SVR wagons 2014

I'm afraid I don't have any updates for you owing to the sheer volume of guards turns I have been putting in recently but just a quick heads up, if you happen to be about this weekend, assuming there is some motive power available the goods train should be doing 4 trips each day between Bewdley and Kidderminster for re-training goods guards. I am sorry I don't have the timings yet, but an educated guess would be if you were around between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. you should see it at some point!

 

Here we go again folks, I did manage to briefly pop into the wagon department yesterday prior to a late evening guards turn. 13154's brake gear has inched further forward, but some attention with the angle grinder will be needed to the new push rods before we can go much further, then they need drilling.
The Cadbury wagon is approaching completion, and work has progressed on the wagons in the shed. The river side doors on gunpowder van 58725 and the grey under coat is rapidly appearing all over this side.
65620 is getting some attention, new side sheets being cut ready to be fitted, out of some fairly solid bits of marine ply (3/4" I think).
For those of you that are interested, the goods train should be traversing the full length of the line next Saturday and sunday, like before, I can't comment on the times or motive power but it will be worth turning out,
All the best,
Ian

 

It has been a couple of weeks, but things are moving on at a pace, Gun Powder Van 58725 is slowly turning black, although I must confess that I haven't checked the rock side or below the sole bar. I believe work is in hand on producing a new river side door lintel, although as this is a hard wood, it has produced its own interesting set of problems.
Vanfit number 65620 is having a whole new rock side fitted to it, including a replacement of some of the protective planks on the inside. The sides are made of sheets of 3/4" marine ply, I believe an economy measure of the 40s, so on the up side, you can change a whole side fairly swiftly, but on the down side, you can't just take the rotten bits out.
13154's brake gear is inching forward, with the push rods now awaiting drilling and riveting together, and the "Cotton reel" spacers made ready, we will soon beat a stage where the old brake gear will have to start coming off the wagon.
Finally, I see that this thread is rapidly approaching 10,000 views, I am amazed that the activities of us small band of wagon repairers is so popular, thank you all for your support.
Olly

 

What Olly didnt mention is that one of the trains was a training trip for established pass guards to learn unfitted. Ther are 5 more freight guards to help wear out the stock so Olly does not get bored with nothing to do

 

Ever get that spooky feeling, you are being watched?...............................

But seriously, there are those of us on other lines involved with restoration, overhaul, maintenance of wagons, as you well know!

Never mind the fact people like to see demo freights running.

Maybe this thread can be used for sharing of ideas, eg dollops of varnish!

 

We don't use varnish on anything any more! Don't think we ever used it on wagons, but we recently stopped using it on coaches too having got fed up with the "chocolate and beige"effect after a few years - we think it was reacting with someting in the loco exhaust or maybe cylinder oil. Either way we kicked it into touch now we have our paint shop and we can get through simple repaint in a month or two without much impact on any other work we are doing.

 

If you go back a bit in this thread, you'll see I was referring to a tip that Olly had been given about adding a dollop of varnish to the topcoat to try & prevent blistering & cracking........ we, on the MHR have tried it on a Pal Van that needed an all over repaint, so will be used as a test vehicle to see if it works..........

 

Oh yes I remember now. We considered it, but I don't think we ever got round to trying it out. I think our painting team head got a bit peed off with the stuff in the end!

 

Put it this way, If I hadn't read Olly's posts I wouldn't have known they had the same problem we do, though ours maybe exacerbated by lack of cover...........

 

Maybe, ours aren't under over, the paintwork doesn't look too bad on them, just rather faded on some vehicles. Didn't realise that mixing varnish in could help with paint bubbling and cracking though.

 

See, you learn something new every day!

I knew there was a "solution" but not too sure which one......... linseed was the other, but then again, varnish contains linseed....... and the one I chose was yacht varnish......... so we shall see.....

 

Hello,
Short Goods train on the Swanage Railway this weekend.
Hand held IPad .




https://www.flickr.com/photos/25830408@N08/15064287433/



Nick

 

We also toyed with the idea of linseed oil too, the varnish tip is at the experimental stage with us too. Unfortunately with the SVR having such a large collection of wagons, and such a small band of restorers, anything that can keep the wagons out of the works a few months longer has to be considered, this is why we are looking at methods of making the paint last a little longer.

 

You also so have the "luxury" of undercover accom, we don't, which maybe part of the problem!.........

Wagons are painted & stored outside in all weathers, though to my mind, there comes a point where you say NO!

That said, I'm hoping that a weekend party can be organised to work on the Bulleid coaches over the winter....... a nice dry, warm workshop.......

 

99% of the wagons on the SVR are, as Hollis will hopefully correct me, kept outside. Not in the carriage shed. The only covered accom for wagons is either the shed they are being worked on or the three wagons up in Highley.

 

That's what I was referring to, sorry if I didn't make it clear.

 

The vast majority do not have the benefit of being worked on in the cold, damp goods shed, which does not provide quite the protection for either wagons or workers as everyone thinks, but most are worked on outside.

 

Nice to know we're all in the same boat!.......

 

Blimey, we're pretty well off then here! in theory, we can have a wagon in the barn, which is just undercover, very little else, one in the nice warm workshop, and at a squeeze one in the even warmer paint shop too, although I think in the time we've had the paint shop (coming up to a year soon) we must have had probably half a dozen coaches through but only one wagon, so realisticly, we have two undercover, with one being in proper working conditions.

 

yeah, in winter it is often colder inside the goods shed than out.