NVR Wagon Group Updates

A double helping of updates - a well attended session on Saturday followed up by a smaller band of happy wagoneers on Tuesday - another two vans vac fitted (but awaiting test) and a further van returned to running order (but still awaiting vac).

It appears the FB armchair warriors think we don't know what we are doing - but just because you can't see scotches in all the photos doesn't mean they aren't there - we take safety very seriously

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/01/14/13-01-24-on-a-roll/

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/01/16/16-01-24-one-out-and-one-in/

We have our first four events lined up for 2024, and two of them are already on sale:

Friday 23rd February - DL83 Wansford to Yarwell freight driving day: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/491/dl83-freight-course-new-for-2024

Tuesday 2nd April - Tornado full line freight photo charter: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charte

 

Just realised I hadn't posted the latest update (which is a week old now!), so here is the last session (which sadly we weren't able to be there fore due to Josh managing to get an infection in his elbow!)

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/02/01/28-01-24-steady-progress/

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...uDpa7S1wL21NNYDpkF5N3GA8Z88LTRy4opZFY6MqfBAjl

We now have three of our 2024 events available to book on the NVR website

Friday 23rd February - DL83 Wansford to Yarwell freight driving day: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/491/dl83-freight-course-new-for-2024

Saturday 23rd March - Branch line goods with Thomas: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/509/branch-line-goods

Tuesday 2nd April - Tornado full line freight photo charter: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charte

 

Another good day on the wagons yesterday - after a quick familiarisation on the workshop's pillar drill, I spent most of the day drilling holes with Josh helping me (first in the chunky new hanger for the cylinder, and then split pin holes in its fixing bolts). I now have some home work to do making pins for brake linkage as the remaining vans are missing various components and we need them for the next session for progress to continue.

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/02/11/10-02-24-three-out-of-three-and-almost-a-fourth/

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...zXLJ8kNUW5iq87noa69xP8KxyccbednV9ukLmbKuZeuol

A few spaces left on the DL83 course which is only a week and half away: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/491/dl83-freight-course-new-for-2024

 

More progress on the express freight project, still places on the Thomas Branch Line Goods freight driving day (Sat 23rd March) and a rescheduled Tornado photo charter (now Friday 24th May) following the decision to reschedule the visit from Easter to May Spring Bank Holiday.

We ran our latest DL83 freight driving course at the Yarwell end of the line, the conflat fought hard, but eventually the brake cylinder was removed, and various vac hoses were fitted...

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/02/27/23-24-02-24-the-conflat-the-hoses-and-a-freight-course/ (https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...bMuLkt2LaCxBVD8onKR8phXx48vxijJhPm3f7HTJCkC4l)

Come and drive Thomas hauling goods, alongside our normal service trains upon Saturday 23rd March: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/509/branch-line-goods

Tornado Freight Storm photo charter now on Friday 24th May (online booking should be available soon): https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charter

 

More vac work last week...I hate having to clean chassis black off my hands We are getting close to having everything in the running rake either vac fitted or through piped. The resident LMS Medfit M470944 has recently changed ownership (now owned by one of the Wagon Group) and will be going in to freight brown to join the rake for the Tornado photo charter - it is already overhauled and vac fitted.

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...GeqzNSuaSHtAFT9oA5pZwr2MwHzX2V8JrdwkEKYZrNEXl

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/03/16/09-03-24-more-pipes-and-hoses/

Last chance for tickets to drive Thomas hauling goods, alongside our normal service trains this Saturday 23rd March: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/509/branch-line-goods

Tornado Freight Storm photo charter now on Friday 24th May: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charter

 

Pity about the Medfit changing livery, but there you go.

 

Yes and no. We have a 50s/60s BR rake, and the new owner really wants it to run behind Tornado The fact that it is already fully fitted is a major factor in making it match the rake. There are plans for it to adopt other liveries going forwards, and when we eventually get round to restoring the LMS brake van, we will then have a good reason to return to the LMS livery. It's been in that livery for some time now, so not so sad to see it change and get used.

 

Well... their wagon, their choice of livery of course and I understand the motivation why: it's just the paucity of pre-Nationalisation and private owner wagons in running order at the NVR that saddens me. The "Peterborough Tar Distillers" wagon will be looked forward to, of course - as will the LMS brake.

And no, I can't afford to buy myself a wagon and maintain it either...

 

Thanks for the updates. Hope the weekend went well.

 

Stu may chime in as he's actually involved in the wagons, but the LMS 43plank has always stood out a bit when the train being run is a BR goods era one, so has seen relatively little use since it was last over hauled. Whilst losing some interest in mixing liveries, I can understand the reason for repainting and adding it to the existing goods train.

Between the NVR and Railworld there are a decent number of pre BR wagons on site. Off the top of my head I can think of an LMS brake, a southern brake, the Esso tanker, 4 or 5 5 - 7 plank wagons of mixed heritage, a southern shock open wagon, lnwr gunpowder wagon*, lnwr CCT*

* The latter 2 at least are owned by Railworld.

You could conceivably form a decent pre-nationalisation set of goods wagons with those, however many of the open wagons are timber framed and would take some serious (and expensive no doubt) word work to get operational.

 

There is also an intention to restore LMS CCT/Motor Car Van M37096 of 1938 to run in the van train (a new roofing canvas has been purchased for it and there is some cash in the kitty for restoration) to provide a contrast with the Vanfits, but again BR livery is envisaged to fit in with the rest of the vehicles in the train. When this will happen depends on the wagon gang's workload.

 

We have aspirations to have more variety, but right now we have a single BR era rake. In time, we'd like to have multiple rakes available (for example, after freight brown, the Medfit could go black and join the repainted Mackerel and others as a departmental rake with the civils brake van, and it would definitely go back to LMS livery once we have other LMS rolling stock up and running - the key vehicle being the LMS brake van). A dedicated van rake alongside a mixed rake at some point too.

Some of the others are less likely. Anything with a wooden frame is likely to be cosmetic only - just too much work. The Esso tanker is used for washouts I believe - we have considered tarting it up, but it really wants doing properly, and that would take it out of action for too long given the way we currently work.

Right now the focus has been vac fitting - we are victims of our own success and we need a fitted rake to run it at maximum length behind all the locos we want to use. We are nearly there on that, and then we can finish off a couple of van projects which are in progress. It would also be nice to get the second conflat up and running.

In the end, we are a small team. We like to think we are "can do" people, and stuff does indeed get done. For example, having turned out in decent numbers last Saturday to run the Thomas Branch Line Goods driving day (great fun - had a go myself and proved I can still do it, even if it's over three years since I last drove steam in anger), we then managed a team of four out on Sunday - which is pretty much the minimum you can do vac work with - manhandling vac cylinders is not easy! (Report/links to follow in separate post.) We're a friendly bunch - we work alternate weekends (and alternate between Saturdays/Sundays - dates are all on the website) - we'd love to have more people and be able to get more done

 

A new departure for us - Saturday had us running a freight driving day alongside service trains, with Thomas as our loco. Then more vac work on Sunday, although it was frustrating and slow work on this occasion.

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/03/27/23-24-03-24-thomas-and-the-troublesome-vacuum-cylinder/

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...Fc7RY5ThqrVpJVz9whbH63UUG7Dw5bWaWKVbKHEBgux7l

Support our work by coming along on the Tornado Freight Storm photo charter now on Friday 24th May: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charter
(we are self funding, so the more people who sign up, the more wagons we have money to work on).

 

At last - we have a vac fitted rake!

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/04/09/29-03-24-02-04-24-06-04-24-triumph-and-success/

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...VQuNg1gcibYoirReBEPxJAoGJ4VrU1ZfqW8A1jhNHUXJl



Still places available for our full line freight charter with Tornado on Friday 24th May: https://nvrwagons.co.uk/courses-and-experiences/

 

Goods and bad news.

The good news is that Deltic 55009 is visiting at the same time as Tornado in the guise of 55013 "The Black Watch", and we finally get to run our Deltic freight driving day on Friday 17th May. Booking isn't live yet, but should be here when it is: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/533/...c-freight-driving-course-friday-17th-may-2024

The bad news is that some scum bag graffitied the Mackerel wagon in the civils siding at Wansford. Fortunately they managed to miss all the signwriting, so hopefully, in the words of the Rolling Stones, we just need to "Paint it black"...

 

I'd like to 'like' this, but only for the very fairly priced Deltic driving experience - were I to do it, I could say I've driven another DPS Deltic! I don't want to like it because of the actions of some berk on the Mackerel

 

Booking is apparently now live for the 17th - morning is sold out, still places for the afternoon I believe.

https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/533/...c-freight-driving-course-friday-17th-may-2024

 

We weren't able to be there for last weekend's session, but the rest of the gang made some good progress...

More vac brake work, the Mackerel as ungraffitied and the medfit started it's transformation into BR livery.

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/04/22/21-04-24-finishing-touches/

Our short notice Deltic driving experience sold out very quickly (even with extra places), but there are still places available on the Tornado full line freight photo charter on Friday 24th May: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charter

 

Yet again Josh and I had to miss a session (domestic plumbing emergency this time - sigh!), but more good progress preparing the rake for our Deltic & Tornado days...and then a shunt on Tuesday to assemble the rake ready for a test run

https://nvrwagons.co.uk/2024/05/08/04-05-24-and-07-05-24-lots-of-oiling-a-shunt-and-a-deltic/

https://www.facebook.com/nvrwagons/...fgnJHFgBtv1xv3a2aQiGEEaJTmCGYP9rBgAcSTPSUXHpl

The Deltic has arrived, and there are still places available for our Tornado freight photo charter on Friday 24th May: https://nvr.org.uk/product.php/497/east-coast-freight-storm-charte

(more detail here on our events page: https://nvrwagons.co.uk/courses-and-experiences/)

 

Very cross with myself for missing the Deltic's arrival. Did it come unaccompanied?