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Hi Morris63 In fact the van started life as a 20t wooden bodied mineral wagon. But it was rebuilt with the van body and a steam boiler inside, with a fuel oil tank at one end and a water tank at the other. This was used to pre heat coaches when they were all heated by steam from the locomotive. When diesels came along, many had to have small boilers to heat the coaches! The coaches were then slowly converted to electrical heating. Here is an earlier picture of the van with its doors on.
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A great workday at the beginning of April saw seven of the team hard at work. Fortunately the C & W staff had put three of our wagons together on number 1 road. B279721/733 was still in the shed where Tim and Gary were welding all day to very good effect. They continued seam welding of the floor sheets, patching the bottom of the uprights and putting the lower panels on the South end. It still needed the lower SW side repair panel and the lower end door panel to be welded in place but it was very nearly complete. Agusta was able to prep and undercoat the North sides. Outside the Shed, B 279711 had its West side needle-gunned and primered by George (On holiday from Uni). On the inside, Rob was busy tidying up the top edges of the underframe and Tom was prepping the East outside. A third wagon, B555696 had its pad exams done by Agusta and Tom, after being shown the process by myself. (This may still need a hole in the through pipe to be repaired?). Thus everybody was busy and all could see what they, and everybody else, had achieved. It is many years since we had so many of our team all on site for a workday.
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Apr 11, 2024 18:28:35 GMT
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Yesterday saw five of us busy on two of our wagons. Tim and Gary welded all the remaining patches and seams on B 279721/733, then set too and worked in tandem to secure the large lower sheet on the end door. This welding should be finished and the wagon painted before the end of April, then it will be renumbered as B114733. Meanwhile Tom and Rob continued preparing the underframe of B 279711. Rain hampered their work somewhat, but the frame is now ready for primer and underseal. The floor was measured and new steel sheets are to be ordered by the Rothley C & W staff. This may be a relatively quick wagon to refloor and it is to be renumbered as B266560
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Out of interest, why the renumbering? Have you discovered previous identities, or getting numbers more appropriate for the region perhaps?
Great work all round.
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Apr 12, 2024 11:53:29 GMT
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Hi Morris When we first got the wagons in 1992/3 we could not identify most of them so we used an un-issued set of numbers B 2797xx in the order of arrival. However after a lot of detective work by Phil Heatherington and John Buckland, quite a lot of wagons have now been identified and these are given their original numbers when they get repainted.
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Apr 18, 2024 10:05:34 GMT
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2024 10:06:25 GMT by flyingphil
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What a great way to start the day! There is a new GCR Reunification video which shows that the old embankment North of Loughborough will not be rebuilt but instead replaced with a new viaduct with pillars on piles and precast deck sections. This viaduct makes so much sense! The GCR went on viaducts through Leicester and elsewhere and is a classic image. It also explains why the engine shed will need to be relocated. To have a single track around the shed and a long section of double track North of the shed (To allow a full length train to wait entry to Loughborough) would mean a double track embankment almost up to Precis-spark. The extra height needed to cross Railway terrace would mean a significantly taller and wider embankment....lots of lorry loads of material! Using piles and standard bridge decks for the long single track viaduct from the Sewer outflow to the MML bridge will be a lot faster to build, and far less intrusive in terms of lorry movements during construction. It also means though that it becomes one construction project rather than three phases but I suspect because of the modular construction, a smaller workforce could be used?
CAUTION WIBN Alert! It would also be good if the single track bridge across the sewer outflow had steel lattice parapets ( as per the new Quorn bridges and canal bridge) ....also the viaduct could have blue brick arch facades along the East side where it runs past Precis-spark. This was done on the new MML bridge abutments. If you really had some spare cash, then a non-structural "Bowstring Girder" would be nice across Railway terrace!
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Apr 25, 2024 16:12:44 GMT
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Number #733 is finished with its new wagon plates (but it still needs its white stripes and numbers) we also did more work on the wagons in the yard.
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May 30, 2024 12:25:59 GMT
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Nearly a month later and we have been making steady progress. Wagon #733 is still in the shed and just needs its white numbers and white stripe painting. Wagon #711 has had more work done on its underframe with needle gunning and stanchion prep for welding. Then we had a closer look at the floor in the wheel swap wagon #723...and started to take that out as there was a lot of rust and debris trapped between the original and inner body floor. It was all solid but would only get worse and so whilst it is at Rothley it makes sense to do it.
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Last Edit: May 30, 2024 12:29:38 GMT by flyingphil
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Jun 24, 2024 12:20:39 GMT
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Two more workdays have seen more progress on #711 in the shed as the end door has had two welded repairs done, the fixed end has had two repair patches done and there have been six repairs done to the eight stanchions. Wagon #723 has had some of its underframe cleaned and bitumastic applied, also some of the inside. The Steam Heat van has had some parts removed for re-use. It is still for sale but, we do need the space, so it could end up being broken. As can be seen, we are making good progress on three different wagons rather than concentrating on just one. This is so that all of the team can be working and not getting in each others way.
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2024 12:24:56 GMT by flyingphil
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Here is the other end painted. When we paint the sides this wagon will revert to its original BR number B266560.
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Jul 12, 2024 11:35:34 GMT
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Jul 18, 2024 11:49:57 GMT
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Only a few small bits to finish off now on #711 - even the white stripes and big black boxes are painted.
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Aug 14, 2024 16:59:54 GMT
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Unfortunately we were only able to man our stand on the Saturday so I hope not too many people were disappointed on Sunday. Meanwhile five of us were in action today and the C & W staff had shunted #560 (now numbered) out and put B279723 into the shed. This had the wheels swapped but with its double skin the floor was suspect and so the inner floor was removed and the original floor was also to thin in places - so were are putting a new floor in.... we will also be repainting it whilst it is in the shed.
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Last Edit: Aug 14, 2024 17:01:26 GMT by flyingphil
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It was a "Railways at Work" event last weekend and there were 4 passenger trains running and three different freight trains. So lots of action, with Quorn yard particularly busy. Here was Loughborough Station early on Sunday morning.
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Aug 21, 2024 16:10:34 GMT
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Back at work in the shed at Rothley and the floor of #723 has been completely removed. Rubbing back the paintwork reveals a variety of colours!
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Aug 30, 2024 21:56:40 GMT
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Still more work has been done preparing the underframe for the new steel sheets. We are actually trying to use several spare sheets rather than having 6 bespoke cut sheets. This is to save money and clear a bit of shed space. It is a bit of a jigsaw though! We have also been sorting out our stores van which is in the shed for a repaint on its sides.
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