BD4304B – Quorn Wagon & Wagon

17/11/19 – Loaded and Secured

Unusually this update begins on Thursday with a trip to Medstead & Four Marks. The reason for the visit, to pick up some Conflat chains. Our thanks go to the Mid-Hants Railway Wagon group for offering them to us, they were in far better condition than our own.

Friday saw the December issue of Rail Express hit the shelves with an article looking ant our work on Test Car 2 IMG-20191115-WA0000

On to Saturday and I continued with the signwriting started last weekend.

Nick drilled and attached the chains to the Conflat whilst Ross and Dave drilled and secured the additional rails placed on the vehicle last week.

Then the main event, before the light failed and after I had completed the high-level signwriting we lifted BD4303B on to B505313. With the subframe missing we had to first lower the container on to a set of sleepers.

The Container was then lifted from each end and the sleepers removed.

Once sat on the rails the Container was secured to the Conflat. Earlier before the lift Nick and Ross also applied the identification plate above the door.

To allow the lift I left off the branding and applied it Sunday as well as a few other signwriting finishing touches.

Nick, Ross, Jake and Dave applied Bauxite to the Conflat. adding heat to cure the paint as they went along. Sufficiently drying the vehicle before the rain started.

All of the conflat chains had reached the end of there threads although reasonably tight we took some steps to resolve. We couldn’t move inwards by a ring as the chains were not long enough so our next option was to shorten them. We did this using an old BR trick, one of the links was heated in each chain and bent.

With the shortened chains we resecured the container. Jubilee clips were also added to prevent inadvertent loosening.

With it also being the Last Hurrah we saw a few of our vehicles in operation. Notably the Vans.

The van train is now stabled in the yard at Quorn in preparation for the Winter Brake overhaul and to finish Ross and Dave serviced the Test Cars Generator.

17 November 2019

27/10/19 -Rain Rain Go Away

Good evening, and welcome to another update from us chaps at Quorn. Saturday saw Jake, Nick, Matt and Dave in attendance. Sadly, due to the weather not much progress was made on the container. In order to avoid the rain, the team stayed under cover and tidied the GUV; a long overdue task. Paint Brushes were resurrected, items tidied and home found for newer acquisitions. On to Sunday, with me now in attendance and with the weather looking good we began working on the container.

Firstly the rectification of some water damage were resin applied but not cured had suffered some weather damage. This was duly removed and re-resinned by Matt. Jake and I had the honour (?) of sanding the container ready for primer. I carried on around the sides and door end of the container with the air driven sander, while Jake drew the short straw and was tasked with the blank end panel. This had had green paint applied at some point in the past, which was beginning to flake off.

While this was happening, Matt finished off applying resin, and reattached the door hinge which was unbolted to repair the door. Sanding completed, Jake blew the container down while I thinned the fibreglass/gelcoat primer and assembled the gun.

I began by applying primer to the roof, and then the blank ends then going round the container anti-clockwise. The primer cured very quickly, so we gambled and had Jake prep the undercoat ready for spraying.

While the painting was occuring, Matt starting removing paint from one of the plates he has had made for the containers. Not content with the black finish, he’d applied some crimson, and had to then scrap/sand the paint off of the raised letters. rather effective, don’t you think?

If the weather is kind to us next weekend, we hope to have the container into Crimson top coat, with signwriting completed and perhaps lifted onto the ConFlat! Join us next week to see what we end up doing, Thanks for reading!

27 October 2019

22/09/19 – Conflats and Containers

With our thanks to the Ops department, we are back in our usual position with Test Car on the front road and our next project brought up from the yard. First task a brake test to find out how the two vehicles behave. B507489 held vacuum for 10 minutes with B505313 being no better after fitment of a Branch pipe, the original one having long since perished, new vacuum hoses were fitted all round.

So next we looked at the Release Valves. Both were removed and overhauled by Dave. This has become second nature to him and both valves were done very quickly.

The next test and B505313 held for just under an hour but no change to B507489. With only one 15″ rolling ring in stock B507489 was chosen to receive it. With the “Lighter” cylinder the decision was taken to drop it manually rather than use the loading shovel.

Once out it was split and found to be in remarkable condition. A quick hoover new ring fitted, rebuilt and refitted to the vehicle.

A final test and after 3 hours it was still holding and another Defect Card filed.

Whilst this was going on, my attention was on BD4303B, voids were filled with expanding foam. Surface and full cracks, as well as dents, were scolloped out.

One of the doors had a hole straight through it. The top hinge was unbolted, loose fibreglass removed. Tape was applied to the inside and again the void filled and taped over

Full through cracks received a fiberglass matting and resin to restore strength and then a fiberglass filler applied along with the other areas prepared earlier.

Finally, for Saturday we welcome Eddie and Harry who have started with the paint preparation removing loose paint and verdigris.

On to Sunday and the weather was not in our favor. Despite this Ross and I continued with work on Nicks Container. The areas of foam added were cut down, scolloped exposing original layers of Fiberglass

Matting was then resined into position to provide strength and support, this will then have a layer of filler applied to restore the smooth outer layer although only if we have a drier day.

Ross’s task was to begin the sanding of previously applied resin and keying of the gelcoat ready for painting, we would have liked to of restored the gelcoat fully, unfortunately working outside this is ni on impossible.

Nick replaced a number of floor planks as well as removing the remains of the bottoms of the chain boxes. These have not faired well so the decision has been taken to open them up to limit further rot

Eddie and Harry continued with their cleaning regime, with the conflats complete they moved on to E280364

With rain towards the later half of the day Ross and I took a trip to Swithland to fit our refurbished first aid kits to our brakevans, replacing the modern kits with more period looking items.

Being at Swith also gave us a chance to see our latest van with the rest. With all of our restored vans in the one train, well all apart from the fishvan and tool van. 15 Bauxite vans in one train, is there anywhere else that can offer this?

Our final image. The two proud Container owners with there rare items.

22 September 2019

15/09/19 – Back on the Wagon(s)

We are back to normality following the Diesel Gala, and have been working on wagons and wagon loads. However, before work on that started, we had some goodies to investigate with regards to getting the intercom system working in Test Car 2. Using the 3 speaker boxes we have, we can get the intercom working in the slip end, Main saloon and Kitchen. There is the hope of finding some more Speaker boxes to expand the system as necessary. Having proved it, we have developed a plan for its continued usage.

On to Wagons, and I started by continuing to grease the pins in the brake linkages on the Air Braked Steel High. Armed with a 12-ton hydraulic jack, 2 hammers and various punches, (oh and a big bucket of grease) I crawled under the wagon to remove a few more pins, clean up the holes and replaced the pins with a fresh smear of grease. This resulted in the successful repair of this vehicle’s hand brake and removal of the defect labels.

In the past, it was thought to be the slack adjuster causing the brakes to lock up. After surveying the vehicle, it was found that a number of linkages were seized, causing the brake to jam on. The slack adjuster is working absolutely fine, much to our relief. A number of linkages were done the week before the Diesel Gala, with Nick sorting a few more once TPO duties had finished.

Getting sick of crawling around from under the Steel High, I decided to remove the floor with assistance from Nick. The floor is due replacement as all of the boards are rotten. The floor came out in no time, thanks to a novel feature included by the LNER on this wagon. Instead of the floor being fixed in by bolts, the floor is held captive in a C-channel attached to the wagon side. there are 2 cut-outs to drop the boards into, and provide the planks are appropriately sized, should slide along to where needed.

While I was crawling under/over the Steel High, Dave, Jake and Matt started work on the Fibreglass containers. Matt started fabricating a plate to repair the end door of his container, while Dave and Jake set about freeing the end doors on Nick’s container.

Matt disappeared early in order to take part in a photo charter at East Kirkby with their Lancaster “Just Jane”.

Having got the Oxy-propane cutting bottles out, Dave, Nick and I started to heat up and manipulate the bent straps on Nick’s container and loosened the rings on Matt’s. In the meantime, Jake was on the roof of Nick’s container cleaning out the debris which had found itself under the lifting frame.

On to Sunday, Matt finished the repair to his containers door as well as removing the box from the locking bar and adding a missing staple.

Nick continued Jake’s task from Saturday by completing the roof de-veg of both Containers.

The final task for the weekend was to secure the strapping of Nicks container, this was drilled by Matt and then secured in place by both. As a safety measure and to keep the 2 containers looking similar, the same was done to Matts.

This concludes this update, more as always next week.

15 September 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

17/07/19 – Then 2 turn up.

Another mid-week update and once again we head north with a Kenway Construction lorry, we send thanks to our friends at Kenway for the loan of the vehicle. Why have we gone north, another trip to Barnsley after a phonecall, “would you like another container”. With 2 Conflats in the collection, there was only one answer. As slick as the first time we loaded and made our way back to Quorn.

BD4303B is identical to its sister container DB4304B although unfortunately, this one has lost its substructure, this serves no deterrent and we have a plan already formulated.

We are certain this is a first for preservation, 2 sequentially numbered fiberglass BD Containers from a batch of only 6 together in the same place and soon to be loaded onto Conflat-As.

Both share the Bedford allocation. Our focus will return to Test Car 2 and then we will move these 2 and the Conflats to the top of the queue, we are looking forward to these being loaded.

17 July 2019