Hi all, welcome to a Railways at Work weekend update. Whilst some of the team supported the event, the rest continued with work on two of the tank wagons; and at Rothley the C&W department team have progressed repairs to the Lowfit and also the Steel High.
At Rothley the repair work on the wagon end sections of Steel High B724570 was well advanced. Thanks again to Jamie, Pat, Kyle, Rob, Noah and Steve.
Also the C&W team had welded new metal into the dragbox of the Lowfit B452718, (thanks to Pat for the photos)
On Friday preparations for the Railways at Work weekend involved getting the barrels and Brute Trolleys out of the van train at Quorn.
Over the weekend Mark, Tom, Ernie and Oliver continued to progress cleaning down and applying red-oxide primer to tank 3621.
Oliver had a birthday celebration; and of course there was cake involved….
Tank 3606 also received attention with some primer and undercoat applied to underframe areas.
The Railways at work is always an enjoyable weekend; here’s a selection of our pics.
and the Railways at Work team.
Thanks for reading, join us again next week, all the best, Dave
Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. Now that I’ve come back from the frivolities of my wedding and from staffing HydroFLEX at the Greatest Gathering, I’ll give you a run down of what has happened for us this week.
At Rothley, good progress had been made by the C&W team on both the Lowfit with its previously poorly dragbox and the shock absorbing High Goods with its rotten corrugated end being replaced for some spare good material. Additionally, the Lowfit chassis has received more black paint and the chassis for the Palshocvan body had been needle gunned and primed, getting it ready for the body to go on. Thanks to Jamie, Pat, Kyle, Rob, Noah and Steve, we’re looking forward to having these back and getting them in traffic.
The week prior, the tank train had applicable vehicles receive a bearing exam and all vehicles had their brake rigging oiled.
On to this weekend then, and after my time away its nice to see the amount of progress that has been made. Before the trains started running, Charlie (with Nick as lookout) mowed the grass between Road 1 in the South Yard and the running line.
Dave got started on the east side Shell logo, getting it chalked up and completed in the morning.
Ernie and I got the Esso plate jig out and welded the plate brackets back on to 3621. We started on the west side, and the jig made the work really easy, though the height from the ground did add a complication. I modified the jig to allow a bit of access to the bottom ring from the top which made the east side lugs even easier. the west have been fulled welded, and then received a dose of wire brushing by Nick and painted with a coat of primer by James. I ran out of 3.2mm electrodes before finishing the west side, but we can catch that at a later date.
Dave got the west side Shell logo on 1919 and touch up the green on the BP logo. This is among the last jobs on this tank, though we will be varnishing each of the logos on this tank. That leaves us to complete our paperwork before handing it over to Jamie for its acceptance FTR. I measured the flange height and thicknesses, which were showing a nearly brand new P5 profile. Dave applied a wheel 1 arrow to the tank to assist us in future inspections.
3621 had its lid securing turnbuckles freed off and oiled courtesy of Charlie and Ernie, plus an extra pipe stub in the filler neck was removed and blanked and Nick got the scaffolding down to 3606 to scrape the the tar residue from around the filler neck and around the top of the barrel. This needs a bit more scraping and a bit of degreaser before we can paint it. I went round 3606 with the big ratchet to make sure that all the side support bolts were tight. I’ll be adding a blob of weld to each exterior bolt to ensure that they don’t come undone.
Ernie used an angle grinder to clean up the support remnants on 3606. Nick, Charlie and James took the washer tin over to 3854 to put new washers in the brake system where they were missing.
Lastly, Charlie and James gave the BEVs a clean and a charge before Railway at Work next weekend. Do come down to the railway next weekend to experience the sights, sounds and atmosphere of a by-gone era, showing how goods and passengers were moved around the network. We’ll be there helping to tell the story. Join us then!
Welcome to two-weeks worth of summer news from the team at Quorn. We have carried out axlebox maintenance on much of the fleet, supported the Rail200 event and continued to progress the tank wagon restorations.
All wagons in the mixed goods rake and some in the van train were given their annual axlebox maintenance which involves checking for water ingress and removing any signs of water or emulsified oil, journal inspection, pad condition check, cleaning the pads, re-oiling the pads and topping up the reservoir with fresh oil. The axleboxes are then re-assembled with new split pins as necessary.
Tom, Oliver, Dan, Harry and Charlie all learning the process from Nick and doing much of the work on 35 wagons.
One of the spare corrugated wagon end sections was removed from it’s storage in B721587 and transported to Rothley where it will be used to affect repairs on the badly corroded end of Shock High Wagon B724570.
The brake gear on Brake Van B954268 was oiled up.
The bubbling paintwork on a few planks on the west side of Brake Van B954268 was sanded by Mark, Tom, Oliver & Dan, and the affected planks treated with undercoat.
I continued with the lettering on the west side of tank 1919.
Then applied the operational speed rating stars. The two stars for wagons, authorised to run at higher speeds, i.e. above 35 miles/h, but not allowed to run in passenger trains.
Charlie helped fit the wagon information display boards to the mixed good rake in Quorn Yard for the Rail200 weekend.
We also welcomed visitors including some good friends into the Test Car during the weekend.
During the week, some more axleboxes in the van train were attended to by Nick, Tom and Oliver.
Onto to Saturday where Nick Charlie and Daniel finished off the axle boxes on the van train while trying to stay in the shade
Dave and I continued the push on with the sign writing on 1919, with Dave getting a good start on marking out in the cooler temperatures. I made a start with the fast traffic stars.
Ernie carried on with preparing the ladder brackets on 3606, ready for them to be welded back together in preparation for two new ladders.
Both Charlie and Ernie finished the day applying undercoat to the storage container on the dock.
Dave and I started off Sunday by marking out the logo squares on the barrel on the West side of the tank, starting by measuring heights and central positions, then getting the template onto the wagon to trace its outline before applying masking tape.
This was followed by a quick scuff, readying the square for undercoating by Ernie.
While Ernie did this, Dave and I finished off the signwriting on the East side, with Dave finishing of the ‘repairs’ panel, and me the solebar lettering.
Ernie carried on with the white undercoat, undercoating the lamp brackets. Followed up with a dose of gloss black on the drawhooks, air pipe stowage brackets and steps.
I made a start on one of the end numbers, choosing the nice easy flat plate!
Dave painted all four logo squares in their respective colours; two white and two yellow. He also took the time to wipe off the chalk outline from the text with a damp cloth.
Nick used the gloss black to paint the discharge pipework and the replica Shell-Mex owner’s plates, ready to go on the wagon. The plates were drilled prior to being painted with the black paint.
Dave picked out the east side cast plates while Ernie floated around with the white gloss paint, painting the now dry lamp brackets, the foot valve levers and vacuum swan-necks.
Nick repaired an axlebox pad where the spring had failed, utilising a spring found on a life expired pad. This will re-enter stock after a bit of a soak.
That wraps up this update, thank you for reading. Next week will be more work on 1919, which is tantalisingly close to be completed, with one barrel number still to do plus the large Shell and BP logos. Join us then, in the hopefully cooler weather!
