Category: Updates

This weekend we started with a morning trip “Up” the line to Swithland then on to Rothley.  The Swithland stop was to pick up an 18″ Vacuum cylinder for 500954 and also as the gang is increasing in size a set of seats for Nicks Transit to move us all about when necessary.  On this point, we welcome back Olly, who use to help Nick some time ago.

On to Rothley and some overalls, boots and high-vis for Olly stored in “The Yellow Coach” and a quick look at B954546 which has been recladded on the Westside and received new footboards all-round, amongst other work.

Back at Quorn and the task of overhauling the cylinder. According to the overhaul tag it was last split in 1975 and as expected a few difficulties were encountered. The piston had seized, but the dome was removed without too much hassle. The piston was loosened with a little sledgehammer application and once free Jake unscrewed the piston rod.

Once in kit form, Jake and Olly began to clean up the individual components.

Whilst the dome was empty it was easier to handle under 500954 so Nick and I used it to position and mark the new outer trunnion.  The new item is a BR Coach one which is narrower than the LMS wagon one. The Trunion was offered up, the cylinder leveled and squared and the trunnion clamped and marked up.

The pivot mount was found to be too thick so the trunnion was unclamped adjusted with an angle grinder and reclamped.

The dome was checked for clearance and found to pivot freely so the final hole position was marked and drilled.  The inside of the dome was also “descaled” and painted before being bolted temporarily into position, the first time since 1967 a cylinder has been hung under the vehicle.

Back on to the other components and with Olly’s help I removed the old gland seal, although 2 out of the 3 studs sheared.

With 2 pieces of replacement threaded bar located the new gland seal was fixed in position and by luck one of the sheared studs had enough thread remaining to replace the missing release valve stud.

Last items for Saturday and Jake and Olly made a superb job of the component clean up.

On to Sunday and I was occupied crewing the Class 47 during the GCR’s Diesel Gala.

Jake and Nick continued with the cylinder overhaul ensuring every ounce of rust and detritus was removed.  The plain faces of the cylinder were then red oxide-d ready for next week’s assembly.

Dave was also with us and took on the task of overhauling a few of our spare release valves.

Ross, in the meantime, is once again on his way to Greece on a family holiday.

4 days for wagons next weekend, anything can happen with so much time.

Thanks for joining us for another QWW update. This week we have been working on progressing the LMS van, M500954. Those of you who follow our Facebook page will already know that on Monday, Matt had popped in after this early shift at work to signwriting the still drying van. The van is now signwritten, but will receive its XP rating once the vacuum cylinder is refitted as intended.

On to Saturday and Nick and Matt began by finishing scraping and wire brushing both ends of the van. The north end required a capping wood trimming, then the remainder of the paint removing.

Whilst removing the paint, we found some more concrete evidence as to the van’s new number. As we have mentioned previously we settled on 500954 as it was the most likely number from the disposal list of 1000 vans. The van was recorded as withdrawn at Barassie works, and its final location recorded as Inverkeithing. This is the only van of those withdrawn at Barassie that wasn’t broken up there, and it ended up 1 mile from Inverkeithing as an internal user at MOD Rosyth.

Getting to the point, we uncovered the roof covering date: “7090; 23.10.54”. The depot code for Barassie is 7090 in the 4 number code system. This confirms the van was in Scotland towards the end of its revenue earning service. This we know, as the van was withdrawn at the same works in period 8 in 1967. It was then recorded at Inverkeithing in period 13, 1967.

Once the ends of the van had the paint removed and wire-brushed, I set about applying primer, then undercoat and then top coat to the ends. Whilst I was doing the north end, Matt and Nick fixed the buffer identified as loose last week, which involved an item we have stored in the corner of our tool van, but never once used; a buffer clamp. Usually, we would pin the wagon down and then compress the buffer using the forklift.

On to Sunday, and with it I found myself out of action performing repairs to my car for a forthcoming MOT. I was on site however should any assistance be required. Matt and Nick set about scraping the tin roof of the LMS van clear of its flaking paint, and applying a coat of bitumenous paint.

Matt also reapplied the roof covering date to the north end of the van were it was found. He also picked out the lamp brackets in white, as this is intended to be a fitted vehicle. Finished with the roof, Matt and Nick set about using up what was left in the bitumen tin by painting the south end headstock.

I’m now signing off for 2 weeks, as I am again journeying to Greece. Join Matt again next week for more tales of the LMS van story!

This weekend work of cause continues on 500954,  with the weather as it is it would have been silly to waste it.  The priority has been to paint the sides of the vehicle.  The metal work was scraped down on the East side and Jake and Ross began the spraying. 

Whilst this was going on I tended to some of the last details on the vehicle ends.  Two further plates were manufactured and sealant applied. 

The large repair plate that was fitted last weekend received a row of false rivets to blend the repair into the vehicle. 

Once the east side was in undercoat, we manhandled the vehicle round to the turntable for a quick spin,  this served two purposes, to make the job of spraying the former westside easier and to allow access to the vacuum cylinder location as we will be reinstating the vacuum brake which was removed when the vehicle was sold out of BR ownership around 1964. 

Whilst the spraying of the new Eastside began my attention turned to fitting the vacuum pipe dummies.  Holes drilled, radiuses filed and the dummies bolted into position.  

Once fitted the metal work was heated and twisted to allow the vacuum hose to be fitted to the dummy when not in use.  

With the sides in undercoat, all hands turned to stripping the South end of the vehicle,  it had been painted in bitumastic paint and this will cause issues if we do not fully remove it. 

The stripping of the vehicle end continued into Sunday morning and the entire south end was successfully complete along with most of the way up the north end, unfortunately, it could not be complete due to the loose woodwork under the roof end which would not react well to our paint removing technique. 

I, however, spent the day at the Mountsorrel Railway carrying out demonstration shunts, Dave was on site to assist in my absence.  Although I was also on a fact-finding mission as I took the opportunity to measure the brake cylinder actuating arm on the main brake cross shaft of our LMS medfit. This item is missing from the van and we will require it to reinstate the brakes.

The main event was the top coat being applied to the van sides and this was duly applied by Jake and Ross.

Final tasks were to free off the screw couplings and investigate our loose south-east buffer,  the prognosis, a missing compression rubber. 

That concludes this weekends work,  as always we shall keep you up to date next week.

Thanks for joining for another update! Work this week has continued on the LMS box van. Last week, it was left with 5/6 side sheets replaced, so this week we completed the re-cladding of the van. When I’d arrived, (admittedly later than usual) Matt and Nick had undone most of the bolts holding the remaining cladding to the vehicle. Once the internal cladding had been removed, the planks were removed.

The door on this side of the van has always been stiff to open, so with the side out, Matt began to investigate why.  He began by removing a bit of angle iron that was rubbing on the door, a sort of steel draught excluder.  This helped, but didn’t completely solve the issue. With Matt out of the way, Jake cleaned and painted the backs of the steel uprights, in preparation for putting the boarding back in.

Once started the cladding came together extremely quickly; a blink and you’ll miss it moment!

As with the other corners, this was then fixed into place. Matt, meanwhile, began repairing a hole in the van’s end pressing. As mentioned before, we don’t have the ability to weld in the south yard, so any metal repair has to be bolted or riveted. Matt spent his time in the RAF as an Airframe technician, carrying out riveted repairs to Nimrod airframes among other things. Using the skills honed in the RAF, Matt set about fabricated a patch to go over the lack of metal at the bottom of the end pressing.

As Matt was at the Bluebell Railway on Sunday, Nick and I finished up riveting the plate into position. Also on Sunday, Jake continued his practise at using the spray gun, and both he and I got both van sides into wood primer. Whilst we tackled the Dock side, Nick continued fettling the reluctant sliding door on the west side of the van, and sealing the side of the van.

The painting and the door fettling completed, we turned our attention to the Shochood B and Medfit’s vacuum system. At some point in the past, unknown to us, these vehicles had had their vacuum systems isolated, so were effectively running through piped. We completed the system, and began to diagnose. Nick gathered together some branch pipes and set about reconnected the cylinders. Doing this first step allows us to diagnose the vacuum system, and see where we need to next turn out attention to. That done, I freed the vacuum test rig from the corner of the tool van, and assemble its hoses to begin testing. results from the testing are as follows: the Shochood B requires a new vacuum hose at the south end, and the Medfit requires 2 new hoses and a cylinder overhaul. Though we are thinking about a quieter test rig! (ours is powered by a Lister-Petter diesel engine, so an electric motor probably won’t go amiss!)

Thanks for reading, and who knows what we’ll be doing next week!

We have heard in the past that some say we only repaint our vehicles,  I hope those that once thought that have had a change of opinion and that the last 3 weekends reinforce that opinion.  Work of cause continues on M500954.  First job to complete the East side.  Door planks were trimmed and any areas that will allow moisture in were sealed.

On to the west side which traditionally is the weathered side and this one is no exception. We focused on the North corner and as the bolts were removed the side basically fell out.

Jake then cleaned down and applied red oxide to the back of the frame whilst I manufactured a plate to cover the hole that has allowed water into and subsequently rot the van side.

With the wind whipping around the now open side the red oxide dried very quickly.  The planking then began.  Once we got half way up recesses were cut to allow the planks to sit flush despite four rivets.

Once fully planked plywood inner sheets were cut to size, fitted, holes drilled and bolts fitted, with the final task for Saturday to screw areas on the inner ply skin that was not supported by bolts.

As can be seen, quite a transformation if we don’t say so ourselves.
On to Sunday and attention turned to the West side door.  The old planks were removed, well fell off if we are once again being honest. As well as the locking catch.

Some of the rot had penetrated into the inner planks so these were also removed as required.  This allowed access for Jake to clean and red oxide the doors centre bar.

The plan is not to remove this door but a few areas were tight, so the remaining planks were sanded down to allow clearances to allow the door to slide easily. Measurements were taken and a suitable piece of ply was cut to size and fitted.

Jake primed the edges before fitment and then the outer face once in position, the new door planks were also trimmed to size and locking catch refitted.

The planks were of cause fitted, bolted and screwed top and bottom.

Last job was to clean and hoover the inside ready for the final push.

This completes this weekends work, we are 5/6th of the way through with just one corner to go.  This of cause will be the topic for next weekends update.

Good morning everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn Wagon and Wagon.  This weekend, we have continued to work on the LMS box van.  At the end of last week, we had stripped the side from the van and removed the door frame for patterns.

On Saturday morning we took delivery of the new side planks for the van from Harlows timber merchants. These planks have been pressure treated, so should stand up to the beating the weather throws at the body sides. We also took delivery of a new sliding door frame, ably carried by Matt and Nick.

So the day begins, we began by building up the door frame with all the bits of steel framework to enable the door to be refitted to the van. Taking advantage of the good weather, Matt and Nick set up shop on the dock. Before mounting anything to the frame, areas where things were to be mounted had a generous coating of wood primer. A tea was consumed to allow the paint to dry a little bit, and then the top and bottom angle irons were fitted.

Then the side frame was added, which governed the placing of the rollers at the top of the door, and the corner reinforcing pieces at the bottom.

What was I doing whilst Matt and Nick were readying the door? I was repairing some other doors, as fitted to another Transit van. I replaced locks on the load space doors, and then sat in the warmth of TC2 and repaired the rear door wiring loom. Once I’d fixed the central locking, I assisted Matt and Nick with the rehanging of the sliding door. We’d managed to slide the door on, but some adjustment was required to allow the door its full range of movement. Last thing to fit to the door was the latch.

Just before hometime on Saturday,  Matt painted the door frame and rebates in wood primer and part of the side ‘fell’ in.

On to Sunday. Before I had got there, Matt and Nick (in between perusing the Swapmeet) had fitted the south side planks. Both end required a filling strip, at the top of the cladding, which I set myself up in the GUV to make. These were slid in, and then a team of Dave, Jake, Matt and Nick set about bolting the side planks and internal cladding to the van side. Whilst they did that, I cut out the plywood back piece for the sliding door. The vertical front planks screw to this backing wood, so this task readies us for next week.  Nick, using the angle grinder, cut off the end of the bolts that were considered too long, whilst I was inside screwing the backing boards to the door frame. Now the sides are in its a bit dark in there! Jake finished the door off by painting the front face of the plywood in wood primer.

Next week, the door planks will be added and the side planks painted with wood primer (weather dependent). Then onto the other side!

Thanks for reading!