507489 – Quorn Wagon & Wagon

12/10/25 – Bit of a pea souper!

Hello everyone and welcome to this weekends update. Today’s been a bit of a foggy one for us which didn’t really let up until after lunch.

After turning 3854 in the week to allow for access, Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan made a start on the other side of 3854, using the needle guns to bare metal the ‘belly’ of the tank barrel. The rest of the barrel will be done with the abrasive paint removal discs on the grinders, as per the other side.

James, Charlie, Dan and I started cleaning up the brake shoe hangers after which Dan followed behind and applied some black gloss.

Dan also applied white undercoat the the axle bearing end caps, handbrake levers and lamp brackets.

With assistance from James and Oliver, Nick stripped the floor from the Conflat, ready for it to be taken to the bonfire construction area.

Charlie and I repaired the motor cabling on George and got the field reversing switch wired back up to put him back into use. He was quickly placed into work moving the floor removed from the Conflat to the bonfire pile.

I showed Charlie and Dan how to adjust the brakes on the BEVs, and left Charlie to adjust the ones on George and Zsa-Zsa.

After cleaning down, Tom, Mark and Oliver followed behind where they had bare metalled with grey primer/undercoat.

On Sunday, Ernie and I looked at some more welding on the spark/splash guards from 3854

That’s everything for this week, join us next week to see us hopefully start signwriting the two tanks, and getting further with the work on 3854. Thanks for reading!

12 October 2025

20/10/19 – Rain, Resin and Bitumen

Work once again continues on the Conflats and Nicks Container. More sanding on BD4303B. All areas were completed including profiling the door repair where the hinge will be going.

More prep on the underframes of B505313 and B507489 also continued and the opportunity was taken by Jake to undercoat the inner rail of both Conflats.

On to Sunday and what was left of the Stacking plates on 4303 were removed whilst Nick blew down the Container ready for the repaired areas to be sealed.

Jake got out the spray gun and bitumen and completed the underframe paint of both Conflats.

The triangular plates manufactured last weekend were fitted.

The final task for me was to apply resin to all of the repaired areas to seal them before paint. Unfortunately, the rain had other ideas before all areas were completed.

Hopefully, it will be drier next weekend, fingers crossed

20 October 2019

13/10/19 – Con-tinuing despite the rain

Back to the grind, work continues on the Conflats and Containers. B505313 and B507489
both receiving bitumastic paint to the solebars and headstocks, This being applied by Jake, Harry, and new recruit James.

Eddie had the job of toning down the wood preserver applied last weekend. A touch of bitumin worked into the planks.

Dave and I continued with BD 3403 B. Gradually sanding down the areas filled, unfortunately, the door with the large repair had an area of the old fiberglass delaminate, this was cut out, filled and fiberglassed by Dave.

Whilst I continued sanding

Sunday and rain, Dave took the opportunity to overhaul our stock of vacuum release valves ready for the Van Trains Christmas brake overhaul, more on that in December.

I manufactured repair plates for Nicks containers end door, which was fitted once the rain stopped.

I also, with Daves’s help, bolted in a wear plate for the end door. This tightened the whole installation, closing the doors up very well.

13 October 2019

22/09/19 – Conflats and Containers

With our thanks to the Ops department, we are back in our usual position with Test Car on the front road and our next project brought up from the yard. First task a brake test to find out how the two vehicles behave. B507489 held vacuum for 10 minutes with B505313 being no better after fitment of a Branch pipe, the original one having long since perished, new vacuum hoses were fitted all round.

So next we looked at the Release Valves. Both were removed and overhauled by Dave. This has become second nature to him and both valves were done very quickly.

The next test and B505313 held for just under an hour but no change to B507489. With only one 15″ rolling ring in stock B507489 was chosen to receive it. With the “Lighter” cylinder the decision was taken to drop it manually rather than use the loading shovel.

Once out it was split and found to be in remarkable condition. A quick hoover new ring fitted, rebuilt and refitted to the vehicle.

A final test and after 3 hours it was still holding and another Defect Card filed.

Whilst this was going on, my attention was on BD4303B, voids were filled with expanding foam. Surface and full cracks, as well as dents, were scolloped out.

One of the doors had a hole straight through it. The top hinge was unbolted, loose fibreglass removed. Tape was applied to the inside and again the void filled and taped over

Full through cracks received a fiberglass matting and resin to restore strength and then a fiberglass filler applied along with the other areas prepared earlier.

Finally, for Saturday we welcome Eddie and Harry who have started with the paint preparation removing loose paint and verdigris.

On to Sunday and the weather was not in our favor. Despite this Ross and I continued with work on Nicks Container. The areas of foam added were cut down, scolloped exposing original layers of Fiberglass

Matting was then resined into position to provide strength and support, this will then have a layer of filler applied to restore the smooth outer layer although only if we have a drier day.

Ross’s task was to begin the sanding of previously applied resin and keying of the gelcoat ready for painting, we would have liked to of restored the gelcoat fully, unfortunately working outside this is ni on impossible.

Nick replaced a number of floor planks as well as removing the remains of the bottoms of the chain boxes. These have not faired well so the decision has been taken to open them up to limit further rot

Eddie and Harry continued with their cleaning regime, with the conflats complete they moved on to E280364

With rain towards the later half of the day Ross and I took a trip to Swithland to fit our refurbished first aid kits to our brakevans, replacing the modern kits with more period looking items.

Being at Swith also gave us a chance to see our latest van with the rest. With all of our restored vans in the one train, well all apart from the fishvan and tool van. 15 Bauxite vans in one train, is there anywhere else that can offer this?

Our final image. The two proud Container owners with there rare items.

22 September 2019

28/07/19 – Quorn Wet & Wet

Well, after a hot week the weather conspired against us and its rained, all weekend. This, of course, limits the work we can carry out on the exterior of “2 Car” although Saturday morning we did manage to apply filler to a number of areas and sand down a little before the rain took hold.

With all we could do outside done, we turned to some drier activities. Dave continued with the interpretation displays and an internal clean and tidy.

Whilst I began the task of refurbishing a number of first aid kits for our brakevans.

Our thanks also go to the Ops Department for bringing our post Test Car project to Quorn. Namely our 2 Conflats for a pair of recently acquired containers.

On to Sunday and the same weather-wise. I continued with the first aid kits

Interlaced with the first stage of refurbishment for a “Not to be Moved Board”.

Ross lowered the ceiling to diagnose a fault on the 24v supply side. The issue has been identified and components need to be acquired to rectify.

Looking into the ceiling space and seeing the original 1962 ceiling gave us an opportunity to recover the ceiling vents. These will go into stock and available if required for another vehicle.