Tag: 777728

Hi, Seasons Greetings and a warm welcome to our BETWIXTMAS update from the Team at Quorn as we continue with work at Rothley.

After buffer shank cleaning, oiling up and final inspection, tank 3606 departed Quorn on the 22 December to join the rest of the tank train at Swithland.

Tanks 3621, 3854 and 3689 were also shunted into the dock at Quorn ready for when we return to work there in the New Year.

At Rothley work continued on B777728, with Charlie and Nick fitting the repair sections to the roof edges, and the roof sheet was slid into position.

Saturday 27th, Mark, Dan, Tom and Oliver got to work with the east body side, which was scraped and sanded and a few patch filler repairs completed. The metalwork was then given a coat of primer.

The body ends were scraped and wire brushed, then primed.

Meanwhile myself and Ross cleaned up and primed the roof hoops.

The team took a break for a ride on a Betwixtmas service train to enjoy a fabulous Griddle Car breakfast.

Back to work, Charlie and James made a start disconnecting the vacuum cylinder on Palshoc Van B855568. The brake rigging was also disconnected on the west side in preparation for cylinder removal.

Ross and myself trial fitted the roof end hoops, then removed them to apply sealant before bolting them into place and the sealant edges were wiped to give a neat finish.

The roof sheet ends were then trimmed neatly.

Mark, Oliver, Tom and Dan applied undercoat to the east side of B777728.

Ross and myself then helped with the vacuum cylinder removal from the Palshoc. Some stubborn brake rigging needed a little hammer persuasion, and the inner trunion needed a little heat to free it off.

Sunday, Tom and Oliver applied gloss Bauxite to the east body side and both ends of B777728.

Ross and myself stripped the damaged studs from the Palshoc’s vacuum cylinder and removed the piston rod nut to allow easy cleaning out of the threads; whilst Nick cleaned up the piston rod.

Ross and myself then trial fitted the two new door top noggins to B777728, this enabled us to mark-out a couple of slight modifications needed to allow the noggins to clear some bodyside frame bolts. A router was used to carefully cut recesses to clear the bolts and also for the door lock bar / retaining plate.

Once the noggins were routed out we were able to mark-out and drill the eight locating bolt holes.

Tom and Oliver cleaned up the flaking surface of the solebars on B777728 which had previously been painted with bitumen paint. Unfortunately we are are finding that after a few years, the bitumen paint that we used on a few wagons is not lasting very well. We’ve since reverted to using Black Gloss, of which a coat was applied to the west side and both ends.

The noggins and retaining plates were given a final trial fit before removing to allow painting. Nick also cleaned up the trunion mounting plate for the Palshoc.

That wraps up our Christmas week working at Rothley; join us next for a look back over the last 12 months as we head towards 2026.

Best wishes for your New Year celebrations, and a reminder that you can see in the New Year on-board the GCR’s Nightrider train, more details here – “Nightrider”
cheers, 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.

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.