Category: Updates

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for another update. This weekend we’ve managed to find a dry enough spell to paint the Palvan roof, investigate the Test Car’s fuel tank.

Tom has been doing some work on B954268 during the week while its in the shed having its suspension looked at. A new roof sheet has been laid over the van to re-waterproof it.

I started off by finishing connecting the new batteries in the GUV with crimps ordered in the week. Its a pleasure to be in there without the hum from the charger running all the time as the power supply. I finished the modification off with a Voltmeter to show us the battery volts inside the vehicle so we can monitor the charge level.

Dave made a start by looking at the fuel pick up and return lines into the fuel tank on the Test Car. The pipe fittings were welded to the top of the tank, so looking at them became a little more tricky. The fuel was drained out so we could check for sludge at the bottom of the tank. we found the end of the pick up tube nestled in the tank’s drain bung, so it was just a case of cleaning out the drain bung, rather than the tank.

In a dry spell in the afternoon, we used our new oxy-propane heat gun to look at the sides of the Catfish. The gouges imparted by digger buckets were slit with the grinder and then heated and whacked to flatten the crease. Its all trial and error at the moment, and we’ll have some welding to do at some point, but we’ve made a start.

Sunday was by far the drier day so much so, we got the roof painted on the Palvan! That now only leaves the 2 vacuum hoses to replace before the acceptance exam. Tom, Mark Dan and I hit the roof with the PVC canvas paint and quickly got it covered. Dan carefully painted the edges and above the doors, and did the same with bauxite once the roof paint had dried. Nick used the bauxite brush to touch in some of the body.

With the Palvan requiring minimal attention next weekend, we’ll hit the two Catfish, continuing with how we’ve started the first. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. Work has focused on the small bits to get the Palvan ready to run, though with the list dwindling, some work was done on the GUV too.

Nick and Charlie continued with Operation Grass Cut, finishing the section between our two coaches and the running line. Once completed, the newly prepared chalkboards were fitted to the Palvan.

Ernie concentrating the under-frame details and touching in the black, including scraping and painting the bottom side of the headstocks.

I disconnected and removed the current batteries in the GUV. It was thought the cells were life expired, however, one of the cell connections had corroded and broken, so there might be hope in them yet. However, with some new batteries sat there waiting to go in, the decision was made to replace. We can then look at the others at our leisure. I made up new connection tails, and am just waiting for the copper tube terminals for the cable ends.

On Sunday, being that it was just the two of us, Dave and I treated ourselves to breakfast on the train, not before we surveyed the van train to get an idea for the work needed on the vehicles in it. Some new ply sheets and some new planks to do, so we’ll get those planned. For the most part its a sand and a repaint for several of the vans, which is positive.

After a quick look round at Loughborough, we went back to Quorn and got on with the signwriting. Dave on the wagon plate, and me on the vacuum release chord star.

With the paint drying, we shuffled the vehicles back down and started the formal brake test of the Palvan. The brake test was mostly good and functioned correctly, though the leakage rate is not up to spec.

We also recovered a set of our steps from the yard using ‘George’, it reminded me a cut price version of the steps you have for aircraft!

With that done, the last job to tick off on the Palvan is painting the roof, which hopefully will be done next week. Thanks for reading!

Hello and welcome to our first June 2024 update. The team at Quorn have been busy again with the needle gun on the underframe and signwriting brushes out for the east bodyside of the Palvan.

Saturday, Nick and Charlie removed the remains of the original D plates and bolts; these had been snapped off many years ago but the remains and the bolts need to be removed so we can signwrite new D plates.

Ernie went round the underframe with a black touch-up brush attending to any areas missed and also where the D plate remains were. He then did some bauxite touch up along any edges that got missed with the spray gun.

Some new chalk boards were cut then primed and undercoated by Richard.

I got stuck into the Palvan east-side chalking-up and signwriting

The bodyside number, load, wheelbase, tare weight and XP were completed and the 2024 paint symbol added to both sides of the wagon.

Nick and Charlie tackled some of the long grass to the west of the mess coach with the lawn mower.

I also completed the Palvan lettering and Return to Port Sunlight text on the east side.

Both east and west Palvan bodysides are now complete.

On Sunday Oliver and Nick continued with the chalkboard painting in undercoat followed by black gloss.

The Palvan was rolled out of the dock so we could access the east side underframe where Tom got stuck in with the needle gun.

Dan continued work on the west side underframe completing the signwriting of the D-plate and vac release star.

Mark and Tom applied primer to the cleaned up east side underframe.

The end is in sight now for the Palvan, join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello, and welcome to this week’s second May Bank Holiday update from Quorn. We’ve worked around the weather and got the Palvan into its second coat of gloss, signwritten, and the underframe painted in black.

Saturday saw Jack and Dave continuing the work on Madge, getting more stripped off of the vehicle including all the wiring and petrol tank. Dave also cleaned off the wheels and got them painted into primer.

Jack removed the levers in the cab and refurbished them on the bench.

For me, the main event was spraying the gloss on the Palvan. I had a few issues with the pressure pot initially, but once working and with Ernie’s help I got the two ends and both sides coated in the lovely bauxite colour we know so well.

Sunday was fairly damp, but to continue sign writing we improvised a shelter from the LOBO scaffolding and an old gazebo Dave dug out. This enabled Dave, Dan and I to get the doors mostly sign written.

Initially Dan worked with Mark to paint the underframe into black, and they made good progress on the accessible side.

Dave took care of the vehicle number, while I applied the PALVAN lettering. Dan started applying the “Return to” branding on the van. Unfortunately the weather closed in before this could be finished.

I finished off the branding, and applied the XP, wheelbase and tare mass to the other end of the van.

Nick got the black paint back out and painted both headstocks, and the north wheel pan on the west side.

The light is very much at the end of the tunnel with the Palvan, the other side needs sign writing, the east side underframe a scrape and paint, and then its details, details, details. Though we shouldn’t forget about that pesky roof!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Welcome to a Bus Rally Weekend update from the team. Despite the distraction of some fabulous buses and the sunshine, Nick, Ross, Mark, Ernie, Tom, Dan, Oliver, Charlie and myself have progressed the Palvan nearer to completion and Jack joined us to get stuck into some work on Madge.

There was also some grass cutting done, and some chairs were washed !

The needle gun was used to finish off cleaning up the remaining metalwork on the Palvan. Undercoat was then applied.

Madge’s rear wheels were removed and pressure washed, the left hand wheel taking a few minutes longer to remove as scratched our heads, eventually working out that the left side wheel nuts are left hand threaded.

Some sanding of the previously painted panel work on the Palvan was done in readiness for gloss painting (hopefully next weekend weather permitting).

The needle gun found it’s way into the garage and was put to work cleaning up the Madge’s hubs, brake drums and areas of the frame now accessible following removal of the wheels.

The brake adjusters on the rear drums were fettled to dress the burrs and checked for operation. The handbrake and footbrake were applied checking each drum in turn; the effectiveness seemed very good.

The fuel sender was removed as it has never worked reliably, thankfully it seems to be just a stuck needle. The fuel tank was also removed so we could get access to the frame behind.

The exhaust has at least three holes, a torn bracket and blown gasket, so this was removed. We’re hoping to get a new one made up locally using this as a template.

Some engine cleaning was done and the cooling system drained; the somewhat tired radiator hoses were removed for measuring up for replacements.

Some red-oxide primer was applied to the areas of Madge’s underframe cleaned up.

That’s it for this week, join us again next time, all the best, Dave

Hello everyone and welcome to another warm weekend from Quorn. The push on the Palvan continues, with primer being applied and more paint removed simultaneously.

Oliver, Mark and Dan made a start by applying undercoat to the framework that Nick and I prepared on Bank Holiday Monday.

Ernie applied red oxide primer to the west side under frame, and was joined by Oliver and Mark once they’d finished with the undercoat.

Tom was gainfully employed with the needle gun tackling the north end framework and the east side metal work, getting them ready for primer.

Barry and I decided to remove the fuel pump from the Test Car’s generator so it is ready to take for testing or maybe even rebuild. Dan assisted by removing the belt guards and inspection plate to allow the pump to be disconnected from its drive gear. We also cleaned the engine with some degreaser, so its easier for us to see future issues.

Dan finished off by cleaning up the belt guards and applying some etch primer to them.

Nick and I finished off preparing the iron work on the Palvan. Nick scraping and me spending the day applying primer to all the uprights and north headstock.

There is a little bit of needle gunning still to do on the east side, put we are firmly in paint territory, although there will be some keying to do on the glossed woodwork to ready it for a second coat. Thanks for reading!

Evening folks, and welcome to another update from us. This weekend has been another one where we’ve opened the Test Car up for everyone to come and have a look and learn about how and why rolling stock was tested. For those that visited its been a pleasure to talk to you!

Dave was at the NEC with West Hill Wagon Works, which left Barry, Richard and myself to give Test Car tours, and the rest of the gang to man the sales stand, all of which helps to put money back into the wagon fund.

Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver did really well on the sales stand, though also found plenty of opportunities to get snaps of all the diesels running past the Test Car. Dan found some time to give some of the yellow vehicles a wipe over as well.

Sunday ended up being a very quiet day due to the weather, so the team started to find ways to amuse themselves. Some went on a ride on the trains, others started to investigate features of the Test Car, including swapping one of the speaker boxes, investigating the reed switch on the Slip Brake Application handle and seeing if we could find the other end of its cable to re-use it as the remote start on the Time/Speed/Distance Unit as was the case when slip brake testing. Another thing that was dug out and measured was the spare tachograph, which we are cooking up some plans for…

Given the weather, Nick also looked into the rebuild container to check for any leaks. Aside from around the door, all seems to be well and dry.

One of the visitors was PurpleVision who came through on the Sunday once the weather had cleared.

We’ll be back to wagon work next week, so back into the normal swing of things. Join us then where we are planning to pick up with where was left off on the Palvan. Thanks for reading!

This weekend the team have supported the Road Rail Steam weekend welcoming visitors into Test Car 2 in the goods shed dock. We’ve also made a little more progress with the A-type container.

Nick and Oliver worked on the container, fitting some more bolts through the metalwork including a door hold-back loop and making & fitting bottom door strips.

They also salvaged a corner bumpstop from an another scrap container end panel, grinding off the rivets and bolting into place to replace the missing one on the A-type container.

Over the weekend Barry, Ross, Richard, Tom and myself welcomed visitors into Test Car 2.

For this weekend the organisers had placed us in the good shed dock which meant we had access to the new power supply recently installed on the dock. This allowed us to run the air compressor in the Test Car so that we could operate the air brakes on our Steel High test wagon, replicating the way the brakes were operated during slip-brake testing when it was carried out by British Rail.

There were many superb exhibits on display and operating in the yard during the weekend, including the 9F 92214 and D123 hauling a goods train.

Instead of trying to wind us up, this weekend Oliver decided instead to try and wind up a traction engine !

We look forward to opening up the Test Car again next weekend for the GCR’s Spring Diesel Gala; we will be open to visitors all weekend (27-28 April 2024) in the yard at Quorn outside the Marquee.

Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us for this weekend’s work from Quorn. This week, we’ve given the Palvan a rest while we concentrate on getting A1610B stable and usable after its relocation.

We moved the container to use as storage on the dock for some of our access equipment. The container was felt to be too far gone at the moment for use being lifted and put on a wagon in a train, but could be shored up for use as a period appropriate shed.

Nick and I started by fitting the door flap which didn’t get finished last week. We then continued at the corner started last week and finished off drilling and putting bolts in.

We looked at the the corrugated end sides and found most of the bolts had gone, or were trying to tie together rotten wood. We cut some ply to replace the unhappy interior and exterior cladding and cut new supporting wood where requires.

The middle framework supporting the floor ended up not being attached to the rest of the container, so we replaces the bolts on both of these, and added new spreader plates on the outside to support the wood which is getting a bit on the fragile side.

Dave joined us on Sunday, where we concentrated on the wood across the back, and tying the end back to the sides of the container, which also supports the floor. We started by removing more floorboards, where I found some where to use more of our wood hardener.

Dave and I selected one of the last few bits of loco shed roof to act as the bottom support for the end, which was denailed and then cut down. Before fitting this we Dave and Nick cleared the way under the container.

We fixed one end to the corrugated end. Dave and Nick leveled the container using jacks and crowbars. The other end of the plank got fixed to the metalwork.

I started cutting a piece to graft into the side rail on the other side which had long disappeared having suffered from a prolonged water leak in that corner. I also manufactured two plates to sandwich and support the graft.

After this was bolted in, Nick and Dave added 2 large L shaped brackets between the sides and the end to fully tie them together. We moved to the other final corner to finish its repair. Nick and Dave added a right angled plate.

With all the lower framework shored up, Nick started to put the floor back down.

There’s still about a mornings work left to do on the container, putting more bolts in and such like. At some point the door flap could probably do we being remade, but that was definitely a job for another day! As nice as these containers are, you can really see why Freightliner and ISO type containers quickly became adopted!

Next week, we’ll have the Test Car open in the yard at the Road Rail so do come and see us! Depending on who we have with us we may also have the sales stand up and running, or more work on the container will take place.