Tag: 854782

A slightly delayed update this week.

B854782 has been moved from Quorn to the Loco shed at Loughborough for welding.

With the Shock van away our attention turns to B954268 which had started to look very work worn. With staging erected the task of sanding down the body began, being a brake van with verandas the amount of body work is quite substantial when compared to that  of a box van. Nick, Ross and Jake with sanders and scrappers in hand set to work.  Each time someone climbed onto the ballast ends Nick used his new catchphrase “Mind the lamp irons”, these are of cause set at head height when working on the extreme ends and can cause very nasty injuries if contacted with some force.  Fortunately thanks to the constant warnings no injuries occurred.

I went back to P18422, as a Ministry of Supply ordered vehicle this would have carried a registry plate and the position of this is clearly visible so using our “patented” anti theft plates I duly applied them.

Once complete I joined the main work on the brakevan and began cutting out areas of rot on the body sides,  as the majority of the boarding is solid we replaced only those areas that are affected,  as a reminder we do not restore vehicles at Quorn we repair them using modern materials and techniques. With such a large fleet and a small pool of manpower and resources it would be impractical for us to carry out full overhauls on every vehicle every time when a simple repair will add years to its service.

Once areas were repaired Masking was applied to all the windows in preparation for painting.

Half way through the weekend we had the vehicle body work sanded, masked for painting, body repairs carried out and wood primer applied to those areas requiring it.

As Ross applied the undercoat, Nick and Jake started assessment of the Southend veranda floor this has suffered badly from wood rot and the rotten boards were removed.

The vehicle will be finished in post 1964 livery and as such will require overhead line warning stickers and with the other works going on I took the opportunity to prepare them.  We have in stock OLE stickers and these I applied to stainless steel backing plates and drilled in preparation for fitment.

The hard work was of course broken up with the mandatory railway requirement of Tea, drunk from our new QWW mugs in the glorious sunshine of the bank holiday as we watched the trains go by,  If you was on the railway this weekend then this is the position you would likely have seen us in, Thank you to Andrew Morley, Quorn Signalman for the image of us enjoying the weather.

Final day and the final top coat to the body.  This includes the Ballast surrounds on each end of the vehicle,  Originally black was applied but as we are going for the later livery each works began to show a preference for whether these were indeed black or body colour, on this occasion the boss has decided body colour.

Finishing touches, inside and underframe are planned for this coming weekend as the rest of the railway goes back to the 1940s.

This weekend saw us working away on B854782, preparing for its visit to the loco shed to have some remedial work to the corrugated ends. Matt has also removed the branding posters pasted onto the vans for the photo charter and gala, and touched in the paint where it had become detached.

Last week we scraped the underframe on B854782 down in preparation for painting. As the welding work is predominantly occurring on the ends, we took the opportunity to paint the underframe, aside from the headstocks.

The item we have been calling the tax disk holder has been painted in black and reassembled onto the van. This details the non-standard, experimental centre shock system fitted to a batch of these vans. Once fitted the screw heads were touched in the same black paint as the cast ring.

As we were working below solebar level, we also performed an axle box exam. A while ago, we came into a TOPS wagon codes book, so we chalked the cripple code for this van on the doors. CG denotes a green card (defected but able to run at design speed), D denotes defect due to damage, and the C denotes Bodywork.

Next week, we hope that this vehicle is in the engine shed being nursed back to health, and that B954268 is in a position to enable us to give it some due attention.

Thanks for reading!

Our attention this Bank Holiday weekend has been turned to B854782, a 1958 Darlington built Diagram 1/218 Lot 3117 Shocvan.

This vehicle is a clear example of what happens if the roof of a vehicle is not maintained.  Water seeps in between the outer and inner skins of the vehicle and the damage is lasting.

This vehicle will soon be making its way to the Locomotive works for some much-needed welding to repair the steel ends of the vehicle.  It is in use as the crane packing van and as such full of packing wood which required to be emptied, this was carried out so we could begin the task of removing the nuts and bolts to release the plywood inner and outer sheets.

With the vehicle being 60 years old these did not want to undo so out came the grinders. Each one was cut down its length and the remaining nut pieces chiselled off.

The vehicle was stripped of all its wood and the extent of the water damage clearly visible.

 

 

What we have started referring to as the tax disk holder was also removed.  This details the experimental shock gear fitted to this vehicle new disks will be printed and the artwork has been created and will be ready for when reassembly begins.

 

The exposed steelwork was rubbed down and the sound items red oxided.  The lower steel down each side was straightened and areas of loose rust removed.

 

Because the floor had been covered with wood it has remained in extremely good condition with only one plank requiring replacement.

The final day of the bank holiday was dedicated to the stripping and red oxiding of the external metal fittings recovered from the removed woodwork.

 

All that was left to do was lock up the vehicle as security is our number one priority.

We mentioned last week about another project but unfortunately, we are still unable to elaborate further.

Finally, an image from Jason Cross, taken during the Photocharter held on 03/05/18 and featuring the van train