Tag: 3689

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 and welcome to this week’s news from the team at Quorn. Tank 3621 is getting closer to completion, there is progress on tank 3689 and we continue with vacuum cylinder repairs.

Charlie, Dan, James and Oliver did some site tidying-up.

Mark and Tom continued with the needle gun work on tank 3689’s underframe.

Oliver and Dan helped Nick remove the spark guards from tank 3689, this will allow access the underframe areas below, and also to clean up and make any repairs to the spark guards.

I applied the Commuted Charge Cc logo to both sides of 3621.

Ernie continued with the vacuum cylinder weld repairs, with Ross helping pressure test each stage of work; the soap solution highlighting any small pinholes which were then dealt with.

The heater was put-on for a while in Test Car 2, and the previously sign-written Esso logo plates were given a light key over the front surface. Ross and I then applied a coat of gloss varnish which was left to dry overnight.

Dan cleaned up the first of the vacuum cylinders to have it’s repairs completed and tested. He then applied a coat of re-oxide primer.

Ernie continued with the second vacuum cylinder, welding and low-pressure testing for leaks. The cylinder held the low-pressure for a couple of hours confirming successful completion of the repairs.

The Empty/Load changeover symbol was applied to the east side of tank 3621.

The weather wasn’t kind to us on Sunday, however in between the showers Ross & I managed to fit the two varnished Esso plates to 3621; whilst Ernie made a start on some lamp repairs.

We set up the next two Esso plates in Test Car 2 and gave the surface a light key ready to receive their sign-written logos.
These two plates will be fitted to tank 3606 once completed.

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

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week has been one of defect clearance, cleaning and finishing off vac cylinder repairs, including a new improved special tool! Its also been lovely to see the tank train running on Saturday for as part of the firing school. Okay, lets jump in to what we’ve done..

First job was to fit a flip down stop board in the four foot of the dock road to protect the vehicles in the siding, and the people working on them.

Ernie arrived with a new plate to use for pressure testing vacuum cylinder domes once they have been repaired. This also means we can test 18 inch domes as well. Thanks to Ernie for sorting this out. Between Ernie and myself we got the plate sorted and made two o rings to act as the seal between the plate and the dome.

Ernie also worked on another tool used to push out the guide bush in the bottom of the vacuum cylinder.

Charlie, James Oliver and Dan started tidying the area outside the coach beyond the dock as it was starting to look quite untidy and overgrown. Some equipment was re-sited and a lot of brush clearance was done.

Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan finished off washing the vans in the yard. Mark and Tom then moved over to needle gunning in the pockets of 3689.

Nick and I cleared some of the defects noted against the vans when they have their Fitness to Run exams. A few handbrake rack bolts, underkeep bolts and a handbrake chain. With a bit of assistance we also change two buffers on B784409 on opposite corners.

I had managed to get hold of some soda media in the week and finally had the opportunity to try out the soda blaster, firstly on a vacuum cylinder, but also on 3689. It made a bit of a mess, but thankfully its water soluble! We’ll keep experimenting on this to find out what its best to use it for.

We pressure tested the latest cylinder and found a few further pin holes, however the new plate worked a treat!

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the new look Quorn Wagon & Wagon website. As the website wasn’t ready last week, this update will cover two weeks of work. The website took a liittle more work than initially expected but we’re really happy with how it came out.

Last weekend, we removed the holed vacuum cylinder from 3689 and took a look at the brake rigging as the handbrake was difficult to operate and the brakes did not release cleanly. Charlie and Oliver took charge on the wagon, oiling and working the brakes. Eventually as with the other Esso tanks we split apart the system and found the sticky link. Usually with these its a bolted link right up in the top of the underframe that usually misses lubrication. We got the bolt undone (a surprise in itself!) and manage to get the link down to take it back up the yard for cleaning.

While this was done, a 21 inch vacuum cylinder from stock was prepared to be fitted, with Ernie and James dressing the studs from the cylinder while Harry and Charlie cleaned the cylinder, piston and dome cover. All surfaces applicable got a coat of red oxide primer.

Speaking of red oxide primer, Mark, Oliver, Tom and Ernie coated the last sections of 3854’s barrel in red oxide, after first preparing the surface. Hopefully we can get undercoat on it, however I suspect we have lost painting weather for the year now.

Towards the end of Sunday we got the overhauled cylinder fitted to 3689, but lost the light before getting it connected up. I also measured up the tyre profiles for 3689, which mostly measured up as new.

On to this week then, Saturday was pretty much a wash out, with the yard under 3689 a pond meaning we couldn’t get working to reconnect the vacuum cylinder. In a gap in the rain, we got the cylinder from 3689 stripped apart, using the Volvo to press the piston out of the bore. Harry and Charlie started to clean down the cylinder in the shelter of the garage. This one is definitely a case of looking worse than it is, but there is still some distance to go on that cylinder, maybe might be an opportunity to crack out the soda blaster.

In the afternoon we looked in the van train for any spare 21″ domes as we have 2 in need of repair. we found a further one, so its possible that we can make 2 good ones out of 3 holey ones!

Sunday was a much better day, we started by shunting out the Lowfit, taking the opportunity of a clear middle road to use the Volvo to lift the cylinder out of the wagon. The cylinder in the Lowfit had been damaged by a load in the wagon, filled with water and had subsequently holed through.

To ease rebuilding an 18″ I took the opportunity to take a rolling ring piston rod to make it into a guide rod to use when lowering a piston back into a cylinder. I cut the eye off the end and then drilled a cross hole for a bar to tighten/loosen the rod. We used it, to great effect, on the replacement 18″ cylinder for the Lowfit. The piston behaved exactly as described in the overhaul spec which is encouraging!

Using the Volvo again to lower the overhauled cylinder into the wagon, it was bolted back into the wagon and reconnected ot he brake system. Unfortunately, when we tried to test the system we found a the north end of the train pipe under the headstock is a little more akin to brandy snap and was letting the vacuum out. Another winter job for the list.

Nick and Tom walked back down the yard and got 3689 ready to test after which the team went up to test the brakes, after they were knocked back a half hole on the adjuster as the block gap was too tight to spec.

Charlie looked at the release valve removed from 3689, which to be honest I thought was more use as an anchor for a dingy! Mark and Oliver also got stuck in selecting a valve to look at..

The test went well, and the system passed with flying colours. After which we put everything away and had a celebratory cup of tea!

Thanks for joining us, and do let me know what you think of the new website. Cheers, Ross!

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