Tag: 1919

  • 26/05/2025 – Bumper Bank Holiday

    26/05/2025 – Bumper Bank Holiday

    Hello and welcome to a bumper update from the team at Quorn; reporting on two weeks work on the TTA Tank 1919. It was also great to see the mixed goods running again for the popular Goods Experience event.

    Last week progress was made with the headstocks and sanding the tank barrel. The remains of the last stubborn sticker adhesive took a bit of removing.

    Two discarded picnic benches were recovered from Rothley and given some tlc. These will be put to good use by the team at Quorn.

    A donated vice was attached to the heavy framed workbench.

    This weekend started with a snapped brake release chord on the Dogfish in the mixed goods, which was given a temporary repair before Witherslack Hall arrived to take charge of the Goods Experience event train. The release chord will be fully replaced in due course.

    Work then continued on tank 1919, sanding, wire brushing, scraping and needle gunning the solebars.

    Followed by a coat of red-oxide primer; and a bit of much needed tlc for some paint brushes.

    With the needle gun out an opportunity was taken to clean up some of the Lowfit underframe.

    Monday and we were treated to a couple of customary Bank Holiday showers, however there were sufficient dry spells to continue with solebar and underframe scaping, wire brushing, sanding and red-oxide painting more areas on tank 1919.

    A bit of tree pruning was necessary to get a couple of overhanging branches clear of the tanks; of course firstly making absolutely sure there were no nesting birds.

    One of the theatrical prop bicycles was repaired using parts obtained from a local car boot sale. Some of the rod type brake linkage needed a bit of re-shaping to fit and operate smoothly.

    Tank 1919 is progressing much closer to being ready for undercoat painting, lets hope the weather is kind to us next week !

    Join us again next week when Quorn Station Yard will be busy with the 1940s Weekend, for full details see the GCR website here – https://tickets.gcrailway.co.uk/events/103217

    All the best, Dave

  • 11/05/2025 – All Hands to the Tank

    11/05/2025 – All Hands to the Tank

    Hello and welcome to a sunny weekend update from Quorn; we’ve continued with getting tank 1919 ready for paint and completed a small repair to part of the brake rigging on the Lowfit.

    Lowfit wagon B452718 is due to go to Rothley at some point for underframe repairs, in the meantime we need to progress other jobs which include a repair to a broken part of the brake rigging. One of the twin operating arms has a fractured spacer and a missing spacer. To make the repair easier, on Saturday the arm was removed from the wagon.

    The spacer attachment areas were cleaned up and a new spacer cut from a piece of tubing.

    The arm assembly was then clamped together and welded up.

    The rigging arm was then treated to a coat of red oxide primer, followed by a coat of gloss black.

    Dan continued with his work on the A-Type container, cleaning up more of the metalwork and applying red-oxide primer.

    The main focus for the weekend has been needle gunning, sanding and scraping of tank 1919 to progress closer to being able to apply paint.

    Where bare metal was revealed, red oxide primer was applied and when dry the north end headstock panel had grey undercoat.

    On Sunday the sanding and scraping continued on tank 1919, also a couple of areas on tanks 3621 and 3606 were attended to.

    Again any bare metal areas on all 3 tanks were treated to some red oxide primer.

    The repaired brake rigging arm was re-fitted to the Lowfit after straightening the locating pins.

    The sticker glue residue was removed from the west side of tank 1919.

    Next week with most of the team away, we’ll be taking a break from reporting any activity until we’re back for the Bank Holiday bumper weekend at the end of the month.

    Cheers for now, Dave

  • 05/05/25 – Tank Holiday Monday

    05/05/25 – Tank Holiday Monday

    Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. It’s been an action packed weekend, so we’ll jump right on in there.

    Saturday started with Charlie applying a gloss coat to the last splash guard for 3621. this was left basking in the sun while we looked at B779978 and B780282 to replace their door top frames, now that they were back in the yard. One of the machined pieces of wood was taken up and the hole positions marked ready for drilling along with the recess for the locking bar. Part of our roof edge was removed between the doors to allow the new ‘noggin’ to fit properly. The pieces of wood were then taken up to the GUV for drilling on the pillar drill by Ernie with Harry and new recruit Jamie supporting, and I machined the recess with the morticer.

    After the pieces of wood were machined, each of them got a coat of primer, undercoat and gloss to help them last for as long as possible. I am hopeful that they will out live maybe even me! Nick set up a new outside workbench on the end of the Fish van, which came in useful for priming the pieces of wood.

    Mark and Oliver took a look at the steps up to the tool van, making some repairs to the first and second steps. They certainly feel a lot more solid to walk on now, and should save any accidents. Oliver himself performed the grand opening.

    The rest of the gang set about removing the stickers from 1919 to get it ready for paint prep. It also got another wash due to the amount of green algae that had settled on it. We’ve put that down to the rough texture of the brake dust making a perfect surface to settle on.

    Dan took some time to apply primer to the bare metal work on the container, while Nick and Charlie refitted the freshly painted splash guard.

    On Monday, Charlie, Nick, Jamie and I looked at fitting the four painted ‘noggins’ to the two vans. Thankfully all went on without major issues, which means these vans could run in traffic, albeit with a huge ASDA logo on each roof. We now simply await more roof paint for these vans to finalise the work.

    A person on a scaffold is inspecting the edge of a structure, wearing a hat and a blue sweater, with some tools in hand.

    Charlie and Jamie carried on washing 1919, concentrating on the end of the barrel and headstocks. This was however interrupted by reports of a sizable fire adjacent to the down lieby, next to the rest of the box vans. Between the station team and ourselves and a passing train the fire was got under control and the vans protected.

    A young person is using a pressure washer to clean a large green tank, while standing next to a yellow and black striped structure in a yard.
    A person in an orange vest walking near a controlled fire, surrounded by smoke and greenery, with a red watering can lying on the ground.

    As I’m sure I’ve said before here, I think its time to go back to work for a rest! Next week we’re planning to start sanding some of the tanks for painting and I’m sure there will be a lot more besides that. Thanks for reading, and see you next time! Cheers, Ross

  • 23/02/25 – Less green, more gleam!

    23/02/25 – Less green, more gleam!

    Hello all, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve been getting ready to wash the tank train by testing out our new pressure washer and some chemicals on the newly arrived 3621. The pipe run on 1919 was also finished off after the last two brackets were manufactured.

    To start off with, I started to assemble the pressure washer which went together a treat. While I did this Ernie laid out the brackets in the positions they required welding into, which I then cracked on with. Nick and Harry started to strip off the extraneous rubber pipes from under 3621 and then fitted a temporary branch-pipe to enable us to check the cylinder that was installed last week is working satisfactorily.

    With the vacuum system check complete (a formal test will be conducted before the tank is put into traffic), Charlie and Harry set to work on 3621, rinsing and washing the tank with some snowfoam and TFR.

    The north end buffers on 3621 are non-functional, so Nick and Ernie started to remove them by heating up the nuts, though ran out of gas after the first two. After getting more gas, they continued getting these off on Sunday morning, after which the buffers were removed and the wagon shunted down.

    A scaffold tower was set up to allow safe access to the top portion of the tank for cleaning by Oliver, Dan and myself, which continued throughout the day.

    Tom and Mark set up the needle gun and removed the 5 layers of paint from the north headstock of the GUV, and a portion of the west side solebar. This was followed with a bit of primer, which also made its way to the fish van body.

    I spent a portion of time measuring up the side tank supports on 3621, as a bit of an exercise in 3D modelling. After looking over both 1802 and 1919, the handbrakes on both wagons had the potential to cause injury due to the proximity of the end of the lever to the suspension links. One wagon require the pins to be removed and rotated to give adequate clearance, while the other had a piece of the lever cut off and dressed, all ably done by Ernie.

    That wraps up this week’s happenings at Quorn. With 1802 and 1919 now waiting their turn in the paint queue, we’ll move using the time to clean the tank train next week to get them looking nice before the train gets moved away to Swithland. Join us next week to see how we get on!

  • 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

  • 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.