Tag: B763305

Hello and welcome to two-weeks news from the team at Quorn. We’ve made good progress with the Shoc-high B724570, and finished off the Bauxite application to the tool van 854097.

Last weekend the striped ends of the tool van were sanded, cleaned down and undercoated; once this was dry the gloss Bauxite was applied to these areas.

The final door frame parts were cut for the new 12T van doors for B763305. The doors were then assembled, primed and undercoated.

The exposed metal frame on the Palshoc was prepared and then red-oxide primed.

Charlie looked at making a towbar for the generator, Ernie carried on with the fabrication of parts for the Palshoc door bars, and maybe we shouldn’t ask what mischievousness Hector got up to in the yard!

During the week Tank 3689 was shunted out of the workshop at Rothley (where it had been on display during the beer festival), and coupled with the other six Esso tanks; all 7 together for the first time.

This weekend we have continued with the gloss Bauxite application to the inner ends and door areas of the Shoc-high.

The outer ends were marked out for the shoc stripes, which were then taped.

Undercoat was applied which dried really quickly.

Followed by some white gloss.

A few areas of the inner headstock had some black applied.

Some replacement floor planks were prepared.

Part of the Shoc-high floor was taken up to even up the plank spacing and remove one rotten board. The replacement planks were then fitted.

A couple of repairs were done to two donated lamps.

A vehicle cover sheet that was previously used at Rothley had become available as it had some damaged areas so not longer fit for use on a coach. It was laid out in the yard and an assessment found that the undamaged part was enough to allow five van roof sheets to be cut from it. These were stored away safely for future use.

Thanks for reading, join us again next week as we progress the Shoc-high wagon nearer to completion.

Hi, this week the team at Quorn have again been busy working on many wagons; the restoration of our 7th 35T Esso tank is completed, we progress with the Shoc-High, the Tool Van, and start making some replacement van doors.

Saturday and continuing with the work started last week on the Tool Van, Mark and Oliver got the Bauxite gloss paint out and completed all four sides of the van.

This gives us our first before and after picture in this update.

Tom, Ernie and Charlie took a look at the section of corroded plate-work on the Shock-High B724570, marking out and cutting the section out. A new piece of plate was then cut to suit, the mounting holes drilled and it was checked for fit.

The plate was then trimmed as necessary for a good fit, the back red-oxide painted and bolted up; Charlie then welded the plate in-place.

Ross and myself measured up the East side doors that need replacing on 12T Van B763305, these are the original planked doors that have seen better days. Our plan is to replace them with our tried and tested design of plywood doors, routed to represent the planked originals. Two sheets of ply were cut to size, moving our work inside the Palshoc van that was conveniently nearby to shelter out of the intermittent rain showers.

Ross did some fitting checks with the latest version of his prototype profile measuring device, looking again on at the Salmon, Sturgeon and Lowmac wagons.

Having made a decision to tidy up the area near the tool van we needed the use of the Volvo loader, however this failed to fire into life so needed a bit of investigation; there is an electrical gremlin somewhere and the batteries need a good charge.

Sunday, and after grinding back the welds on the Shoc-High plate-work, a little more weld was needed to a small area. The plate was then ground neat and red-oxide applied. After this had dried, Nick applied a coat of Bauxite to the new plate and also round the East side door frame.

This gives us our second before and after.

Having charged the Volvo batteries overnight we managed to get the loader started and the tidying up completed, including our spare wagon wheelsets being safely stored in the Steel-High wagon that is coupled to Test Car 2.

Charlie took a look at a loose connection with Hector’s hooter, and fixed it.

Ross and myself took the final two Esso barrel plates that had been varnished a couple of weeks ago down to Rothley where we found tank 3689 in the yard.

The plates were fitted to both sides of the tank; just needing a small amount of fettling to a couple of the brackets to get the bolts to line-up.

The tank will be proudly on display at Rothley during next week’s GCR Beer, Cider & Gin Festival.

This work completes the restoration of Esso 35T tank 3689 that arrived from Shillingstone in October 2025, and gives us our third before and after picture.

Returning to Quorn, Ross and myself cut the backing pieces for the 12T van doors, and routed the plank representation into the two van door sheets.

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