Tag: 4099

  • 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!

  • 13/10/24 – Ticking things off the list

    13/10/24 – Ticking things off the list

    Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us for another update from Quorn. The autumn weather is definitely settling in, so we’ve been ticking jobs off the back burner list. During the week, Dan finished the signwriting on the LMS brakevan, which now leaves some underframe painting to finish.

    With rain predicted on Saturday, I started looking at re-assembling the genset in the Test Car. Naturally, I started by taking it apart more… To re-attach the fuel pump, I wanted to check the timing on the geartrain, so ended up draining the coolant from the system and removed the radiator and water pump to gain access to the timing case. As I was removing components, Charlie took them outside and cleaned them with the pressure washer.

    Nick and Ernie took a look at the drawer in the kitchen on the coach, which has been broken for a few months. The drawer was re-assembled with additional L brackets to re-attach the front of the drawer. Back in the generator room, I found broken wires on the magnetic pickup and the dynamo, which may have contributed to the issues with the generator.

    On Sunday,we started by moving the barrels from E281882 back into B765272 to put them back into covered storage after Railways At Work.

    We then moved onto some light landscaping, to clear an access ramp to get Danny up onto the dock to help in clearing that up.

    I went back into the Test Car and finished piping up the fuel system, which leaves just the control actuators and the cooling system left to re-assemble. I also repaired the intermediate cover which had some loose rivets.

    The light landscaping turned into heavy landscaping to fill in some of the ramp way to make it less steep for Danny, who eventually made it onto the dock.

    Dan and I went to test the air brakes on the TEA tank, however part way through the test, it was found that one bow girder was not moving when the brakes were applied. We stopped the test and sent Dan under to lubricate and tap the linkages to free them. This didn’t remedy the seizing this weekend, so we’ll look at it again another time.

    Thanks for reading! we should be back on the Catfish next weekend, weather permitting, to apply the black paint. Joins us then!

  • 26/08/24 – Welcome, 4099!

    26/08/24 – Welcome, 4099!

    Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us. This week, we’ve had a new arrival, and it is a big one!

    4099 (currently showing 87483) is a 100t gross bogie tank wagon, built by R Y Pickering in 1967 for Shell Mex BP. The tank was initially a Class B, but was later converted to Class A. Latter it was owned by VTG who made us aware of it following a review of their stored stock. After a conversation with the Railway’s General Manager, consent was given to bring the tank from Long Marston for three reasons: it provides more capacity for locomotive water at steam galas (once lined); it can operated at 60mph and is air braked so can be used for testing work; and lastly with a vacuum through pipe, it could run in the tank train for photo charters.

    Before looking at the tank and after bit of English summer weather (rain), Tom and Mark cleaning out the gutters on the Test Car (on footed ladder), and the BRUTEs were removed from the station platform and put back into the Palvan after Railways at Work.

    We then got into cleaning the tank off. After soaking, a bit of scrubbing and then rinsing with the pressure washer, the barrel of the tank came up fairly well.

    The ends were a slightly different ball game, with the cast iron brake deposits being quite stubborn. We tried some iron fall out remover, but that didn’t really shift it. It became a job for scrapers and wire brushes to bring off the worst of the brown discolouration all around the tank.

    Focus will be back on the Catfish next week, although a cheeky brake test may take place on the tank. We’ll also be thinking of ways to remove the rest of the baked on brake dust, so if anyone has any suggestions, please do let us know! Thanks for reading.