News and Updates

Unfortunately Tuesday we learned of the passing of one of the GCR’s most notable characters. Peter Haylock was instrumental within the Operations Department and was formerly the railway’s Operations Manager, he always had a kind word to say or a story to share.  Personally, he was there on my very first day as a TTI and encouraged me to become a Guard, we shared many a conversation at many an event.  Unfortunately, our exchanges reduced as I moved away from Operating to Wagon Maintenance but I am glad to have had that last wave as we passed on the 37 last Friday. He will be sadly missed by the team and our thoughts are with his family.  “Cheerio Matey”

We move to Saturday and continue work on Test Car 2. Nick progressed the roof scrape throughout the day.  Whilst Dave removed all of the vinyls.

 

Once all were removed Daves attention turned to the doors.  Inspecting each and making repairs as necessary. Filling, sanding, and priming.

 

Unfortunately, the Generator door was beyond repair and the decision was taken to replace it with one of our spares.  This door previously being from a South West Trains EMU.

 

Whilst this was going on I cleaned up all of the door hinges and handles, removing the decades of paint.

 

All of our attention then turned to the replacement of the door.  Removing the hinge pins, fitting the new door and making adjustments to the other door, budget lock, and main lock positions.

 

Ross also continued with a few items on our Dumper Danny

 

On to Sunday and more of the same for Nick as he continued scrapping the roof.
With the new door being of fiberglass construction when it was trimmed to fit in the luggage door location it left a large hole in the bottom of the door. My first task was to manufacture a cover plate that seals the door bottom.

Ross started to set up an airline and air powered sander and once I had finished with the door and it could be shut he struck up the test cars generator and compressor.

During the sanding, Ross noticed a number of loose window frames and using some of my old RAF riveting skills I replaced the loose and sheared rivets.

Ross continued with the sanding and as we know this is not a quick task

I moved on to the other side and refitted the securing chain for the reducing valve.

I then faced the essay that is the legend on the southend of the vehicle.  I also painted out the weight and seat number as these items were not picked out on the data plaque.  Mr Bower providing a clear image of the plaque. THE details are for a standard BSK, not Test Car 2.

That concludes this weeks update. More of cause next week as we continue on “2 Car”.

This weekend has been one of hospital jobs, but before we get to that we have some week work to catch up on. Those of you that are following our Facebook page will know that several things has happened this week. Firstly, Matt bought and fetched a fibreglass container with Nick. Secondly, Matt completed the signwriting on the Centre Shock van, thereby releasing the vehicle to traffic. It can now join the rest of the van train. Lastly, courtesy of the Heavy Tractor Group, the Test Car has been turned so that we can start work on the other side.

 

On to this weekend. Saturday and Sunday has been one of small jobs, tidying up the workshops and storage vehicles. We have been hard at it on various project over the past few weeks, so we’ve taken the time to stop and have a sort out. I played doctor to our Winget site dumper, Danny. As the skips have moved down the yard, and with the vans hopefully coming back for attention to the vacuum system, we have decided to get Dnny back up and running. Danny has been out of use for some time for various reasons, the biggest of which is the lack of fuel getting to the injector. I ordered a rebuild kit for the fuel pump in the week, and armed with a certain amount of naivety I set upon the dumper. I removed the fuel pump from the engine to find the cam follower seized, which would explain the lack of injection. I freed of the cam follower with a mixture of penetrant and diesel. I disassembled the fuel pump and rebuilt it, following the manufacturer’s instructions from the workshop manual. I then reattached it to the engine and bled the fuel system. after a few false starts, the little Petter engine popped into life.

 

With the engine of the dumper up and running, we decide to sort the steering which had gone stiff with standing. First the oil was topped up. this worked up to a point. Sadly something had become amiss in the steering box, as it started to only turn in one direction. Turning the steering wheel the opposite way had no bearing on which way the wheels pointed. The footplate was removed, and the steering box eventually came free. I will be contacting the OEM (who are surprisingly still going!) to try and get a quote for its rebuild.

 

Matt was at work Saturday, but came down after work, and made a board so that we could stick our QWW magnet to something other than the newly painted Test Car. Matt also got out his signwriting brushes and picked out some details on the underframe of ‘2 car’ now that it has been turned.

 

Sunday saw Matt showing us his green thumb by strimming the dock area. This should cut en on insects landing on the fresh paint (when we get around to it). Matt then went on the roof of ‘2 car’ to repair the periscope blanking off plates. These had lifted due to the pop rivets failing. In drilling through the roof, Matt broke all of our 3.5mm drill bits. New plates were cut, and riveted over the holes using new rivets, and plenty of sealant!

 

Nick continued the task of scrapping down the roof of the Test Car, in preparation of the roof repaint. I continued tinkering with Danny, and freed off the rod brakes. one then promptly snapped. Win some, loose some I suppose. Hopefully, it can be welded, if not a new set from Winget probably wouldn’t hurt. I also removed and refitted on to the mudguard to some out some rust that had built up between the mudguard and chassis.

I think that covers everything this week. Join us again next week, when we begin the process of repainting the other side of the Test Car.

Thanks for reading!

A mid-week update,  it happens occasionally and today is a very good reason to have a separate post.  Just myself and Nick in attendance and it was all my fault.  Last week I had an opportunity that could not be me missed and purchased my largest railwayana item to date. This resulted in an 08:00 departure from Quorn, with a 7 Ton Lorry, North to Barnsley.

Just off the M1 and outside a farm already loaded on to a forklift, 1959 built BD4304B Fiberglass Container. Built by Mickleover Transport in a batch of 6.

 

All loaded and secured we made the run back to Quorn and having been sat on a farm for many years the container was once again on another forklift.

 

At this point, we would like to thank our friends at Kenway Construction for the loan of their vehicle, a superb help to our cause.

Now safely on the ground, the Container takes a temporary place in the compound to allow us to restore it in preparation for the arrival of one of the Conflat-As and its eventual home.

 

I also took the opportunity to take some measurements of the lettering in readiness for making the signwriting templates and to answer my curiosity having seen the very container in Don Rowlands British Railways Wagons book.  In his book, there is evidence of branding but the image is too low quality to read.  The answer………………

Having exposed the branding it also confirms its livery of BR Crimson with Golden Yellow lettering.
Inside was more evidence of it BR past and its solid condition.

 

Further opportunity was taken to do a touch of signwriting on the Shocvan and we are so tantalisingly close to the completion of this vehicle, just need to Dot the I’s and Cross the T’s

 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will also notice that once again I have applied Shock markings and have not been happy with there position.  Some extra Bauxite and White paint I am much happier.

 

That  concludes this special Midweek update as always more this weekend.

A small team Saturday, consisting of Nick and Ross.  As Ross stated last week the second coat of gloss for the boxvan was sprayed. Gloss was also applied to the door ends and areas covered by the doors when closed.   

 

The northern headstock, eastern sole bar and parts of the western sole bar also received bitumastic paint.
On to Sunday, much cooler weather and a full complement, both the Shocvan and Test Car 2 were hit from all sides.  Nick completed the sole bar painting on the Shoc as I tidied up the lining of TC2. 

Dave, Ross and Jake looked over all the finer details door edges and inner frames. all areas of overspray. The gangways and the solebar.

 

I also painted the lettering on the spec plate, Ross added the OLE warning flash and Dave painted the details on the reducing valve.

 

All of this completes the body side of “2 Car” and the request has gone to the Ops department to turn it.  Not only will this allow all of you to see our work in the flesh but will also allow us to begin it all again with the other side.

Whilst most of the above was continuing I turned my attention to the Shocvan,  applying the Shoc boxes, we are going for the post-1964 livery and the stripes as applied to our other shock vehicles has made way for the boxes.  I also added a black patch for the branding and assorted shades of black for the data panel.

 

Nick also painted the Lamp irons and Vacuum pipes as well as cutting and priming a pair of Chalk Boards, my last task stanley knife blade in hand to remove the overspray from the windows.

 

That concludes this weeks update. As always we shall continue next week.

So we begin the same way we spent the week,  looking at the weather forecast.  With favorable conditions until 16:00 we went for it.  Whilst Ross thinned down the paint in preparation for spraying Dave, Jake and myself prepared Test Car 2 for paint.  Masking tape applied where required, this being 3/4″ thick correct for the lining.  The white gloss that was left exposed was keyed and the resulting dust removed by tac cloth.

 

Once complete Ross started his task, the application of the BR Flame red.  3 Coats in total.

 

Whilst Ross and Jake took care of the external surfaces Dave continued with some tasks inside.  Once complete the vehicle will be available for public display and we have had some interpretation boards made up to tell the story of Test Car 2 specifically and some details of the DM&EE Test Fleet in general.  Dave added a board to the equipment rack that will be used to mount some of the displays.

 

Nick and myself turned to the Shocvan cleaning down and red oxiding were required and trimming down excess material.

 

This brought us to the exciting part of the proceedings, de-masking the Test Car.  This is so there is no risk of the tape damaging the paintwork and when the blue goes on all of the Red will require masking so its a clean sheet to work with.

 

If you haven’t guessed by now we are applying the DM&EE livery carried from 1974 until the mid 1990s:With all that can be accomplished on the Test Car complete the whole team turned to the Shocvan.  Measuring and cutting the new plywood sides.

 

These were then primed

 

And with everything then drying some final cleaning tasks in the Test Car and the removal of a few of the Vinyls on the other side.

 

On to Sunday and the test car has been left alone to cure and harden all attention turns to the Shocvan.  The primed sides cut previously were lifted into place one by one.  The large end sheets had recesses drilled for the rivets located in the vehicle ends.

 

The new ends replaced by the Locomotive department had holes marked and drilled.

 

Once all of the holes had been picked up the side sheets had sealant applied and they were bolted into position.  Although a short part of the update, in reality, this was Sundays task in a nutshell.

 

Finally, Dave continued with the interpretation displays within the test car.

 

This concludes this update and we are all looking forward to applying the Rail blue to the test car, of cause the Shocvan also marks the final van in our collection for the van train although our aim is still 17.