Tag: ADB975397

  • 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!

  • 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.20190629_183514.jpg
    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.

  • 23/06/19 – BLUE!

    23/06/19 – BLUE!

    Painting has occurred this weekend. Lots of painting. The main focus for this weekend has been, of course, Test Car 2. Last week, we got the Flame Red painted around the coach, which left the Rail Blue for this week. The Flame Red  and the white lining had to be masked, so Matt, Jack and I popped down on Friday afternoon to mask off the red and white with masking tape and brown paper, ready for Saturday.

    Saturday arrives, and to start with the Red and white overspray got a gentle key by Dave and Matt while I thinned down the blue paint ready for application. Jake was arriving slightly later, so I had to utilise a stand-in assistant.

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    I applied the first coat of blue, with Jake applying the 2nd coat all over. I then applied the 3rd coat over and around the gutters, and Jake finished the 3rd coat on the bottom of the coach.

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    While Jake and I painted the Test Car, Dave, Nick and Matt continued work on the internal cladding of the Shocvan.

    And then onto the exterior

    After lunch, we unmasked the Test Car.

    With the coach left with it’s paint drying in the sun/hot weather, Jake and I assisted with the van.

    On Sunday, more painting took place. For Matt, the signwriting of the Test Car beckoned. For me, I got the spray gun out again and gave the Shocvan a coat of undercoat, and then in the afternoon, gloss. The gloss will need another coat next week, but it is a start.

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    Next weekend will see another coat of gloss applied to the Shocvan, the headstocks and other details painted and the lining tidied up on the Test Car. Then we’ll have it all to do again on the other side! Join us next week for more Test Car adventures!

  • 16/06/19 – Red, White and………..not yet!

    So we begin the same way we spent the week,  looking at the weather forecast.  With favorable conditions until 16:00 we went for it.  Whilst Ross thinned down the paint in preparation for spraying Dave, Jake and myself prepared Test Car 2 for paint.  Masking tape applied where required, this being 3/4″ thick correct for the lining.  The white gloss that was left exposed was keyed and the resulting dust removed by tac cloth.

     

    Once complete Ross started his task, the application of the BR Flame red.  3 Coats in total.

     

    Whilst Ross and Jake took care of the external surfaces Dave continued with some tasks inside.  Once complete the vehicle will be available for public display and we have had some interpretation boards made up to tell the story of Test Car 2 specifically and some details of the DM&EE Test Fleet in general.  Dave added a board to the equipment rack that will be used to mount some of the displays.

     

    Nick and myself turned to the Shocvan cleaning down and red oxiding were required and trimming down excess material.

     

    This brought us to the exciting part of the proceedings, de-masking the Test Car.  This is so there is no risk of the tape damaging the paintwork and when the blue goes on all of the Red will require masking so its a clean sheet to work with.

     

    If you haven’t guessed by now we are applying the DM&EE livery carried from 1974 until the mid 1990s:20190615_141420With all that can be accomplished on the Test Car complete the whole team turned to the Shocvan.  Measuring and cutting the new plywood sides.

     

    These were then primed

     

    And with everything then drying some final cleaning tasks in the Test Car and the removal of a few of the Vinyls on the other side.

     

    On to Sunday and the test car has been left alone to cure and harden all attention turns to the Shocvan.  The primed sides cut previously were lifted into place one by one.  The large end sheets had recesses drilled for the rivets located in the vehicle ends.

     

    The new ends replaced by the Locomotive department had holes marked and drilled.

     

    Once all of the holes had been picked up the side sheets had sealant applied and they were bolted into position.  Although a short part of the update, in reality, this was Sundays task in a nutshell.

     

    Finally, Dave continued with the interpretation displays within the test car.

     

    This concludes this update and we are all looking forward to applying the Rail blue to the test car, of cause the Shocvan also marks the final van in our collection for the van train although our aim is still 17.

     

  • 09/06/2019 – Grey Days

    09/06/2019 – Grey Days

    Welcome to another update from Quorn. It has been a bit quieter for us this week as Nick was away camping, which left Matt and I on Saturday. Jake joined us on Sunday, with Nick coming to inspect on Sunday evening.

    Due to the weather, Saturday was a small jobs day. Matt and I initially went to B&Q to get a few supplies such as fluorescent light tubes and round headed wood screws. We fitted a new light tube in the saloon of the coach, which had been broken during a jumper removal. Having the folded and painted the defect book holder in weeks previous, Matt sign wrote them in the comfort on the Test Car. Once sign written  and dry, we fitted them to the BR van currently stopped due to wheel damage (B954268) and the LMS brake van, situated in the down lieby (M730562).  Having sorted these vans out, we then journeyed to Swithland to fit the defect book holder to the Southern brake van (S56010). The 2 operational brakes have also been kitted with PCV first aid kits. We are planning to build some boxes for these, some they look more period appropriate.

    After viewing our 3 most recently outshopped vehicles, we returned from Swithland. The weather dried up, so we started to mask the windows using a window film obtained from Toolstation. After much struggling and faffing the windows were masked. Doing the masking gave the the bodyside time to dry allowing us to continue filling the final few areas on the coach.

    On to Sunday, and it the hope of getting paint on the coach. First though, a bit of light sanding and cleaning down. jake use the blowgun to get rid of the heavy areas of dust , and I used some tack cloths I had bought in the week that helped to remove the dust from the bodyside.

    Then I painted.

    and then painted some more.

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    Only issue being is that the weather, being British and changable, started to rain before I could to the lower line. However in a gap in the rain, I completed the lower line but not without some damage to the paint already applied.

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    Finally, the 2 lines were done.

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    That concludes this week’s work. Next week we are planning to continue with the repaint of the Test Car, with the next stage of the livery being applied. Thank for reading!

  • 02/06/19 – Independent Test Car

    More mid-week work but not from me this time.  Ross has been popping in of an evening pressing on with Test Car 2.  First the removal of the stickers and vinyls on the dockside.

    Once the lettering was removed, the task of preparing the bodywork for paint was started, Nick also joining in after work to assist and focused on the roof. 

    I was not idle in the week either having ordered and collected the paint for the vehicle.  We also had a delivery of our next few projects. The 2 LNER Steel Highs E281882 E280364, the iron ore tippler B385782 and back from the loco shed; our centre shock shocvan B854782 . This has had significant repairs to the two ends, our thanks once again to the loco department for their excellent work.

    On to Saturday and work continues on preparing Test Car 2,  Dave continuing the work started by Ross in the week. 

    Whilst Dave was sanding away the rest of the team returned one of the overhauled vacuum cylinders to its position under the center Shockvan20190601_104030.jpgOnce back in position all of our attention turned to the Test Car.  Due to the poor condition of the inward opening door on the “A” End or the Slip End as its known the decision was taken to change it for another held in stock.  This was trial fitted and due to some accurate measuring previously, fitted with no problems at all.

    The door was removed so I could carry out my major task for the day.  A set of edging strips were fitted either side of the Slip end doors when they were modified from outward opening to inward opening.  Unfortunately, the weather has not been kind to these and the usual bulging due to rust had occurred.  I removed the internal trimming and handrails before de-riveting the edging strips themselves.

    Once cleaned up and straightened, red oxide was applied to all parts a wooden backing applied and the strip screwed back into place followed by refitting of the hand rail.

    Whilst the new door was off Dave took the opportunity to sand it down. 

    Jake also assisted with some of the coach prep whilst Nick replaced the rotten step board. 

    The final task for Saturday to refit the new door and admire the prep carried out

    On to Sunday and continuation of the body prep.  Red Oxide being applied to areas requiring it and once dry the filling began.  Dave and Nick also continued with some of the detailing, cleaning out window runners and prep around the end components.  I also had another go at cleaning the windows in preparation for applying the window film as we will be spraying the vehicle.  As part of our sanding down, we were able to see the layers of paint applied over the years, right down to the first application of maroon when the coach was built. 

    Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and attention turned to dryer activities.  Ross and Dave took the lead on giving the generator some TLC. With the water and oils checked, the battery charged it was coaxed into life.

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    With it running smoothly, the leap was taken and for the first time since at least 2010 the shore supply was switched off in preference to the generator supply.

    The compressor was then tested as well as the 240v supply all successful.  The compressor was also connected to the main reservoir and charged.

    The last task for the weekend was to vacuum test the shocvan and after 8 hour the brakes were still hard on and so deemed a success.  20190602_192401

    That concludes this weeks update and our hope is for better weather so progress can continue with Test Car 2

  • 26/05/19 – Shunted around and about

    26/05/19 – Shunted around and about

    First an update on mid-week work,  Matt has been on earlies and as usual been popping in after his shift. Tuesday he completed the signwriting by adding the wagon plates and completing the East side circuit marker on the Shockhood. 

    On Wednesday the finishing touches to the underframes of both vehicles were applied, drawing a conclusion to their repaints.

    Apart from the end chains for the hood, the Shochood B is ready to return to traffic. The Medfit still requires a floor, but this should be dealt with at the weekend thus returning the wagon to traffic.

    Thursday / Friday and something a little different, Matt has been helping the station with a project of theirs, turning a mobile toilet into something that doesn’t look so out of place in a “1940s Goods Yard”

    On to Saturday and as mentioned above a Floor for the Medfit.
    The planks were cut to length

    Laid the entire length of the vehicle and marked up,  35 planks in all

    Once marked up Jake had the task of drilling the holes and the planks were refitted and bolted into position.

    Once complete Matt returned to the “Blue Caravan” whilst Nick and Jake manufactured label clip blocks, fitted them, as well as replacing the vacuum hoses.

    On to Sunday, and with it the completion of the Medfit. Jake, Nick and Ollie finished the vehicle by painting the backs of the doors and ends with black bitumastic paint.

    Whilst this was taking place, I was improving the security of the GUV by fitting an additional lock to the our access door. (No pictures of this of course) Matt had intended to continue working on the “Blue Caravan” but the rain put the kibosh on that until later in the day. Instead he amused himself by making the 9 defect book holders for all the brake vans on the railway. The brake vans have recently received defect books, so the holders will be a welcome addition. Having cut and bent the platework into shape, Matt the primed them and left them to dry.

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    With many hands, we also put back together the 18″ vacuum cylinder taken apart during Goods Galore, fitted a new sealing ring and rolling ring. We also took a cursory glance of a cylinder taken from the Shocvan currently in the shed at Loughborough. We know this had been overhauled recently, but erred on the side of caution and took it apart to inspect it. Finding nothing amiss, this was re-assembled and place back into store, to await the arrival of it’s van.

    On to Monday, and Matt had stayed quite late on on Sunday to complete the signwriting of the “Blue Caravan”, so we looked upon the fruits of his work, whilst taking the time to remove the chalk from the now dried paint.

    Monday hasn’t been a very productive day, due to shunting taking place in the south yard at Quorn. With no ‘new’ wagons received from Swithland, our attention turns to our temporary base, Test Car 2. This has been moved into the dock in place of our GUV, so that we can commence a small project to smarten it up, as requested by the railway. I won’t say what the Livery is, but it will be appropriate to the vehicle, and it has carried the livery before (which narrows it down to 3 in its Test Car guise). While Nick was sorting out few bits in Loughborough to progress another Cylinder overhaul, Matt and I set everything back up including steps to vehicles and shore supplies reconnected. We also tidied the Test Car and generally tidied around our area.

    As the Medfit and Shochood are ready to depart, they have been shunted ready to move to Swithland, on the south end of the middle road at Quorn.

    That finishes off the update this week. Next week we are plunged into war. Let’s see what we can get up to despite it!

  • 03/03/19 – Business as usual

    As the title suggests we have returned to what we can only describe as our usual business. M500954, the LMS boxvan, is our next project.  The first task was to measure the vehicle so accurate replacement planks can be ordered.

     

    With measurements taken attention turned to the east side of the vehicle.  The door was removed, this basically fell off as it was quite rotten. My job being to dismantle it, salvage the steel fittings and as much wood as possible.

     

    Although the frame remains most of this will require replacement but it is being retained for templating.  Nick, Ross and Jake removed the bolts from the side planks and dismantled the inner and outer skins.

     

    All of the metal components removed from the door and an L angle from the frame were scraped down, cleaned up and red oxide applied.

     

    The last job for Saturday was to red oxide the frame were the L angle mentioned above lives.  This angle tightens the gap between frame and door when it is closed, a metallic draft excluder if you will.  Straight on to Sunday and with both frame and L angle dried they were bolted back together.

     

    Sunday morning was spent at Loughborough.  With preparations for unifying the GCR with its Northern counterpart, a number of grounded vans are requiring to be removed.  We have earmarked a number for possible future use but our trip was to collect spares that could be more useful in the short term. We have also looked at the viability of the Containers so expect further news on these.

     

    Back to Quorn and we were happy to have a further visit from Dave Bower.  We have some exciting ideas for Test Car 2 which we will shed light on in future updates.

    Jake returned to work on M500954 and applied red oxide to the back of all of the now exposed metal work.  Ross took a look at the Slip Working headlight whilst I looked at the possibility of manufacturing chalkboard brackets.  I am happy with the result.

     

    This week we shall be placing orders for wood and hopefully delivery will be in time for next weekends activities, we, as always shall keep you up to date.

  • 24/02/2019 – Getting Ready…

    Welcome to another weekend update from the team in Quorn, featuring some unseasonably warm weather! This weekend we have started to come back to normality, back in our pen in the south yard at Quorn. During the week Test Car 2 and the CCT were stabled back in the Up Reception South (thanks to the Ops team), with the Yellow Coach being taken to Rothley for its much-needed bodywork repairs, courtesy of Jamie and Pat at Rothley (Thanks in advance guys!). More on that will be covered in later updates.

    This weekend has seen us get ready for the coming year, with stuff being tidied and shifted around (yet again!). Having the CCT delivered has meant that we could empty the ex-Windcutter Group stores van, M500954, as well as move some items from the GUV.  The LMS van begins its journey through a reclad and repaint for it to join the van train. The intention is to refit the vacuum to this vehicle, which we are beginning to sort out components for.

    As the CCT is no longer being retained for as the fire van, we carefully removed the IBC cubes and relocated the firefighting equipment to one end of the van. This allowed us to transfer all items from the LMS box van into the CCT. Once all items had been removed, Jake started taking down the internal racking, which has been retained for redeployment; after all, we can’t let things go to waste!

    I assisted Jake with this, once I had replaced the front bumper of my car, which had sustained some damage from a Muntjac deer one Saturday evening last winter.

    Also on Saturday, as part of some fireman training, the box van train had several trips, which saw the use of the Southern brake van, which was also removed from the South Yard during the week.

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    Sunday morning rolls around, and with it bring us a special guest! We were pleased to reunite Dave Bower with Test Car 2. Dave used to work TC2, among other vehicles, during his time working for British Rail Department of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering from 1983 to 1994, and then for Serco until 2008. In this time Dave was involved with over 700 tests on new build vehicles as part of their acceptance to the network or investigating modifications to existing vehicles. Dave has also written a fantastic book, Rail Vehicle Testing (link on our Links page), which details the tests of which he was a part of,  why vehicles were tested, and information about the Test Cars among other subjects. Dave was able to show us how the coach worked, and some finer details of its conversion (including any questions we had) and told us a few stories of his time working the coach. Thanks for coming along Dave, and we hope you had a good day; as we certainly did!

    Other tasks undertaken today included reuniting parts of the tank with the tank, and finding and cleaning a fridge to use in TC2 whilst the Yellow Coach is away.

    Next weekend, we plan on starting to strip down the dock side of the LMS van in readiness for its reclad; and we shall continue to tinker with Test Car 2. Thanks for reading!

  • 17/02/19 – A Buckeye? That’s not a wagon coupling, how does that go on……

    This week on Tuesday and Wednesday a number of our vehicles were used during a Timeline Events charter.  As usual, I was on site reenacting with Jack, but this time we were also joined by Ross.  If you have ever wondered what happens to van sides that have been removed? We repurpose them and this week the VEA door skins removed in 2017 became a headboard for Standard 5 73156.  The original was carried by the engine in 1959.

    On to the weekend and our vacuum adventures with Test Car 2 continue,  with the performance of the 15″ cylinder below par the decision was taken last weekend to replace it.  With the vehicle being made available for possible future use in passenger rakes the reduced braking provided by the reduced size cylinder could be detrimental to the braking of a train.  First, we dropped into Quorn to pick up one of our spare 21″ cylinders.  This was refurbished some time ago but not fully assembled whilst it awaited a purpose.  It originally came from one of our Dogfish hoppers and had been attacked by the tin worm.  The Cylinder dome was repaired by the locomotive department some years ago.20190216_092253

    On arrival at Rothley the first task was to remove the 15″ cylinder.

    With the cylinder removed, we had to modify a support bracket for the ETH through wire as this will be foul of a 21″ cylinder.  The clamp blocks were fully removed, the outer block was reduced to top and bottom radiuses and the inner block was cut down and the lower corner removed.

    Whilst Ross and I removed the 15, Nick and Jake assembled the 21. This included applying red oxide to the areas that will be out of reach when the cylinder is fitted.  The inside was hovered, a new seal fitted and cylinder bolted up.  The repairs previously carried out are clearly visible.

    With the cylinder assembled, it was time to fit it to the vehicle.  The trunion supports were replaced with standard brackets recovered from long lost coaches and the cylinder lifted into position.  The cylinder was connected to the brake cross shaft, release valve fitted and clearances checked.

    Once complete Jake took the time to red oxide the rest of the cylinder but not before the all-important vacuum test.  20inHg was reached and the cylinder operated a number of times before the vacuum was destroyed.  10 minutes came and past and the brake was still applied after 3 hours and deemed a success.20190216_163138

    Next task was to replace the draw hook at the generator end.  When converted to a test car in 1974 the original draw hook with buckeye attachment was removed and replaced with that from a 20T Brake van.  This included a narrowing of the headstock slot which luckily was only a plate bolted into the original.

    Taken from another long since lost vehicle a full set of coach drawhook springs drawbar and draw-hook was retrieved from storage. Ross had the arduous task of undoing the mounting nut 1/8th of a turn at a time.  Once free the assembly was removed along with the headstock plate.

    A ware plate was fitted, the spring pack then assembled and fitted and the recovered draw bar and hook was also fitted,  All four members of the team were required with some interesting contortions of people around the axles, bogie and pipework of the coach.

    On to Sunday and again a quick visit to Quorn. This time to pick up a buckeye.  On arrival at Rothley the split pin to secure the draw hook was fitted.  Unfortunately, airlines were in the way but a quick modification to the support brackets and clearance was attained.

    Next job was the laborious task of screwing up the drawbar nut because of the bogie this was done 1/4 turn at a time.  Once tight the split pin was fitted.

    With the draw hook assembly complete next was the “simple” task of hanging the buckeye.  This required a few burs dressing and once in place, the support pin was driven home and once again a split pin fitted.

    When we dropped the buckeye however some minor alterations had to be carried out.  The buckeye came into contact with the main reservoir cock.  This was removed and then the support plate was foul.  A little alteration and the cock and support plate were clear.

    Back in the service position the release chain and support pin chain were fitted and the release tested.  A little lubrication and the wear limit was checked and the buckeye passed fit for use.

    The last item was to replace the internal arrangement drawing which I had created in the week and marks the start of the internal tidy and the task of replacing the faded signage. The new one may give a clue to the livery we are looking at applying.20190216_102639

    Hopefully, we will be back to normal next weekend or at least we will be back at Quorn.