Tag: ADB975397

Hello and welcome to a very wet weekend update from Quorn. The Test Cars’ generator continues to be problematic; however we have completed the outstanding mechanical item on one of the Catfish.

During the week I was asked by the Rothley C&W team if I’d help out with part of the signwriting on BG 81382 which was being finished off ready for release from Rothley and use on the Santa Special trains this weekend.
(Photos courtesy of & copyright Jamie Swanson)

Mark, Tom and Charlie got stick into some interior cleaning in Test Car 2.

Whilst Ernie did some repairs to some of Test Car 2’s 1980s vintage wooden chairs.

Under Catfish DB983393, the initial thought was to heat up the area surrounding the two sheared bolts and use an easy-out extractor to remove them, however the bolts would not budge. So Ross and myself moved on to plan-B and drilled out the two bolts and tapped the holes for M12, then secured the saddle back into place.

With a fully charged starter battery connected to Test Car 2’s generator we were hopeful to get it running again. After quite a few attempts it finally fired up, however it was not running very smoothly at all and didn’t sound quite right either. We tweaked the fuel pump adjustment and tried again, but it ran much the same.
Our conclusion after all the replacement parts and checks we have done is that the problems could lay deeper in the engine; so we have decided the next step is to check the state of things in and under the cylinder head. The first task being to remove the exhaust.

With the exhaust manifold removed it became clear that that this engine needs some further TLC. The exhaust ports being very badly coked up.

We continued to remove parts in readiness for releasing the cylinder head.

Thanks for reading. join us again next week, all the best, Dave

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!