06/11/22 – Lilibet and the Tank – Quorn Wagon & Wagon

Bonfire night weekend at Quorn saw another well attended event on Friday evening with the customary bonfire.

For our group this meant that Saturday morning we concentrated on checking over the mixed freight and tidying up before getting stuck into some work on Elizabeth and 22T tank wagon 3711.

Before we started there was time to watch some YouTube video footage taken during our Open Weekend by Ollie from Wardle Road.
See below or alternatively click this link to watch:- “Quorn Wagon & Wagon Open Weekend”

Elizabeth or ‘Lilibet’ as she is becoming known, was woken from her week long slumber. I treated her to some air in her tyres; she was then used to move the small trailer for unloading of another load of recovered wood planks that were added to the storage pile.

After the trailer was unloaded Ross swept it clean, or so he thought.

Well, owner Matt didn’t seem to think his trailer was clean enough so he swept it again.

Danny was also woken up, treated to some air in the tyres and used to move some rubbish to the skips.

Richard and Nick made a start scraping and removing corrosion from the underframe of the tank wagon 3711.

Matt, Ross and myself tackling a few jobs on Lilibet, starting with the temperamental door handle removal then her ‘ears’ (sorry, roof mounted indicators) were removed as we previously did with Madge.
These indicators were not fitted as standard to Scarabs for British Railways use.

A diesel pipe leak was fixed; the accelerator pedal adjusted, all grease points attended to with the grease gun and various linkages freed off with penetrating oil. We took a good look at the wiring, and it’s clear that Lilibet will need a new wiring loom making at some point. For the time being however we have got the battery charging re-connected and tested, although a new slightly shorter alternator belt will also be required to allow it to be adjusted satisfactorily.

Not wanting to get rid of Lilibet’s ears, Matt found a use for them; and presented Nick with some new head protection equipment.

Work continued into the evening on Lilibet, with both new door handles and locks fitted and working.

Sunday was a damp and overcast start to the day so I opted for some work inside Test Car 2, re-crimping and tidying the generator start battery cables and fitting a battery isolation switch.

Matt and Ross investigated Lilibet’s clutch that was in need of a bit of adjustment; the operating rods were cleaned, re-fitted and then adjusted.

Lilibet’s offside rear mudguard had vibrated loose, so was removed and the brackets cleaned before re-fitting with new locking washers.

Nick, helped by Charlie continued with the scraping and cleaning of the tank wagon 3711

The last job for the weekend on Lilibet was investigating the nearside door droplight that would not open. Removal of the door panel revealed why, the mechanism had been disconnected and a suitable wood prop inserted.