27/09/26 – More Bauxite

    27/09/26 – More Bauxite

    Hello and welcome to two-weeks news from the team at Quorn. We’ve made good progress with the Shoc-high B724570, and finished off the Bauxite application to the tool van 854097.

    Last weekend the striped ends of the tool van were sanded, cleaned down and undercoated; once this was dry the gloss Bauxite was applied to these areas.

    The final door frame parts were cut for the new 12T van doors for B763305. The doors were then assembled, primed and undercoated.

    The exposed metal frame on the Palshoc was prepared and then red-oxide primed.

    Charlie looked at making a towbar for the generator, Ernie carried on with the fabrication of parts for the Palshoc door bars, and maybe we shouldn’t ask what mischievousness Hector got up to in the yard!

    During the week Tank 3689 was shunted out of the workshop at Rothley (where it had been on display during the beer festival), and coupled with the other six Esso tanks; all 7 together for the first time.

    This weekend we have continued with the gloss Bauxite application to the inner ends and door areas of the Shoc-high.

    The outer ends were marked out for the shoc stripes, which were then taped.

    Undercoat was applied which dried really quickly.

    Followed by some white gloss.

    A few areas of the inner headstock had some black applied.

    Some replacement floor planks were prepared.

    Part of the Shoc-high floor was taken up to even up the plank spacing and remove one rotten board. The replacement planks were then fitted.

    A couple of repairs were done to two donated lamps.

    A vehicle cover sheet that was previously used at Rothley had become available as it had some damaged areas so not longer fit for use on a coach. It was laid out in the yard and an assessment found that the undamaged part was enough to allow five van roof sheets to be cut from it. These were stored away safely for future use.

    Thanks for reading, join us again next week as we progress the Shoc-high wagon nearer to completion.

  • 13/09/26 – Before and After

    13/09/26 – Before and After

    Hi, this week the team at Quorn have again been busy working on many wagons; the restoration of our 7th 35T Esso tank is completed, we progress with the Shoc-High, the Tool Van, and start making some replacement van doors.

    Saturday and continuing with the work started last week on the Tool Van, Mark and Oliver got the Bauxite gloss paint out and completed all four sides of the van.

    This gives us our first before and after picture in this update.

    Tom, Ernie and Charlie took a look at the section of corroded plate-work on the Shock-High B724570, marking out and cutting the section out. A new piece of plate was then cut to suit, the mounting holes drilled and it was checked for fit.

    The plate was then trimmed as necessary for a good fit, the back red-oxide painted and bolted up; Charlie then welded the plate in-place.

    Ross and myself measured up the East side doors that need replacing on 12T Van B763305, these are the original planked doors that have seen better days. Our plan is to replace them with our tried and tested design of plywood doors, routed to represent the planked originals. Two sheets of ply were cut to size, moving our work inside the Palshoc van that was conveniently nearby to shelter out of the intermittent rain showers.

    Ross did some fitting checks with the latest version of his prototype profile measuring device, looking again on at the Salmon, Sturgeon and Lowmac wagons.

    Having made a decision to tidy up the area near the tool van we needed the use of the Volvo loader, however this failed to fire into life so needed a bit of investigation; there is an electrical gremlin somewhere and the batteries need a good charge.

    Sunday, and after grinding back the welds on the Shoc-High plate-work, a little more weld was needed to a small area. The plate was then ground neat and red-oxide applied. After this had dried, Nick applied a coat of Bauxite to the new plate and also round the East side door frame.

    This gives us our second before and after.

    Having charged the Volvo batteries overnight we managed to get the loader started and the tidying up completed, including our spare wagon wheelsets being safely stored in the Steel-High wagon that is coupled to Test Car 2.

    Charlie took a look at a loose connection with Hector’s hooter, and fixed it.

    Ross and myself took the final two Esso barrel plates that had been varnished a couple of weeks ago down to Rothley where we found tank 3689 in the yard.

    The plates were fitted to both sides of the tank; just needing a small amount of fettling to a couple of the brackets to get the bolts to line-up.

    The tank will be proudly on display at Rothley during next week’s GCR Beer, Cider & Gin Festival.

    This work completes the restoration of Esso 35T tank 3689 that arrived from Shillingstone in October 2025, and gives us our third before and after picture.

    Returning to Quorn, Ross and myself cut the backing pieces for the 12T van doors, and routed the plank representation into the two van door sheets.

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

  • 31/08/26 – Long Services

    31/08/26 – Long Services

    Hello and welcome to an August Bank Holiday weekend update from Quorn as we make progress despite the showers. We’ve also had a couple of celebrations; Ernie and Ross received their GCR Long Service Awards from Malcolm Holmes during the very enjoyable Summer Party evening at Ruddington; Ernie achieving 50 years, and Ross 16 years.
    Oliver shared his belated 17th Birthday cake for earlier in the month.

    Nick had dug out an 18″ vac cylinder that had been stored for many years. It needed quite a bit of crowbar persuasion to extract the piston rod, split off the dome and get the piston out. Inside it was clear that it had seen some water ingress over the years.

    Charlie jet washed the cylinder dome whilst Ross, Nick and myself extracted the piston rod gland, which needed a little heat to un-seize the nuts and studs.

    Ernie made a start drawing up and machining some of the door furniture parts that are needed to repair / replace items for Palshoc van B855568.

    I finished off the signwriting on the last of the four Esso barrel plates for tanks 3854 and 3689.

    Ross varnished two of the Esso plates, making use of the space in the kitchen area on Test Car 2.

    Mark, Tom, Oliver, Dan and myself continued work on Shoc-High B724570, completing the needle gunning of the north body end, then starting on the underframe.

    In between the showers work continued on the underframe, the bare metal areas were dried off and some Red Oxide was applied.

    On Sunday Nick, Ross, Charlie and myself took the two Esso plates that had been varnished down to Swithland sidings and fitted them to tank 3854. A touch of blue was applied to the bolt heads.

    This now completes the restoration of tank 3854, here’s the before and after (August 2025 and August 2026).

    Back at Quorn we continued with stud removal, brass bush removal, hole tapping and cleaning up of the vac cylinder. Unusually the brass bush had a thin rubber gasket fitted to its underside which we’ve not encountered before on other cylinders.

    I applied a coat of varnish to the last two Esso plates in readiness for fitting to tank 3689 at some point.

    Ross and I took a look at the Lobo Scaffolding to assess what parts we have. We also swapped two of the feet units and assembled the structure which confirms now what additional parts we need to complete two towers.

    Ross sanded the north end of Shock-High B724570 and Nick applied some red oxide primer to the cleaned up metal areas.

    Bank Holiday Monday, and Ernie started cutting down the locking bars for the Palshoc door. Whilst Ross removed the door furniture from the door panels, and measured up for new bearings on the door runners and the wooden panels.

    We’d left the vac cylinder piston rod nut retaining plate in a penetrating oil soak overnight; despite this the plate took some removing with one of the bolts giving up, so this will need drilling out and re-tapping at some point. Nick then continued cleaning up the piston.

    Mark, Tom, Dan, Oliver and Charlie continued on the Shoc-High with needle gunning, priming the underframe.

    They then carried on undercoating the east side body and both ends.

    Nick and Oliver put some primer on the west side wood .

    All-in-all a very enjoyable and productive weekend. Join us again next week for the Diesel Gala, all the best, Dave

  • 09/08/2026 – More Sides

    09/08/2026 – More Sides

    Hello and welcome to this weeks news from Quorn as we continue with box van side panel replacements on B854782 and B777171.

    Firstly we should welcome Carl who came along on Saturday to see us with a view to volunteering in the future, hope you enjoyed your day.

    Saturday started with Nick and Carl clearing the stored boxes from inside the East side North end of B854782 to allow the rotten panel to be removed. Once the panel was out, the metalwork was cleaned up and a new ply sheet cut to size.

    The sheet was trial fitted and marked for the framework rivet cut-outs which were drilled. The panel was then primer painted by Carl.

    Ernie helped me with a couple of jobs on parts from my ever cantankerous old Triumph which needed fettling; the oil sum pan was straightened, and a new jacking support plate made & welded into place under the front crossmember.

    Ross is developing his own design of Tyre Profile Measurement device; which has progressed to the first stage of manufacturing and trial fitting of the magnetic frame for attaching to a wheelset.

    Ernie applied some undercoat to the west side van door that was made and fitted last week on B854782.

    Nick, Charlie, Carl myself fitted the side panel into B854782, and Charlie fitted the door hold-back catch. I then painted the panel with undercoat.

    In other news, we all admired a very smart 1961 Morris Minor visiting the yard at Quorn; Ross rode a rather old bicycle, and Charlie took a selfie.

    On Sunday we moved down the yard to B777171 which was stabled next to the buffer stops. Both panels on the west side south end were to be replaced; the first job for Ernie, Ross, Mark and myself being to remove the old bolts; half of which came undone, however the other half needed the help of a grinder, hammer and chisel.

    Two new sheets of ply were cut to size by Ross, Charlie and myself, and primer painted by Eireni & Ross.

    Nick and Mark cleaned up the exposed metal framework on B777171, then applied some red-oxide primer.

    Once dry the panels were lifted into the van and sealant applied to the frame. Working inside what was becoming a very warm van in the afternoon sun, Nick carefully located the panels into place, then Ross & I drilled the holes and bolted the panels in.

    Any excess sealant was scraped away and the door furniture was then fitted by Charlie & Nick.

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

  • 26/07/26 – Almost there

    26/07/26 – Almost there

    Hello and welcome to this weeks news from the team at Quorn, as work continues on Tanks 3854 & 3689.

    Ernie & Nick also fettled, cleaned up and painted some more lamps.

    I finished off the signwriting on tank 3689, completing the barrel end & East side numbers.

    The commuted charge logos and the East side solebar letteing.

    Charlie went round both tanks with some black doing any touching-up required. He then did a spot of vehicle washing.

    Nick, Charlie, Mark, Tom and Oliver continued with assessment of the repairs required to the van train. Identifying the most urgent ones to attend to.

    With the yard full of some very presentable Ford RS cars on Sunday, access was limited; however Van B786181 that was in the goods dock was accessible, and subsequently some of its bulk load removed to allow us to get to the bodyside panel bolts.

    In preparation for the panel replacement planned for next week most of the panel bolts were removed.

    Oliver measured, and with some help from Mark, Charlie and Tom cut some play to affect a Tool Van access step repair.

    Nick replaced some of the vacuum hose clips on tank 3689.

    Using the space in Test Car 2, I made some progress with the Esso barrel plate signwriting; completing the blue on the plate I had previously applied the Esso letters. This plate was then put aside to dry ready for varnishing.

    I then added the Esso lettering to a second plate.

    And then a 3rd plate.

    Apart from the Esso barrel plates the two tanks are now finished.

    Thanks for the kind comments received a couple of weeks ago when my old Triumph Stag had a few problems; you’ll be pleased to know after some fettling and new ignition system parts, it’s back up and running.

    All the best, Dave

  • 12/07/26 – A Pipe & A Plate

    12/07/26 – A Pipe & A Plate

    Hello and welcome to a warm week’s update from Quorn; the Palshoc has its vac pipe fitted, we’ve had the Test Car open to visitors and progressed some more signwriting.

    During the week Nick and Oliver worked with the C&W team at Rothley to get the vacuum brake pipe made up and fitted to Palshoc van B855568. Once completed a vacuum brake and leakage test was satisfactorily carried out.

    As part of the ‘Mind the Gap’ open weekend at the GCR we had Test Car 2 open to visitors at Quorn.

    We had a visit from Mark Meyts, who was instrumental in originally saving tank 3689 for preservation many years ago; he also helped promote the transfer of the wagon from Shillingstone securing its future with us last year. Thanks you Mark!

    I got the Commuted Charge symbols painted on both sides of tank 3854.

    With the temperatures high over the weekend Ernie and Nick resorted to light duties repairing, fettling and painting some more lamps.

    On Sunday with the Test Car relatively quiet, I set up one of the Esso barrel plates in the test area of the coach ready for signwriting. The template was chalked and fitted, then traced; followed by application of the red Esso letters.

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

  • 28/06/26 – Tanks and a BBQ

    28/06/26 – Tanks and a BBQ

    Hello and a very warm welcome from the team at Quorn as we make a little more progress with the tanks.

    Saturday we had good intentions, however after I failed to make it to site in the Stag (even with the help of Nick & Charlie), due to some rather warm electrical gremlins; and the oppressive heat at Quorn making things very uncomfortable for the rest of the team, for safety we took a break until Sunday when things had cooled down a bit.

    On Sunday, Ernie sorted out fitting new vacuum release chords on both tanks 3854 and 3689.

    Mark and Tom did some black touching up on the wheels and underframes of both tanks.

    I fitted the Esso company text template to the West side of tank 3689, then traced on the chalk.

    Nick and Ernie used some of the offcuts of wood from the Lowfit wagon floor we recently fitted to make a batch of wagon label clip blocks, three of which were required to complete tanks 3854 and 3689.

    We must give a shout of thanks to Mark for another excellent BBQ, helped by chefs Charlie, Oliver and Tom !

    Nick and Oliver fitted the new label clip blocks and recovered label clips, one on 3854 and two onto tank 3689.

    I completed the signwriting of the Esso Petroleum Company Limited barrel text on 3689.

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

    p.s. yes I did manage to limp the Stag back home by mid Saturday afternoon, thanks to a very patient and helpful RAC man. It’s now sulking in the garage……

  • 14/06/26 – Tanks Identified

    14/06/26 – Tanks Identified

    Hello and welcome to the news from Quorn; this week we have given the two tanks their identities back; with Test Car 2’s generator and Danny receiving some TLC.

    Saturday started with Ross and Ernie drilling out the mounting holes in the two newly manufactured replacement spark guards for tank 3689. One guard also needed a small cut-out which Ernie applied.

    The spark guards that were painted up previously were fitted by Nick and Ross, and the bolts painted.

    Whilst the spark guards were being fitted Ross noticed one of the brake hanger brackets on tank 3689 had a bolt missing, so this was duly fitted. Ross also fitted new vacuum pipes on tank 3854.

    I made a start on the signwriting on tank 3854, with Ross’s help to position the template in place (which was a bit challenging in the gusty wind), I then completed the Esso company lettering on the west side of the tank barrel.

    Ross took a look at Test Car 2’s generator, replacing the top cover gasket on the fuel pump which was leaking quite badly. He then did some investigation of a small coolant leak which was found to be emanating from the middle of the radiator. For now we plan to try some K-Seal to minimise the leak although eventually the radiator may need to be replaced. Whilst we had the generator room doors open we were able to see that two of the six engine mounts have failed, so these will need to be replaced.

    On Sunday Ross and Charlie concentrated on servicing Danny; the engine was warmed up, the oil was then drained from the engine, gearbox and differential. The fuel filter and fuel pump were also removed.

    The front wheels were removed to check, clean and adjust the brakes. Whilst the brakes work the pads are low, and it’s clear that the brake system will need a complete overhaul at some point. Ross also attended to the fuel pump, fitting new bellows. Oils were re-filled and Danny was road tested (in the yard).

    Nick gave the new spark guards a coat of red-oxide primer, which dried quickly allowing him to apply some black gloss. Nick then fitted the 3d printed previously painted owners plates to both 3854 and 3689, & the builders plates to 3689.

    I applied the running number to the west side of tank 3854.

    Then the running number of tank 3689.

    Followed by the Commuted Charge logo box and star, undercoat then the first coat of yellow on both sides of both tanks. The lettering of the registration plate that remains on one side of tank 3854 was picked out.

    That concludes our work this week, I’ll leave you with a couple of pics of the tanks; join us again soon as we progress nearer to releasing these two to traffic. All the best, Dave

  • 25/05/26 – Two Grey Tanks

    25/05/26 – Two Grey Tanks

    Hello and welcome to a glorious bank holiday weekend update from Quorn. Two wagon restorations are finished and two tanks go grey.

    Saturday started with Dan finishing off signwriting the two builders plates on the Lowfit B452718, whilst Mark, Oliver, Tom and Nick applied a coat of varnish to the body of the Lowfit and also the Conflat B507489.

    Ernie and myself got the Esso Plate jig out and fitted the brackets for the east side of 3689 to the jig, which was then offered up to the tank barrel, checking the bracket positions before grinding each of them up as required.

    With the jig in place again each bracket was tack welded; the jig was then un-bolted and each bracket fully welded in place; Charlie and myself also having a go at the welding. Once cooled Oliver applied some red-oxide to the new brackets.

    Charlie did a bit of work on Edward’s frame and bodywork, however some further work is required to get him operational again to reliably provide a source of compressed air.

    The Test Car’s generator was run-up to warm it through, the throttle linkage was adjusted to get the generator running speed correct to give 50Hz output; then in accordance with the workshop manual the cylinder head nuts were re-torqued up whilst the engine was warm. This involved removing the rocker cover, rocker-shaft, injectors and various fuel pipes from the top of what was quite a hot engine.

    We decided to leave the re-assembly of the generator until it had cooled, so Sunday morning Ross and myself re-fitted the injectors, rocker shaft and fuel pipework, then re-checked the tappets, with only one needing very slight adjustment. The rocker cover was then re-fitted with a new gasket, new rubber top-nut seals and a smear of sealant.

    The fuel system was bled and it started up first time, and the Test Car’s compressor run up to check operation, and the air used to blow-down the two tank wagons 3854 and 3689.

    Having now got a reliable source of compressed air, the main focus for Sunday (on one of the hottest days of the year so far) was for Ross and myself to get ourselves wrapped up in protective overalls, masks, gloves etc and break out the paint spraying equipment. Some grey primer/undercoat was thinned, mixed and checked for consistency.

    After Nick had removed a few spiders webs and bird droppings, we then set about spraying the two Esso tanks 3854 and 3689, starting with the north ends and east side of both wagons.

    More paint was mixed as required and we moved round to the west side.

    Nick and Ernie followed behind us with brushed to attend to parts that we couldn’t easily reach with the spray-gun.

    By the end of a very warm day we had both the tanks looking very grey. The spray equipment was given a good clean out so it will be ready for when we need it to apply the black gloss top-coats.

    On Monday, Nick, Charlie and Ross brake tested the Conflat and Lowfit together using the little test rig before the mercury started to climb. Both passed with minor issues, one needing a brake adjust and the other requires a bit of lubrication.

    With the brake test complete, Nick got the undercoat back out and touched in more areas that myself and Ross couldn’t get to or missed.

    With the weather being so hot, not a lot else could be achieved with most of the team retiring to the shade for most of the afternoon. Next week, we shall hopefully be getting the gloss out and getting the two tanks into their black top coat. Join us then and see how we get on!