Tag: 3621

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 everyone, and welcome to another update from us at Quorn. Its been another wet and windy one, so no signwriting for Dave, but plenty achieved otherwise! Before we get down to business, I should plug our Instagram page for those of you that are that way inclined, it’d be greatly appreciated if you followed us over there!

Having looked at the weather forecast, we decided (after speaking with the signalman) to hand shunt the Lowfit onto the middle road to start the repairs to its vacuum train pipe. You may remember that after renewing its vacuum cylinder, the subsequent test found that the train pipe was holed under the north end headstock.

With only three clamps securing the train pipe, quick order was made of releasing the bolts, either by spanner or hot spanner and then getting the pipe supported where it could be worked on.

Even though I said that there was no signwriting for Dave, he did manage to get the vacuum release star on the solebar of 3621, however decided after that to cease, owing to the fact the drizzle was washing the chalk marks away.

Back to the pipe then: the holed end was cut off and a new stub end found. This was clamped to the good metal in the train pipe, then Charlie and Ernie welded the joint together. Once the pipe had been welded, the pipe was scraped and wire brushed then it was moved into the back of Nick’s lorry to paint.

Ernie continued the welding on the vacuum cylinder removed from the Lowfit, heating the patch and knocking it down to close the gap, then welding round the seam. There is still some work to do on this and it has been moved inside the garage to give it an opportunity to dry!

Dave made a start on a different vacuum cylinder dome recovered from the fish van body. This was removed from one of the Esso tanks, maybe 3711. There was no chance of it holding vacuum, but with a new dome, there was a good chance it would go again. Dave cut most of the old dome off the cylinder, then he and I started grinding the weld to remove the final half inch left.

Tom removed the cast owners plates from 3854, which will be replaced with the 3D printed plates by Dave. After removing the plates, Tom then applied some primer to the bare metal.

In the back of the lorry, I pressure tested the repaired pipe using compressed air as any leaks from this are easier to find than with vacuum. Some small pinholes were found in the weld joint, so the pipe was removed for re-work.

Ernie ground out the defects and re-welded the pipe, after which it was pressure tested again with no leaks present. However a leak was found in the tee off for the vacuum cylinder, so that was ground out and re-welded. Nick coated both areas in red oxide primer.

Once we had got the dome sited in the cylinder, Ernie tacked it into position and got ready to weld the outer seam, which he then did.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan got started needle gunning the solebar and side panels of the Lowfit, making excellent progress.

The 3D printed plates also received a coat of primer and undercoat.

The pipe was re-fitted back to the Lowfit and the vacuum system tested. The cylinder worked perfectly, however the hoses put on for the test may have contributed to the leak off test failing. The wagon will be fully re-tested prior to release to traffic.

The Lowfit was shunted back and the opportunity taken for a skip trip in Danny after a general tidy up. Dave remains ever hopeful of the opportunity to do more signwriting on 3621, but in the meantime we’ve got plenty to do repairing vacuum cylinders and other odd jobs in between!

See you again next week! Cheers, Ross.

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 and welcome to our news from the Autumn Steam Gala weekend. The weather has been kind enough to allow us to get the second coat of gloss black on both tank wagons 3606 and 3621. We’ve also progressed preparation work on tank 3854.

The Steam Gala weekend was a great opportunity to see some of our goods wagons in operation, with the mixed and the vans operating throughout the weekend.

On Saturday Nick, Ernie, Mark, Harry, Tom, Oliver and Dan made good progress with the needle guns cleaning up the underframe and the west side of the tank barrel on 3854.

Red oxide primer was applied to the cleaned up areas of the underframe.

On Sunday whilst myself and Ross prepared the paint and spraying equipment Charlie and Ernie continued with their work repairing the spark guards for tank 3854.

Nick spent the day continuing with the needle gun cleaning up the East side underframe of tank 3854.

The tank barrel of 3606 was sprayed first.

Then the barrel of 3621, followed by the soldbars of both wagons.

The next stage for both 3606 and 3621 is touching up and painting the details such as axlebox covers and brake swan necks, followed by the signwriting of the Esso lettering on the barrels and solebar information.

Join us next week to see how we get on; all the best, Dave

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week we’ve prepped both 3606 and 3621 for their second coat of paint, and 3854 has received a bit more work on the underframe to clear the corrosion.

James, Charlie and I spent most of the day scuffing the fresh black paint. We managed to get both east side barrels done and three of the four ends. While we did this, Ernie sorted some donated large spanners and impact sockets away

Nick, Harry, Tom, Mark and Dan continued the push on 3854, using the needle guns and hammer and chisels on the end pockets and the solebars.

Oliver and Charlie finished repairing the hand rail to the tool van

The team also finished scuffing all the areas on the two tanks missed

That wraps up this week, and sorry its a bit of a late one! I’m travelling for work again so this is the only chance I’ve had! Join us next week where hopefully the tanks will have received their extra coat. Thanks for reading.

Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week, we’ve finally been able to get some paint on both 3606 and 3621 which marks a big step forward in their restoration, especially given the recent abrupt end to the summer.

While Dave and I got the equipment assembled and ready, Ernie, Daniel, James and Nick completed some final preparation work on the tanks.

Our new paint pot is an upgrade, we now have capacity for 10litres of paint up from 2, which means a lot less time spent mixing and filling up the tank! Dave and I used 12 litres of grey primer/undercoat over both 3606 and 3621. We had to spent a little bit of time avoiding/ drying up after small showers during the day, but we were able to get both tanks into undercoat, save for the portion of the under fame below the dock.

While Dave, Nick and I got the tanks painted, Charlie and Ernie made a start welding up the splash guards for 3854. Nick assisted with bending up a new end for one of the pieces.

For Dave and I, Sunday was pretty much a rinse and repeat of Satruday, only this time with black gloss paint, rather than grey! Nick and Oliver assisted with some spot drying of the tank barrel and underframe. We’ve opted to try some skip and container paint on these as an experiment. Tom got some undercoat on the underframe on the parts of the tanks below the dock, and he was willing to have a go with the spray gun.

Nick and Oliver ended up going to Swithland to look at 80307, which was noticed to have had a window blank fallen inside the vehicle. This has been fitted since it arrived, and had fallen out in the wind. The piece was refitted, and sealed back to the door for the time being.

Charlie and Ernie carried on with the weldeing until the generator ran out of petrol, after which Charlie and Oliver started to repair the steps up to the tool van.

Tom finished up the tank; by taking the spray gun below the dock again and spraying up the underframe. A second coat is required for both tanks, but we’re glad we’ve got them both started!

That wraps up this weekend’s work, We’ll have to sort out a second coat for the tanks at some point soon, and then its on with the signwritng. Plus we’ll have to sort out the Esso plates! I’m not sure what the plan is for next week, we are very dependent on the weather at the moment, so join us next week and see what we end up doing! Thanks for reading, Ross