SVR wagons 2017

Happy new year everybody, here we go again.
Before I start on the news, I'd like to get a few thank yous in first.
Firstly I am indebted to Graham for his photographs which have certainly helped enhance these updates, as a picture so often speaks a thousand words.
I'd also like to thank all our readers, without whom these articles would be rather pointless, last year we reached an incredible 23,400 hits, thank you all for your interest.
Inside the goods shed, work marches on with 55577. For those who don't know, this vehicle is really Ashford built WD49010 built for military use and never actually an SR or BR wagon, finishing her pre-preservation career at R.N.A.D. Gosport. The real 55577 was a 1930 Lancing built van a similar design (The differences being details such as the thickness of the planking to save material) This wagon has been in and out over the last few years, coming in for a quick repair, before being sent out to work trains on a couple of occasions, however this can only work for so long, and now the wagon has had to come in for a major shopping. Many of the side planks have been replaced, the roof canvas is off, the roof, door frame and corner posts have all received some surgery and the plywood sheet across the end of the veranda have been replaced.
Meanwhile outside in the yard, as weather permits, work is progressing on GWR conflat 39860. This wagon is waiting on new chain pockets and kerb rails, which will hopefully be followed by a new floor. To the untrained eye, this wagon may seem like a straightforward job, however, there is a lot of work involved in frames, draw gear and brakes.
If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask them, as I'm sure you won't be the only one who wants to ask the same thing, I'll try to answer them, and if you have any relevant pictures to add to this thread please feel free, it all adds to the fun.
If any of you want to join our little team, please contact the Volunteer Liaison Office on 01299 401776 or vlo@svrlive.com. You don't need any special skills other than a sense of humor as we can find jobs for just about anyone.
Hope 2017 is a good one!
Olly

 

Sounds like a good start has been made to 2017 Olly! Good luck with this years projects.


Keith

 

This is the current situation with 55577.



Jobs to do:
Finish side planks.
Finish one internal door frame and end planks and fit both internal doors.
Make one end frame and panel.
Finish roof planks.
Fit four veranda doors.
Make/repair seat boxes under duckets.
Fit stove.
Roof canvas.
Lots of painting and little jobs, and some not so little, like the 21" bolts to hold the brake wheel pedestal down that Olly is making.

 

It has been another productive weekend, 55577 has had some surgery on the corner posts of the van doors, and also on the end of the van, and these particular patches have been fitted, and the lads are now going about the business of hiding the joins. The floor is now pretty well done, with the finishing strips being screwed down in both verandas, while work is marching on with the cleaning and repainting underneath.
Sunday, an opportunity presented it's self to push 17410's brake gear forward a good step. Her first set of brake gear is now back in position, repaired and primed, and the second lot is in the van ready for us to work on.
Wish us luck
Olly

 

This week has been a week of odds and ends, all of which have are essential to move both projects along.
In the goods shed, 55577 has had some attention to the roof, with some damage being cut out of the timber, and a new piece grafted in to replace it, involving a good bit of planing and sanding to make it fit in such a way that it won't puncture the canvass when that is fitted. The end of the north end veranda is in the process of having some new uprights made to support the plywood sheeting as the old ones were found to be in poor condition, while some attention has also been given to her brake gear.
On the other side of the yard, the second piece of 17410's brake gear has been getting some attention, by cleaning the drop links (Sometimes referred to as "Bones" owing to their shape) heating the large ends and hammering out the old bushes. These were not as badly worn as the first set, but they were also not as willing to come out either, much cursing, swearing and a lot of hammering later they were out. The plan with these is to do the bushes at the same time as doing some odd jobs on 55577's brakes in the machine shop, slotting all the odd jobs in in one or maybe two days, and handing over a pile of bits all ready to use in one go.
If any of you fancy giving us a hand, the only specialist skills required are a sense of humour and an ability to drink tea (Coffee is an acceptable alternative) and of course some safety shoes and suitable clothing, we will happily teach people the rest, contact Barry Moreton at the Volunteer Liaison office on 01299 401776 and tell him you'd like to join the Wagon department at Bewdley (Or for that matter any other department that you fancy) It will certainly be appreciated.
Many thanks
Olly

 

I did forget to add in both of my last articles, if you have any questions, or anything you wish to add, feel free, I will attempt to answer them, although please bare in mind I'm an engineer not a teacher, so I sometimes do opt for the one word answer if that says all that needs to be said, also if you have any photographs, feel free to put em up, or send them to me and I'll see if I can slot them into the next article, (although of you want to be sure people will see them just post them!)

 

Sorry I'm a little late this week, it was a productive weekend in Bewdley.
55577 has started to change colour, with the ends turning red, while the exposed metal has turned green (Primer not moss) and the green bits have turned grey as this wagon is starting to look a lot more brakevan like. #the holes in the walls have been filled, but we still need to put one veranda end back in, and thoughts soon need to turn to the roof as well, once the canvass goes on, that will be the start of 2 months roofing work.
The brake gear on 17410 is moving forward, the second set of drop links has been re-bushed, a process aided by the fact that the original bushes were not worn right through unlike the earlier set, meaning all the bushes could be made the same size this time!
Hopefully, around the end of march, we should see 17410 move out of her current position, which is fairly well hidden out of the way, to a more publicly visible area of the yard, although you'll still have to get on your hands and knees to see my bit of it!

 

Despite the cold snowy weather, we are a hardy bunch at Bewdley and the lads of the wagon department have been hard at work. Those of you who think we have a "Nice warm goods shed" to work in should think again, goods sheds are rarely nice and warm and ours is no exception, with the lads joking about going outside into the snow to warm up! However, despite the cold, the boys have continued with their quest to re-paint 55577, battling numb fingers and a crisis caused by lack of milk for the tea at one point too.
The lads are now in a position to finish off another little job on this particular wagon, as we now have the bolts to fix the handbrake pedestal down. You may recall me talking about these right at the very end of last year, and the next two pictures show one of the later stages in the production of new ones, milling the hexagons on the head end of the bolt. One or two folks have asked why we chose to make new ones our selves rather than take an easier option, well, to buy, they would have been very expensive as at 21" long, they are well outside of the standard range of sizes, and while no one would actually see if we welded a nut onto a piece of all thread, the threaded part going through the weight box offers an area for water to collect and induce decay, and also, as any machinist will appreciate from the next picture, it's sometimes nice to show off just what difficult jobs you can do.
To explain to anyone not familiar with machining, to single point tirn anything where the length exceeds 10 times its own diameter, even when it is supported is very difficult, these beasts were 28 times their diameter in length, and the next pic shows the size of it, the bin behind is provided for comparison. So while the boys put those to good use next week, hopefully some attention can now go on 17410 again.
17410 is a fitted toad brake van, or Toad A, which the LNER coach lads are working on, one set of bow girders and drop links has been refurbished and re-hung, and the second set has now been bushed and primed and is waiting to go back on. If any of you don't know what bushing means, hopefully the next pic will help. The drop link is the bone shaped piece in my hand while the silver piece sticking up at the end is the bush, this will be pressed into one of the holes by means of our big hand press, in order to bring the hole back down to it's correct size. It is held in place simply by being an interference fit, which means (To the non-engineers here) it's a bit bigger than the hole, 0.004" normally does the job, no glue needed! This is also why we heated them up to get the old bushes out.
So if there is sufficient muscle power available, these and the bow girders and brake blocks will be going back on next week, and set number three will be coming off for the same treatment.
Graham and myself spent a few minutes outside looking at the conflat last night, looking at the scars and weld marks on her frame and wondering just exactly what happened to her in her life with the GWR and BR to cause such damage and such odd repairs, we will probably never know, but it's interesting to ponder on why and how these things happened on occasions, hopefully there will be progress on this too as the weather begins to warm up (Hopefully) from the end of the month and into March.
The railway should be re-opening next weekend, anyone breaking their journey at Bewdley, if you happen to wander down the carpark to the end where the goods shed is, and the large gates happen to be open, (Which I can't guarantee) then feel free to walk down and see what is going on. I must ask however, that if the big central gates are shut (Thats the road vehical gates not the wicket gate at the end) please stay out as there may be Welding (No one wants a dose of Arc eye) Shunting or other hazardous activities going on.
I look forward to seeing you all in the running season.
Olly

 

Apologies for going AWOL last week, I had a couple of things dropped on me, however, the lads have been busy, and the roof has been getting a drop of TLC, with whatever the MOD coated the timber with being attacked in the hope of stripping it off. We are not quite sure what it is, but it looks and smells like bitumen, so it stands a chance that's what it is. This is part of prepping the roof for a new canvass. Meanwhile the ends are turning red with top coat going on the verandas and the headstocks, while the brake pedestal has been bolted down using those great long bolts described the other week, and I believe minimal use of the Birmingham screw driver.
In other news there will be a goods on this up coming gala and hopefully the yard will be open, so feel free to come and say hello to the lads and see what they are up to.
Cheers
Olly

 

It's that time of week again and we have plenty of news to share.
Firstly, those of you who follow the comings and goings of the SVR on facebook will probably be aware that we have obtained 6 Seacow 40 ton ballast hoppers, to, as someone on facebook put it, carry out ballasting in a more industrial style than we currently can. I don't know then numbers or anything more about these wagons at the moment, but hopefully they will turn out to be a very useful addition to the SVR P.way fleet.
Inside the goods shed, 55577 is progressing well, although the bitumen on the roof seems reluctant to come off without a fight! There are some finishing strips from the bottom of the interior of the van on the bench having had a coat of paint, with a few jobs to attend to inside.
The conflat has had some attention with the patches for the damaged out riggers being cut, hopefully this wagon will take a few leaps forward as the weather improves.
17410's second set of brake gear has gone back on, although owing to lack of man power on Sunday, removing the third set will have to wait until next weekend, however, the long pull rod which connects the brake gear at each end, and the slack adjuster (which is of the Swiss cheese type) have been removed. This is a slight deviation from the original plan of doing each set of brake rigging in order, however as it will have to be done at some time, and can't be easily confused with a bow girder or a drop link so there is no danger of re-fitting the wrong bits!
There is a goods train running on the up coming gala and the lads will be glad to see you around over the weekend too.
See you soon
Olly

 

Well our new seacow hoppers are here, and were last seen standing on Sandbourne viaduct (South end of Bewdley) still with a fair old bit of ballast in them too. As for the plans for them, or what work we will have to do on them, or even the numbers, I don't know, but hopefully they will prove to be an interesting addition to the fleet.
17410 has now had another set of brake gear removed for cleaning and repair, and the worn out old bushes hammered out. We've had to remove the brake safety straps for this one, but this has allowed us access to repair a gash in one strap which looks suspiciously like a gas axe mark, possibly where it has been clumsily removed from either this wagon or another during an overhaul (Possibly it's last one for BR!)
While we have had the electric glue out, work has started in welding patches into the out riggers for the chain pockets on the conflat, we will have to give some thought to producing the new kerb rails for this soon, possibly a job for the summer.
Meanwhile in the shed, work has continued to remove the bitumen from the roof of 55577, this is one of those jobs that if it is done well, no one will see it, which makes it a tad frustrating, but if it's not done well, lumps of it will be visible through the canvass.
As next weekend is gala, there will be a goods train out, and the lads will be about on Saturday too, so feel free to come and say hello. There is a chance they may have one of their book sales on too, which brigs valuable funds into the department and helps provide valuable tooling to help us restore our wagons.
See you soon,
Olly

 

There is an SVR Wiki page, still being updated, at http://www.svrwiki.com/BR_'Seacow'_40t_Bogie_Ballast_Hoppers. Graham Phillips reports "I don't know where the Seacows are right now, but I saw them heading north past Bewdley earlier today, so I know they're not at the triangle any more." Please do contribute any updates.

Patrick

 

If the Cows are anything like the ones we acquired the other year, then expect a lot of work needed on the hopper platework and the hopper doors.
If there is stone still in the hoppers then the door gear may be suspect.
Check the bulkheads below the hoppers as they will probably be holy and I don't mean religious.

We have removed all the doors from one of ours and had it reskinned as the original steel was transparent in the middle and binding on the hopper around the edges, easiest solution was to re skin.
If you do remove the doors the main pivot pins will be a sod to undo. Split pin through castellated nut in the most awkward position. There is a very small locating lug on the pin locating in the casting. This is very liable to shear off if not careful, may mean you need to burn the Castellated nut off.

Will you be keeping them as Air only or reverting to vac?
Keeping ours as Air only but refitting Vac through pipe.

The hoppers that came in from Network for ballast delivery the last few weeks by special train from Doncaster had see through hoppers and in some cases non existant baffles between the hoppers.

Best of luck with them.

 

The Infrastructure Manager's announcement http://www.svrlive.com/6-new-seacows "They are air-braked so will fit in well with the other 15 similarly fitted RUDD wagons" suggests they will be air braked?

Patrick

 

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who came to say hello on gala, and report that the goods train survived unscathed (As far as I'm aware).
Over the gala, the lads managed to get a canvass on to the roof of 55577 and during the week, get the first coat of paint on it (Which is actually a mix of paint and linseed oil) and as always, by the time we turned upon Saturday, the mix had absorbed into the canvass to such an extent, the lads were questioning their sanity as you could barely see a change of colour. Not to be dettered, the boys applied a second coat this weekend. The same will happen with this coat too, as it typically takes until the third coat for it to start to make a serious difference to the colour, and until the fifth for it to look right.
Making the most of the good weather, we actually made progress on three wagons this weekend, and not just little odds and ends but serious progress. In addition to the roof on 55577, attention turned to the conflat and her kerb rails. which revealed that the wagon is quite a bit out of square, so a bit of muscle power may be needed to pull everything into line.
17410 has had some cleaning and painting on her third set of brake gear, and some worn bushes hammered out (heat with gas, then bash with a hammer and drift) although we have found that a new slack adjuster will be needed, this is a complex shape, but actually quite easy to make (Lots of holes on a close pitch) so that will give us some entertainment.

The first pic shows Graham cutting the conflat kerb rails. Above, we see heat being applied to the "Toasting fork" end of a bow girder in order to get the old bushes out, note the difference in the hole sizes with the bush removed from the outer hole.
Finally we see Paul removing rust and gunge from a safety strap, one of these had to be patched up as there was a cut mark in it presumably from it being removed at some previous overhaul (Possible going back to BR days) so a small touch of electric glue was needed.
So thats it for another week, I'm not going to be around for a couple of weeks owing to other commitments, but hopefully someone else will maybe up load some pics etc, feel free to ask questions and I will respond when I get chance,
Regards,
Olly

 

Well I looked after the freight Friday pm. Never realised Shropshire could be as dark. The only niggle I had was there is no stay to hold the door open on the GW Toad. If someone says well fit one then I will.

 

Keep the door shut and stay warm

 

If the GWR put the handbrake inside as every other railway do I would

 

Sorry about the lack of updates, progress is being made at Bewdley but as some of you may know, I'm currently learning to drive (engines not cars, lol) so this is taking up a good deal of my time, I will bring you all up to speed as soon as I can

 

Hello again, I'm back, thank you for being Patient.
Work at Bewdley has continued on several fronts. The roof of 55577 is progressing, I have lost count of which coat we are on, but from the look of it, we are nearly there, there is also a repaired stove ready to go in (The one that was in it was a SVR home made one made out of a loco super-heater flue) The end of this wagon's overhaul is in sight.
The conflat now has a new set of kerb rails, these will need to be riveted in place, then the chain pocket and the floor can be investigated.
Finally 17410 has had another pair of drop links re-bushed and a new brake slack adjuster started (this will be finished at the same time as the kerb rails get done on the conflat)
It has been nice to see a few of you over the last couple of weekends, if the big double gates at the end of the car park are open please come and say hello, however please be aware that if these are closed, please don't enter without a member of staff, as this is a working area so there may be hazardous work going on.
See you soon
Olly