SVR wagons 2023

Happy New year from Bewdley.
What a productive start we have made.
98480 has made some huge strides, and rather pleasingly, they have been hugely morale boosting ones too.
Rather helpfully, I've managed to upload the photos in a completely different order to that in which I want to talk about them!
As can be seen from the last picture, Saturday started with the fitting of some of the end planks.
There is a right and a wrong way to fit these (obviously not vertically before any smart Alec comments!) The outer top edge of all of the planks has a chamfer on them, this is to aid run off of rain water.
Not pictured, Graham has been welding up holes in the ex-industrial pattern corner plates to convert them to GWR pattern ones, the difference being the layout of the bolt holes, this job being a result of a throw away comment from myself some months ago about the difference.
The top photo shows a sight not seen for a long while, 98480's brake gear with nothing held up by rope! It's not finished, the push rods will go back on last, as they will be in the way for the next stage, and that next stage will be the riveting if the "V" hanger, which is currently just bolted on.
The middle pic shows those "V" hangers. I haven't removed any metal from these, and only some dressing on the shaft, which is amazing considering the wear in them both. The ring of rust is actually the end of the new bush, you can now, just about get a feeler gauge in, as opposed to a finger as was the case.
We still need to fit the tying down hooks, drill the floor planks to bolt them down, rebuild the doors and give her a drop of paint, but this lengthy overhaul is nearly finished.
See you soon,
Ian

 

Very nice, but is there no chamfer on the inner face, or does rain not land on the inside?

This isn’t meant as a facetious comment; I have to do the same job on another vehicle and hadn’t even considered chamfering the edges, but it seems like a good idea.

 

Oddly, no, no chamfer on the inner face, I suppose in theory, they would have been full of goods and had a sheet on in service.

 

Plenty of photos exist of open wagons with loads and unsheeted, so my guess is they spent more time unsheeted than sheeted. I suppose the inside was originally unpainted as well, but whether that makes a difference I don't know. Have you based your chamfer on drawings or is this just on the basis of what is understood to be normal good practice?

On B462772 (see its own thread) I am also thinking of painting the inside face; we're only talking about planks on one end and the inside faces of the side panels will be painted so why not the end? But I've no idea what was originally done.

 

Yes they spent plenty of time in sheeted, but they spent a lot of time sheeted or loaded,the outside was always exposed.
The chamfer is based on what the came off vehicles when they first arrived.

 

I believe 98480 hasn't had a sheet support since arrival. Any plans to reinstate it?

 

You'd have to ask the gaffer on that, but I've not been asked to make parts for one. The finances at the moment may put a stop to that.

 

Thanks Ian. Discussion on finances belongs in the General Discussion thread, but I'd just say that the wagons are an important part of the history that the SVR is supposed to portray, and I hope that the management will continue to support the excellent work that you and the others do to help in that.

 

Agreed, and thankyou for the encouraging words

 

I will see if the Fund can find the dosh for a sheet support.

 

I think it would be appreciated, but we'd need manpower too

 

There are very few things in life more satisfying (all comments about things you do in the morning to be kept to yourselves please) than putting something back together which you have repaired, trying it for the first time, and it works!
The three pics are supposed to show the completed brake assembly with repaired push rods and pins in place.
Did they work perfectly? No, there is some adjustment required. Did it all go to plan? Don't be silly!
After finding that there would be a problem riveting the 'V' hangers, the rest of the morning saw me swearing about bits that I couldn't find, although as I also pointed out, given the length of time, enforced closures and general complexity of the job, this was to be expected, and at the end of the day, the only thing we didn't find was one brake pin (which I had probably nicked to keep something else running) so having located the missing drop link, and reamed the holes in it, we located the missing brake block, and modified a pin to hang all of the aforementioned parts.
Upon trying the brakes, success! There's one block that doesn't come on, but I'll look to see what needs tweaking when I get chance. The method of repair may involve gas and a flipping great sledge hammer.
All this means that I might actually have a couple of weeks breathing space, as for a change, the boys can now take a turn in trying to catch me up, rather than the other way around.
Further south in the yard, Steve got chance to do some sign writing on the mink (the number of which currently escapes me) although rain did somewhat hamper his efforts there.
The boys working on the bodywork are making good progress on cutting and shaping the side and door planks, with the outer ends being shaped in a radius to fill the corner plates completely into the corners, rather than simply raiding the wood pile for a suitable sized piece of tree and hammering it in, as we have been forced to do in the past, with discussion turning to how we will disguise the fact that the end of the vehicle is still bent, causing the end uprights and hence the timber wall to lean inwards. When I asked what the plan was, the reply came back "Similar to what we did on the Chatham" at which point I had to admit, the job must have been a good one, as I hadn't noticed what they had done on that!
Other commitments mean I might not be there for a few weeks now, so unless things change, or I get chance to pop in, this will be my last update in January, but hopefully I shall see you all soon,
Olly

 

So, I was there on Saturday after all! (Definitely not there this Saturday)
Work is moving on well with 98480, Graham is getting on with bolting the floor planks in. It seems every time he takes one out, the rest warp or swell making it awkward to refit. The answer has been to trim a little off one of the planks.
Mark, Kevin and Nigel have been trimming more body planks to size and shape ready for fitting, while Stuart has been getting on with the painting of the frames of both of the wagons outside.
Meanwhile, my very final post (hopefully) about 98480's brakes. As I said previously, they work, however, they weren't perfect (oh come on, it wouldn't be fun if they were!) One block was refusing to come on, no matter how we adjusted it, by adjusting, I mean how hard I smacked the bit that needed to move with a 14 lb sledge hammer, anyhow, someone suggested checking the sizes of everything, at which point, we discovered one push rod slightly shorter than the rest. After a think, some maths and a few Anglo-Saxon words, we got them all to work. The theory we are going with is, the old rods were never right to start with, owing to the condition of the wagon, they have been repaired true to these and someone just put the wrong rod on the wrong corner (that's our story and we are sticking to it)
Of course, with the fitting of the doors and remaining side planks to come, I'm sure 98480 will drag a few more naughty words out of all of us before she's back in service.
Definitely no update this week as I'm off to the theater with the Girlfriend on Saturday, so I'll see you all soon.
Olly

 

Thanks for these updates Olly.

 

No worries mate! I'm quite enjoying feeling motivated to do them again, hopefully they are interesting, informative, and humourous (or at least one of those!)

 

All three!

 

Good to hear!

 

Last weekend was one that will challenge my journalist skills! The work has reached that stage where we are doing pretty well the same thing every week in the name of getting a couple of jobs finished.
The lads have been beavering away on 98480, fitting the door hinges to the new kerb rail, and cutting, shaping and painting planks to go onto the body. While this may seem like an odd order of events the construction of the doors means it makes sense to put the hinges on the wagon first, then build the doors in situ, this makes alignment of everything easier.
93045 has been getting some attention with a paint brush, it seems to be keeping Stuart out of trouble finishing off work painting the chassis on this.
I've taken the temporary lull in machining work as an opportunity to get some spares made or repaired, and as such, spent the day truing up the holes in a complete set of drop links ready to have some bushes put into them. While these had been in store, they had suffered from a spillage of Jeyes fluid into them, needless to say, by the end of the day I stank of the stuff. I'm hoping that I have managed to persuade Stuart to clean them up for me this week, so I can get on with the repair, my plan being to make a full set of bits which we can simply swap when the next wagon comes in
See you soon,
Ian

 

I'm getting into bad habits again, a week and a half late with my report! Yes I was always that kid who had to ask his teacher for a few more days for his home work, does that surprise you?
98480 has got her tying down hooks refitted to the kerb rail. We found some of what Mark described as "New, old stock"(i.e. genuine ex-Swindon) complete with a tread already on them, saving me some work, and answering the question of whether I was going to put a 3/4" or M20 thread on them, by virtue of being made out of 5/8" bar! The top end of these hooks, and their respective nuts is hidden under a timber stringer, so while myself and Reg went round reaming the existing holes to size and fitting the hooks, Nigel and Kevin followed us round rebating and fitting the timber. Our speed of work confused Kevin, who passed comment about the illogical way we were working around the vehicle, because he had missed the fact we were working so fast, he hadn't noticed we were actually going very sensibly around the wagon, and had actually nearly finished the job.
As a spin off from this, I can now announce that Reg is fully qualified in the art of holding a spanner while I try and turn the one on the other end of the part, a skill which we will hopefully abuse fully in the future.
The "Last of the summer wine gang" have also started refitting the side planks, with the walls now about half complete.
Now we come to the awkward bit, I'm sure you are all by now aware of the SVR's current shocking financial position, as a result, our budget has been reduced to zero, the 813 fund, who have traditionally provided a good chunk of support, have seen their sales income reduced by 90% as a result of being forced to move from Kidderminster, the wagon fleet provided the stock for the last ever steam hauled goods train on the Main line, which we would like to maintain to a standard suitable for use on the SVR, so if you feel able to give us any donations, please send them to -
The Bewdley Wagon Department
15 Meadow Road
Alcester
Warwickshire
B49 6BB
If you'd rather give donations to the railway more generally, myself and a group of other lads will be doing guided tours of the engine house on April 1st and 2nd, so come along and feel free to drop a few pennies in the bucket,
see you soon
Olly

 

That's sad to hear Olly, although we are somewhat envious that you were previously being funded! Hopefully you can take heart from the knowledge that we at NVR have had to be self-funding since the current incarnation of the Wagon Group took shape back in the 2000s. It's not easy, but can be done (and sometimes we've had to fight to keep the proceeds from our efforts when others discovered that the Wagon Group actually managed to make a profit on it's activities!).

Don't believe the naysayers, wagons can make money....is there a way to stick something in the tin via BACS or PayPal?