Tag: 730562

Hi everyone, welcome to this weeks update from the team at Quorn. The weather has hampered our plans to get some paint on the Catfish; however we’ve kept ourselves busy.
Some stock positioning shunting too place whilst we continued with progress on the LMS brake van, some more items on the to-do-list and Test Car 2s generator.

During the week Tom, Dan and Nick continued with painting on the LMS Brake Van M730562 at Rothley, handrails, lamp brackets, swan necks and underframe were progressed. A new step board was also made and fitted.

The new paint arrived ready for the two Catfish wagons, however the inclement Saturday morning weather meant that wagons were too wet for us to apply any paint, so Oliver made sure it was stored away safe.

The old crank pulley oil seal was removed from the timing cover from Test Car 2s generator; the cover was then de-greased and pressure washed.

A new seal was then fitted using a suitably sized drift and our makeshift press with a final knock-into position with a hammer.

Hector’s cab parts were loaded onto one of the box vans for safe keeping and we sorted out some spare bolts in readiness for box van repairs before the Class 37, 37714 arrived to manage various shunt moves at Quorn for stock positioning.

Ross and myself continued with cleaning up the timing cover mating surfaces on Test Car 2s generator, and repairs to some of the generator wiring.

Richard resurrected some old skills in repairing and servicing two of Nick’s 1970s record players.

Ernie and Nick installed a lighting power supply cable across to the Fish Van on the dock; this will help us as the nights draw-in.

Mark, Tom, Oliver Dan and Nick managed to a bit of house keeping in the short spell between the Sunday morning rain and the lunchtime rain. The rotten sleepers were moved from the dock to the wood pile for the bonfire.

A general tidy up of the area on the dock and some gardening will help improve the access for vehicles to the dock.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week.

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!

A bumper update from Quorn Wagon &Wagon this week, as we’ve had an impromptu work week. Matt and I took some days off work, and we all made the most of the bank holiday weekend.

Work on the LMS brake van, M730562, has finally been completed and was shunted out to the south end of the van train today (Bank Holiday Monday). On Wednesday Matt finished off the upholstery and a few little jobs inside. As the van was removed from the dock, Jake finished painting the east side underframe and the long running boards.

Now we have finished the LMS Brake, we have started the Southern Brake Van (S56010) with gusto! This is the 3rd concurrent brake van we have done this year, and we now appear to be settling into the swing of things when it comes to brake van sides and their rectification. The Southern brake has not been attended to for at least 10 years, and this has shown in the bodywork. The way the body is fashioned means there are a lot of areas for water to sit and cause rot and decay.

Thursday and Friday were spent stripping the rotten side planks of the brake, cleaning and chipping the steel T-section uprights that connect the floor to the roof and removing the expired upholstery. Once one bit was removed, often a few more bits cames along with it, leading to the phrase in the title! Matt found an original interior wall panel underneath another, where the livery applied was the cream and bauxite we have been using in the BR brake van, and the LMS brake van. Measuring the demarcation line shows it at 3ft 5.5inches, which is only 0.5inches less than what we have been using. Rain (read massive deluge) did also stop play for a while on Friday.

Saturday arrives, and so does our replacement wood! Our timber merchant, Harlow Brothers of Long Whatton, have sorted us out again, and have cut, machined and tanalised the planks needed for this van. Cut to length and rebated into the corner section, they fitted a treat and look great! We were also able to strip some of the body planks from a Southern PMV body being broken up behind the loco shed at Loughborough. These were cut down to replace any boards fitted next to the ducket.

Sunday saw the same action taking place on the dockside, with 6 body planks being replaced there, and some of the interior plywood cut and fitted. Monday saw little jobs being undertaken, including refitting all the veranda door tops, lower floor quadrant cutting and fitting, filling strips manufacture, and a door plank to replicate and fit (I’m proud of that one, but took no pictures during the manufacture!)

I finish with some night time shots of the Yellow Coach and that south yard. Both Matt and I, both living an hour away; both in Lincolnshire, made use of the bunkroom in the Yellow coach and stayed a few days at the railway. it’s not very often you see views like this, and I’m sure some of the passengers on the evening trains were surprised to see the lights still on.

Once we’d finished our daylight work, Matt and I tidied the mess area in the coach and used our limited upholstery skills to manufacture a new seat base for the mess area. One of the cushions was missing when Nick and I first started using the coach as a base for our wagon restoration activities (around 2012). At that time this didn’t matter as there was just Nick, myself and Alex (Nick’s son), and the occasional visitor Now, we find ourselves in need of some extra sitting space for a larger team, and our visitors. We can now seat 18 around the 2 tables!

We are happy with our progress, and are thinking about organizing a proper work week next year!

Thanks for reading!