Category: Updates

Good evening all, and welcome to another QWW update. This week despite the heat, we’ve fitted a vacuum throughpipe, tried to sort out a wheel and tyre for Hector and Andy is making more progress on the GUV.

Being the type of tank it is, A6090 was built unfitted. This is ordinarily fine, however most good trains at the GCR run with vacuum and without a throughpipe, this wagon is less likely to be used. Having recovered a complete throughpipe on his travels, Nick decided it would be put to use on the tank.

Nick assisted by Tom and Mark, first removed one swan-neck from the pipe. The pipe measured at nigh on 15ft, which made it too short initially for the underframe. Removing the swan-neck will allow us to extend the pipe, but more on that later.

The pipe was hung underneath the wagon in its approximate route down the inner solebars with large cable ties. Borrowing the magnetic mount drill from Rothley, Barry, Tom and I drilled holes in the underframe to accept the pipe clamps to hold the pipe to the wagon.

Jamie at Carriage and Wagon very kindly whipped us up a 2ft6in length of pipe to screw onto the rest of the throughpipe, leaving us to thread one end of it and assemble the complete pipe. (Thanks Jamie!)

Back under the wagon, the straight coupler was fitted using plenty of jointing compound, tightened up then the extension piece screwed into the coupler. The swan-neck was fitted, again with plenty of jointing compound.

This is when the heavens opened, so we made a quick effort to tidy everything up and hide! The rest of the day were to tidy up around the yard, and take Danny for a skip run.

Andy has spent a bit more time this weekend filling the GUV in the attempt to smarten it up, we’ll soon be progressing to a coat of paint for it livery yet to be decided.

Last week, Dave had spotted the Hector had a flat tyre and was leaning over in the garage. This week, I attempted to re-inflate it but to no avail. Barry and I separated the rim to discover a small hole in the inner tube. A spare was fitted but we struggled to get the locking ring back into the rims, so we admitted defeat this weekend and will have a rethink.

I think that is everything this week, next week we are hoping for slightly cooler weather so we can continue with the Pipe and get that over the line. There will also be a vacuum leak of test to do for A6090. Join us then and thank you for reading.

We start September with Test Car 2 open again, this time supporting the Diesel Gala long weekend in some glorious sunshine at Quorn.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the demonstration wagon with the Test Car so no slip/coupling demos; however we still fitted the slip coupling and were able to show the special slip/brake flashing lights unit in action using the diesel brake tender further along the siding to simulate a ‘slipped’ test wagon.

Many thanks to the Type One Locomotive Company for their support this weekend with 1705; this was the first time that Test Car 2 has been coupled with a Class 47 in preservation. On Sunday Mark and Tom helped out welcoming visitors into the Class 47 cab.

In the 1980s a Class 47 was normal traction used to haul Test Car 2 during slip/brake testing; so we’ve been able to re-create (well nearly) the look of this 1987 test train.

Thanks to everyone (including a special visitor) who took the time to visit us in the Test Car and to listen to myself, Barry and Richard talking about how and why British Rail carried out testing of freight wagons.

And thank you to everyone who supported us by purchasing our new booklets, or by visiting our little stall.

In other news Andy & Harry have made a start on the east side of the GUV M94052, during the last week the bodyside has been scraped down and any bare metal treated with red oxide primer.

To end, here’s a few of our pics from the weekend. Join us again next week when we’ll be back to some wagon work, all the best, Dave

Hello everyone and welcome to another Quorn Wagon & Wagon update. This week we’ve painted the pipe into it’s gloss coat and have prepared for next weekend with the Test Car opening and progress other smaller jobs.

During the week, Nick and the lads primed and undercoated the east side doors and painted the underframe all round the wagon in black gloss, which looks really smart.

Come the weekend, Dave assisted by Thomas and Tom tidied the inside of the Test Car, even scraping the flaking paint from the generator compartment roof to then give it a fresh coat of white primer.

New volunteer Barry (welcome Barry!) gave the outside and quick hose down which also helped to smarten the coach up a bit.

Nick, Dan, Mark and Thomas continued painting the underframe of the Pipe, concentrating on the lower west side and the head stocks.

With the Pipe underframe finished, Nick and Mark went to look at tank A6090 to remove the last parts of the fuel dispensing system, which I ended up being roped into. The outfeed pipe on this wagon now looks more as it should, and there is one final job to do before the scrape and paint.

On sunday, the weather held us up putting the gloss on the Pipe, so Thomas painted the generator room door in Pearl Grey.

In the afternoon there was a gap in the clouds, so Nick and Thomas went for the bauxite for the Pipe. Each started with an end and then Nick got carried away and started down one side.

Monday was a much nicer day, so most people got stuck into the Pipe, though Dave and Barry did some odd jobs like pumping up the road vehicle tyres and re-shuffling them after Railways at Work.

After the last few bits of bauxite gloss was applied to the PipeNick moved onto details on the wagon, those being the usual swan-necks, hand brake ends and lamp brackets while the lads painted the inside of the wagon with some wood preserver as an experiment. Dave also got a chance to start the signwriting, applying the vacuum relase chord stars and assembling the templates for the bodyside writing.

The last job for the team was to repair some of our wooden steps ready for opening up the Test Car at the diesel gala.

Andy and Harry have started work on the GUV, as it’s been looking quite tired for some time now. I spent most of the weekend replacing the fluorescent tubes in the GUV with LED replacement units. 6 down, 4 to go! I also replaced the cracked beacon on Hector with a replacement

That about wraps things up for this bank holiday weekend. Next weekend is the Diesel gala, and as I’m sure I’ve mentioned the Test Car will be open to visitors in the yard so do come down and see us. We’ll be open from 10-4 Friday until Sunday. Thanks for reading!

A great weekend for our team helping out with the Railways at Work Gala. Oh and a new arrival.

So first we have a new arrival to report, 20T Tank A6090 which was previously at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. This tank has an interesting history; spending many years at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby as their internal user fuel tank, 024296.

No time was wasted getting stuck in to assessing the tank, removing some of the additional brackets and pipe; then checking the axleboxes, journals, bearings, oil and oil pads. A start was also made scraping some of the accumulated grime off.

The main focus this weekend has been the Railways at Work Gala, and I think the best way to sum up the weekend is in pictures, so here’s some of ours.

Thank you to everyone who came along this weekend and made it a special, very enjoyable Gala.

Join us again next week when we’ll return to the Pipe wagon. All the best, Dave

Hello everyone! I’ll start off with a reminder about next weekend’s Railways at Work Gala, full details are on the GCR WebPage here. We’re all looking forward to it, and you’ll see some of us dressed up taking part in the action.

This week, we’ve done some odd jobs and put the last two planks in the Pipe. Tom, Dan, Oliver and Charlie along with Nick were on site on Tuesday carrying on with the Pipe, neddle gunning the east side and priming the metal work. They also found a broken brake block carrier on 3777 and oiled its brake rigging.

Nick went to fetch these from Harlows on Saturday morning, Dave started applying Kiki’s new identity, which can be seen in its entireity next weekend.

Thomas, Nick and I removed the 2 old planks from the East side, ready for the new planks to be dropped in and checked for size. Nick and Thomas also finished off the scraping of the underframe.

The plank was cut down in length and then run through our thicknesser to skim a few millimetres from the planks to remove some machining marks.

The planks were then dry fitted and drilled. The planks were removed and the painted into primer in the GUV.

The changable weather over the weekend has changed plans a little, so instead of fitting the planks first off, we took the opportunity to paint both new planks into undercoat.

Thomas paid some last attentions to 5209, picking out the red lettering on the bearing caps afterwhich he got the undercoat out and painted both ends of the Pipe.

At our event, Dave noticed that the hand brake rack on 3436 is slightly twisted on one side. This was improved with a tickle from the sledgehammer.

Our final act was to drop the 2 painted planks into the Pipe, which went well haing been pre-drilled and prepped.

That wraps up this weekend’s activities, if you can do pop down next weekend and see the event unfold, we’ll try and get some covert pictures through out the day too.

Cheers, Ross

Despite the inclement weather continuing, we have had a busy weekend tidying & sorting the theatrical vans in preparation for the upcoming Railways at Work Gala, doing some housekeeping, attending to gutters and a sticky wagon door, progressed the Pipe wagon and we also managed a bit of work on tank 3777.

We’re very much looking forward to the Railways at Work Gala which this year will (amongst many other attractions) feature two Pick-up-Goods trains operating in and out of the yard at Quorn.

It’s therefore important that the we get the right goods in the right places before we start.

Thanks to Jack and Andrew (the phantom box juggler) for their help too.

At our Open Weekend in July, Kiki took part adorned with our friends’ West Hill Wagon Works logos; however in preparation for the Railways at Work event Kiki will receive a more appropriate livery. The first step was to carefully remove the temporary vinyl lettering and clean the paintwork. Kiki‘s new livery will be revealed at the Railways at Work Gala on the 19th August.

The heavy rain on Saturday highlighted to us that some of the gutters on Test Car 2 and the Mess coach had become clogged with muck and debris. These were cleared out allowing the rainwater to flow along the gutters rather than overflowing down the coach sides.

Sunday and the weather improved allowing us to work on the Pipe wagon B740654; after a couple of weeks for the planks to settle we tightened all the door bolts on the west side & south end, and trimmed a couple of slightly long ones.

A final bit of scraping of door furniture then we set about applying some red-oxide primer to the door furniture and stanchions.

Whilst checking the wagons in preparation for railways at work, we came across a very reluctant drop-side door on steel high ADB280364. The cause was a lipped top latch post which was dressed lightly with a grinder and some red-oxide paint applied. This will make the door much easier to open and shut during the loading/unloading demonstrations.

Following the removal of the air driven pump from Tank wagon 3777 last week, the remaining section of pipework was removed. The brackets on the underframe were ground off and red-oxide primer applied.

So despite the weather we’re a lot closer to being ready for Railways at Work Gala, and we’ve made some good progress on the Pipe and Tank.

A quick reminder that our new Pocket Stockbooks are available from the team, pop down and see us at the south end of Quorn & Woodhouse yard at the weekend.

120 Pages with colour pictures and details of all the Quorn Wagon & Wagon group’s rolling stock in a handy A6 pocket sized ring bound booklet.

The Stockbooks are also available from our friends at West Hill Wagon Works and on eBay here.

Lastly pop a date in your diary, 19th & 20th August for the GCRs 2023 Railways at Work Gala, full details are on the GCR WebPage here.

All the best, Dave

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!

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.