Category: Updates

Hi, Seasons Greetings and a warm welcome to our BETWIXTMAS update from the Team at Quorn as we continue with work at Rothley.

After buffer shank cleaning, oiling up and final inspection, tank 3606 departed Quorn on the 22 December to join the rest of the tank train at Swithland.

Tanks 3621, 3854 and 3689 were also shunted into the dock at Quorn ready for when we return to work there in the New Year.

At Rothley work continued on B777728, with Charlie and Nick fitting the repair sections to the roof edges, and the roof sheet was slid into position.

Saturday 27th, Mark, Dan, Tom and Oliver got to work with the east body side, which was scraped and sanded and a few patch filler repairs completed. The metalwork was then given a coat of primer.

The body ends were scraped and wire brushed, then primed.

Meanwhile myself and Ross cleaned up and primed the roof hoops.

The team took a break for a ride on a Betwixtmas service train to enjoy a fabulous Griddle Car breakfast.

Back to work, Charlie and James made a start disconnecting the vacuum cylinder on Palshoc Van B855568. The brake rigging was also disconnected on the west side in preparation for cylinder removal.

Ross and myself trial fitted the roof end hoops, then removed them to apply sealant before bolting them into place and the sealant edges were wiped to give a neat finish.

The roof sheet ends were then trimmed neatly.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan applied undercoat to the east side of B777728.

Ross and myself then helped with the vacuum cylinder removal from the Palshoc. Some stubborn brake rigging needed a little hammer persuasion, and the inner trunion needed a little heat to free it off.

Sunday, Tom and Oliver applied gloss Bauxite to the east body side and both ends of B777728.

Ross and myself stripped the damaged studs from the Palshoc’s vacuum cylinder and removed the piston rod nut to allow easy cleaning out of the threads; whilst Nick cleaned up the piston rod.

Ross and myself then trial fitted the two new door top noggins to B777728, this enabled us to mark-out a couple of slight modifications needed to allow the noggins to clear some bodyside frame bolts. A router was used to carefully cut recesses to clear the bolts and also for the door lock bar / retaining plate.

Once the noggins were routed out we were able to mark-out and drill the eight locating bolt holes.

Tom and Oliver cleaned up the flaking surface of the solebars on B777728 which had previously been painted with bitumen paint. Unfortunately we are are finding that after a few years, the bitumen paint that we used on a few wagons is not lasting very well. We’ve since reverted to using Black Gloss, of which a coat was applied to the west side and both ends.

The noggins and retaining plates were given a final trial fit before removing to allow painting. Nick also cleaned up the trunion mounting plate for the Palshoc.

That wraps up our Christmas week working at Rothley; join us next for a look back over the last 12 months as we head towards 2026.

Best wishes for your New Year celebrations, and a reminder that you can see in the New Year on-board the GCR’s Nightrider train, more details here – “Nightrider”
cheers, Dave.

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for the last update before Christmas. We’ve wrapped up our last bit of work at Quorn while we move to Rothley over the Christmas period to work on B777728, which was withdrawn earlier in the year with a roof that was trying to break free.

Our weekend starts this time on Friday after B777728 was placed into the shed to start its drying out process. Nick and Charlie stripped the roof hoops and roof sheet, then removed the previous roof edge repairs.

On Saturday the team were back at Quorn, first task for Nick, James and I was to vacuum test 3606 to prepare it for release on Monday. We’ll have to sort out getting the Esso plates fitted at a later date, but we can do this from two ladders. Only three missing split pins were found on the inspection, which were all rectified.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan carried on with needle gunning the Lowfit, getting the west side and the headstock back to bare metal and then splashing the primer around.

Charlie, Harry, and James though also joined by Oliver and Dan carried on the ground works on the ramp up to the dock which got tested with both Danny and Hector.

Ernie carried on with the welding of the cylinder dome, in the cycle of finding then repairing leaks in the weld, though thankfully this time all the leak have now been rectified. This dome can now be painted inside and out, and put back into use. Ernie also welded the one corner of the side of the Lowfit, both ends of which have cracked the lower weld.

Today, Nick, Charlie, Ernie and I went to Rothley to remove the door ‘noggins’ and start to measure and cut the new roof edges. Charlie prepared the metal frame of the van, which Ernie duly primed.

Charlie and I undid the door top frames and removed them from the van, then measured up for the new roof edges.

After we got the pieces cut and before leaving, Charlie painted the framework where we had been working to get it ready to fit the repair pieces.

That’s where we wrap up today, all that left for me to do is to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We hope you have a restful and happy holiday. Join us again next week, where we’ll have a bit of midweek working to report on, as well as the activities of the weekend.

Hello and welcome; this week we have been busy with the Tanks, the Lowfit, and a vacuum cylinder, in between celebrating and some festive feasting.
Nick is recovering (on light duties) this week after an operation; however it didn’t stop him celebrating his Birthday with Cuthbert the Caterpillar.

Saturday, James and myself used paint removal discs to clean off the white paint from the tyres of tank 3854. A coat of black was then applied.

Charlie & Ernie meanwhile made a start making a blanking plate for the repaired 21″ vacuum cylinder so that we could pressure test the cylinder repairs. The plate was cut, the edges ground up, mounting holes marked and drilled out. A centre hole was also drilled ready for the pressure fitting.

The cylinder studs were run down with a die-nut to clean the threads and a boss was welded to the plate to take the pressure fitting.

Once the sun had raised the temperature a bit, I was able to start applying the running numbers to tank 3621.

James applied a coat of black to the Owners plates for tanks 3606 and 3621.

On Sunday, Ernie, Charlie and Ross fitted the air test gauge and pipe to the blanking plate, then the plate was bolted to the vacuum dome using an old rubber cylinder seal in the joint.

The air supply from Edward was coupled via a valve; then raising the pressure slowly to around 20psi and using some washing up liquid solution, we were able to see a couple of pin-hole leaks in the weld repair around the top of the dome. These were ground back and re-welded.

Mark, Tom, Harry and Oliver continued with the Lowfit scraping and needle gunning work started last week.

I busied myself with some solebar lettering on tank 3621.

Sunday lunchtime, and our Chefs Mark & Tom treated us all to some festive Turkey & Duck baguettes, with trimmings of course.

Followed by crackers!

After a rather extended lunch-break, work continued with some red oxide being applied to the areas cleaned up on the Lowfit.

A coupe of final jobs were attended to on tank 3606, including securing the new brake rigging split pins, removing the operating link from the redundant vacuum cylinder and securing the cylinder to prevent rotation by making and fitting bracket between the cylinder and the underframe. Once the vacuum release chords are fitted, tank 3606 will be ready for handover to the C&W Department for final inspection before entering traffic.

Join us again next week, in the meantime I’ll leave you with pics of the Tanks and Lowfit; all the best, Dave

Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from us at Quorn. Its been another wet and windy one, so no signwriting for Dave, but plenty achieved otherwise! Before we get down to business, I should plug our Instagram page for those of you that are that way inclined, it’d be greatly appreciated if you followed us over there!

Having looked at the weather forecast, we decided (after speaking with the signalman) to hand shunt the Lowfit onto the middle road to start the repairs to its vacuum train pipe. You may remember that after renewing its vacuum cylinder, the subsequent test found that the train pipe was holed under the north end headstock.

With only three clamps securing the train pipe, quick order was made of releasing the bolts, either by spanner or hot spanner and then getting the pipe supported where it could be worked on.

Even though I said that there was no signwriting for Dave, he did manage to get the vacuum release star on the solebar of 3621, however decided after that to cease, owing to the fact the drizzle was washing the chalk marks away.

Back to the pipe then: the holed end was cut off and a new stub end found. This was clamped to the good metal in the train pipe, then Charlie and Ernie welded the joint together. Once the pipe had been welded, the pipe was scraped and wire brushed then it was moved into the back of Nick’s lorry to paint.

Ernie continued the welding on the vacuum cylinder removed from the Lowfit, heating the patch and knocking it down to close the gap, then welding round the seam. There is still some work to do on this and it has been moved inside the garage to give it an opportunity to dry!

Dave made a start on a different vacuum cylinder dome recovered from the fish van body. This was removed from one of the Esso tanks, maybe 3711. There was no chance of it holding vacuum, but with a new dome, there was a good chance it would go again. Dave cut most of the old dome off the cylinder, then he and I started grinding the weld to remove the final half inch left.

Tom removed the cast owners plates from 3854, which will be replaced with the 3D printed plates by Dave. After removing the plates, Tom then applied some primer to the bare metal.

In the back of the lorry, I pressure tested the repaired pipe using compressed air as any leaks from this are easier to find than with vacuum. Some small pinholes were found in the weld joint, so the pipe was removed for re-work.

Ernie ground out the defects and re-welded the pipe, after which it was pressure tested again with no leaks present. However a leak was found in the tee off for the vacuum cylinder, so that was ground out and re-welded. Nick coated both areas in red oxide primer.

Once we had got the dome sited in the cylinder, Ernie tacked it into position and got ready to weld the outer seam, which he then did.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan got started needle gunning the solebar and side panels of the Lowfit, making excellent progress.

The 3D printed plates also received a coat of primer and undercoat.

The pipe was re-fitted back to the Lowfit and the vacuum system tested. The cylinder worked perfectly, however the hoses put on for the test may have contributed to the leak off test failing. The wagon will be fully re-tested prior to release to traffic.

The Lowfit was shunted back and the opportunity taken for a skip trip in Danny after a general tidy up. Dave remains ever hopeful of the opportunity to do more signwriting on 3621, but in the meantime we’ve got plenty to do repairing vacuum cylinders and other odd jobs in between!

See you again next week! Cheers, Ross.

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 everyone, and welcome to the new look Quorn Wagon & Wagon website. As the website wasn’t ready last week, this update will cover two weeks of work. The website took a liittle more work than initially expected but we’re really happy with how it came out.

Last weekend, we removed the holed vacuum cylinder from 3689 and took a look at the brake rigging as the handbrake was difficult to operate and the brakes did not release cleanly. Charlie and Oliver took charge on the wagon, oiling and working the brakes. Eventually as with the other Esso tanks we split apart the system and found the sticky link. Usually with these its a bolted link right up in the top of the underframe that usually misses lubrication. We got the bolt undone (a surprise in itself!) and manage to get the link down to take it back up the yard for cleaning.

While this was done, a 21 inch vacuum cylinder from stock was prepared to be fitted, with Ernie and James dressing the studs from the cylinder while Harry and Charlie cleaned the cylinder, piston and dome cover. All surfaces applicable got a coat of red oxide primer.

Speaking of red oxide primer, Mark, Oliver, Tom and Ernie coated the last sections of 3854’s barrel in red oxide, after first preparing the surface. Hopefully we can get undercoat on it, however I suspect we have lost painting weather for the year now.

Towards the end of Sunday we got the overhauled cylinder fitted to 3689, but lost the light before getting it connected up. I also measured up the tyre profiles for 3689, which mostly measured up as new.

On to this week then, Saturday was pretty much a wash out, with the yard under 3689 a pond meaning we couldn’t get working to reconnect the vacuum cylinder. In a gap in the rain, we got the cylinder from 3689 stripped apart, using the Volvo to press the piston out of the bore. Harry and Charlie started to clean down the cylinder in the shelter of the garage. This one is definitely a case of looking worse than it is, but there is still some distance to go on that cylinder, maybe might be an opportunity to crack out the soda blaster.

In the afternoon we looked in the van train for any spare 21″ domes as we have 2 in need of repair. we found a further one, so its possible that we can make 2 good ones out of 3 holey ones!

Sunday was a much better day, we started by shunting out the Lowfit, taking the opportunity of a clear middle road to use the Volvo to lift the cylinder out of the wagon. The cylinder in the Lowfit had been damaged by a load in the wagon, filled with water and had subsequently holed through.

To ease rebuilding an 18″ I took the opportunity to take a rolling ring piston rod to make it into a guide rod to use when lowering a piston back into a cylinder. I cut the eye off the end and then drilled a cross hole for a bar to tighten/loosen the rod. We used it, to great effect, on the replacement 18″ cylinder for the Lowfit. The piston behaved exactly as described in the overhaul spec which is encouraging!

Using the Volvo again to lower the overhauled cylinder into the wagon, it was bolted back into the wagon and reconnected ot he brake system. Unfortunately, when we tried to test the system we found a the north end of the train pipe under the headstock is a little more akin to brandy snap and was letting the vacuum out. Another winter job for the list.

Nick and Tom walked back down the yard and got 3689 ready to test after which the team went up to test the brakes, after they were knocked back a half hole on the adjuster as the block gap was too tight to spec.

Charlie looked at the release valve removed from 3689, which to be honest I thought was more use as an anchor for a dingy! Mark and Oliver also got stuck in selecting a valve to look at..

The test went well, and the system passed with flying colours. After which we put everything away and had a celebratory cup of tea!

Thanks for joining us, and do let me know what you think of the new website. Cheers, Ross!