On Saturday we headed back to Peterborough and started our next project, the Tar Tanker.

Nothing has been done to this wagon since arrival at the NVR 18 months ago, so the first job was to get into the axle boxes for an inspection. The boxes hadn’t been able to be opened on arrival due to the nuts being seized, so Tim set about warming them slightly and in no time things started to move.

Meanwhile, Colin, Mark, Stu and Josh began chipping the hardened Tar from the surface of the tank. The tar had clearly overflowed a time or two from the filler cap and so not only was the tank covered in tar, but also the chassis.

About lunchtime, Jason turned up to add some extra muscle to the job and by close of play the public side of the tank was almost cleaned off of hardened tar. Tim also reported that all axleboxes were in a good state, with all suffering from a buildup of water and sludge, but nothing that can’t be recovered.