Hello everyone and welcome to this weekend’s update from Quorn. As you could expect its been all go on the tank front, thanks to co-operative weather, with both tanks looking good in their black top coat.
With just me holding down the fort on Saturday, it was down to me to get both tanks into top coat, spraying both barrels top to bottom and all underframe pockets. Nick and Charlie each had a go with the spray gun on the underframes.
Charlie undertook a pad exam on both the Conflat and Lowfit with no issues found and also oiled all the brake rigging.
We noticed that the pins in part of the brake rigging on 3854 were too long for their intended function, we set Ernie onto cutting them down and re-drilling the split pin hole. Nick and James refitted the pins once they’d all been cut down.
Dave and I made a start on second coat on 3854, this time with Oliver assisting. Oliver has expressed an interest in learning how to spray paint, and we are only too happy to pass on the skills. After talking through the set up, Dave and Oliver took the reigns in applying the paint, as I got a bit distracted…
To celebrate an upcoming birthday I put on a BBQ for the gang with plenty of food to go round. The team were well equipped to assist with the eating but also helped a lot with prep and the washing up!
The rest of the gang set to work in the GUV, removing a woodworking machine and rearranging the paint cupboards to give some more room for storage. Dan also got the two repaired splash guards for 3689 painted up into undercoat, ready for a coat of gloss.
Dave and Oliver ran out of time to get 3689 up into its second coat, so that’s what we’ll focus on next week. Join us then and see what else we get up to!
Hello and welcome to a glorious bank holiday weekend update from Quorn. Two wagon restorations are finished and two tanks go grey.
Saturday started with Dan finishing off signwriting the two builders plates on the Lowfit B452718, whilst Mark, Oliver, Tom and Nick applied a coat of varnish to the body of the Lowfit and also the Conflat B507489.
Ernie and myself got the Esso Plate jig out and fitted the brackets for the east side of 3689 to the jig, which was then offered up to the tank barrel, checking the bracket positions before grinding each of them up as required.
With the jig in place again each bracket was tack welded; the jig was then un-bolted and each bracket fully welded in place; Charlie and myself also having a go at the welding. Once cooled Oliver applied some red-oxide to the new brackets.
Charlie did a bit of work on Edward’s frame and bodywork, however some further work is required to get him operational again to reliably provide a source of compressed air.
The Test Car’s generator was run-up to warm it through, the throttle linkage was adjusted to get the generator running speed correct to give 50Hz output; then in accordance with the workshop manual the cylinder head nuts were re-torqued up whilst the engine was warm. This involved removing the rocker cover, rocker-shaft, injectors and various fuel pipes from the top of what was quite a hot engine.
We decided to leave the re-assembly of the generator until it had cooled, so Sunday morning Ross and myself re-fitted the injectors, rocker shaft and fuel pipework, then re-checked the tappets, with only one needing very slight adjustment. The rocker cover was then re-fitted with a new gasket, new rubber top-nut seals and a smear of sealant.
The fuel system was bled and it started up first time, and the Test Car’s compressor run up to check operation, and the air used to blow-down the two tank wagons 3854 and 3689.
Having now got a reliable source of compressed air, the main focus for Sunday (on one of the hottest days of the year so far) was for Ross and myself to get ourselves wrapped up in protective overalls, masks, gloves etc and break out the paint spraying equipment. Some grey primer/undercoat was thinned, mixed and checked for consistency.
After Nick had removed a few spiders webs and bird droppings, we then set about spraying the two Esso tanks 3854 and 3689, starting with the north ends and east side of both wagons.
More paint was mixed as required and we moved round to the west side.
Nick and Ernie followed behind us with brushed to attend to parts that we couldn’t easily reach with the spray-gun.
By the end of a very warm day we had both the tanks looking very grey. The spray equipment was given a good clean out so it will be ready for when we need it to apply the black gloss top-coats.
On Monday, Nick, Charlie and Ross brake tested the Conflat and Lowfit together using the little test rig before the mercury started to climb. Both passed with minor issues, one needing a brake adjust and the other requires a bit of lubrication.
With the brake test complete, Nick got the undercoat back out and touched in more areas that myself and Ross couldn’t get to or missed.
With the weather being so hot, not a lot else could be achieved with most of the team retiring to the shade for most of the afternoon. Next week, we shall hopefully be getting the gloss out and getting the two tanks into their black top coat. Join us then and see how we get on!
Hello everyone and thanks for join us for another Quorn update. This week has been quite productive with two floors prepared, and the final prep work done on 3689.
Firstly, thanks to the funds raised last weekend at the Diesel Gala, we’ve been able to pull the trigger on getting the parts for the generator in Test Car 2. The new cylinder head arrived with some new gaskets, and a new oil filter as while we’re in there we’ll give the engine another service. Dave prepared the area around the engine and stripped the studs required out of the old head ready to put in the new one. The injector studs were a tad stubborn, but were soon released with a bit of heat.
Nick finished off the last panel of paint removal on the west side of 3689 after which the remaining bare metal area was painted in primer. While that was being done, Mark, Oliver and Tom focused on finishing the east side, leaving the end for Monday.
Dan carried on with the Lowfit, adding the lettering concerning containers on the west side.
The floor for the Conflat was also started, with Dave and Ernie cutting the rebates while Charlie and James marked them out. The cut ends were treated with preservative and eventually taken to the wagon to be drilled and fixed down. The two boards at either end needed cutting down their length to give room at the end of the wagon above the head stock such that we can easily monitor its condition in future.
The floor for the Lowfit was also marked, cut and preserved, unfortunately a little family of Robins have made their home beside the north end drawhook so while the nest is active we won’t be fitting the floor.
Tom, Oliver and Charlie stripped the remaining paint from 3689’s north barrel end and east side after which primer was applied. The tank now needs its plate lugs welding back on then it will join 3854 for a quick wash followed by the next stages of paintwork.
The little diesel test rig is in use a bit more as a compressor while Edward (our 1970’s Hydrovane) is a bit poorly, so Charlie and I gave it a once over and a clean up. This is another reason for us to get the generator and the compressor working in the Test Car again to take the pressure off repairing Edward.
Thanks for reading this week’s update, and again massive thanks to those that came to see us, purchased from our stall or donated last weekend. It has meant we can get the Test Car working again and not have to worry about trying to diagnose other faults instead of sorting out the wagons. We’ll be back again next week for another update, see you then! Cheers, Ross
Hello and welcome to a Diesel Gala weekend update; we’ve had the Test Car open to visitors, Dan has progressed with his Lowfit lettering challenge and work on tank 3854 continues.
Whilst myself and Ross looked after the Test Car, Ernie entertained visitors to our stand, all helping to raise much needed funds towards the restoration work; thank you to those who have supported us this weekend.
Dan completed the west body side Lowfit lettering and made a start on the underframe with the vacuum release stars.
Nick, Mark, Tom, Oliver, Daniel and James did some more paint removal from 3854s tank barrel; following up at each stage with red-oxide primer.
Join us again next week for a bank-holiday update, in the meantime here’s a few views of diesels passing the Test Car over the weekend.
Hello everyone and welcome to another weekend update from Quorn. We’ve managed to get some paint on 3689, started signwriting the Lowfit and fully finished 3606 by fitting its branding plates.
Team Baldwin plus Charlie and James have made more excellent progress bare metalling on 3689, which is around half way completed.
Dave started by making some more displays to hang around the generator on the Test Car ready for opening at the Diesel Gala next weekend.
Nick, James and Charlie went to fetch the boards for the Conflat and the Lowfit from Harlow and stored them ready for processing.
Dave set Dan a challenge to signwrite the Lowfit single handedly, which he’s made a good start at.
After having the wheel reassembled in the week, I refitted Hector’s wheel and tried to adjust his front brake while he was up in the air. This caused me a further issue after I snapped the brake pipe linking the two wheel cylinders the front wheel. After obtaining some appropriate sized copper pipe, the pipe was replaced and the system bled up again. He was taken for a customary spin around and was then used to tow Edward up to the Ransomes and Rapier crane to pump up its tyres.
Ernie continued repairing the splash guards from 3689, filling in holes and welding patches as required. One is beyond repair, so will have to be remade, plus we need a new tail section for another.
After lunch, Dave, Nick and I journeyed to Swithland to fit the plates to 3606. Dave and I concentrated on the Esso plates while Nick fitted the 3D printed owners plated made by Dave.
Ernie, Daniel and I concentrated on applying primer to the bare metal areas on 3689. Some areas had a light sand just to remove the flash rust.
Do pop in and see us, we’ll have the Test Car open plus a small stall selling treasure to raise funds for the Test Car and all our other wagon projects. We’ll be back with another update next week so do join us then! Thanks, Ross
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
Hello and welcome to our this week’s news from Quorn. Work continues on two of the tanks, the lowfit, two vacuum cylinders and we get the diesel heater working in the mess coach.
The power switch and circuit breaker for the heater were installed into a 3d printed panel that Ross set into the end panel in the mess area. A temporary warm air outlet was fitted to the end of the heater, and under the coach the fuel pump was fitted & plumbed up to a temporary fuel arrangement. After a little challenge bleeding the system and changing the feed pipe to a smaller diameter tube, the heater was powered up and has performed admirably over the weekend keeping the mess-area nice and warm. The next stage will be to fit the under seat ducting for the air inlet and warm air outlets, & finishing off the fuel supply arrangement.
Mark, Tom, Oliver and Daniel progressed bodyside and underframe paint removal from the Lowfit using needle guns and scrapers. Red oxide primer was then applied to the prepared areas.
After drying off the overnight rain from tank 3621, Dan and myself completed some signwriting. Dan looking after a registration plate, tare and load text; and myself doing the east side Esso Petroleum Company Limited tank barrel text.
Ernie continued with final areas of welding and cleaning up the two repaired vacuum cylinder domes. The 21″ one also receiving a coat of primer.
After applying a little heat, Nick straightened up the bent lamp bracket on tank 3689.
The mess coach table tops have been attempting to part company from the tables for some time, so Charlie and Ross set to work carefully removing the Formica panel from the worst affected table. The remains of the glue was then scraped off the table surface and the underside of the Formica with a little heat-gun help.
The overhead warning flash plate that had to be removed from one side of tank 3854 last year (to allow for the Esso text), was repaired and re-fitted in the normal position in the centre of the wagon. To do this some additional length was welded onto the plate lugs, which were then dressed before the the plate was welded into place.
Two birthday cakes were dealt with in the normal manner (being devoured very quickly). James’s cake went that quickly there was no chance of a picture, and very little of mine was left by the time this snap was taken….lol.
Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best; 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.
