Unexpectedly, it rained.

December 1, 2024 / December 2, 2024 by Adam

Jim this weekend did a lot of cleaning on Esso 1855 and ended the weekend with some primer, he spoke about this in some videos on our Facebook page.

Ollie and I arrived, and unexpectedly, it rained. Comfort was provided in the form of a sausage roll and Rice Krispy Christmas pudding.

Before the rain, we removed the oilers from the axle boxes, some filler was applied, and we removed one of the rail guards and cleaned up the axle box bolts.

RCH 1927 Axle box bolts for Air ministry tank wagon & Esso 1855.

I ran a tap and die over the axle box bolts and cleaned them up.

Swordfish moved for its CVR departure.

Today, after service, Swordfish was shunted to the delivery siding for its dispatch to its next railway. The Wardle Restorations Ruston was called into action to help with the shunt.

Uncoupling Ruston 88DS after shunting Andrew Barclay Swordish 2138

The Ruston being uncoupled from Swordfish. You can see the ground frame maintained by the CVR S&T team for onwards travel up to Drawell.

The Ruston features its Christmas decorations after the shunt on platform 1. The Ruston is now on display and sits next to 1855 near the crossing.

Welding. Cutting.

1855 has not been a sealed tank for a long time. It has had a few corrosion issues. It has four holes in it. Over Christmas, I set to preparing to repair one of the holes. Its taken nearly 3 months to get this far due to lack of proper tools (a suitable welder) and […]

Needling at 90%!

Whilst Adam continued work on our new workbench, I used the railway being closed to make plenty of noise with the needle gun. Unfortunately there’s a lot of tasks now involving the needle gun and wire wheel which is very very time consuming. So if you’re reading this and want to lend us a hand […]

Templates ticked off!

This weekend we ticked off a ‘must do’ job, which was to remake the template for the saddles that sit under the tank. Adam did some clever calculations that allowed us to get an accurate curve marked out onto a large sheet of plywood and then I jigsaw’ed out the shape. We test fit it […]

A Break From Rain!

Following on from Adam’s post, I just wanted to show some more picture of the work we managed to get up to a few days ago. Having all the old metal off the wagon is a huge step forwards for us! Above you can see the prep work to get this stanchion off the end […]

There is nothing left to come off!

So yesterday, Ollie and I worked on the stanchion removal and final tank strap. They are all off now and then I worked into the darkness to remove all of the metal that attached the stanchion to the wagon – including the rivets. This is another massive milestone in the progress of 1855, as it […]

Raining on 1855’s parade

This weekend started cold and quickly turned cold and wet. I have a rule. I will be cold, wet or hungry, but only 1 of those at any one time, so refuge was sought via Pot Noodles and the warmth of a Spaniel at home. Saturday, I had another CVR volunteer help me; thank you, […]

A ‘spring’ in our step now!

Hi all, today I posted a slightly different video over on my YouTube channel! We are looking to raise the funds to cover an additional leaf spring overhaul as well as the one we had planned to send off. This means the two rear springs can be refurbished at the same time. The feedback already […]

Still Winter but we talk Spring(s)!

On what felt like the coldest day of the year, I left Adam outside as I enjoyed the warmth of the shop for our regular committee meeting. It went on slightly longer than planned but prior Adam & I spent some time throwing some ideas about in regards to the task of removing the faulty […]

World’s Strongest Rivet….

Firstly, a happy new year to all who’ve been following our journey so far. Today Adam & I were once again working on the tank wagon so below you will find pictures as well as text to explain what we managed to get done! Today’s most difficult challenge was removing the final rivet from the […]

Hello darkness my old friend…

Probably our last post on here before Christmas, so thought I’d come wish you all well during the festive period and update you on what’s been happening! From the picture above, you will see that at our most recent work day, the 3 of us worked well into the darkness, only stopping because the wind […]

Liquified metal

Yesterday was a logistics day doing some stores relocation. We worked a bit early morning and late into the darkness after the site closure. Jim and Ollie rode the needle guns to low earth orbit cleaning up the tank ready for priming. I turned steel into liquid working to removing some badly rusted steel held […]

We’re back, but it’s cold!

Thankfully no rain today, but temperatures were still very low with the occasional bit of direct sunlight on the tank. What started off as a slow day ended up with some more large steps forwards under the circumstances. Jim continued grafting away at the chassis with the more abrasive wire wheel (an insanely time consuming […]