Tag: 3606

Hello all and welcome to this week’s update from Quorn. We’re not getting ready for more wagons, just more progress! Both the Conflat and 3689 have recieved some attention, and we’ve also been finishing off some jobs that have been hanging around.

Daniel spent some time on the Conflat, scraping and priming the kerb rail getting it close to be prepared for its floor, which is now on order.

Dave got set up varnishing the two Esso plates in the Test Car, which are now ready for fitting to 3606, while he did this Charlie cleaned up the ash from last week’s fire.

Ernie finished up the headlamp from the Rothley shunter, making a ring portion from a piece of copper and soldering a lens back in.

Ernie’s soldering skills also came in handy to fix the compressor’s expansion tank which had suffered a slight blow out… Charlie removed the offending article and refitted it.

Once repaired, Dave got the needle gun out and finished of the west side sole bar on 3689, which then got a coat of primer.

Charlie fixed up the steps from the mess coach, which went rotten and got replaced with the steps from the Test Car. With us opening the Test Car up at the upcoming Diesel Gala, we are in need of another set. Once stood up, the steps were moved round to the access door and finally fettled for height and stability.

Dave had an unwelcome visitor to the lovely varnished finished on the Esso plates, so ended up doing a small touch up.

I tested a new toy to try and undo a buffer mounting bolt, which undid with ease despite the liberal coat of paint. The new impact gun was also used on the ladder bolts with were turned around to give more foot room on the rungs.

Ernie did some welding on a small trailer rescued from the undergrowth and attempted to weld up some steel access steps, but they are too far gone to carry on fixing. Nick and I had to hold the welding screen due to the wind gusting.

Mark and Dan carried on where Daniel left off on the Conflat, finishing the kerb rail and painting the tops of the solebars. Tom and Oliver hoovered and painted the pockets on 3689.

In some of the inclement weather on Sunday, Dave and I finished off the diesel heater install but adding two more vents and some ducting to spread the heat around the seating area.

Ernie took one of the side rails from the Conflat into the coach to measure up. Tom, Oliver, Mark and Dan primed inside the chassis on 3689, which only leaves the east side solebar to needlegun and prime for the chassis to be ready.

In the dry spells of Sunday, Charlie mowed both the dock and the strip of grass between the mainline and our siding, with an appropriate look out.

That’s where we wrap up this week. Both Dave and I are away for the next two weeks, so there will be no update from Quorn over that time. Do not fear though, we do have something going out in our usual slot so keep your eyes out for that.

Hello and welcome to this week’s news from Quorn. The Lowfit gets a first coat of Bauxite; Conflat-A B507489 had some attention, Tank 3689 progresses, and the lettering is completed on 3606’s Esso plates.

The area where the water tower top had been moved from last week was levelled and more track ‘biscuits’ and clips were recovered. Charlie managed the bonfire to deal with the pile of scrap timber tidied from the area.

The east side label clip was removed from tank 3689 as this was mounted in the wrong place so would be foul of the builders plate, and also it was mounted on an smaller wood block that standard.

We took a look at Conflat B507489, and the jack-rust that had bent up the end kerb rails. An air-chisel and needle guns were used to clear out as much of the rust as possible from under the bent up sections of angle. The largest sledge hammer was then employed to flatten down level the kerb rail at both ends.

The inside and outside of the Lowfit’s four doors were treated to their first coat of Bauxite Gloss.

The Red paint we had been using for the Esso plate lettering was previously not laying on evenly, not covering well and taking rather too long to dry; so after some searching we found some lettering Enamel of the correct colour. A test was done to check that the new paint would not react with the original, then Ross and myself applied the red lettering’s second coat to both of 3606’s Esso plates. The coverage was notably better and the paint had dried within a few hours. The next stage for these plates will be a coat of varnish.

Ernie made a start on some lamp repairs to the Rothley shunter’s headlamp that lost it’s lens last week.

Ross and myself then turned our attention to the west side solebar on Tank 3689; with needle guns out again about 3/4 of the solebar was cleaned up, and all the flaky paint removed back to bare metal, Ernie then followed applying some red-oxide primer.

Nick touched up a few areas of the black gloss on the underframe of the Lowfit, and made a start on painting the inside of the kerb rails, again in black gloss.

Whilst Ernie had the red-oxide primer out, he painted the inside of the vacuum cylinder piston he’d cleaned up last week.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve had a good weekend sorting out the vacuum on 3854 after one of those 5 minute jobs and the Lowfit has had its coat of undercoat finished and the underframe glossed in black.

We started the weekend as ‘QWW Patrol’, helping to repair one of the mineral wagons in the train after the drawhook was found to be loose and rotated 90degrees. Nick and Charlie enacted repairs and Jamie from C&W came to sign it off prior to it running this weekend.

Dave has also made a start two more Esso plates for 3606 which had been set up in the Test Car. Starting with laying out with the chalk, paint the blue and the first coat of the red.

Charlie, Nick and I started to look at 3854’s working vacuum cylinder which has previously been re-assembled with the release valve out of position. Initially we thought we’d simply lower the cylinder down, rotate it round to the right position and then lift it back into position. It became apparent that it would actually be easier to drop the cylinder off the wagon and re-build it.

With the weather being quite poor, Ernie opted to stay in the coach and work on some more lamps, this time a few examples of the oil lamp found in Mk1 brake coach emergency cupboards.

With the cylinder in the garage, we stripped it down, fitted a new guide bush and new bottom joint ring, reassembled the cylinder and got it fitted to the wagon. Using the test rig, it was tested and passed with flying colours.

With Sunday having the better weather, the team were out in force to try and get some more paint on the Lowfit, firstly finishing off the undercoat on the drop sides, then moving onto the underframe, applied a good coat of gloss black.

I used a new to us tool to measure the bore of a vacuum cylinder we had found in the bushes to check whether its worth use bothering with or not. Ernie started cleaning up a piston found under Madge’s trailer, which wasn’t as bad as first thought.

The team also continued the side project of tidying up the area around between the dock road and the boundary fence. Tidying up some track ‘biscuits’ but also ended up moving the water tower top, mainly to be able to open up the walkway on that side of the siding.

Dave got a sander out and gingerly sanded 3689 to try and finally confirm its departmental identity, which has now been confirmed as DB999088.

Lastly, we’ve been very kindly donated some late 1990s/early 2000s Diesel Era magazines which aren’t readily available in the UK. These are for sale on Dave’s eBay account, so do take a look and spend a few pennies if you are interested. All proceeds do go back into the wagons and support us in their care.

Thanks for reading, and join us next week to find out what we get up to! Cheers, Ross

Hi, Seasons Greetings and a warm welcome to our BETWIXTMAS update from the Team at Quorn as we continue with work at Rothley.

After buffer shank cleaning, oiling up and final inspection, tank 3606 departed Quorn on the 22 December to join the rest of the tank train at Swithland.

Tanks 3621, 3854 and 3689 were also shunted into the dock at Quorn ready for when we return to work there in the New Year.

At Rothley work continued on B777728, with Charlie and Nick fitting the repair sections to the roof edges, and the roof sheet was slid into position.

Saturday 27th, Mark, Dan, Tom and Oliver got to work with the east body side, which was scraped and sanded and a few patch filler repairs completed. The metalwork was then given a coat of primer.

The body ends were scraped and wire brushed, then primed.

Meanwhile myself and Ross cleaned up and primed the roof hoops.

The team took a break for a ride on a Betwixtmas service train to enjoy a fabulous Griddle Car breakfast.

Back to work, Charlie and James made a start disconnecting the vacuum cylinder on Palshoc Van B855568. The brake rigging was also disconnected on the west side in preparation for cylinder removal.

Ross and myself trial fitted the roof end hoops, then removed them to apply sealant before bolting them into place and the sealant edges were wiped to give a neat finish.

The roof sheet ends were then trimmed neatly.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan applied undercoat to the east side of B777728.

Ross and myself then helped with the vacuum cylinder removal from the Palshoc. Some stubborn brake rigging needed a little hammer persuasion, and the inner trunion needed a little heat to free it off.

Sunday, Tom and Oliver applied gloss Bauxite to the east body side and both ends of B777728.

Ross and myself stripped the damaged studs from the Palshoc’s vacuum cylinder and removed the piston rod nut to allow easy cleaning out of the threads; whilst Nick cleaned up the piston rod.

Ross and myself then trial fitted the two new door top noggins to B777728, this enabled us to mark-out a couple of slight modifications needed to allow the noggins to clear some bodyside frame bolts. A router was used to carefully cut recesses to clear the bolts and also for the door lock bar / retaining plate.

Once the noggins were routed out we were able to mark-out and drill the eight locating bolt holes.

Tom and Oliver cleaned up the flaking surface of the solebars on B777728 which had previously been painted with bitumen paint. Unfortunately we are are finding that after a few years, the bitumen paint that we used on a few wagons is not lasting very well. We’ve since reverted to using Black Gloss, of which a coat was applied to the west side and both ends.

The noggins and retaining plates were given a final trial fit before removing to allow painting. Nick also cleaned up the trunion mounting plate for the Palshoc.

That wraps up our Christmas week working at Rothley; join us next for a look back over the last 12 months as we head towards 2026.

Best wishes for your New Year celebrations, and a reminder that you can see in the New Year on-board the GCR’s Nightrider train, more details here – “Nightrider”
cheers, Dave.

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for the last update before Christmas. We’ve wrapped up our last bit of work at Quorn while we move to Rothley over the Christmas period to work on B777728, which was withdrawn earlier in the year with a roof that was trying to break free.

Our weekend starts this time on Friday after B777728 was placed into the shed to start its drying out process. Nick and Charlie stripped the roof hoops and roof sheet, then removed the previous roof edge repairs.

On Saturday the team were back at Quorn, first task for Nick, James and I was to vacuum test 3606 to prepare it for release on Monday. We’ll have to sort out getting the Esso plates fitted at a later date, but we can do this from two ladders. Only three missing split pins were found on the inspection, which were all rectified.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan carried on with needle gunning the Lowfit, getting the west side and the headstock back to bare metal and then splashing the primer around.

Charlie, Harry, and James though also joined by Oliver and Dan carried on the ground works on the ramp up to the dock which got tested with both Danny and Hector.

Ernie carried on with the welding of the cylinder dome, in the cycle of finding then repairing leaks in the weld, though thankfully this time all the leak have now been rectified. This dome can now be painted inside and out, and put back into use. Ernie also welded the one corner of the side of the Lowfit, both ends of which have cracked the lower weld.

Today, Nick, Charlie, Ernie and I went to Rothley to remove the door ‘noggins’ and start to measure and cut the new roof edges. Charlie prepared the metal frame of the van, which Ernie duly primed.

Charlie and I undid the door top frames and removed them from the van, then measured up for the new roof edges.

After we got the pieces cut and before leaving, Charlie painted the framework where we had been working to get it ready to fit the repair pieces.

That’s where we wrap up today, all that left for me to do is to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We hope you have a restful and happy holiday. Join us again next week, where we’ll have a bit of midweek working to report on, as well as the activities of the weekend.

Hello and welcome; this week we have been busy with the Tanks, the Lowfit, and a vacuum cylinder, in between celebrating and some festive feasting.
Nick is recovering (on light duties) this week after an operation; however it didn’t stop him celebrating his Birthday with Cuthbert the Caterpillar.

Saturday, James and myself used paint removal discs to clean off the white paint from the tyres of tank 3854. A coat of black was then applied.

Charlie & Ernie meanwhile made a start making a blanking plate for the repaired 21″ vacuum cylinder so that we could pressure test the cylinder repairs. The plate was cut, the edges ground up, mounting holes marked and drilled out. A centre hole was also drilled ready for the pressure fitting.

The cylinder studs were run down with a die-nut to clean the threads and a boss was welded to the plate to take the pressure fitting.

Once the sun had raised the temperature a bit, I was able to start applying the running numbers to tank 3621.

James applied a coat of black to the Owners plates for tanks 3606 and 3621.

On Sunday, Ernie, Charlie and Ross fitted the air test gauge and pipe to the blanking plate, then the plate was bolted to the vacuum dome using an old rubber cylinder seal in the joint.

The air supply from Edward was coupled via a valve; then raising the pressure slowly to around 20psi and using some washing up liquid solution, we were able to see a couple of pin-hole leaks in the weld repair around the top of the dome. These were ground back and re-welded.

Mark, Tom, Harry and Oliver continued with the Lowfit scraping and needle gunning work started last week.

I busied myself with some solebar lettering on tank 3621.

Sunday lunchtime, and our Chefs Mark & Tom treated us all to some festive Turkey & Duck baguettes, with trimmings of course.

Followed by crackers!

After a rather extended lunch-break, work continued with some red oxide being applied to the areas cleaned up on the Lowfit.

A coupe of final jobs were attended to on tank 3606, including securing the new brake rigging split pins, removing the operating link from the redundant vacuum cylinder and securing the cylinder to prevent rotation by making and fitting bracket between the cylinder and the underframe. Once the vacuum release chords are fitted, tank 3606 will be ready for handover to the C&W Department for final inspection before entering traffic.

Join us again next week, in the meantime I’ll leave you with pics of the Tanks and Lowfit; all the best, Dave

Hello and welcome to a damp and chilly weekend of progress at Quorn. We dismantle a very corroded vacuum brake cylinder to provide parts to save other cylinders; and make a start with the signwriting on tank 3621.

During the week I spent a day at Rothley helping the C&W team with some finishing touches to TSO E4982 which was needed for Santa Special duties over the weekend.

The weather was not kind to us on Saturday, so Harry, Charlie and myself worked in the dry overhauling vacuum brake release valves to put into stock.

Ross made a start removing the studs from the very corroded vacuum cylinder; some of which were very stubborn and needed a bit of heat to release.

Once the studs were removed the trunion sections were cut around the edges and will be cleaned up and stored as spares.

The next step was to cut off the cylinder dome, cutting from the inside using the lower edge of the dome as a guide.

Centurion ‘Loades’ demonstrating what could be an alternative use for vacuum cylinder parts !

As the day brightened up Ross cleaned up the edges of dome before this was also put into store.

The steps that we use to access the Mess Coach have suffered somewhat with rot and need some urgent repairs; in the meantime we moved the steps normally used for visitor access to Test Car 2 into place next to the mess coach.

Sunday saw more of the team on-site and despite the cold start good progress was made with the tanks.

Mark, Tom and Oliver cleaning and drying out the chassis end pockets on 3854 ready for paint; and Dan finishing off the Overhead Warning sign on 3606.

Ross took a look at the re-wiring of the big welder, however on powering-up it became clear that we need a bigger generator to provide it with enough power to work.
The piston was removed from the Lowfits’ 18″ vacuum cylinder that was started last week and found to be in good order; the marking on the piston confirming that it was last attended to by the Mid Hants Railway in 2008.

With a little help from Nick aligning the template, I marked out and painted the speed rating stars on both sides of tank 3621.

Using a bit of spare 3/16″ plate, Ernie flame cut a circle big enough to use as a patch repair for the dome of the 18″ vacuum brake cylinder. Once cut, the plate was placed on an old steel car wheel, heated and given a few blows with a hammer to create a dish shape.

Nick cleaned up the top of the cylinder and the patch laid in place; Ernie and Ross then made a start welding using the smaller welder.

Dan picked out the Empty-Load changeover valve lettering on both 3606 and 3621; whilst I added the Commuted Charge Star and logo square to both sides of 3621.

Oliver, Tom and Mark did some gutter clearing on the Mess Coach and also Test Car 2. They also applied some red-oxide to the cleaned out chassis pockets on 3854.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Quorn update. We start off wishing Mark a happy birthday. To celebrate, Alison with help from Dan made a Test Car 2 cake for us to share, which was very tasty!

Charlie and I began by looking at the two welders collected last week, starting with an inspection. Firstly we noticed that the input cable on both sets were perished so these were removed. A new cable was made for the smaller set, and a bit more research is required for the larger set so these won’t be used for a little while

Dave continued the push on 3606, signwriting the “Esso Petroleum Company Limited” wording on the West side.

Nick and Ernie manufactured some more Esso plate brackets for 3689, bending then marking and drilling the holes and matching the bracket up into sets for each side of the tank.

Charlie was able to use the smaller of the two new welding sets to practise welding on a very rotten spark guard from 3689. While we aren’t focusing on that tank, the opportunity to try out the welder was valuable

Once the 3854 had been dried off, Mark, Oliver, Tom and I started the final sanding of the barrel aiming to get some red oxide primer applied.

Dave and Dan continued with the signwriting on 3606 with Dan taking care of the OLE warning flashes, and Dave the lettering on the west side solebar.

The signwriting on 3606 is pretty much complete aside from part of the west side OLE flash, picking out the SKF on the bearing end caps and of course the big Esso plates.

Most of the team ended up with a brush of primer in their hand for 3854, getting the west side of the barrel and the two ends into red oxide, prepared for the next stage.

We also noticed that the OLE flash mounting plate on the east side of 3854 was also positioned over the Esso Petroleum text, so Nick removed it. As we are before paint, this will likely be welded back to the tank on the other side of the ladder.

That’s where we wrap up this update. Thanks for reading, and join us again next weekend! Cheers, Ross