Category: Updates

Before we start, a quick reminder about next week and our Quorn Wagon & Wagon Open Weekend on the 22-23 July.
Take a close-up look at our fleet of restored wagons, tugs and brutes; talk to the team and find out what wagon restoration is all about.

See our Test Car 2 out for a run with the Heavy Tractor Group‘s Class 37, 37714.

Sorry no public on-board the Test Car on the Saturday, however we welcome visitors on-board for guided tours of Test Car 2 on the Sunday 23 July in Quorn yard.

For anyone wishing to grab picture of the typical 1980s test train with Test Car 2, the provisional departure timings for Saturday 22 July are as follows:-

Loughborough dep – 11:10
Swithland dep – 11:50
Loughborough dep – 12:30
Swithland dep – 13:20
Loughborough dep – 14:25
Swithland dep – 15:25

Also we are pleased to announce that our new ‘UPDATED’ Pocket Stockbooks will be available next weekend, as well as the popular Test Car 2 booklets.

Pop along and see us in the marquee at Quorn to get your copy.

Many thanks, it’s your support that allows us to continue our work restoring & maintaining the fleet wagons and the Test Car.

So this week we’ve made further progress with our 12T Pipe wagon B740654.

The west side top capping clamps were fitted.

Two new treated timber planks were sourced for the north end. The old planks were taken out and the new sized and slotted into place.

The planks were clamped into place, holes drilled and bolted up.

The top capping was fitted to the north end and any excess bolt length was trimmed.

A new label clip block was made for the east side as this was missing.

Edward was started up to provide some air and good progress was made needle gunning the underframe.

Kiki had a quiet naming ceremony.

Thanks to the Heavy Tractor Group who donated some diesel from the scrap Class 37 loco 37605. This will be put to good use in Test Car 2 to fuel the on-board generator that provides us with much needed extra power for our wagon restoration work on-site.

All the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to this week’s update from the team at Quorn.
The week started with us assisting the operations team during some shunting at Swithland sidings, to get some of our wagons sorted ready for our upcoming Open Weekend on the 22-23 July.
The Heavy Tractor Group’s 37714 was in charge of all the wagon movements.

The work on Test Car 2‘s bogies continued at Rothley, cleaning out rust and muck build-up in the bolster spring seats and re-packing to get the ride height within tolerance. The Test Car is now back on its bogies and ready to take part in our upcoming Open Weekend.

Tank wagon 3711 that has been at Rothley awaiting a replacement buffer was also attended to. This is now ready to go into traffic.

At Quorn the work on getting Kiki ready for the Open Weekend continued.
A new seat was manufactured because the old one was not fit for purpose anymore. The seat base and back boards were cut from an offcut of 3/4″ plywood, and new 2″ seat foams cut to shape. Coach bolts for mounting the seat were fitted with countersunk nuts, and the new seat covering material was cut to size.

The foam was glued to the back board then seat covering stapled along all sides of the seat back. The corners were trimmed as necessary, folded neatly and stapled into place.

The same process was carried out for the seat base which was test fitted into place on top of the battery box cover.

A back board trim panel for the seat back was measured, cut to size from an offcut of 1/8″ plywood, then covered and screwed into place.

The whole seat was then assembled with the frame pieces and bolted into place onto the battery box cover.

Kiki‘s front panels were then re-assembled.

The rear load bed was cleaned off and treated to a final scrape before being painted.

Some replacement treated wood planks for the doors of Pipe Wagon 740654 were collected from the timber-yard. The top and bottom planks on each door had new timber whilst the other planks to be replaced were selected from our stock pile.

The south west side door was then dismantled. Some of the seized and stubborn bolts had to be ground off.

One of the hinges needed straightening which required a bit of heat.

The new planks were trimmed to length and the edges bevelled. The door was then re-assembled inserting the new planks and using new nuts & bolts.

The door capping strips were re-fitted to the south west door tops.

The door retarders were fettled, positioned, holes drilled and bolted into place. Bolts were trimmed to length as necessary.

The north west door was then dealt with in the same manner, dismantled, planks cut to length, bevel edged and slotted into place.

The planks were bolted into place, then the retarders re-fitted. The capping strips were then re-fitted.

Pipe Wagon 740654 west side doors are now complete.

The final job on Kiki was to apply the temporary logos of our friends at West Hill Wagon Works who will be supporting us at our Open Weekend on the 22-23 July.
I know we don’t usually like using vinyl’s, however on this occasion it’s the best solution for the temporary livery; and will allow easy removal of the lettering when we get Kiki ready for application of her final colour scheme later in the summer.

Don’t forget to add our Open Weekend date to your diary, 22-23 July 2023.

• Over 20 of our restored goods wagons will be displayed in Quorn yard,
• Visiting wagon groups will have stands inside the Quorn yard marquee along with ourselves and our friends from West Hill Wagon Works,
• Get your camera’s ready on the Saturday (22 July) as Test Car 2 will be out for a run up and down the line representing a typical 1980s British Rail test train. Test Car 2 will also be open to the public for guided tours all day on the Sunday (23 July).
• Our van train will be running on the Sunday too.

There is more information on the GCR’s webpage here – Quorn Wagon & Wagon Open Weekend.

All the best, Dave.

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!

This week the team have taken part in the Great Central Railway’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations, with Test Car 2 open to visitors and the fantastic sight of a 50 wagon train, 34 of the wagons being ones that we have restored!

During the week the operations team had shunted Test Car 2 and tank wagon 60874 into the yard at Quorn ready for the celebration weekend.

Also during the week Nick collected one of the two A-Type containers that are being recovered from next to the loco shed at Loughborough. We’re not yet sure whether they will be saveable, but we’ll keep you posted.

Nick, Thomas, Daniel and Oliver, Tom and Mark helped look after visitors and our stand.

Richard, Jake and myself entertaining visitors into the Test Car.

Throughout the weekend goods trains have been operating, the star of the show being the 50 wagon train on Saturday hauled by BR Standard 9F 92214.
Thirty Four of the wagons in this train were ones that we have restored, the remaining 16 being the Windcutter Project 16T Mineral wagons.

The weather over the weekend had been kind to us, despite the forecast. The thunderstorm did however arrive just as we were packing up on Sunday.

Thanks to everyone who visited us in the Test Car over the weekend, it’s been great to talk to so many interested people, including the Mayor.

All the best, Dave

Hi all, welcome to a rather warm weekend’s update; this week continuing with the work on our Pipe Wagon B740654 and making a start on tidying up Kiki.

At the end of last weekend we’d completed about 1/4 of the floor planks in the pipe, so this week we continued.

More planks were cut to length, rebated and dropped into the floor. Once we have completed the floor plank cutting the planks will have preservative applied before final fitting.

Another potential problem with one of the side door opening retarders was noted. It appears that rust build-up between the spring seat and the underframe had caused the retarder to wedge itself into the frame. The rust was duly chipped out allowing the retarder to spring back into place.

With the area of shade disappearing by early afternoon we concluded work on the floor having now got 3/4 completed.

The external restoration work on Brush Electric Vehicle, Kiki has been started; removing the rotten floor panel, nose panel, electrical control equipment cover, broken seat and the battery box cover/seat mount.

The battery box cover was cleaned up and sanded.

A new floor panel was made from a ply offcut.

The battery box cover, seat mounting and floor panel were primed.

The fibreglass nose panel was sanded.

We hope to have Kiki ready to show off at our Quorn Wagon & Wagon Open Weekend in July.

Our OPEN WEEKEND event will be 22 – 23 July 2023, featuring:-
– A showcase of restored wagons,
– Typical 1980s Test Train with the Heavy Tractor Group Class 37,
– Test Car 2 guided tours,
– Visiting Wagon Groups from around the country,
– Freight train operating,
– Normal Passenger Service with steam and diesel traction,
– Real Ale Bar.

Come along and meet the team who have a passion for turning dilapidated wagons into something a little more presentable.
Here’s a couple of before and after examples:-

We’ll keep you posted with more details of our event nearer the time, in the meantime stick the date in your diary to come and visit us; 22-23 July 2023.

All the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to another Bank Holiday update from the team at Quorn. This week we have made a start on the next wagon for our Mixed Freight.

12T Pipe wagon B740654, built in 1953 at Swindon to diagram number 1/460, was saved from Booths scrapyard and came to the GCR way back in 1988. It is therefore about time for it to receive some well deserved TLC from the team.

The first job was to assess the state of the wagon. Inspection revealed that it needs a new floor, most of the door planks and all the end planks need replacing due to rot. One set of door hinges are seized so the door won’t open.

We set-to measuring up for the replacement wood.

The East side door planks were removed.

Replacement planks were selected from our stock pile of re-useable treated timber. Some of which had to have nails removed before cutting to size.

Once cut to size the new planks were inserted into position and bolted into place.

The doors are fitted with retarders that help control the speed at which the door opens. It was found that these were the problem causing the door not to open. Removing the retarders, adjusting and re-fitting rectified the problem.

Next we moved on to the south end; the planks were removed, grinding and chiselling the rusted and seized bolts as necessary.

Over the years the build-up of rust and muck at the bottom of the end stanchions had slightly twisted the end kerb rail; this was straightened before measuring up and cutting new planks for the end of the wagon.

The stanchions were needle-gunned to clear the old paint.

The new planks were duly slotted into place and bolted up.

The top plank was painted with wood treatment before the capping rail was re-fitted. The south end lamp bracket was also re-fitted.

With the needle guns out, we also cleaned up the south end headstock, east side framework & fittings, and made a start on the west side frame.

The pipe wagon B740654 looking somewhat better by the end of the weekend, but still a lot to do.

Other work we have progressed this weekend includes connecting up some of the water piping in the Mess Coach.

The restoration work on Madge has also been progressing, stripping the dash, removing all the instruments, cable loom, clips etc and taking it back to bare metal. A couple of small repairs will be needed, in the meantime a coat of protective primer has been applied.

Thanks for reading, we’ll be here again next week when it’s also the GCR’s fantastic 1940s Wartime Weekend, where the 1940s are brought back to life with an evocative commemoration of life in wartime Britain, from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th June 2023.

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, this week the team have attended to a ShocVan roof.

Firstly though some mid-week news; Ross and myself took a trip up to see the Barrow Hill Engine Shed Society. Paul Beardsley had visited us last year in Test Car 2, and subsequently invited us to talk to them at one of their monthly presentation sessions. On Thursday after they had shown us around the Roundhouse and sidings, we spent a very enjoyable evening talking to a group of 25 society members about our wagon restoration work at Quorn and also Test Car 2.

With the sunshine over the weekend we took a look at the roof of Shocvan B852838. This van had been restored in 2017 and after 6 years service we noticed that the roofing felt sheets had started to crack and shrink at the joints and roof hoops causing concern that it’s not as water tight as we’d like it to be for storing our re-enactment parcels in.

The old roof covering was removed, carefully extracting it from where it had been stapled to the roof edge laths.

The roof end hoops were removed. Thomas and Dan got to work cleaning them up and painting them with primer.

Some of the roof edge bolts had pulled through the plywood; the nuts were seized therefore these were cut off. Replacement bolts were fitted with penny washers to hold the roof sheet down.

Some of the roof edge laths had rotted and split. We cut new pieces to size and fitted these; G-clamping them in place before securing.

We decided to again use our tried and tested method of roof covering with an old tarpaulin cover sheet. The roof was lightly scraped and cleaned before the cover sheet was dragged over into position.

Once the sheet had been smoothed out, which was made a bit easier with some sunshine to warm it; the roof end hoops were re-fitted with sealant along the edges.

The edges of the sheet were pulled tight and stapled to the underside of the new laths paying special attention to the length above the doors. An extra flap was left to provide a water run-off above the doors.

All the edges of the sheet were then trimmed.

Nick had also taken delivery during the week of a replacement (second hand) wheelset which is destined to go under our coal hopper B425356 which is currently out of traffic due to thin flanges.

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