Category: Updates

Hello everyone, welcome to another QWW update. This week, we’ve continued work on the LNER Plate wagon, E212315.

The paint on the Plate is quite cracked and crazed, which means we’re having to strip it back to bare metal before we repaint it. To that end, Nick and I decided that we should make a start looking at the air equipment and making sure it was all working, including 3 needle guns.

We’d managed to get the generator in the Test Car going to use the coach’s compressor, but the engine didn’t really sound too happy, though it started and ran the compressor. Two out of the three needle guns we’ve got worked so we made a start on the east side of the wagon, you know, just to test them. By the end of the day, we’d completed three quarters of the west side doors.

Sunday saw more of the gang here, Nick and I were joined by Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver. Sunday was a trying day on the equipment front. The genset in the Test Car would not start, so we had to try the Hydrovane. The battery I put on it ended up being flat, so we got the charger/jump pack out which promptly decided it would let some of its magic smoke escape.

Thankfully, we found another battery and the Hydrovane sprang into life after around a 3 year slumber. It did spring an air leak later in the day, but this was patched with a piece of rubber and some jubilee clips as a temporary repair.

Finally, we got back to needle gunning the wagon. We concentrated on the West side today due to the very much reduced train movements while the bridge job is still underway. Everyone got both doors stripped down, plus 3/4 of the west side solebar, and then moved around to the head stock and the final 2 panels Nick and I left yesterday.

In anticipation of a couple of pending arrivals, I made sure the pressure washer is still functioning after its winter in the shed, which thankfully it did. All being well, we just have 2 TTAs arrived next week that need a wash!

That about covers this week, join next week to see if we’ve been cleaned some new tank wagons, or continued with the Plate! Thanks for reading.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s update! This week has seen further progress on the Plate, E212315. Starting with last week’s floor, which had just been laid loosely down in the wagon.

The floor was left sat on top of rivets from the underframe, something which isn’t uncommon on wagons. These usually need a relief making in the floor timber to allow the board to sit down fully. Nick, using his favourite tool, made impressions of the rivet heads in the underneath of the plank.

Mark then lifted the plank out and rolled it over, after which I set about it with the big drill and a Forstner bit to make the relief.

Dan was kept on his toes, cleaning up the cuttings and sawdust behind us prior to putting the plank back down to check for if any other drilling was required.

After the planks were fully seated, we moved on to the capping strips, laid down each edge of the wagon. The floor was drilled from underneath, and the strip positioned above. The strip was then bolted to the kerb rail, and thus the floor secured.

Sunday saw Michael join us to help with scraping the Plate, getting it ready for paint.

Nick and I concentrated on cracked welds around the bottom of the doors. At some point in its life, the doors on the wagon had metal strips stitch welded to them. Some of these have since had rust build up between the strip and the door angle iron, resulting in the welds cracking, or even one strip having broken clean off the wagon!

All the doors had some welding attention, but the west side required much more with the north door having both strips broken off and reattached.

Michael made an excellent job of the east side underframe, which is now ready for paint. Both sides still need the doors needle gunning before the body can be painted however, which might be a job for next week…

That brings us to a close this weekend, thanks for reading!

Welcome to our Quorn Wagon & Wagon update from the first week of March 2023.

1937 built LNER Plate wagon E212315 arrived at the GCR way back in 1997, and has been seen over the years operating in many mixed freight formations; however we thought it was about time we made a start on some well overdue restoration work.

The first task was to remove the old rotten floor planks, which revealed quite a lot of loose underframe surface rust, however the framework itself was found to be in very good overall condition.

Mark, Tom, Daniel and Charlie all helped Nick & Ross scraping and cleaning the underframe.

Once the underframe was scraped, cleaned and swept, a start was made applying bitumen paint to the inner faces of the framework that will be covered up once the new flooring is fitted.

A start was also made on scraping the side doors which revealed some original paintwork, numbering and lettering.

On Sunday I joined Ross & Nick to continue with the Plate underframe work.

The framework along the middle section of this wagon is 2″ lower than the side frames, therefore wooden battens are fitted on top of the frame longitudes to support the flooring planks that are laid across the wagon. These battens were all found to be rotten when the floor was removed, therefore replacements are required.

Ross and myself set about recovering some old floor planking, removing nails, measuring up and slicing to make the replacement battens.

Nick continued with the bitumen painting of the underframe inner surfaces.

The new battens were trimmed to give neat joints between each other, then marked and drilled for the mounting bolts. Our small pillar drill was temporarily mounted to the wagon underframe to help the process.

The replacement battens were all fitted in place with temporary bolts. They will be removed again next week for painting and final fitting once we have obtained some new coach bolts.

Join us again next week for some more Plate work, all the best, Dave

Hello, you join us again for a weekend update. I write this from a hotel room in Poland due to having to travel for work today. The railway is currently cut into 3 bits with the bridge renovations starting in earnest this week. The engineers fleet is seeing lots of use over the next month, this weekend was the Grampus and Rudd’s turns, removing the spolied from the bridge decks.

In the week, Nick has been to look at some wheelsets for the Coal Hopper and one of the Dogfish which has failed its annual exam on both wheelsets. 3 have been selected for our use, so we await their arrival to progress both wagons.

Its been a quiet weekend and Nick and I have used it to have a bit of a tidy up and a sort out around yard now that we are back at Quorn. I concentrated on tidying up the Yellow Coach, checking all the power tools, while Nick concentrated on tidying the general yard area and Charlie cleaned and hoovered the workbenches in the GUV. This culminated in a Volvo bucket going to the skip.

Due to a last minute move of the Plate wagon into the main car park, Nick, Dan and Tom continued project tidy up. They made good progress on sorting out sweeping out and wiping down surfaces in the Yellow Coach, sorting out the tools in the tool van and carrying on the general yard tidying.

That about covers it for this week, a bit photo light and a bit wagon work light, but sometimes to have just have a weekend sorting out. Join us again next week, we’re we’ll be stripping the old floor out of the Plate wagon.

Hello everyone, weclome to this week’s update. This week, we’ve been concentrating on finishing the hopper but did find our way back to Quorn briefly to work on one of the Rudds.

I started this weekend by making a start on the West side signwriting on the Coal Hopper, chalking up and taping the boxes for the Data panel and the Number panel.

Thomas’s job for the day was to carefully apply white gloss to the hand rails, while Oliver and Dan applied white gloss to the corner steps, door trip levers, handbrake lever end and the swan necks.

At this point, we left for Quorn to look at one of the Rudds, DB972608. This had an annual exam in the week which found one wheelset below the minimum flange thickness. Thankfully we had a spare sat at Quorn and in an hour and a half, we had the failed wheelset dropped, removed and replaced. To finish the job, the underkeep/tie bars were straightened and re-attached.

We returned to Rothley so that I could continue the signwriting, this time the east side solebar details, and so that Thomas could finish the handrails on the North End of the wagon.

Dave joined us on Sunday, meaning he and I could finish the signwriting on the West side. Dave started with the number panel.

I took the ‘House Coal Concentration’ legend. This side has a special nod to Brian Hallett, who sadly passed away recently. Brian applied the legend on this wagon’s last repaint, and having completed the signwriting was found to have painted one ‘N’ in concentration backwards. Brian corrected the mistake, but as a little nod, I thought I’d replicate it this time in memorial. Rest in Peace Brian.

Dave had finished the D plate on the solebar as I finished the legend. Dave started some touching in with the bauxite gloss, while I painted the Wheelbase on the solebar.

What was Nick doing all this time, I hear you ask? Nick had the black gloss out, painting areas of 3711 which looked patchy now it was in the daylight. He then moved on to do the same with the hopper.

That about wraps up this update, and with it our time at Rothley. Its been very handy and has allowed us to complete 2 tanks and the hopper, bar its wheelset swap (though hopefully more news on that next week!). Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you next time!

Welcome to another one of our updates. We are still at Rothley, completing work on the Coal Hopper, B425356. Before I get stuck ino that, some other news from the week. The Bogie Bolster D has left Quorn yard to rejoin the Mixed Freight train and the Van train has been moved from Quorn Yard temporarily so that the engineer’s vehicles can be pushed into the main yard for the impending bridge renovations.

Onto this wekend then! After last week’s effort in getting the hopper into Gloss, the effort continues now on the underframe and details. Thomas and Nick took care of the black gloss to the underframe, platforms under the hopper ends and tops of the inner and outer solebars.

With Dave at Doncaster with West Hill Wagon Works, I was the sole signwriter this week. I started by assemmbling the templates from the A4 pages. After this I chose to start with the post-1964 number box, moving onto the data panel.

Sunday saw us joined by Tom and Dan, who also finished off some of the black underframe painting. Once this was done Thomas, Tom and Dan moved onto the white undercoat. Thomas took care of the end handrails and made a superb job. Tom and Dan made a good job of the handbrake lever ends, the door trip levers and the vacuum swan-necks. Nick kept hold of his black gloss brush and completed any areas missed on the underframe, and where I had finished signwriting.

For me it was the large legend, ‘House Coal Concentration’. I assembled the template and then spent the day on that, feeling very crossed eyed by the end of it.

We’re now nearing the end of the work on the hopper, leaving that at Rothley for its axle repair for us to go back to Quorn for the Plate wagon. Next weekend will be more of the same on the hopper though, with the west side solebar signwriting to do and then the whole east side still to tackle. See you then!

This week the team has been split, with Madge getting the attention at Quorn whilst the Coal Hopper saw progress at Rothley.

The Coal Hopper has been at Rothley for a while now and the decision was taken some time ago to get it painted before we move back to Quorn. A few weeks ago, Dan, Tom and Oliver scraped the wagon down. During this week, Thomas painted the inside of the hopper which then leaves us with the outside and the underframe. The underframe painting will come later, so Ross and Nick focused on the outside of the hopper. With Nick spotting, Ross made good time in spraying the hopper into the now familiar pink dark red undercoat.

Matt and myself were joined by Jack to make a start on Madge’s restoration. The garage was tidied and our collection of Scarab spares sorted through to see what may or may not be useable.

Once we had the garage workspace cleared we got stuck into the careful dismantling and labelling of parts from Madge. The first goal being to remove the cab so the terminal tin-worm that has taken hold in some of the panels can be attended to.

The cab doors were removed followed by the nose end, bumper, windows, seats, cab floor and nose end partition panels. She is now looking somewhat naked.

The next stage will be to unbolt the cab structure and remove so we can fully assess the panel work required, especially around the lower edges.

Back at Rothley Ross with Mark spotting, painted the hopper with 2 coats of Bauxite Gloss.

Nick with Dan and Tom took the wheelset swapped out of 3711 back to Quorn. When back at Rothley, Nick with Mark, Dan and Tom got the paint bruhses out, painting around the top of the hopper, and touching in some areas not easy to get with the spray gun. The team then moved onto black gloss on the underframe.

Ross took a look at the bearings on the ‘new’ wheelset fitted to 3711. A visual inspection and a grease purge is all that was required.

Lilibet helped out with some rubbish removal trips to the skip, showing off the new yellow British Railways livery on the shortened trailer that Matt has been working on.

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

Hello, and welcome to our update from the Winter Gala. From what we’ve seen its been quite a well attended one, and for us as seen the debut of 5209!

Both 3436 and 5209 rejoined the tank train, which then got formed as part of the mixed freight. 3711 also hasn’t stood still. The wheelset taken to Rothley last Sunday was taken into the shed and fitted on Monday (thank you to the Rothley lads!) Nick painted the bearing adapter in black on Saturday, and also undercoated the yellow end cap. Sadly, niether Dave and I could be there.

Sunday saw Nick and I there but Dave also popped in for an hour or so before going to other commitments. The main object of the day was to fit LED Batten lights in the garage, so that it can become more than a storage building. I must say it’s nice to actually be able to see in there for a change!

While Dan and I were sorting out the lights, Nick, Tom and Mark sorted out the wooden vehicle crossing which had been slowly crumbling. They’ve now made something a lot more stable which should stand up to the rigours of 3 wheel lorries, and vehicles moving across it at all angles.

I finished up looking at a few of our extension cables to investigate reported problems some breaks were found in the live in both cables so these will either be joined back together with the appropriate equipment or cut down to make shorter cables.

That’s where we’ll leave this week’s update, sorry for the lack of pictures! Next week we’ll pick up where we left off on the coal hopper, making start on the painting. There is also some work planned to kick off Madge’s repair so join us then to see where we get to!

Hello again,, we’re back for another weekend of tank action. The job list on 3711 is certainly now dwindling, leaving only a wheelset to change and the replacement of 2 buffers.

Dave and I started off with the last 2 jobs of signwriting, those being the Commuted Charge symbol for me and the OLE warning flashes for Dave.

I moved onto the north end axle, checking the roller bearings and purging them with grease using the very handy air powered grease pump.

With the greasing done and the OLE flashes finished, Dave looked for areas of signwriting to touch up and I fitted a new vacuum relase chord.

Sunday morning saw me at a very cold Quorn, prepping for 2 jobs. One being a bit of welding on Matt’s trailer, which was the reattachement of some angle irons for the brakes after being shortened. The other was moving the wheelset intended for the tank at Rothley. The latter involved encouraging the Test Car’s generator to start, to get air to pump up the loader’s tyre. The former was rather straight forward!

Nick ferried the wheelset to Rothley and unloaded it from his lorry, Tom painted the vacuum cylinder on the tank wagon whilst Oliver did some tidying. I joined later to have a look at the brake carriers on the tank to make sure they were fit for traffic. (The split pin was later opened out!)

Next weekend is the Winter Steam Gala, so expect to see the mixed freight out with the 3436 and making its debut will be 5209! See you next time!