ADB975397 – Page 3 – Quorn Wagon & Wagon

01/09/19 – Test Car Done

We begin this weekend with an exciting number of items. Our thanks go to Serco Rail Technical Services for the loan of these items that will aid in telling Test Car 2s story.

The most exciting of which being the Slip Coupling, with the coupling and coach reunited we re-hung it back in its rightful place.

All of these pieces of equipment will be discussed further during our tours over the diesel gala. Work of cause continues with the gala target in view. My first task was to progress the “A” end door, marking out, masking and applying the stripes to the door.

Jake cleaned up and applied undercoat to the buffers. Whilst Dave continued with the “B” end headstock details before being assisted by Jake.

Nick and Ross scrapped down the eastside underframe before once again Jake took the lead and sprayed it black.

We also had a look at our new signs for next weekend’s opening. Hopefully, these will leave visitors in no doubt whether we are open or not.

On to Sunday and preparations continue, sometime in the late 80s a member of the testing team applied a car sticker to the “A” End door, we decided to recreate this detail.

The rest of the team continued with the eastside underframe springs and axle box covers as well as the buffers receiving black a coat of black.

With the car sticker complete I continued sign-writing, Brake Stars, ETH Lightning bolts, wheel profile markings, and the builder’s plate.

Nick and Ross then turned their attention to the defective hand brake on the Steel-High

Dave, Jake and I then turned to preparing for the public. Tidying, an extension to the fence and adding the components to the steel high required for slip/brake testing.

We shall not go into detail yet, all will be revealed next weekend. The last thing to do, however, test the operation of the slip coupling.

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All is in place for our first public opening for Test Car 2. 6th, 7th and 8th September Quorn and Woodhouse station behind the signal box. Please come and see us and we will explain this unique vehicle’s place in Railway History.

1 September 2019

26/08/19 – A Splash of Colour

Welcome to another Quorn Wagon & Wagon update. This weekend has been of the hot, Bank Holiday variety which meant 3 days of shade seeking to keep cool. In between this, we’ve been working towards the completion of ‘2 car’ which is becoming tantalisingly close. Matt started by applying the coaches identification to the east side, while Jake painted the door shuts in Rail Blue. Nick and I cleaned, scraped and painted the ‘A’ End headstock, so we would be ready to colour code everything later in the weekend. Nick also took the black paint and touched in anywhere on the bogies that required more paint.

With the South End signwriting completed, Matt moved to the ‘B’ end sliding gangway door to paint it into undercoat for the Warning Yellow paint. Once completed, he then started the ‘B’ End signwriting.

I cleaned and then painted the ‘A’ end ETH boxes into their Mid Red undercoat, ready for the Light Orange. This took a while as it required a steady hand. The undercoat dried quite quickly, so Jake followed me, painting the ETH boxes into the Light Orange enamel paint. I performed a repair to the Volvo loading shovel, which enabled its movement to the other side of the turntable road in preparation of the upcoming Diesel Gala. This also involved moving Danny, which proved a farcical affair, as said dumper is currently without steering. With the end door undercoat dry, Matt applied a layer of Warning Yellow to the gangway door and the finished off some of the ETH Orange. As a final act, Matt mixed up some filler and applied it to the Slip End gangway door, ready for Sunday.

Matt began Saturday with a quick maths exercise, as he attempted to work out the spacing of the B end wasp stripes, as these are unequal.

I sanded the filler applied to the Slip end door, and then undercoated the door, ready for Warning Yellow Gloss. At some point in the future the Slip End door is going to have to be removed and planed down as it catches both the frame at the top and the floor, but for now, it can stay in place, especially as it won’t be opened regularly. Dave concentrated on the ‘B’ end where he cleaned and painted the headstock black. Matt also wire-brushed the OLEO buffers fitted to the slip end. We had planned to quarter them, however with the amount of wagons it has been coupled to, the buffers are quite scratched and to polish them will take quite a lot of work. These will be painted black in due course.

Matt and Jake then fitted the Main Reservoir Cocks back to the Air Braked LNER steel high. This has been chosen as the ‘wagon under test’ for our opening of the Test Car at the Diesel Gala. These were then painted up into the undercoat for the yellow, by Jake.

The undercoat on the slip end door had dried, so I gave it a first coat of Warning Yellow. This got a second coat on Monday morning. Matt also painted the Lighting bolt on the Orange painted ETH boxes. Monday also saw a shunt take place in the south yard, which mainly removed the Test Car from the dock, and replaced the GUV in the dock. After reconnecting power and resiting the steps to the Test Car and the tool van, we got stuck in. The ‘B’ End of the test car was the focus of the attention, with the Air and vacuum pipes picked out in Red and Yellow, and the ETH boxes painted into their mid-red undercoat. Matt also applied the ‘essay’ to the end of the coach.

Dave painted the air cocks on the Steel High. The east side fuel filler cap also got a polish.

And finally, some finishing pictures of the Test Car in its Gala Position.

With the Test Car in the final furlong to the finish, we find ourselves completing smaller and smaller jobs. Next week will see the East Side underframe and bogies cleaned and painted black, and a big tidy to open the test can to the public. Thanks for reading!

26 August 2019

18/08/19 – Matt on a hot tin roof

This weekend was ‘”R” day, that’s R for roof. First job application of Gloss to “2 Car’s” roof furniture and Red Oxide to the Generator Exhaust and guttering around the water filler.

Whilst I was taking care of that. Nick and Dave slightly rearranged the containers to allow us to set up staging on the west side of the vehicle. Then began the main event. First a coat of primer suitable for galvanised steel.

This left a very nice blue tinge to the roof but as the instructions recommended overcoat as soon as possible that’s just what we did. So after a lunch break out with the undercoat.

With the roof done, for now, Dave turned to the Sole bar and applied a coat of black gloss.

The new depot allocation was also applied.

On to Sunday and roof work continued with the topcoat of BR Roof Grey being applied. Although it’s only a short sentence here. The amount of work is considerable. As an idea, almost 3 Gallons of paint was applied this weekend.

With the roof done, we continued with some detailing. Dave painted above the gangways and the gangways themselves. I neatened up and completed the lining whilst Nick made touch-ups to fly damage and small areas of overspray.

The list is getting smaller and the end is beginning to come it to view. We have enjoyed doing “2 Car” but honestly, we can’t wait to get back on to wagons and containers.

18 August 2019

11/08/19 – Test Car two sides

The weather, as usual, has been it’s changeable self. With this in mind, we took some time to do a midweek spray. Nick, Ross and I masked and applied the Flame Red.

Whist the side was being sprayed I applied undercoat and topcoat to the Bogie Axel end covers. Looking through Daves images from his BR test days the hassler unit appears to have had a blue base hence why we have gone with this.

On to Saturday and scattered showers I did, however, manage to add further details to the bogies painting the springs and dampers, the Smiths and Hasler as well as the P1 wheel flange marking to the “A” End bogie.

Whilst I did this Nick and his eldest Liam took some time to look over the hydravane compressor which has been found to have a faulty fuel pump.

On to Sunday and no change in the weather, high winds as we applied the masking.With what can only be described as luck we applied the Rail blue between showers and changes in wind direction.

The delicate task of removing the masking commenced and as the sun reappeared we gazed upon the Test Car with its DM&EE livery applied to both sides.

To celebrate a flash of the head and tail lamps and a toot of the electric horns.

During the moments of dampness, I took the opportunity to sign write one of the first aid boxes for the brake vans. 20190811_163840 With 3 weeks until the GCR diesel gala and with the topcoat on both side we are happy to say the Vehicle will be available for public viewing at the event. Its location is of course still to be discussed with the GCR, but we will be manning the vehicle over the 3 days and welcome people to come and view our work and Daves old workplace. If the weather holds Roof paint is scheduled for next weekend.

11 August 2019

04/08/19 – Déjà Two (car)

This weekend, our progress has again been focused on Test Car 2, getting it ready for our upcoming public opening. Last week, we had to leave 2 car with its filler applied, but unsanded due to the weather. This weekend we have sanded and filled and sanded some more. Matt also cleaned out the gutter, which was full of wet, flaky roof paint.

Dave and I continued sanding the bodyside, concentrating of the filler. With the filler all sanded, we identified areas that needed further filling. Using the Wadpol, Matt polished all the windows to ready them for masking. The masking film requires a clean surface to stick to. Matt then began masking the windows in preparation for the undercoat. I assisted with the application of the window film.

Dave resumed his focus on the ends of the coach, sanding and filling the gangway fitted end of the vehicle. This end of the coach appears to have suffered the attention of the metal maggots at the bottom, so Dave has made it as good as we can with fibreglass and normal filler.

Come the end of Saturday, the coach was left filled, sanded smooth and masked.

Sunday rolls around and with it Matt passes his Safety Critical train dispatch assessment, as a member of station staff.

While Matt completed that, Dave and I set about rectifying an issue with our Perkins genset. The stop solenoid hasn’t been able to pull far enough to allow the generator to start, which usually requires a pull on the fuel pump linkages. We removed said article, and took it to the saloon to test it.

The testing revealed that the solenoid worked, but Dave dissected it and found some dirty contacts between the main and auxiliary coils on the solenoid. Both coils work together when pulling the linkage, but then one get switched out to hold the linkage back. with the contacts cleaned, we refitted and adjusted the solenoid which now works a treat!

The coach got undercoated today, with Jake applying once I’d shown him how to assemble and use the pressure pot I’d recently bought. We thinned down the undercoat, and I set Jake on his way. Jake has been the first of us to use Test Car 2’s compressor to spray paint. Dave continued his work at the gangway end by brush painting inside the gangway, and the gangway faceplate.

Like with the other side, once the grey was done and dry, I went down the coach with some white gloss for the white lines (after an alfresco lunch!)

Once completed, I cleaned the spray gun out, and then used it to apply black gloss to the underframe and bogies of the painted side of the coach. As is usual when spraying underframes, I had somebody following me getting areas I couldn’t get to. Whilst this was occurring, Dave painted the gangway ends in black gloss.

Matt polished and then painted details around the air brake distributor and reservoir.

In non test car 2 related news. We’ve found a number of conflat chains, which we will be preparing for secure our 2 containers to our 2 conflats.

That is where we leave this weekend’s update. We’ve ordered the flame red for this side, which Matt picks up and we then apply tomorrow evening. With upcoming holidays and a looming deadline for the coaches completion, some after work working is required!

Thanks for reading!

4 August 2019

28/07/19 – Quorn Wet & Wet

Well, after a hot week the weather conspired against us and its rained, all weekend. This, of course, limits the work we can carry out on the exterior of “2 Car” although Saturday morning we did manage to apply filler to a number of areas and sand down a little before the rain took hold.

With all we could do outside done, we turned to some drier activities. Dave continued with the interpretation displays and an internal clean and tidy.

Whilst I began the task of refurbishing a number of first aid kits for our brakevans.

Our thanks also go to the Ops Department for bringing our post Test Car project to Quorn. Namely our 2 Conflats for a pair of recently acquired containers.

On to Sunday and the same weather-wise. I continued with the first aid kits

Interlaced with the first stage of refurbishment for a “Not to be Moved Board”.

Ross lowered the ceiling to diagnose a fault on the 24v supply side. The issue has been identified and components need to be acquired to rectify.

Looking into the ceiling space and seeing the original 1962 ceiling gave us an opportunity to recover the ceiling vents. These will go into stock and available if required for another vehicle.

We resited the compressor as the gangway will once again be used routinely so the compressor is currently an 11 bar trip hazard.

Finally, we made a start on enclosing the Generator for when public access is allowed into the vehicle. The compressor will also be enclosed.

We are wishing for better weather as our deadline for “2 Car” looms ever closer.

28 July 2019

21/07/19 – The other side

Good evening, and thanks for joining us for another Quorn wagon update. This week, there has been more prep work taken place on Test Car 2. Before I get onto that, we have another piece of news. In the week, Matt and Nick made another trip up to Barnsley to fetch a second fibreglass container. The container, BD43034B, is on the floor in the yard at Quorn, awaiting its Conflat.

Onto the weekend’s activities; this weekend there has been sanding, plenty of sanding. The dock side of Test Car 2 has been sanded in its entirety, ready for filling then priming/undercoating. Dave’s son and grandson, Chris and Oliver stopped by and very kindly donated a few items which will help us out immensely. I made use of the coach’s generator with to run its compressor to power the air sander, which made the process relatively quick. Nick and Jake continued to scrape the roof of loose paint, showering everyone indiscriminately with flakes of old roof paint. The roof will be painted when the sides are complete, but has to be scraped before hand so that the flakes won’t stick the soft gloss.

Dave applied fibreglass filler to areas needing repair, then concentrated on the slip end door. First getting it to open, then cleaning and scraping it ready to be painted. Some areas of the door are past their best, but it’s mostly solid so some wood hardener and fibreglass filler then regular filler will be a suitable repair. Matt joined us in the afternoon, after his work shift. Matt added some further signwriting to the ‘finished’ side of the coach, an arrow to denote axle 1, and writing to show the location of the isolation coach for the air braking system.

I continued sanding the coach on Sunday, joined by Matt who was driving the electric sander. Whilst Matt and I sanded, Dave continued on the slip end, sanding and cleaning the gangway bellows. Dave also removed all the paint from the gangway tread plate, then painted what’s left of the original gangway.

In sanding some areas, we sanded through to bare metal. These areas got primed with red oxide. We also used this as a key to apply filler, as the fresh paint will show the low spots better.

That finishes this week’s update. Next weekend will see the coach filled, and then sprayed into grey undercoat.

21 July 2019

14/07/19 – Cheerio Matey

37637_10150218267700103_1261953_n Unfortunately Tuesday we learned of the passing of one of the GCR’s most notable characters. Peter Haylock was instrumental within the Operations Department and was formerly the railway’s Operations Manager, he always had a kind word to say or a story to share. Personally, he was there on my very first day as a TTI and encouraged me to become a Guard, we shared many a conversation at many an event. Unfortunately, our exchanges reduced as I moved away from Operating to Wagon Maintenance but I am glad to have had that last wave as we passed on the 37 last Friday. He will be sadly missed by the team and our thoughts are with his family. “Cheerio Matey”

We move to Saturday and continue work on Test Car 2. Nick progressed the roof scrape throughout the day. Whilst Dave removed all of the vinyls.

Once all were removed Daves attention turned to the doors. Inspecting each and making repairs as necessary. Filling, sanding, and priming.

Unfortunately, the Generator door was beyond repair and the decision was taken to replace it with one of our spares. This door previously being from a South West Trains EMU.

Whilst this was going on I cleaned up all of the door hinges and handles, removing the decades of paint.

All of our attention then turned to the replacement of the door. Removing the hinge pins, fitting the new door and making adjustments to the other door, budget lock, and main lock positions.

Ross also continued with a few items on our Dumper Danny

On to Sunday and more of the same for Nick as he continued scrapping the roof.
With the new door being of fiberglass construction when it was trimmed to fit in the luggage door location it left a large hole in the bottom of the door. My first task was to manufacture a cover plate that seals the door bottom.

Ross started to set up an airline and air powered sander and once I had finished with the door and it could be shut he struck up the test cars generator and compressor.

During the sanding, Ross noticed a number of loose window frames and using some of my old RAF riveting skills I replaced the loose and sheared rivets.

Ross continued with the sanding and as we know this is not a quick task 20190714_172643

I moved on to the other side and refitted the securing chain for the reducing valve.

I then faced the essay that is the legend on the southend of the vehicle. I also painted out the weight and seat number as these items were not picked out on the data plaque. Mr Bower providing a clear image of the plaque. THE details are for a standard BSK, not Test Car 2.

That concludes this weeks update. More of cause next week as we continue on “2 Car”.

14 July 2019

07/07/19 – Dumper Doctor

This weekend has been one of hospital jobs, but before we get to that we have some week work to catch up on. Those of you that are following our Facebook page will know that several things has happened this week. Firstly, Matt bought and fetched a fibreglass container with Nick. Secondly, Matt completed the signwriting on the Centre Shock van, thereby releasing the vehicle to traffic. It can now join the rest of the van train. Lastly, courtesy of the Heavy Tractor Group, the Test Car has been turned so that we can start work on the other side.

On to this weekend. Saturday and Sunday has been one of small jobs, tidying up the workshops and storage vehicles. We have been hard at it on various project over the past few weeks, so we’ve taken the time to stop and have a sort out. I played doctor to our Winget site dumper, Danny. As the skips have moved down the yard, and with the vans hopefully coming back for attention to the vacuum system, we have decided to get Dnny back up and running. Danny has been out of use for some time for various reasons, the biggest of which is the lack of fuel getting to the injector. I ordered a rebuild kit for the fuel pump in the week, and armed with a certain amount of naivety I set upon the dumper. I removed the fuel pump from the engine to find the cam follower seized, which would explain the lack of injection. I freed of the cam follower with a mixture of penetrant and diesel. I disassembled the fuel pump and rebuilt it, following the manufacturer’s instructions from the workshop manual. I then reattached it to the engine and bled the fuel system. after a few false starts, the little Petter engine popped into life.

With the engine of the dumper up and running, we decide to sort the steering which had gone stiff with standing. First the oil was topped up. this worked up to a point. Sadly something had become amiss in the steering box, as it started to only turn in one direction. Turning the steering wheel the opposite way had no bearing on which way the wheels pointed. The footplate was removed, and the steering box eventually came free. I will be contacting the OEM (who are surprisingly still going!) to try and get a quote for its rebuild.

Matt was at work Saturday, but came down after work, and made a board so that we could stick our QWW magnet to something other than the newly painted Test Car. Matt also got out his signwriting brushes and picked out some details on the underframe of ‘2 car’ now that it has been turned.

Sunday saw Matt showing us his green thumb by strimming the dock area. This should cut en on insects landing on the fresh paint (when we get around to it). Matt then went on the roof of ‘2 car’ to repair the periscope blanking off plates. These had lifted due to the pop rivets failing. In drilling through the roof, Matt broke all of our 3.5mm drill bits. New plates were cut, and riveted over the holes using new rivets, and plenty of sealant!

Nick continued the task of scrapping down the roof of the Test Car, in preparation of the roof repaint. I continued tinkering with Danny, and freed off the rod brakes. one then promptly snapped. Win some, loose some I suppose. Hopefully, it can be welded, if not a new set from Winget probably wouldn’t hurt. I also removed and refitted on to the mudguard to some out some rust that had built up between the mudguard and chassis.

I think that covers everything this week. Join us again next week, when we begin the process of repainting the other side of the Test Car.

Thanks for reading!

7 July 2019

30/06/19 – Lines and Squares

A small team Saturday, consisting of Nick and Ross. As Ross stated last week the second coat of gloss for the boxvan was sprayed. Gloss was also applied to the door ends and areas covered by the doors when closed.

The northern headstock, eastern sole bar and parts of the western sole bar also received bitumastic paint.
On to Sunday, much cooler weather and a full complement, both the Shocvan and Test Car 2 were hit from all sides. Nick completed the sole bar painting on the Shoc as I tidied up the lining of TC2.

Dave, Ross and Jake looked over all the finer details door edges and inner frames. all areas of overspray. The gangways and the solebar.

I also painted the lettering on the spec plate, Ross added the OLE warning flash and Dave painted the details on the reducing valve.

All of this completes the body side of “2 Car” and the request has gone to the Ops department to turn it. Not only will this allow all of you to see our work in the flesh but will also allow us to begin it all again with the other side.

Whilst most of the above was continuing I turned my attention to the Shocvan, applying the Shoc boxes, we are going for the post-1964 livery and the stripes as applied to our other shock vehicles has made way for the boxes. I also added a black patch for the branding and assorted shades of black for the data panel.

Nick also painted the Lamp irons and Vacuum pipes as well as cutting and priming a pair of Chalk Boards, my last task stanley knife blade in hand to remove the overspray from the windows.

That concludes this weeks update. As always we shall continue next week.

30 June 2019

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