Category: Updates

This weekend saw us working away on B854782, preparing for its visit to the loco shed to have some remedial work to the corrugated ends. Matt has also removed the branding posters pasted onto the vans for the photo charter and gala, and touched in the paint where it had become detached.

Last week we scraped the underframe on B854782 down in preparation for painting. As the welding work is predominantly occurring on the ends, we took the opportunity to paint the underframe, aside from the headstocks.

The item we have been calling the tax disk holder has been painted in black and reassembled onto the van. This details the non-standard, experimental centre shock system fitted to a batch of these vans. Once fitted the screw heads were touched in the same black paint as the cast ring.

As we were working below solebar level, we also performed an axle box exam. A while ago, we came into a TOPS wagon codes book, so we chalked the cripple code for this van on the doors. CG denotes a green card (defected but able to run at design speed), D denotes defect due to damage, and the C denotes Bodywork.

Next week, we hope that this vehicle is in the engine shed being nursed back to health, and that B954268 is in a position to enable us to give it some due attention.

Thanks for reading!

Our attention this Bank Holiday weekend has been turned to B854782, a 1958 Darlington built Diagram 1/218 Lot 3117 Shocvan.

This vehicle is a clear example of what happens if the roof of a vehicle is not maintained.  Water seeps in between the outer and inner skins of the vehicle and the damage is lasting.

This vehicle will soon be making its way to the Locomotive works for some much-needed welding to repair the steel ends of the vehicle.  It is in use as the crane packing van and as such full of packing wood which required to be emptied, this was carried out so we could begin the task of removing the nuts and bolts to release the plywood inner and outer sheets.

With the vehicle being 60 years old these did not want to undo so out came the grinders. Each one was cut down its length and the remaining nut pieces chiselled off.

The vehicle was stripped of all its wood and the extent of the water damage clearly visible.

 

 

What we have started referring to as the tax disk holder was also removed.  This details the experimental shock gear fitted to this vehicle new disks will be printed and the artwork has been created and will be ready for when reassembly begins.

 

The exposed steelwork was rubbed down and the sound items red oxided.  The lower steel down each side was straightened and areas of loose rust removed.

 

Because the floor had been covered with wood it has remained in extremely good condition with only one plank requiring replacement.

The final day of the bank holiday was dedicated to the stripping and red oxiding of the external metal fittings recovered from the removed woodwork.

 

All that was left to do was lock up the vehicle as security is our number one priority.

We mentioned last week about another project but unfortunately, we are still unable to elaborate further.

Finally, an image from Jason Cross, taken during the Photocharter held on 03/05/18 and featuring the van train

Having returned from 1918 I have had to catch up this week,  the advantage of being on earlies.  So out with my templates and brushes, the signwriting has been applied as well as the chalkboard paint to E87674.

The black oval under the tare I have noticed during my research on a number of vehicles. We believe this denoted an alteration of the tare weight possible due to changing of wheel bearing type although we are speculating we do quite like this unusual livery detail so decided to add it.

Speaking of livery details I shall mention the little symbol under the tare,  this is an LMS practice that was adopted by BR.  There was a repeating sequence of 12 Symbols which represent the year the vehicle was painted, with thanks to Brian Hallett of RVP for the full details, we have continued the sequence with 2017 represented by a right-handed right angle triangle, 2018 is a filled in London Transport roundel.

So on to the next project…………………

This weekend we have continued working on the Fish Van. We are also a man down this weekend, as Matt has become a member of the Royal Flying Corps for a photo charter. This hasn’t impeded progress, however, there are fewer photos. The below picture shows how we left the vehicle at the end of last weekend.

Saturday started off with us sanding the south two panels in the picture above, along with the south end. Following this, the undercoat was cracked out to get the van finished off in undercoat. I cleaned the gun out and started thinning the gloss down in order to start spraying the East side and North end, whilst the new undercoat was drying.

As with last weekend, this also included the headstocks. This is just after the headstock had been painted into gloss. The details such as the drawhook, vacuum swan neck and buffer heads were painted later one once the Ice Blue paint had hardened off.

As the paint is only for the fish van, we tried to put as many coats of paint to use the paint up. By the end of Saturday, the Eastside had 2 coats of gloss and both ends and headstocks had been painted. To finish the day we scraped the underframe on the West side as it is accessible. Before we started painting on Sunday morning, we blew down the debris following scraping the underframe, then painted the 2nd coat of gloss on the Westside.  We shuffled the vans down so we could get to the East Side to scrape and paint it.

Once the underframe was painted the bufferheads and swan necks got painted, along with the lamp brackets and handbrake lever ends.

As the wheelsets are close to the end of the van, we painted up the brake cross shafts in black and refitted the couplings.

Next steps for this vehicle are the signwriting, unfortunately, no blue spot as the vehicle doesn’t have roller bearing wheelset. This will then be ready for traffic.

 

Following on from Matt’s report last week, B850498 has now been completed. The roof has been touched up following last Sunday’s rain. Here are 2 photos of it in “ex-works” condition. This vehicle has now been put into the van train, thus having its debut at Good Galore! (not bad for a grounded body!)

On to this weekend, which saw us preparing the Fish van for its new colour scheme, whilst the Spring Diesel Gala was taking place. The aluminium body sides and ironwork was sanded, scraped and wire brushed in order to remove old flaky paint and to return the surface of the aluminium to a stable state, suitable for painting over. Areas where the ironwork was pitted was treated with red oxide primer. Some minor repairs to the bottom door runners were also enacted. These had dropped below the bottom of the door so weren’t supporting the door, making them hard to open.

The results of the sanding can be seen in the below pictures, the leftmost picture showing the various items that have been sign written onto the panel, not limited to; BR double arrows from its time in BR blue as an SPV, a Blue Spot from its time as an Insul-Fish and yellow from its time attached to a ballast cleaner as the tool van.

Today, with the weather being changeable, we opted to start painting the van into its undercoat. It was nice to spray something other than Bauxite or Bauxite undercoat!

The eagle-eyed among you with notice that we have painted the headstocks and buffers in the body colour. this is an unusual, yet prototypical detail that is rarely seen in the preservation of these vehicles. Unfortunately, the rain started so the paint had to go away. Next weekend, it is hoped we can finish painting the west side and the south end.
In other news:

The Swithland Wagon Group have finished their restoration of our tank wagon, A6581. Tommy Lees, Keith Lloyd and David Wood have done a fantastic job with this wagon, and it looks great on the front road at Swithland Sidings. I for one am looking forward to seeing it and A6071 in the trains at Good Galore!

Lastly, we took delivery and put into store a rather exciting item! Hopefully, more shall be announced in the fullness of time.

Another wet weekend but this has not deterred us.  In all honesty, I started lettering Thursday to take advantage of the good mid-week weather.  Friday saw the west side completed with the east side compete on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning was dedicated to the shock stripes.  Measuring 4″ wide and 45″ in height from the bottom of the van body.  These were measured, masked and duly painted.

As seen above whilst I was adding the painted details Nick spent the day scraping hovering and painting the unseen areas of the chassis under the vehicle.  The last thing carried out Saturday was to add the Non-Common User plates painted over Christmas.

Sunday was quite a poor day weather wise but did allow us to paint the roof.

There are however a few remedial actions to be carried out on the roof because of the rain but this will be done in the coming week.  Thus we see the end to our Winter project 2018.  From Grounded Body in December 2017 to Diagram 1/207 Shockvan in April 2018.

We are not finished however as we now move over to Diagram 801 Number E87674 our insulated fish van.

With luck and constantly viewing BBC and Met Office weather apps we were successful in our wish to get top coat on B850498

Friday began with removing the old bolts from the chalkboard locations.  With them removed we ensured the chalkboards we made some time ago fitted.  The boards were then left off in preparation for the top coat.

This is when the weather watching started.  Friday we took a risk and applied the first coat.  As soon as the spray gun was lowered the heavens opened.

It wasn’t until Sunday that we returned and as expected the paint suffered from some pock marking.  This was duly sanded and again the weather apps came out.  With cloudy skies and no rain forecast, Ross started.

Nick and I followed Ross with brushes and touched in the areas inaccessible by the spray gun both the body and underframe received top coats and by the end of the day the whole vehicle was sufficiently dry to add the handbrake handle and through pipe white details.

With one more day to go on this Easter Bank holiday and a washout forecast, we are however again watching the weather apps with fingers crossed that I can start the sign writing.