Category: Updates

Hi all, welcome to this week’s update. Just a quick reminder, if you haven’t seen a copy yet of the March issue of Trackside Magazine, it’s well worth a read, we’re featured in a fantastic six page spread.

The blustery weekend started early for us, with Nick receiving a call on Friday advising that our temporary workshop at Quorn was affected by storm Eunice; a quick inspection in the afternoon revealed no serious damage, just a ridge plate piece that was flapping in the wind and thankfully nothing had become detached.

Saturday therefore started with Nick and myself making necessary repairs to the workshop roof, firstly erecting our scaffolding tower, then manufacturing and fitting a repair cap plate and adding a few extra rivets to ensure the end of the ridge piece can’t flap in the wind again.

Just as we were finishing the roof repairs the heavy rain set-in again, so our plans to start fitting the prepared van side sheets had to be postponed, we retreated to the mess coach with a cuppa to decide what to do next.

Thankfully the rain eased and after an early lunch with Matts’ help we made a start replacing the load bed floor of the old GCR pickup truck, the ownership of which has recently transferred to our group. The floor was decidedly rotten, not really surprising as it has been languishing out of use at Rothley for over two years.

After the floor had been removed and the framework channels cleaned out we measured up, cut and fitted some second-hand but solid ply floor sheets from our stock.

With the load bed repaired this truck will be extremely useful for us for moving things around and providing a large and stable working platform.

Matt has been asked whether he could help with some information and images about Collico containers for an upcoming article for the Great Western Trust; therefore his collection was suitably posed in the yard in between the showers.

Unusually we have to wrap-up the update early this weekend as we all have other priorities on Sunday.

Look forward to cracking on with the van side and door fitting soon, weather permitting; so until next week, all the best.

Hello, and welcome to another update from us. We’ve got some admin to sort before we get into the meat of the update. Firstly, we’ve found out the we’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Heritage Railway Association Awards. We put in for the Morgan Award for Preservation for the completed 17 vehicle van train. Our friends over at Quorn Transport Films have also been shortlisted in the External Communications catergory. We wish them and all others that have been shortlisted good luck, and look forward to seeing you on the night.

You may have seen us in the latest issue of Trackside Magazine, we’re featured in a fantastic six page spread, resulting from a visit earlier in the year. If you haven’t already, pick up the latest issue from all good newagents.

Right on to business, this week we’ve contiued painting the replacement doors and side sheets. Last week we got them all cut and primed, so this week was the turn of undercoat and top coat. On Saturday, Nick and Richard took care of undercoating the edges and I covered the fronts. The shed really helped here, keeping the sheets and us nice and dry while we were applying the paint.

Once we’d got those painted, we cleaned out the brushes and put the paitn way, and picked up some odd jobs. I looked at the air system on the Test Car to fix a leak that had become apparent on the filter/oiler. Matt did some work on the generator room door where the frame had become dettached from the wallk of the coach. Nick and Richard continued the tidy up in the Tool Van, resuting in a much improved Woodworking drawer.

Sunday saw Nick and I apply the bauxite top coat to both doors and side sheets, and then continued the odd jobs. I sorted out the workbench in the Yellow Coach, attaching the magnifying light to the bench kindly donated by Richard. Nick continued the tidy up in the tool van. I fired up the Test Car’s generator and tested the air system tweaks I’d done for leaks. There is one small one to sort out, but nothing major.

That’s it from us for another week, Dave will be back again next week to tell what we’ve been up to, join us then!

Hi all, welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. After completing the cladding on the temporary workshop building last week, we were keen to make use of the under-cover working area and get back to progressing some wagon work. With most of the team on-site the building was adorned with a period sign that Matt had sourced, it’s now officially for ‘British Railways – Company Vehicles Only’

Before we started Nick and myself inspected the van train to take note of exactly which side panels and doors need attention. Most of the work is needed is on the weather beaten west side of the vans, and although most can dealt with by sanding and repainting, the worst ones will need panel or door replacements. Armed with the list, we decided that priority one had to be the replacement of the west side doors on 1952 Vanfit B763305 which are decidedly rotten especially around the lower hinges.

We prepared the inside the new workshop by rigging up some temporary lighting and moving in two steel flatbed trolleys that provide an ideal workbench to make the new doors on; previously acquired sheets of ply were then fetched ready to start marking out and cutting.

Whilst marking out the first door sheet we found that the ply had started to delaminate along a short section of one edge. Not wanting to waste precious plywood, we set about gluing and clamping the affected edge which was then put aside to dry overnight.

The second sheet was ok so this was marked out and cut to size, the offcuts being used for internal framing and hinge supports. The edges were all sanded, clamped together and the first door was assembled.

With most of the team here we took the opportunity to get our heads together (over a cuppa of course) and collate some thoughts to feed into the planning for the Railways at Work gala which will take place 19 – 20 March this year.

https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/Railways-At-Work-Gala/

Sunday saw Ross, Nick, Richard and myself continuing with the timberwork for the van repairs, and despite the very blustery, wet weather we were able to progress well inside our workshop. The ply sheet edge repair we had glued on Saturday was unclamped and thankfully dried very well, so this was tidied up with a quick sand.

The second door for B763305 was marked out, cut, and assembled, including internal diagonal braces required for these doors.

The original doors on this early BR Vanfit B763305 were planked rather than ply sheets of the later vans, therefore in order to retain the correct external appearance, we routed the outer face of the ply doors to represent the planking with a V cutter.

With the timberwork on the doors for B763305 finished we turned our attention to preparing new side panels for B779978, B784409, B850498 and B854782, all of which need one of their eight panels replacing.

Each van was inspected and the panel sizes measured, then four more sheets were brought into the workshop and in-turn marked out, cut to size & sanded.

After a quick tidy-up, and putting up some extra lighting, the outer faces of the two doors and six prepared panels were painted with wood primer.

We look forward to next weekend and progressing with undercoat and gloss paint on these panels, then planning the fitting; fingers crossed for some better weather for this.

All the best, see you next time.

Good evening and welcome to another update from Quorn. This weekend has been the railway’s Winter Gala, and a busy one it was too! Both the van train and the minerals have been out to play, along with several passenger trains. We’ve been holding off on undertaking work on the van train whilst they’ve been wanted at photo charters and galas throughout January, so we’ve been spending some time as you’ve seen wokring on other things.

This weekend has seen most of the team finish building ‘the garage’, our temporary building. Last weekend we had most of the roof on and all of the north end and side cladding, so we picked up where we left off, by finishing the roof. The wind on Saturday didn’t help with this!

The roof was finished, then Dave concentrated on getting the cladding for the eaves rivetted to the structure. Firstly on the North end, and then the South. Matt, meanwhile started Madge up, and we tried her through the shed door to see if she fits.

We also shifted our wooden shed everso slighty, to turn it 90 degrees and to line it up with the back of the steel shed. After this we generally pottered around the shed until dark.

With fewer of us on Sunday, we concentrated on sorting out the last few bits fo cladding, including cutting some steel to fill in where a few panels have been lost. Thomas and I rivetting the bottm of the west side panels, and then went round and rivetted where holes where. Nick cut the replacement panelsfor the south end in the eaves and above the personell door. Nick and Thomas rovetted the south end panelling to the structure.

Eddie was also onsite, and carried on the prep work on the Bogie Bolster.

Next weekend, we’ll be making a start on the bodywork repairs on the van train now that they are free of commitments until March. We’ll either be manufacturing doors, or starting to cut some bodyside sheets. Join us then and see where we get too!

Our focus this weekend has been progressing the assembly of our temporary building that will provide a much needed covered working area for the team.

Eddie, Richard, Ross, Jake, Nick and myself were on-site on Saturday, making the most of the dry conditions we modified and attached a replacement section of roof supporting angle, before continuing fitting the roof sheets; some tell-tale weathering of the roof sheets helped us work out which ones fitted where.

We completed eight of the twenty roof sheets and one ridge capping before running out of serviceable J-bolts; more have been ordered but they won’t be here until next week.

Having come to a halt with the roof, our attentions turned to an offending lump of buried concrete that was fouling the door, Eddie successfully chipped away at this until it was clear. Richard and myself then drilled-out all the old pop-rivets from the end frames, some being more stubborn than others.

Some of the side cladding panels unfortunately had graffiti, this was cleaned as best we could before starting fitting, by the time it got dark one rear end panel and the full length of the east side were fitted in place, re-using the old j-clips. Some further securing with pop rivets will also be required.

Seeing as this weeks update is a little light on wagons, I thought a Saturday morning’s sunrise pic of a couple vans and a brake on the Quorn turntable would be good.

On Sunday with Nick, Ross and Eddie on-site work continued with the rear and west side cladding panel fitting, and some primer paint was applied to cover the remains of graffiti that could not be cleaned off.

By the end of the day all side cladding was fitted and secured, Ross and Nick also managed to salvage a few more J-bolts so four more roof sheets were fitted too.

Now, we are one-up on Monty Python’s trainspotter, Arthur Jackson, and we can quite rightly say, we have “two-sheds”. Arthur ‘2 Sheds’ Jackson

Join us again next week, all the best.

This weekend has been the railway’s East Coast weekend, bringing together visitors Tornado, Deltic 55019 and some of the home fleet. Both the Deltic and Tornado have been hauling the van train up and down which has been a pleasure to behold, and something I’d been looking forward to since the A1 arrived at the GC.

We’ve been spent our weekend putting up our temporary building, alluded to last week. You may remember that we tidied and cleared an area of the yard for this purpose.

Saturday saw Dave, Richard and I gathering the pieces of framework together and starting to make sense of the jigsaw puzzle before us. A second hand building with no instructions, and no idea if all the pieces were present it quite the challenge!

It wasn’t long before we got the first frame together, that being those with the doors. We then attached the side frames, using the perlins clamped to the GUV to steady the structure while it was built up. By the end of the day the frame work was completed, bar a couple of the roof perlins. Using my new impact wrench made everything very easy, how did we manage before these modern tools?

Sunday saw more of the gang in attendance, so we moved the cladding and roof sheets closer to the framework and continued the last few bits of the frame. The roller shutter got mounted using the Volvo while the van train was on the line, and we got one roof sheet fitted and bolted down.

Next week, we shall continue by getting the roof cladded and then making a start on the sides. Thanks, and see you then!

Our first full weekend of 2022 with most of the team on site started slowly due to the torrential rain on Saturday morning, however we kept ourselves busy labelling up some toolboxes and sorting some sacks ready for filling to create some additional theatrical loads. It was great to see Matt who has been absent recently due to struggling with health issues, nothing terminal but his involvement will be reduced until fully recovered.

Once the rain had eased Nick and Jake took a look at the north end screw coupling of Palshoc van B855667. The coupling that had been fitted temporarily last year during its restoration was slightly long being of the type more suitable for use on coaching stock, this meant that when coupled to an adjacent van there was a large gap between the buffers. A correct wagon type screw coupling with a shorter loop had been sourced and was fitted, centrally adjusted and oiled.

Matt, Ross and myself made a start of filling the theatrical load sacks with old clothing and carpet underlay to boost the amount of typical freight loads that can be used during demonstrations and upcoming events this year. A total of twelve sacks were filled and tied.

The next challenge was making space in a theatrical load storage van for the sacks, luckily it was just a matter of re-arranging what was in there and packing things more neatly.

In contrast to the previous day’s rain, the bright sunny start to Sunday saw Nick, Matt, Ross and myself make our way to Swithland sidings to attend to the securing ropes on container B55897B that is loaded in Medfit B458484 in readiness for it’s possible use during events in January. Although blocks and sleepers actually do the main task of holding the container, in order to give the prototypical look the ropes are fitted as per BR20427, Instructions for the loading and securing of containers on rail vehicles.

The visit to Swithland also gave us the opportunity to take a look round some of the wagon fleet that we haven’t seen for a while, it’s always good to keep a check on how things may be deteriorating but thankfully no major issues were noted, although it’s clear that some wagons will need to feature in the future work plan before too long, such as the two Tube wagons B732357 and E301588.

Once back at Quorn Matt and myself took the opportunity to have a cursory walk round the van train that was stabled in the sidings at Quorn. The paint on a few of the chalk boards was noted to be cracked and peeling off vans B780282, B786348, B850498 and B852838, mostly on the west side which seems to suffer more from the weather. The boards were sanded and repainted.

Ross continued with the inspection of the vans to determine which ones are going to be priority for attention to body side panels in the coming months, again an issue mostly on the west side of the wagons.

In readiness for an upcoming event in which the 17 strong van train is required, the operations department arrived with a Class 08 shunter to carry out a full-train brake test. D4137 was duly coupled to the south end of the vans and thankfully all was in order with the brake test.

We then concentrated on clearing up the yard ready for a temporary structure to be erected for which we have now received permission from the railway to proceed with. The Volvo was rather reluctantly coaxed into life to assist with moving a few heavier items, and it was great to get Madge started after a long period out of use, although she didn’t start first time, this was down to using a bit too much choke; once she’d fired up she ran smoothly.

The end result of the yard tidying was a nice clear area ready for the next stage.

Our afternoon was spent in the company of Nick Brodrick, editor of Trackside Magazine who came along to meet the team and see what we’re up to.

Needless to say this involved some photographs, thankfully the afternoon sunshine didn’t disappoint.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week; in the meantime stay safe.

Hello everyone and happy new year to you all. Over the past few days, we’ve been sorting out our workshop and tool vans, but we’ve covered enough of that over the past few months so I’ll use the opportunity to review what we’ve done over the past year.

We started last year off with completing 1408, the ex-China Clay Slurry tank wagon and then making a start on the Esso tank, 3436. Then news of the 3rd National Lockdown came to us and prevented site access for a couple of months.

We were allowed back on to site initially to carry out routine maintenance on the wagon fleet. Starting with the Dogfish, then Grampus and then the rest of the wagons. All were brought down to Rothley for us to look at and carry out any work required.

Once April 12th came around, we were allowed to carry out non-essential work. Dave and Matt covered the signwriting on the Esso tank, completing that wagon. We continued work on what turned out to be one of our biggest projects, our Mess Coach.

At this time, we also quickly tackled the Creosote tank DB998926, adding that to the burgeoning tank wagon train.

Then the first of a few new acquisitions this year, the Ferry Tank, 500817. This cam with another 10ft wheelbase chassis destined for the Palshocvan body, B855667.

This time, we had begun the big push on the mess coach, getting that finished and back to Quorn in October.

The aforementioned Palshocvan was welded to its chassis, got a new roof covering, painted and released into the van train, though made its debut for a photo charter with the tank train.

Most of our vehicles, including the road vehicle fleet, were in use for Railways at Work Gala, with most of us dressing the part as well. We all really enjoyed this weekend and hope it will be as good next year.

Our 99th vehicle arrived soon after this gala, being 3711. This arrived from Meldon at the Dartmoor Railway. This vehicle arrived in quite a state and has had the braking rigging rebuilt just to get it able to be moved.

The Bogie Bolster was sat at Quorn waiting for us while we were working on the Mess Coach at Rothley. We eventually got around to working on this, starting by cleaning the chassis down and replacing a bolster timber. We also looked at the braking system, overhauling the vacuum cylinders and getting the slack adjusters sent away. This vehicle is now waiting for paint.

We also saw the team at Rothley overhaul the CCT, which was previously in use with us as a store. It has been emptied, welded and painted for use in the Winter Wonderlights. Both Matt and Dave assisted with the signwriting on that, which made it look a treat!

At this point, I’ll cover some of the other things that have happened. We’ve pulled together 6 BRUTEs, ready for a BRUTe train.

We’ve visited the Bluebell Railway and brought back a van full of spares. Dave and Matt have also been to the Chasewater Railway to assist in the signwriting of a VEA of theirs.

Despite the continuing pandemic, we’ve had a good year. We’ve completed 7 vehicles this year, with one of those being SC21202 which I think in terms of work equals around 3 or 4 vehicles! We’ve made more contacts with other railways and firms in the industry that have helped us out immensely. We’re looking forward to seeing what 2022 has to offer for us and will get some more wagons completed.

Next week, we’ll be somewhat back to normality, with most of us being back to work. I’ll wrap up this update by wishing you all a happy and healthy year ahead. I also want to thank you for your continued support. Join us again next week to see what we get up to.

I hope you all had a good Christmas Day and got all the presents you were wanting from Santa. Before Christmas, we had a delivery of some presents of our own, courtesy of Rail Vehicle Components Ltd. We are, again, very grateful to Neil for getting these slack adjusters sorted for us, and know where to turn when it comes to getting anything else of that ilk sorted.

I went to Leek to collect the slack adjusters on 22/12. Not wanting to have them sitting in my car over Christmas, Nick and I were at the railway on the 23rd to fit them back to the Bogie Bolster. Once the obligatory tea was consumed, the Slack Adjusters were removed from my car and laid next to the wagon.

Starting at the North end, the slack adjuster was carefully lifted underneath and slotted into its safety loop and connected to the cross shaft. this was pinned up and the slack adjuster rotated to extend it to meet up with the correct linkage on the bogie. This was back together and pinned up within half an hour. Time for another cuppa, then to tackle the south end.

The south end was a little bit trickier. This was the end that we identified a few issues with, and thought we had rectified them. As per the opposite end, I slotted the slack adjuster into its safety loop but found the cross shaft and the hole in the eye of the slack adjuster were half a hole out.

In the end, I had to use the hot spanner to persuade the “A Gap” setting bracket that it wanted to undo. This meant I could reset the A Gap to allow the slack adjuster to be fitted and pinned up. We think the A Gap was modified by BR, probably due to a brake issue to get it “home”, an adjustment the wagon has lived with ever since.

With both slack adjusters fitted, we could now prove the vacuum system that we’d overhauled a few months prior. With our exhauster started and connected, the vacuum was created, but nowhere near high enough to be functioning correctly. We diagnosed a faulty DA valve, which got bypassed and the test re-done. This time the test was satisfactory for both cylinders and the wagon left to see how long the brakes held for.

Today, in between rain showers, we sorted out 2 replacement floor planks for the south end of the wagon. Cut from an old workbench top, the two ‘planks’ were adjusted to suit their positions and fitted to the wagon.

The list of jobs on the bolster is now running a bit shorter, nearly to the point where it just needs paint, which we need to wait for the warmer weather. There will be another update before the year is out, with our annual wrap up update. Join us again in a few days to find out what we got done in 2021.

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from us. Our main focus this weekend was the annual exam of the Grampus wagons (well 4 Grampus and 1 steel Tunny). These have recently been unloaded so became available to us.

Dave, Nick, Richard and myself set up on the wagons, undertaking axle box exams and oiling up the brake gear. As these had been left loaded with spoil we had expected the axle boxes to have some water content but were pleasantly surprised.

An axle box exam consists of the following: cleaning around the box to make sure nothing can fall onto the pad or into the box. For divided boxes, the split pins are removed and the nuts are undone to lower the box bottom. For open-fronted boxes, the cover is just a case of levering the cover open with the special-shaped ‘Shark’ spanner. Once open or lowered, the pad is removed from the reservoir and placed on an empty paint tin. The contents of the tank are examined; mostly these were full of oil, but some did have some water in them. At this point, the exposed part of the journal is inspected for any damage or scoring.

The water gets emptied out of the tank and then they are topped up with fresh oil. The pad is examined, the tails are teased out and if the top and tails are satisfactory, it is placed back into the reservoir. After this, it is just a case of reassembling the axle box.

Richard was guided through undertaking a vehicle inspection by Dave and I oiled the brake gear on the push braked wagons which is accessible from each side of the wagon, so no need to go underneath. All doors chains were inspected, and besides one door securing lug being broken off, all is well.

Sunday started with more of the same, finishing off the exams by oiling up the only vac braked Grampus we have, DB991408. This is clasp braked so much more involved to oil up with lots of brake linkage in the centre of the wagon. The wagon also has screw couplings, so these were oiled as well.

After the wagon work was completed, operation tidy up carried on and I also sorted out the remote on/off for the power supply installed last week. We sorted through the spanners and have categorised them into Metric, A/F and Whitworth.

In ‘crafty corner’ Richard and Dave prepared the labels for each crate containing each of our power tools, continuing the organisation of those.

That just about wraps up our work for this week. Next weekend is Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so for a somewhat rare occasion, there will be no real update from us. All of us here wish you a Merry Christmas and if we don’t post before, and very Happy New Year.