Tag: 1919

  • 05/01/25 – Cool Tanks

    05/01/25 – Cool Tanks

    Hello and welcome to our first update for 2025. We have been painting the GUV when the weather has allowed, assessing parts for the tank wagon vacuum piping, and doing some housekeeping.

    Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver took the opportunity of the good weather on New Years Eve to get the West side of the GUV painted in gloss. They also started work on the south end doors.

    On Saturday Nick, Ernie, Charlie and myself made a start collecting together and assessing what pipework we have that could be used for the vacuum through piping of the three tank wagons. The pipe route on the two TTA wagons is relatively straightforward as these two wagons were vac through pipe fitted when new. Some of the brackets still remain too.

    The TEA however has never had a vacuum pipe so sorting the best route and where to fit suitable mounting brackets is a little more complex.

    On Sunday Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver continued with the housekeeping including erecting some much needed storage shelving in the Fish Van.

    It was great to see the tanks running throughout the weekend that were being operated as part of staff training exercises.

    Thanks for reading, join us again next week, best regards, Dave

  • 22/12/24 – New projects…

    22/12/24 – New projects…

    Hello, and welcome to another update from Quorn. Now that the Catfish have departed Quorn destined for the Mixed Freight set, we’ve received the two TTAs, and the TEA has been brought down from the top of the yard. We’ll be looking at vacuum through piping these over the coming weeks and months. We’ve also been preparing for a short spell at Rothley to give the roofs of four of the vans some attention.

    First off, the team set about locating our 21″ vacuum cylinder spares, which were spread across a few locations. During this, the yard area was tidied up to release a complete (but not very well cylinder) from inside the Volvo’s bucket.

    This cylinder was removed from 3711 when it arrived, for obvious reasons. Now we are restoring a handful of engineer’s vehicles, which usually all have a 21″ cylinder, we felt that we’d need to check the condition of all available parts, which includes that cylinder…

    With a lot of brute force and occasional ignorance but without heat (surprisingly), the cylinder was dismantled. It remains to be seen if this cylinder will resurrect, but we can only try. Plus it gives us a chance to try soda blasting it!

    Dave removed the cylinder head from the de greaser and gave it a rinse off with the pressure washer. This was left to dry out in the heated mess coach. We’ll begin to assess the rest of the parts as time and other projects allow.

    As the light was falling, Dave and I took a brief look at the through pipe route for the three green tanks, the two TTAs having a well defined route in a bit of a contrast to the TEA.

    All that leaves us to say is Merry Christmas from us. We’ll have another update for you before the New Year with a bit of a wrap up and to cover what we’ve done over the Christmas and New Year period, do join us then!