Tag: 777171

Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us for this week’s update. This weekend is the Diesel gala so the yard was quite busy with cars meaning we kept our efforts to the south yard on the Shock High, the Palshocvan and the even the tool van!

Carl and Charlie kicked off with the undercoat, heading down the yard to undercoat the east side door on B777171, then coming back up o undercoat the west side of the Shock High. The then went back up the yard with some bauxite gloss to paint the west side of B777171.

As the bauxite was out, Daniel and Nick painted the east side of B724570 while Dave did both ends.

Ernie finished off drilling the bolt out on the piston I’d set up last week before moving onto the manufacture of door locking bar parts from the Palshocvan.

The painting team moved onto black for the underframe of the Shock High, getting both sides and one end covered.

Ernie gainfully amused himself on more lamp bits for Nick, manufacturing a new hook for one. With the Freightliner FFA-G wagons still in the yard, I checked my profile measurer on their wheelsets to make sure the the mechanical design works. Still some more to do on this.

In the sunlight on Sunday morning,we saw that the black container paint hadn’t covered the best, so Dave pottered around with the black doing a second coat around the underframe on the Shock High.

Dan, Tom Oliver and Mark concentrated on the tool van, giving it a scrape, sand then a coat of undercoat for bauxite.

I started taking a look at the Palshoc, trying to work out how to remove the side. It seems that it was designed to be easy to assemble though the intervening years haven’t been kind meaning to remove the side retaining wood (as intended), it seems we’d need to remove the door track! I removed the bottom retaining wood and then all three panels, with help from Charlie.

Charlie also discovered how much work it is to de-rivet something, as we had to remove one of the trim strips to remvoe the rust from behind it. This will be replaced with a countersunk bolt.

Dave moved onto glossing the west side of the shock high, joined by Nick.

The last job for the weekend was to fill two holes in the dock surface that keep becoming trip hazards for the team, Charlie doing the honours with the mixing and pouring.

That wraps us up this week, join us next week for some more wagon antics!

Hello everyone, and I start with apologies for last week. We weren’t able to get onto the hosting portal to write a post, so have made this one a bumper update.

Four vehicles left Quorn for Swithland, these being 3689, 3854 B452718 and B507489. In their place we have received the Palshoc, Shock high and the LNER Tube for us to work on.

Dave did some more work on the Esso Plates, getting the blue ring round and the red letters on another.

Dan, Daniel, Nick and I started work on B777171, removing the rotten door and constructing a new door.

Dan and Charlie took to removing the stickers from 1802.

Ernie and Dave got the gloss paint out and painted all the undercoated panels down the van train.

Dave and I started to look at B855568 to see what it needs for its restoration. With Ernie we also measured out for our tent and see what we need to do to fix it down

Okay so onto this week!

We’re waiting for some screws to be able to manufacture more doors for B763305, so we’ve opted to take a look at B724570, with Charlie and Ernie leading the charge on wire brushing and needle gunning the metal work. They also started sanding the wood work.

Nick and I looked at the sealed door on B855568. The door bars were seized into position so we released them from the woodwork and lowered the door out of the hole and over onto some trestles for stripping down. Nick got the hot spanner out and un-seized the door bars. Some of the door bogies fell apart so these will need some parts ordering.

I made some improvements to my profile measuring device and trialed in on some of the smallest wheels in fleet (these being the Salmon, the Sturgeon and the Lowmac) which it was able to clear.

Charlie, Ernie and Mark carried on with the cleaning down and priming the metal and wood work. Nick and I went round and spot replaced planks on the shock high.

That wraps us up here for the past two weeks, and thank you for your patience. We’ll get back on the vans next week as we are hoping that the screws will be sat waiting for us at Rothley. Join us next week to see what we get up to!

Hello everyone and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week has been one of defect clearance, cleaning and finishing off vac cylinder repairs, including a new improved special tool! Its also been lovely to see the tank train running on Saturday for as part of the firing school. Okay, lets jump in to what we’ve done..

First job was to fit a flip down stop board in the four foot of the dock road to protect the vehicles in the siding, and the people working on them.

Ernie arrived with a new plate to use for pressure testing vacuum cylinder domes once they have been repaired. This also means we can test 18 inch domes as well. Thanks to Ernie for sorting this out. Between Ernie and myself we got the plate sorted and made two o rings to act as the seal between the plate and the dome.

Ernie also worked on another tool used to push out the guide bush in the bottom of the vacuum cylinder.

Charlie, James Oliver and Dan started tidying the area outside the coach beyond the dock as it was starting to look quite untidy and overgrown. Some equipment was re-sited and a lot of brush clearance was done.

Mark, Tom, Oliver and Dan finished off washing the vans in the yard. Mark and Tom then moved over to needle gunning in the pockets of 3689.

Nick and I cleared some of the defects noted against the vans when they have their Fitness to Run exams. A few handbrake rack bolts, underkeep bolts and a handbrake chain. With a bit of assistance we also change two buffers on B784409 on opposite corners.

I had managed to get hold of some soda media in the week and finally had the opportunity to try out the soda blaster, firstly on a vacuum cylinder, but also on 3689. It made a bit of a mess, but thankfully its water soluble! We’ll keep experimenting on this to find out what its best to use it for.

We pressure tested the latest cylinder and found a few further pin holes, however the new plate worked a treat!

Thanks for reading, and join us next week to see what we get up to! Cheers, Ross

Another weekend and the brake overhauls for the van train continue.  Nick, Jake and I in attendance. First cylinders on B777728, B780282, and B777171 were prepared for removal.

Once the three were ready, we dropped B777728s cylinder.

This was promptly overhauled,  insides vacuumed, piston rod polished, seals replaced and the cylinder rebuilt.

The cylinder was then replaced under the vehicle and as the light failed B780282s was dropped.

The final task for Saturday was to reseal the joints on the through pipe of B850498

On to Sunday Nick, Ross and I in attendance B780282s cylinder was stripped, cleaned and overhauled internally and replaced under the vehicle.

As quick as B780282s was lifted B777171s was dropped and again split and overhauled.

This was also refitted and our attention turned to coaxing life back into the test rig. With the warmer weather and after a little persuasion the rig fired up and the vehicles worked on so far tested.

E87674, B786348, B763305, B777728, B780282, B777171 and the through pipe of B850498.

The through pipe of B850498 was improved but exceeded the minimum 4 inHg drop over 5 minutes. The South end hose of this vehicle has yet to be changed and this will be the next course of action.  B763305 held vacuum for 16 minutes, the only item not looked at for this cylinder was the release valve as this is a C type westing house vacuum cylinder which has a different design of piston and release valve,  we have yet to overhaul this type of valve so further investigation into this type is our next course of action. E87674 required an adjustment of the brakes which was carried out and once a number of applications of the brakes on the various wagons were carried out and the timers started.

Our final image shows the winter wonder lights train passing Test Car 2 and when we left Quorn over 4 hours after the brakes were applied all but B763305 remained on.