Well that’s it, we’ve done it, and should be rightly very proud. At the end of November we embarked on a massive project to realise the dream of the founding members of the NVR Wagon Group which started as ‘The Express Freight Project’, but later became dedicated to Paul Foxwell. Right from the start of the group, Paul Foxwell and Tim Hobman had an aspiration to see a fully fitted freight at the NVR and now we are within sniffing distance!

After several months of work and a few thousand pounds we have vacuum fitted most of the wagons and through-piped others to allow us to run a train of 18 vehicles with a continuous vacuum pipe.

Over the Easter weekend we put in two days work, with another day last Saturday, which saw the final vehicles fully fitted.

With three vehicles to go, on Good Friday the priority was to fit the valve, branch pipe, and release cord to the Conflat, then get an overhauled cylinder under the Shoc Open. By close of play, both the Conflat and the Shoc Open were fully fitted and tested, with the same success as the rest of our efforts.

Tuesday 2nd April was supposed to be our Tornado event (which is now on Friday 24th May), so we thought we’d still have a session to progress the work. The focus was the Southern Open, so the wagon was chocked and the brakes quickly taken apart. The existing cylinder was dropped out and by the afternoon an overhauled cylinder was fitted.

With the finish line in sight, on Saturday 6th May we set out to tackle the final van. Tim finished off the Southern Open with a valve and branch pipe, whilst Colin and Stu started to take the brakes apart on van B759852.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team were preparing the overhauled cylinder for fitting and Stu was then checking the final fitting of his homework project, the newly made outside cylinder hanger.

It was then all hands to the pump to fit the cylinder. Once the cylinder was in, Tim assumed his usual position, laying down on the job, to fit the final bits.

All wagons in the running rake are now complete in terms of vac fitting or through piping, with the majority of the wagons currently in the Oundle Siding, but at the end of the day a good feeling was to see four wagons on the turntable in the yard which are fully fitted. The rake will require a loaded test run and there are a few little jobs to be done, but we have made it and will be shouting our achievements from the rooftops!!!

We would like to thank all those who have contributed to the current work, especially the NVR charity shop who made a very generous financial contribution.

If you haven’t booked already and would like to see our fitted rake in action, then visit our events page to see more details about our photo charter. As our group is self-funding, your support at our events will keep our wagons rolling.