Category: Updates

  • 12/01/25 – A very cold weekend!

    12/01/25 – A very cold weekend!

    Hello everyone, and welcome to another weekend update from Quorn. Saturday was a bit of a cold one, with the below 0 temperatures precluding any meaningful external work, though I did design a part for the cut off saw to accept the commercially available abrasive wheels. We laid some more carpet inside the cage area of the mess coach. At least the tank train looked very picturesque in the Down Lie-by!

    With my newly designed and 3d printed parts, I got the cut off saw working and ready to work. Dan and I used it to prepare some of the pipework found last week, cutting away the flame cut ends to square up them up.

    Mark, Tom and Nick did some more work on the south end of the GUV, re-fixing some of the hinge strapping back to the doors, and scrapping the iron and woodwork.

    Danny was uncovered and started for the first time this year to take some items to the vans in the yard. His sheet was unfolded and measured and found to be suitable for a van roof, so this was stripped of components and folded for storage.

    Lastly, we also assembled some pallet racking in the fish van to increase storage space.

    Thanks for reading, and join us next week where we should be starting to fit vacuum pipework to the TTAs.

  • 05/01/25 – Cool Tanks

    05/01/25 – Cool Tanks

    Hello and welcome to our first update for 2025. We have been painting the GUV when the weather has allowed, assessing parts for the tank wagon vacuum piping, and doing some housekeeping.

    Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver took the opportunity of the good weather on New Years Eve to get the West side of the GUV painted in gloss. They also started work on the south end doors.

    On Saturday Nick, Ernie, Charlie and myself made a start collecting together and assessing what pipework we have that could be used for the vacuum through piping of the three tank wagons. The pipe route on the two TTA wagons is relatively straightforward as these two wagons were vac through pipe fitted when new. Some of the brackets still remain too.

    The TEA however has never had a vacuum pipe so sorting the best route and where to fit suitable mounting brackets is a little more complex.

    On Sunday Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver continued with the housekeeping including erecting some much needed storage shelving in the Fish Van.

    It was great to see the tanks running throughout the weekend that were being operated as part of staff training exercises.

    Thanks for reading, join us again next week, best regards, Dave

  • 31/12/2024 – Happy New Year

    31/12/2024 – Happy New Year

    Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout 2024; we’ve enjoyed the busy year and are very much looking forward to getting stuck in to some new projects during 2025.

    Here’s our end of year roundup in pictures.

    Happy New Year from the team at Quorn Wagon & Wagon

  • 29/12/2024 – Vans and Vac Cylinders

    29/12/2024 – Vans and Vac Cylinders

    Over the festive period we have made good progress with four box van roofs, salvaged some of the Lowfit’s rotten floor and made a start on the restoration of a vacuum brake cylinder.

    23rd Dec – At Rothley, Nick, Ross, Mark and Tom stripped the roofs from B777171, B780282 and B779978. New roof sheets were opened out and rolled up to be lifted on to the roof of each van. Dan, Oliver and Charlie cleaning the sheets and tidying up. By the end of the day, each van was sat with a sheet resting on its roof.

    24th Dec – Nick, Ross, Mark and Tom fixed down the roof sheet at each end and along the sides of B777171. The top door frame was refitted to both sides and the roof sheet fully fitted and finished. The roof coverings of P18422 were removed down to the bare wood. Oliver and Charlie assisting tiding up the old roof coverings then cleaning and painting the roof hoops.

    27th Dec – The roof was prepared on P18422, the sheet laid out and lifted onto the van for rolling out. The roof hoops were fixed on B779978 & B780282, and both sides fixed down aside from around the door frames due to rotten door top frames.

    28th Dec – Nick, Ross, Ernie, Charlie and myself returned to Quorn to look at options for replacing the four rotten top door frame noggins. The floor of the recently arrived Lowfit wagon was assessed and will need to be replaced. The majority of the planks were found to be rotten however there were a few that could be salvaged. They are by coincidence big enough to be made into replacement noggins for the box vans. We therefore set about removing the re-usable planks.

    Whilst myself and Ross were busy with the planks, Nick, Charlie and Ernie continued the work on the 21″ vacuum cylinder spares. Despite having enough parts for three cylinders, the corrosion damage on two of the cylinder bores means that these will need machining before they can be used again.

    Ernie finished off drilling the split pin hole in a new door hinge pin that he had made to replace a missing one on the Lowfit. The new pin was then fitted to the wagon.

    Ross and myself selected the best of the four rotten door frame noggins from the vans at Rothley. In the warmth of the Mess coach there was much head scratching and careful measuring up of what was a somewhat incomplete noggin. We were eventually able to complete a drawing that will enable the manufacture of some replacement noggins.

    29th Dec – Nick continued with painting up the one usable vacuum cylinder whilst I cleaned up the threads of the dome studs with a die-nut.

    Ross and myself took a look at the first of three floor planks from the Lowfit that had been left inside overnight to dry out a bit. Slicing in stages to assess the integrity of the wood in the middle of the plank, we were able to cut good wood of the correct size for one replacement noggin.

    The next stage, using our drawing, was to start marking out the positions for the eight mounting holes, which were then drilled.

    Thanks for reading, join us again soon for an end of year round-up looking back at what we have achieved over the last 12 months.

  • 22/12/24 – New projects…

    22/12/24 – New projects…

    Hello, and welcome to another update from Quorn. Now that the Catfish have departed Quorn destined for the Mixed Freight set, we’ve received the two TTAs, and the TEA has been brought down from the top of the yard. We’ll be looking at vacuum through piping these over the coming weeks and months. We’ve also been preparing for a short spell at Rothley to give the roofs of four of the vans some attention.

    First off, the team set about locating our 21″ vacuum cylinder spares, which were spread across a few locations. During this, the yard area was tidied up to release a complete (but not very well cylinder) from inside the Volvo’s bucket.

    This cylinder was removed from 3711 when it arrived, for obvious reasons. Now we are restoring a handful of engineer’s vehicles, which usually all have a 21″ cylinder, we felt that we’d need to check the condition of all available parts, which includes that cylinder…

    With a lot of brute force and occasional ignorance but without heat (surprisingly), the cylinder was dismantled. It remains to be seen if this cylinder will resurrect, but we can only try. Plus it gives us a chance to try soda blasting it!

    Dave removed the cylinder head from the de greaser and gave it a rinse off with the pressure washer. This was left to dry out in the heated mess coach. We’ll begin to assess the rest of the parts as time and other projects allow.

    As the light was falling, Dave and I took a brief look at the through pipe route for the three green tanks, the two TTAs having a well defined route in a bit of a contrast to the TEA.

    All that leaves us to say is Merry Christmas from us. We’ll have another update for you before the New Year with a bit of a wrap up and to cover what we’ve done over the Christmas and New Year period, do join us then!

  • 15/12/24 – A Lowfit at last!

    15/12/24 – A Lowfit at last!

    Hello all and welcome to this week’s update; after many years waiting we finally welcome the arrival of our Lowfit wagon into the fleet.

    Lowfit B452718 was built at Shildon in 1957 in Lot No.2729, to Diagram 1/002.
    It was last used on the main network at Basingstoke as an internal user wagon numbered 083473 and entered preservation in 2007 at the Mid Hants Railway.  The wagon arrived at Quorn during the week loaded with a D-type open container that had been constructed during preservation. Although the floor of the container looked quite rotten in places, our initial thoughts were to try and lift the container off the wagon in readiness for some necessary underframe and floor repairs.

    The Volvo was positioned and we attached some straps to the lifting eyes; gently raising the forks however pulled two of the lifting eyes straight out of the framework; it was somewhat more rotten than we had realised.

    So onto plan B; we decided to dismantle the container in situ on the wagon. Whilst the floor and side framework was rotten and not saveable, the side panels, corner framework and doors were quite solid. With most of the team on-site on Saturday things happened quite quickly, the doors were removed, end panels unbolted from the sides and the parts lifted from the wagon onto the Volvo forks for moving to storage.

    The remainder of the rotten framework was swept off the wagon and disposed of with the help of Hector and his trailer.

    The south east corner door frame of the Lowfit, catch pin and loop had taken a bash at some point in its life.  Ernie got out the gas bottles and heated up the bent loop which was straightened with Nick’s favourite item from his toolbox. Once cooled the area was treated with re-oxide primer.

    With most of the team on-site Mark treated us to some fabulous turkey & duck Christmas baguettes for lunch, thanks Mark and the chefs helpers.

    Further progress was also made on Test Car 2s generator; Ross and myself drained the coolant out of the engine, removed the rocker shaft, the cylinder head, and finally got to the bottom of the poor starting and lumpy running. The cylinder head gasket had totally failed between cylinders 1 and 2.

    The cylinder head studs were removed from the block and surfaces cleaned, cylinder bores cleaned & hoovered out, checked for condition and the engine set to No.1  piston at TDC.

    On Sunday myself and Ross dismantled the cylinder head removing the cam followers and valves; the large pillar drill made an excellent valve spring compressor.

    The cylinder head was then soaked in a bath of warm degreaser solution and as much of the gunk removed as possible. Further cleaning up is planned for next week.

    The repaired corner on the Lowfit was given a coat of gloss Bauxite.

    The two Catfish wagons are planned to leave Quorn next week, in readiness we completed a vacuum brake test on both wagons, finding a slightly suspect vacuum cylinder branch pipe on DB983393 which was duly replaced.

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

  • 08/12/24 – Keeping Busy

    08/12/24 – Keeping Busy

    Hello and welcome to a very wet weekend update from Quorn. The Test Cars’ generator continues to be problematic; however we have completed the outstanding mechanical item on one of the Catfish.

    During the week I was asked by the Rothley C&W team if I’d help out with part of the signwriting on BG 81382 which was being finished off ready for release from Rothley and use on the Santa Special trains this weekend.
    (Photos courtesy of & copyright Jamie Swanson)

    Mark, Tom and Charlie got stick into some interior cleaning in Test Car 2.

    Whilst Ernie did some repairs to some of Test Car 2’s 1980s vintage wooden chairs.

    Under Catfish DB983393, the initial thought was to heat up the area surrounding the two sheared bolts and use an easy-out extractor to remove them, however the bolts would not budge. So Ross and myself moved on to plan-B and drilled out the two bolts and tapped the holes for M12, then secured the saddle back into place.

    With a fully charged starter battery connected to Test Car 2’s generator we were hopeful to get it running again. After quite a few attempts it finally fired up, however it was not running very smoothly at all and didn’t sound quite right either. We tweaked the fuel pump adjustment and tried again, but it ran much the same.
    Our conclusion after all the replacement parts and checks we have done is that the problems could lay deeper in the engine; so we have decided the next step is to check the state of things in and under the cylinder head. The first task being to remove the exhaust.

    With the exhaust manifold removed it became clear that that this engine needs some further TLC. The exhaust ports being very badly coked up.

    We continued to remove parts in readiness for releasing the cylinder head.

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

  • 01/12/24 – Wash and brush up

    01/12/24 – Wash and brush up

    Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. We’ve been able to progress a few jobs this week, with mechanical work culminating on the Catfish, the GUV has had another coat of paint and the coaches have been cleaned.

    Continuing the progress on the GUV, the last few patches of GUV were cleared back to bare metal, then sanded and primed. Dan, Ernie and Tom concentrated on fixing the loose body side rubbing strips.

    Reflecting the fact that the Catfish are cosmetically finished, Nick got them ready for a vacuum test by fitting vacuum hoses. We had also made a start extracting two sheared bolts in the hopper door on DB983393, which need to be extracted to refit one of the door mounting saddles.

    I continued looking at the generator and replaced the starter solenoid and double checked the timing, hoping I’d find the cause of it not running, sadly at the end of Saturday this was not the case, but I put the battery on charge for the night.

    The rest of the team made good progress and got the west side of the GUV covered in undercoat, ready for a coat of maroon gloss when the weather allows.

    Sunday’s weather started on the wet side. Mark and Tom did the usual gutter clearing, after noticing the water running down the side of the two coaches. After the worst of the rain, the pressure washer was used to jet the gutters, after which the coaches were cleaned using a bit of snow foam. On the west side a look out was used to ensure the group were away from the running line.

    I did a little bit more on the generator and got it running, which is a huge step given were we were with it some time ago. There is some fettling to do with the idle speed and fine tuning of the timing before we can put this back into use.We are starting to look at some improvements to the generator like an electric lift pump and maybe an alternator instead of a dynamo.

    We’ve ended the weekend with two clean coaches, a running generator and the GUV in undercoat on the west side. We’ll see what the weather brings next week, but we should are looking at completing the mechanical work on the two Catfish and hand paperwork over the Carriage & Wagon to begin their acceptance. Thanks for reading!

  • 24/11/24 – Hiding from the weather

    24/11/24 – Hiding from the weather

    Good evening all, and welcome to another update. With the Catfish finished, and the weather taken a turn for the worst we’ve looked at inside work, though the GUV did get a bit more attention.

    I concentrated on re-assembling the genset in the Test Car, bleeding the fuel system, replacing the coolant and of course trying to start it. Sadly, still no joy with getting it running so still more work to do on this.

    In a gap in the weather on Sunday, the Baldwins managed to get some more of the west side of the GUV stripped back and prepared.

    Thanks for reading! Fingers crossed for better weather next week, join us there and see what we get up to.

  • 17/11/24 – Hurrah for the Completed Catfish

    17/11/24 – Hurrah for the Completed Catfish

    Welcome to our ‘Last Hurrah’ update from the team at Quorn; this week we have finally completed the restoration work on the two Catfish wagons. We have also progressed the with the west side of the GUV.

    Between 1954 and 1961 Metro-Cammell built a total of 716 Catfish ballast hopper wagons in 6 batches. Of these 16 Catfish are believed to survive in preservation, not may of which have been restored.

    The last Hurrah weekend meant a busy goods train service through Quorn, it was great to see our tanks and the van train running throughout the weekend, however we didn’t get too distracted.

    Dan and myself got stuck into the remaining areas of the Catfish east side signwriting.

    Mark and Ernie continued with removing the stubborn crusty paintwork from the west side of the GUV.

    The showers didn’t deter us either, using our Gazebo to enable continuation of the signwriting.

    Sunday continued much the same, with Mark, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and Nick concentrating on the GUV.

    Whilst Dan and myself completed the signwriting on the east side of both the Catfish.

    I also added the 2024 paint symbol to both wagons.

    Mark got tired after all the GUV work…..

    And Dan quite rightly felt proud of his signwriting achievements on the Catfish.

    Charlie and Oliver helped me fit the vacuum release chords to both wagons.

    To celebrate the ‘Last Hurrah’ lets have a few more pics of the good trains.

    Tom then carried out the final vehicle checks on the Catfish and completed our restoration completion check forms.

    All that remains now is a couple of maintenance items such as vacuum hose replacements and brake gear oiling; the two Catfish will then be handed over to the C&W department for final sign-off before entering traffic.

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