Windcutter Wagons

We have been doing more small jobs on B555696 as it has not yet been moved. One job was to straighten the top corner .

 

We now have three more 16T Mineral wagons at Rothley - Thanks to our hardworking Ops Team!


Although they look to be in reasonable condition, once we opened them up and cleaned out 20 years of debris more horrors were revealed.
B 565224 (Note it had been painted with the slightly wrong number) will need headstock repairs and so a buffer has been removed. It was a tough job!


Unfortunately the next wagon, B 570618, has "thin flanges" but is a standard axle so we may do a temporary wheel swap whilst we look at re profiling or obtaining another wheelset ( if anybody can help?).
The third wagon, B279716 (To be correctly numbered B589054) will need a new floor and headstock repairs.

 

Here is the numbered B555696 out in the sunshine.

 

Into the shed has gone B565224 and we have started the bodywork repairs.

 

Whilst the cutting and welding is progressing, areas away from that are being prepped and painted.


The team is working hard for our feature event 30@30 in November.....

 

We have had purchased some steel sheet bent to suit the curved lower part of the rebodied wagons. Here is the first repaired section inside and out.

 

Here is the East side of B565224 with two repair patches completed. There have been a further 5 repairs welded in elsewhere - so far!

 

Our team has recently been strengthened by two new volunteers, both experienced engineers who want to help us achieve our 30@30 target. After induction sessions they have got stuck in and already have been cutting and welding! So the current situation is that only one side (West) needs the two bottom sections fitting and welding.

 

A good workday yesterday saw 4 of us in action. The vac cylinder was removed, dismantled and new seals put in place. It has been re-assembled, cleaned and primered. The final repair section was fitted into place on the SW lower side and it has been tack welded. The NW section has been fully welded on the inside but the outer top edge needs welding.
There is still a lower edge repair section to fit and weld on the North end.

 

Another good workday yesterday and we just have the lower part of the fixed end to get plates fitted and welded. The Vac cylinder is now tested, painted and ready to fit along with the final areas to be painted.

 

The renovated vacuum cylinder was put back in place under the wagon on Wednesday, together with the rest of the brake rigging. The North West buffer was re-installed following the repair to the headstock and the three link coupling has been put in position on the south end hook. A start has been made on the final welding jobs at the bottom edge of the fixed (North) end. The West side has been prepped and grey top coated. There is still the vacuum hoses to fit, black boxes and numbers to paint, white stripes and the fixed end paint to finish. This might be finished by the end of this month......30@30 is still the aim!

 

Two welders in action yesterday saw the North end finished and other plating work completed. The hoses were put on the brake system and black boxes painted ready for the numbering. B 565224 is nearly finished!

 

B565224 is now finished (bar the numbering) and we have made a start on one of the next wagons which is due to go into the shed (either B 279716 or B570618).
The floor on B279716 is quite poor!!

 

279716=589054, but I think I saw on GCR C&W FB that 570618 was next in the shed.

 

Thanks pmh we will be putting the correct number on B279716 when it gets painted.

 

On visiting Rothley on Wednesday pmh was quite correct and B570618 has moved into the shed. This has the typical problems of a rebody wagon - they put a new steel body on the old underframe in the 1970s. Due to the headstock corrosion from the original opening end door, the new body had the end door on the other end of the underframe. Unsurprisingly 50 years later the original end door headstock is in very poor condition. So we are removing the corroded floor to access the underframe....
....which has now been done. As can also be seen, the curved lower edges which look relatively good (apart from the ends) from the outside, are in fact, corroded along their entire length so will be cut out and replaced.

 

Also noted on those photos that some of the underframe sections have some serious dents in the upper flange. Presumably at some time in its life something extremely heavy has been dropped in in from some height. Are you going to cut out those bits and let in new steel?

 

Suppose that would be a serious consideration if these wagons were still used as load carriers...

 

Yes there are some dents and yes they did get some heavy bits dropped in! However we will leave those top edge dents as the metal is still original thickness - it is along the bottom edges where the gusset plates have corroded, that we will be repairing.
Considering we never put 16 tons of coal in 60 or more wagons travelling at 50mph - it could be argued that they are now only subject to 1/3 the load, at half the speed and pulling 1/6th on the draw bar....they are still mighty strong!

 

Damage to the top rail of a wagon is usually from Digger Bucket attack
Spoil carriers are particularly prone to this.
Wagon floors can also suffer badly from this.