Tag: 1802

  • 18/10/26 – Doors, Floors and some oily schmoo

    18/10/26 – Doors, Floors and some oily schmoo

    Hello all, and thank you for joining us for another update. This week we’ve been able to finish the Shock High, made a start at clearing the Tube down and got the doors finished on B763305.

    When Dave inspected the Shock High, he picked up that the underkeep bolts on the West side had no split pins in the bolts. Ernie and Charlie undid the bolts, removed the spring washers and put split pins in the holes which makes this wagon ready to release.

    Nick and I went to finish off the doors on B763305. First job was the make them so they can be opened. The door chain rail has been replaced in the van’s life and it needed some adjustment to be able to lift it to clear the new doors. Part of this involved re-fixing the roof sheet between the door chain rail and it’s metal capping strip as we’ve done with more recent vans.

    Ernie then finished off re-tapping a vacuum cylinder piston where the top cap had rusted and broken and sheared one of the bolts.

    I measured up the back of the doors for their diagonal bracing. While not strictly necessary with us building the door from plywood, it completes the look of door externally. Dave and I cut them and then fitted them with some help from Charlie. Ernie and Nick then went down and painted the door into the traditional bauxite gloss.

    Dan Baldwin went to B854782 and did some signwriting on one of the panels we’d replaced earlier in the year.

    Team Baldwin and Dan deployed to the LNER Tube, needle gunning,scraping, cleaning and priming the tops of the solebars. Ernie was also on the needle gun, cleaning up the areas where plates were mounted on 1802.

    Dave and I struck up the Test Car after fixing the radiator back down, attempting a air brake test after we swapped the distributor back onto the coach last week. The brakes worked more as expected, however the compressor in the coach was struggling to over come the leaking air brake cylinder. We also hadn’t swapped back the choke plate between the distributor and the spare so Dave did that while I started to remove the leaking cylinder.

    With the cylinder off the coach and clamped to one of the orange trolleys, we stripped down the cylinder to see why it was blowing by. The manuals say to use some threaded bar to prevent the cap of the cylinder being fired across the work site The inside of the cylinder was liberally coated with oily/greasy schmoo. The seal has clearly been sat in it as it has swelled up, which explains the lack of movement and why I fell down when I removed it. The level of contamination is a concern for the rest of the coaches air system, so we’ll likely have to remove the other cylinder and flush out the air system, including back flushing the gauges in the coach. We’ll have to try and find a replacement seal for the brake cylinder and get that rebuilt

    That probably marks the end for that pair of overalls, or at the very least that’d upset my washing machine tremendously! That wraps up our weekend, thanks for reading. Join us again next week to find out what we get up to!

  • 11/10/26 – Shock Completion

    11/10/26 – Shock Completion

    This week the team at Quorn have finished the restoration of the Shoc-High and made a start on the LNER Tube wagon.

    Saturday started with Charlie finishing off lining the builders plate on the Shoc-High, and the East side paint symbol, whilst I applied the last of the bodyside stripes; quick drying undercoat first followed by gloss white.

    Nick and Thomas adjusted the brakes on the Shoc-High, where necessary removing and cleaning up linkage pins to ensure smooth and even operation; all parts of the linkage were then oiled-up.

    Charlie started up the vacuum brake rig, and with Ross’s help the brakes were successfully tested.

    Ross and Charlie then did a small maintenance job on the Volvo, adjusting the drive belts; I joined Ross to swap the distributor back to the original one on Test Car 2 which is part of the fault chasing challenge we have with the air brake system.

    Nick and Thomas progressed the sticker removal from tank 1802.

    The tank barrel end plate which had been removed previously was straightened and the number stickers removed.

    Ross and myself fitted the last six bodyside/end bolts to the Shoc-High, then painted them with Bauxite.

    Ross, Charlie and myself then got stuck into the very rotten floor removal from the LNER Tube E301588. The floor planks in these wagons are held in place by solebar top metal strip plates; the bolts attaching these were badly corroded so all had to be cut and punched out.

    By the end of Saturday afternoon the whole floor had been removed; some of this will no doubt go to help with the Bonfire on the 5th Nov; however a considerable amount fell into pieces and was just swept into a pile.

    On Sunday Ross and myself varnished the body of the Shoc-High wagon, protecting the solebar ends, then starting with the door edges, completing the bodysides then the ends.

    Charlie and myself cleared out the south end toilet in the mess coach with a view to using the sink for hand washing. A plywood shelf was cut and installed over the top of the toilet as this will not be used. At some point we will complete the plumbing from the coach’s main water tank.

    Ernie continued with his machining and assembly of the door locking bar parts for the Palshoc van.

    Nick, Mark, Tom, Oliver, Charlie and Thomas made their way down the yard to the van train to replace the rotten doors on 12T Van B763305 with those we’d prepared a few of weeks ago. The old doors were removed, some of the bolts needing a little help from the grinder.

    The door furniture parts were cleaned up then given a coat of primer.

    The new doors were trial fitted and measurements taken for fitting the door furniture.

    The door top noggin had to be adjusted slightly, and with the doors removed the apertures were routed and chiselled out to accept the door furniture parts.

    The first new door was then fitted, drilling the hinge bolt holes and bolting up.

    With the second door hung, we fitted the door locking bar so the van could be secured. The final door diagonal timbers, bolts, door furniture and door holdback catches will be a job for next weekend.

    Charlie and myself attended to a vacuum pipe clamp bolt replacement on the south end of the Shoc-High. The swan-neck is now secure.

    After our final inspection of the Shoc-High wagon we are happy to report that the restoration is essentially complete, with only a couple of missing split pins to be attended to before the wagon is released to the Carriage & Wagon department for operational acceptance inspection. We look forward to seeing the wagon in operation once it makes its way back into the mixed goods rake.

    Join us again next week, all the best, Dave

  • 04/10/26 – Painting a picture

    04/10/26 – Painting a picture

    Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. This week we’ve been getting the Shock High closer to completion with lots of details added, and yet more adhesive has been removed from 1802.

    Dave got cracking with the signwriting on the west side of B724570, getting all details but the vacuum release star and the D plate applied.

    Carl and Charlie went inside the wagon, coating the back of the wood work with a coat of grey paint to hopefully keep the worst of the weather off it.

    I took another look at the cooling system on Edward with a new pressure test kit. First off it wouldn’t pressurise, after a new O-rig fitted in the oil cap he would get to just over 5 psi then quickly leak off, with a trickle of water from the top left corner of the radiator cores. Yet another Perkins with a leaky rad! I ended up putting half of the K-seal bottle in the Test Car’s generator and half in Edward. Charlie ran up Edward, while I got the Test Car started. Both ran up fine and the leaks seal once they’d got warm.

    Nick went to look at the roofs on both of the Vanwides in the van train, both of which need a new roof sheet in the near future. On Sunday, Nick carried on with removing the stickers and hopefully their adhesive.

    Mark and Oliver put a second coat of grey paint on the inside of the Shoc high, and then touched up the bauxite. Tom and Daniel got the black out and touched in the underframe.

    Dan started marking out the Shock stripes on each side, and got 5 painted in both undercoat and gloss.

    Dave did the number, capacity and telgraph code on the east side of the wagon and I got my brushes out to apply the tare mass, wheelbase and XP rating also on the east side. Charlie also started to have a go, picking out both D plate and then both vacuum release stars.

    Having finished my signwriting, I drew up a piece of the wood needed to put the side sheets back in the Palshocvan and then removed the south end number panel from the ladder section of 1802.

    Dave and Oliver joined Nick in the de-stickering of 1802 while I adjusted the handbrake on the Volvo loading shovel.

    That wraps us up this week, thank you for reading. Join us next week where we’ll hopefully be varnishing the Shock high. See you then!

  • 23/08/26 – Next vehicles are in, what have we got to work with?

    23/08/26 – Next vehicles are in, what have we got to work with?

    Hello everyone, and I start with apologies for last week. We weren’t able to get onto the hosting portal to write a post, so have made this one a bumper update.

    Four vehicles left Quorn for Swithland, these being 3689, 3854 B452718 and B507489. In their place we have received the Palshoc, Shock high and the LNER Tube for us to work on.

    Dave did some more work on the Esso Plates, getting the blue ring round and the red letters on another.

    Dan, Daniel, Nick and I started work on B777171, removing the rotten door and constructing a new door.

    Dan and Charlie took to removing the stickers from 1802.

    Ernie and Dave got the gloss paint out and painted all the undercoated panels down the van train.

    Dave and I started to look at B855568 to see what it needs for its restoration. With Ernie we also measured out for our tent and see what we need to do to fix it down

    Okay so onto this week!

    We’re waiting for some screws to be able to manufacture more doors for B763305, so we’ve opted to take a look at B724570, with Charlie and Ernie leading the charge on wire brushing and needle gunning the metal work. They also started sanding the wood work.

    Nick and I looked at the sealed door on B855568. The door bars were seized into position so we released them from the woodwork and lowered the door out of the hole and over onto some trestles for stripping down. Nick got the hot spanner out and un-seized the door bars. Some of the door bogies fell apart so these will need some parts ordering.

    I made some improvements to my profile measuring device and trialed in on some of the smallest wheels in fleet (these being the Salmon, the Sturgeon and the Lowmac) which it was able to clear.

    Charlie, Ernie and Mark carried on with the cleaning down and priming the metal and wood work. Nick and I went round and spot replaced planks on the shock high.

    That wraps us up here for the past two weeks, and thank you for your patience. We’ll get back on the vans next week as we are hoping that the screws will be sat waiting for us at Rothley. Join us next week to see what we get up to!

  • 11/01/26 – Silver Snow

    11/01/26 – Silver Snow

    Hello everyone and welcome to this weekend’s update. How did everyone enjoy the weather they got? There was no snow evident at Quorn at the weekend, but at home in Derby I had a good 2 to 3 inches of the stuff which was still hanging around. Both 3854 and 3689 have seen some activity this weekend, and the additional heater in the coach procedes ever closer to being fired up.

    Saturday was a colder day, so I spent it inside the coach again running the feed wires from the coach’s bespoke electrical cubicle to the new DC/DC converter that I’ve fitted next to the heater.

    Nick, James and Charlie went on a road trip to Foxfield to gather some more Esso tank parts, this time it was more outfeed pipes and valves to replace those that arrived missing on 3854. When they got back and after a cup of tea, the valves and outfeed pipes were fitted.

    With the day being a little warmer on Sunday the pressure washer was cracked out to clean down 3689. Tom, Dan, Oliver and Tom worked on this most of the day, getting wet through in the process. Most of the unsound paint came off including most of the black sign writing resembling silver snowflakes. After this the team gave 1802 a going over, removing its layer of algae.

    I carried on in the coach, getting the heater all wired up and at the end of the day I was able to get the heater powered on which leaves the plumbing for me to do. Ernie spent the morning at Loughborough using the machinery to make us a tool for punching out the bushes in the base of the vacuum cylinders. Thanks to Dave Wright of LMS for the material offcuts.

    That wraps up this week, thanks for reading everyone! See you next week for more wagon antics!

  • 16/02/2025 – New Arrival

    16/02/2025 – New Arrival

    Hello and welcome to our weekly update from the team at Quorn.

    This week we are pleased to announce a new arrival to our fleet and we are nearing completion of the vacuum through piping on both of the TTAs.

    So here is our new arrival; 35T TSV Tank wagon number 3621, built in 1958 by Hurst Nelson in Wakefield for Esso, initially registered to BR Scottish Region (registration number 808). In the 1980s it was sold to the CEGB, renumbered 48527; then subsequently entered preservation in 1990. It has been acquired from the Foxfield Railway where it had been used as a water carrier; arriving at Quorn on 14 Feb 2025.

    There is some work to do on the tank to get it operational, including freeing off the seized brakes, replacing the missing Vacuum brake cylinder and the faulty buffers; and removing the non original water pump and pipework.
    The aim will then be to restore it back into its original Esso livery and for it to join the other Esso tanks in the train.

    Saturday and with Nick, Ross, Ernie, Harry, Charlie and myself on-site, we concentrated on finishing off making and assembling the remaining sections of vacuum pipe for TTA tank 1919.

    Once assembled the north and south end sections of vacuum pipe were threaded under the wagon and clamped into place.

    This allowed us to then accurately measure the centre straight section of pipe, cut, thread and fit in place with the two temporary clamps. The final joint being an in-line coupler.

    Although some of the clamps are still temporary and final more substantial ones made; with the completion of the pipes we got out the vacuum test rig to see if the two wagons would hold vacuum.
    Before we connected the rig compressed air from Edward was blown through the new pipework on both wagons to ensure they were clear and free from any debris.

    With the vacuum rig connected to both wagons the new pipework was checked for leakage using the standard vacuum test gauges, and stood up very well.
    We then decided to do a full check of the air brake system on both wagons. Air from Edward was fed via the regulator, air valves and gauges on the test rig allowing us to control brakes on both wagons. The brakes operated as they should and using Test Car 2s air test gauge and stopwatch the application and release times of the air brakes were confirmed to be within specification.

    We finished the day on Saturday taking a look at the seized brakes on tank 3621 in the yard. Initial findings were that the majority of the brake rigging is not seized, just very gunked up.

    Sunday saw more hands on-site with Nick, Ross, Ernie, Charlie, Mark, Tom, Dan, Oliver, James and myself at Quorn.
    It was great to be able to help Ernie celebrate his 82nd Birthday, and enjoy some cake too.

    Happy Birthday Ernie !

    Ernie and myself continued with vacuum pipe bracket manufacturing for tank 1919, cutting strips of steel plate then heating and bending to shape. Mounting bolt holes were then drilled.

    Three new brackets were completed and fitted into place. The parts for the final two brackets were also made and are ready for welding up next week.

    The rest of the team concentrated on tank 3621. Whilst the wagon was in the yard and easily accessible for the Volvo, the opportunity was taken to fit the vacuum brake cylinder that we had refurbished a few weeks ago ready. A replacement outer trunnion bracket was sourced and new nuts, washers & bolts.

    The wagon was then moved down the yard to our working area; the water pump, filling pipe and associated fittings & valves were all removed.

    More work was also done cleaning up and freeing off the brake rigging and couplings.

    Ross had to attend to a damaged sill cover from his car, making a new end piece and repairing some of the broken clips; whilst Charlie re-wired a 110v transformer for Ross to check before it was tested.

    That wraps up a busy weekend for the team; our new arrival looking very much at home stabled with the TTAs.

    Join us again next week, all the best, Dave

  • 09/02/24 – Happy birthday, Tom!

    09/02/24 – Happy birthday, Tom!

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. We’ve finished the through pipe on 1802 which is now fully fitted but not yet tested. This just leaves the same pipe to make on 1919, which we’ve made a good start on.

    Firstly, we wish Tom a happy 18th birthday!. Tom’s family very kindly sent along some lovely cakes last week (which I should have mentioned, sorry!).

    First action on the tanks was to remove the pipework as fitted to 1802 to use as a template for the pipe on the 1919. While the pipe was in I measured up to make the last pipe bracket. We also got the heat gun out and adjusted the two dummy brackets fitted to 1802.

    With the heat gun out, we shunted the Lowfit on to the end of the tanks to sort the last remaining bent corner on the west door.

    Ernie and Nick started looking at the bits of pipe we have in stock to match them up to the pipe from 1802, then the pipe cutting and threading continued, with new recruit Harry having a go on the pipe threader.

    I welded up the pipe bracket, getting it ready for fitting. The team got the pipes fitted back into position, while the 6 pipe brackets were fitted with locking nuts. Some hardwood packers have been fitted in some positions to minimise the stress to the pipework.

    Some of the pipe remnants seems quite hard, so required annealing with the heat gun before being manipulated for 1919.

    The Baldwin lads (with some interjection by Charlie) started a secret project on the dock with some scrap wood. Dan was caught having a sit down… Tom and Mark did some touching up on the undercoat north end of the GUV. Dave and Ernie had a brief break by fixing one of Nick’s lamps.

    Last thing to do was christen 1802 and fit some vacuum bags. Next week this will be leak tested alongside the air brakes, and the pipe work on 1919 should be very close to being finished. we’ll then get organised for the TEA, maybe with a brief interlude to play with a recently delivered new toy! Join us then and see how we get on!

  • 02/02/24 – Finally, a blow through!

    02/02/24 – Finally, a blow through!

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve finished fabricating a through pipe for one of the two TTA tanks, plus we’ve made more progress on painting the GUV.

    Dave and Ernie made a start making the set piece of pipe for the south end, first trying a recovered piece of pipe with a set, but then found that two 45degree elbows would work. With the set pipe made, it was onto cutting a section of straight pipe to fix to the centre section. Plenty of threading action for the three of us!

    Nick, Charlie and James tidied up the bit of yard behind the signal box, and also adjusted the door to the grounded fish van. Dave drilled one of the trollies to mount a large vice as some of the piped were too short to hold and thread in the pipe vice.

    The straight piece of pipe over the south axle was measured, cut then fitted. Even Charlie had a go on the pipe threader…

    Nick started on Sunday painting the south end of the GUV into black gloss, as befitting a brush painted carriage. Ernie and I started to fabricate the last section of pipe, a straight section across the front of the air brake equipment.

    Mark and Oliver took over the black gloss, while Tom worked on the north end of the GUV and primed the metal work. Dan started work on tidying the A type Container, applying primer and scraping the side.

    Nick and Ernie started adjusting some dummy brackets to fit to the now through piped tank, one required a bit of heating, straightening and re-twisting. While they did that, I measured up to alter a pipe bracket for the tank.

    That about wraps up this weekend’s activities on TTA number one, unfortunately we’ll have to repeat it all again on TTA number two. On the plus side, we’ll be well practiced at pipe work! Join us next week to see what we’ve got up to. Thanks for reading.

  • 26/01/25 – Winter Gala Pipe Wrangling

    26/01/25 – Winter Gala Pipe Wrangling

    Hello everyone, and welcome to the update from the Winter Gala. We’ve been progressing in our little yard while watching the freights whizz up and down the line.

    The team set up a handrail and platform at the north end of the GUV to continue the repaint. After this was ready, Mark and Oliver started to undercoat the south end of the GUV.

    Ernie, Dan and I carried on with the through pipe on the TTA, finding a helpfully shaped bit of pipe to sort out the north end of the pipe run. It required a bit of fettling and trimming to suit.

    Mark and Oliver continued with the temporary north end scaffold, adding a rope barrier and a shelf to sit their paint bucket on. They then used the temporary scaffold to scrape and prime the wood on the north end of the GUV, but rain stopped play for any other painting just after lunch on Sunday.

    Ernie, Dave and I measured up to alter the pipework bracket, cutting bending and then welding up the bracket. Dave altered the bracket for the headstock with Nick and Ernie unbending then re-bending an existing bracket to make it suit.

    Nick and Charlie started stripping down the other pipework to make them less of a trip hazard and to ready them for use on either the other TTA or for the TEA.

    The pipe was set back underneath in its new brackets and measured against the next piece along. both was cut to suit and threaded for the two pieces to be married together.

    In the fading light the pipe was hung back underneath ready for the next bit to be measure for and made, but that’s a job for next week! This leaves two pipe lengths still measure, cut then bend. Oh and then we’ll have to repeat it all again for the second tank! Join us then and see how we get on.

  • 19/01/2025 – Tank Pipes

    19/01/2025 – Tank Pipes

    Hello and welcome to another cold weekend update from Quorn. We have reassembled a vacuum cylinder and started manufacturing the vacuum piping for the two TTA Tanks.

    On Saturday morning The Class 50 arrived to collect the van train from the yard in preparation for next weeks Winter Steam Gala.

    Ross fitted a replacement coil pack to the small petrol generator which was then successfully started up. This will be a useful addition to provide power for small tools etc. when we are working away from a mains supply in the yard for example.

    Ross and Ernie then got started selecting suitable pieces of vacuum pipe and modifying lengths and elbow joints to produce the main stepped section of pipe for the first TTA, some heat was necessary to release old joints; the pipe was trimmed to length and new threaded sections cut before assembling.

    The stepped pipe section was trial fitted to TTA 60874 along with the swan neck hose adaptor on the headstock.

    On the vacuum cylinder that had been started a couple of weeks ago, the release valve mounting threads were cleaned up using a die-nut. The piston rod gland was removed, studs cleaned to and the seal replaced with a new one.

    The cylinder was then re-assembled, firstly fitting the piston adaptor that allows a piston rod to be fitted from the top to aid lifting it into place. The rolling was carefully fitted to the upper edge of the piston then the piston was lowered into the cylinder, with a little jiggling to get it to go down evenly.

    The dome was then re-fitted with a new sealing ring and the securing nuts torqued up.

    A transport screw was fitted to the vac cylinder to keep the piston in place preventing damage to the rolling ring, this allowed the cylinder to be turned as necessary for scraping and wire brushing. It was then cleaned before being given a coat of Red Oxide primer.

    A second stepped vacuum pipe section was prepared for 60879.

    Sunday was very much a tidying up day, although some progress was made with cleaning up the final areas of the south end of the GUV, then applying Red Oxide primer to the metal parts.

    The inside of the Mess Coach and GUV were both given a good tidy up along with sorting out the taps and dies that had been recently donated.

    Once the Red Oxide had dried on the end of the GUV the wood areas were treated with wood primer.

    The two TTAs had their vacuum pipes removed when in main line service many years ago; along with the pipes some of the multi pipe brackets were cut back. It was therefore necessary to remove these brackets to allow us to make and re-fit the missing sections that will hold the new vacuum pipe. Some bolts un-did easily whilst others needed the grinder treatment.

    Using a piece of scrap plate of the right thickness, sections were cut, dressed and bent to form the vacuum pipe part for each bracket. These will subsequently be welded to the existing brackets at a later date.

    https://tickets.gcrailway.co.uk/events/91505That wraps up another cold but busy weekend for us; thanks for reading, join us again next week when the GCR will be running the Winter Steam Gala.

    More info here :- Winter Steam Gala 2025