NVR Wagon Group

Following on from Q1, work continued repainting the hoppers and preparing the running rake for our first Freight Driving Experience Day of 2022 in April. After a long evening oiling and checking the rake, we had a successful freight day using the railway’s resident Class 14 diesel 9529.

The hoppers had been taken out of traffic due to extensive corrosion of the floors leading to the possibility of chunks of floor falling off. As part of the refurbishment, several severely corroded floor sections were removed to make them safe to run again. The insides were also painted with black bitumen paint and by the time of the freight events in June they had been fully repainted, sign-written and passed fit to run in the freight rake once again.

With the hoppers back in traffic, attention was turned to a repaint of the Banana Van which was beginning to look a little tired.

In preparation for another day of freight activities, we had to oil and check the rake again.

Then there was the “big shunt” – this involved a complex series of operations designed to get the running rake all together in the civils siding at Wansford, the CONFLAT and the VANFITs/PALVAN already under restoration in to RailWord siding one (adjacent to the mess hut), various wagons destined for static display in to the far end of the bay siding at PNVR, and then the remaining wagons back in the bay siding.

Q2 wrapped up in style with our second Freight Driving Experience of 2022, steam hauled by resident SR BoB Class 34081 ’92 Squadron’, followed by an evening freight photo charter. This saw the largest freight rake for some time with the hoppers back in the rake. Both events ran successfully with everyone going home with a smile on their face and a lot of great photos and video of the freight in action and in a 50’s themed photo shoot with re-enactors.

Over the last year or so, the Wagon Group have been considering how we wanted to take things forward in the long term, and after some discussion the boards of NVR and RailWorld were approached about the possibility of relocating Wagon Group activities to RailWorld and making Peterborough NVR the freight base for the railway. A proposal was drawn up and agreed by all parties, and so 2022 started with the Wagon Group beginning activities at the other end of the line. There are many factors which led to this change, but it is believed to be a triple win for all involved:

• The Wagon Group now have a permanent base with facilities close at hand
• The sidings area of RailWorld has been tidied and made more appealing
• NVR gains freight related attractions for passengers during the run rounds at the Peterborough end

This is, in a way, a home coming for the Wagon Group as this is where Wagon Group 1.0 activities were based, and we are in fact making their old grounded van body B??0049 our workshop/mess area

Initial activities involved refurbishment of the grounded van body, tidying/weeding/clearing the sidings area and assessing/preparing the wagons current stabled in RailWorld to enable them to be shunted.

Over the course of Q1 we went from this:

To this:

We had also been made aware that the vans used for filming in 2021 would no longer be required for any further film work, so over several sessions we were able to undertake the repairs necessary to return them to their normal condition and reverse the modifications made by the film company.

Towards the end of March we had a wagon shunt which took the hoppers from PNVR to Wansford to be turned on the turntable and then brought back to the bay platform at PNVR to have the other sides painted. On the return trip they were accompanied by the Banana Van which will be a static resident at the far end of the bay platform, and in time will become a freight museum with information about wagons, freight on the railway and Wagon Group activities.

The last sessions in March saw a start on repainting the other sides of the hoppers now they were accessible from the platform.

The new year kicked off with one of our popular Freight Driving Experiences with traction provided by Ian Riley’s impressive LMS Black 5 44871. Once again feedback shows this product is very popular with the participants and provides great value for money.

Photos courtesy of Martin Vos (C).

Work continued on the Civil Engineering Department’s Brake Van with the panelling finally completed, some welding repairs to the duckets and then (finally) painting.

PalVan B778810 also commenced it’s refurbishment with a rub down of the chassis and body work, which showed up that although only minor repairs were necessary on most of the body, one of the doors needs complete replacement (not least due to damage inflicted when the van was broken in to).

March saw the running of a second Freight Driving Experience this time in a Western guise with GWR Pannier Tank 6412 renumbered as 6779 (the last Pannier to be built at Swindon).

The freight rake was also seen out and about over the Swindon 70 Weekend behind both steam and diesel traction.

At this point, COVID-19 struct, and all volunteering work was suspended as we entered lockdown, and the railway itself was forced to ‘hibernate’ to conserve funds, with all bar a couple of staff furloughed.

Eventually, between lock downs, and carefully observing COVID-19 protocols, some work started up again in June 2020 and efforts continued, outdoors and socially distanced, on the Civils Brake Van and Palvan B778810.

Sadly, at some point the wagon tarpaulin from Shoc Open B721890 was stolen (and apparently dismembered). A very kind benefactor funded a replacement, for which we were very grateful.

Work continued on PalVan & Brake Van through to the end of 2020, even under lock-down, and a start was made on repainting the hoppers at PNVR, but eventually Wansford was placed in Tier 4 and all work stopped, with nothing happening through Q1 of 2021.

April 2021 saw us back in action performing essential maintenance on the running rake which was looking very tired and needed quite a bit of attention. As the railway came out of hibernation, we were involved in the acquisition and refurbishment of a grounded van body to act as a ticket office and sales area for both the Wagon Group and Miniature Railway, and running brake van rides in Wansford yard using the freshly refurbished Civils brake van and the unusual motive power of Blue Circle!

With a Freight Driving Course scheduled for June, it was all hands on deck, getting the freight rake in to a sensible state. Although the weather didn’t play ball, a good day was had by all driving GWR Prairie 4144 on the freight.

In July we were able to run a Diesel Freight Driving Day with Class 45 ‘Peak’ 45041. While on the restoration front, work was started on BR Van B775176.

In Q3 some of our vans went out on hire for a filming job – more on that later (much later, like when the film comes out!), and Tim’s latest conflat acquisition arrived at the railway.

In August we were able to run a successful freight photo charter using visiting locomotive 45596 “Bahamas”, and both that and the Freight Driving Experience with the Pannier needed some quick work to get the hired out wagons back in to shape having been modified by the film company. At this stage we had to keep some of the modifications in place in case they were required for further firing, so we had to turn some so we had one side of the train which was in sensible condition!

We finished off the year by completing the grounded shop van at Wansford and more painting on the hoppers at PNVR.

Despite all the complications of COVID, we still achieved a great deal over the two years…

October & November saw more work on the refurbishment of the 5-plank open wagons culminating in their re-entry to traffic in early December. This brings the demonstration freight rake back up to full strength of four opens, four vans, four hoppers and a brace of brake vans, with an extra pair of vans available from the civil engineering dept.

The civil engineering brake van also saw further progress with the roof being painted and roof fittings attached.

The Wagon Group also indulged in a Christmas social gathering – no work was done, but much merriment was in evidence.

See you all in the New Year, when there is already another freight driving experience to look forward to.

July kicked off with another Freight Driving Experience. Originally planned to be ‘Western’ with GWR Pannier 6430, plans had to be changed when Llangollen recalled the loco due to a steam shortage and our own 92 Squadron stood in and it became a ‘Southern’ experience.

Tim undertook an FTR on the rake at Peterborough NVR and the wagons were ready to roll…

These courses are proving to be popular, offering plenty of fun driving, firing and riding on a loose-coupled freight. The course was a sellout with all sixteen participants (and some of the wagon group volunteers) thoroughly enjoying themselves. Some of them were there for a second time having enjoyed earlier courses so much!

Image courtesy of Steve Jackson (C)

Work continued on the 5-plank open wagons throughout July, August & September with the fitting of new floors, repainting, signwriting, construction of a dummy load and fitting of replica D-plates.

September saw a concerted effort to make progress on the Civil Engineering brake van, and included some more panelling work and installation of the new canvas roof. First the ply boarding is fitted and sanded.

Then the canvas roof bonding is applied and the canvas itself smoothed over the entire roof.

Nene Valley Railway has been used as a location for over 150 different film or TV productions including feature films, dramas, documentaries, adverts and even music videos (see Filming at NVR). While many of these feature trains being used for passenger travel, there are some notable productions which have used our wagons.

1982 Octopussy (EON Productions)

Possibly the most famous use of our wagons, four ex-LMS CCTs were modified for use as the Octopussy International Circus Train Vans – with small personnel doors added to the large end doors, steps for moving between wagons, and various steps and handles to assist the stunt team. These wagons were used alongside three of the continental carriages to form the complete circus train, hauled by Danish State Railways DSB S 740 disguised as German DRG 62.015.

Octopussy Train Scenes
BBC Look East: Behind the scenes

Several Bond fan-sites cover the train related aspects of the film:

00 Aficionado – Trolley Trouble Part 4 – Octopussy
James Bond International Fan Club – All Time High
James Bond Radio – The Octopussy International Circus Train

During 2013 the Wagon Group restored CCT 37071 to the condition as used for the filming of Octopussy, and it now resides in Wansford Station Platform 1 providing static storage.

The rest of the CCTs are, sadly, currently in generally poor condition, but can be seen stored at various locations along the railway (Wansford Station, Wansford Civil Engineers siding and Peterborough Railworld).

1989 Queen – Breakthru

The band decided the drum shuffle in the song was very train like so Queen came up to NVR for a couple of days filming. They were driven along the railway while performing the song on our ex Danish State Railways flat wagon DSB-8959 hauled by ex-GWR steam locomotive 3822 (on hire from Didcot at the time), liveried as the “Miracle Express”. There are rumours about exactly what speed they were travelling during the filming, and Freddie Mercury hanging off the railings raised a few eyebrows! The loco is no longer at NVR, but the wagon can be seen in the Civil Engineering siding outside Wansford (it’s the one with “BORAIL” and “8959” painted on the side).

Not only can we see the end result in the music video, but ITV made a behind the scenes documentary about it.

The Miracle Express (Behind the scenes)

1992 B&Q “Why pay pots for paint? – Train”

A rake of box vans are transformed from a uniform drab colour to a spectacular array of colours having passed under a bridge. For the filming the colours were painted on one side of the rake only. Many of the vans had to be transported to the railway rather hurriedly from the British Sugar Spalding site in order to be available for use in the filming. Several of these vans can be seen in our demonstration freight rake, in a rather more conventional BR bauxite brown livery, with others stored around the railway awaiting refurbishment. It’s rumoured that one currently stored in the tunnel at Wansford is still painted blue on one side.

B&Q advert in Nene Park documentary
(Many thanks to Marc Hernandez for the pointer to this footage.)

2010 EastEnders (BBC)

On one of their visits to NVR for filming, EastEnders used a freight train for a near miss at the (heavily disguised) Wansford level crossing. The signal box is boarded up and the crossing has been dressed with modern automatic barriers in place of usual gates. The train was made up of civil engineering wagons hauled by a Class 31.

EastEnders near miss clip on iPlayer

Work has continued on the two open wagons which have now been painted and just require the floors to be replaced before they can rejoin the demonstration freight rake. One of them may even gain a dummy load in the process.

Tim has put together a DVD of wagon related material to be displayed in the Banana Van when it is fully kitted out as the Wagon Group display and sales stand.

After all our efforts to change the wheel sets, vanfit B778019 finally made it back to Wansford having initially failed an FTR due to a defective buffer which had to be rectified before it was hauled back.

The long running body restoration of the civil engineering brake van also saw significant progress with the bulk of the re-panelling now complete. This vehicle now needs the roof boarding and the canvas fitted before it can be finished off with a new paint job.

Tim arranged the recovery of a grounded van body (W65567 – a GWR van) which will be restored for use as storage.

In early June the group had a day trip to the East Lancs Railway to collect some wagon equipment we have purchased from them, and took the opportunity to have a tour of the Baron Street workshops and stock yard – all most impressive. We also managed a pleasant lunch at The Trackside pub on the Bury Bolton Street platform, some photography, and some second-hand model railway purchases!

We returned with plenty of goodies including a pair of wagon vacuum cylinders and a pair of wagon jacks.

A big thank you to Simon at Teversham Motors for the kind loan of the garage van which allowed us to keep the transport overheads down to the cost of the fuel.

Phil & Colin continued sprucing up the open wagons in the running rake with a quick repaint of the MOD wagons up at Peterborough NVR.

And finally, towards the end of June, the planking arrived for the open wagon floors and Tim, Jonathan & Steve made good progress treating them with a 50/50 mix of creocote and waste oil in preparation for fitting.

See up-to-date information on our Facebook Page.

This update has been a long time coming, but following Paul’s sudden illness and untimely passing, a certain amount of soul-searching occurred about how/whether to continue with the Wagon Group culminating in the decision to carry on and make the Express Freight Project a suitable tribute to Paul and his vision for freight on the railway.

Over the next year or so, membership of the group fluctuated significantly, until eventually it settled with a core of regular volunteers, perhaps not managing to work as frequently or regularly as the team had originally, but still chipping away…

The website was one of Paul’s areas and, unfortunately, has had only minimal updates in the intervening time. Stu has now stepped up to manage the website, and it has undergone a quick refresh to improve the aesthetics and bring the content up-to-date.

So, here is a brief summary of everything that happened between May 2016 and December 2018, and then we will switch to quarterly summaries on this website, with more frequent up-to-date information available on FaceBook.

• Express Freight Project renamed Paul Foxwell Express Freight Project
• B761651 restored and returned to traffic
• Express Freight Project appeared in Steam Railway magazine
• Freight rake appeared at 2016 Steam Gala
• Tim’s brake van B953944 underwent a repaint
• B881987 (Banana Van) cosmetically restored
• Tim developed process to cast replica D-plates in resin
• Freight photo charter with Jinty 47406
• Evening Freight Experience with 92 Squadron sadly did not happen
• B786075 restored and returned to traffic
• B768248 restored and returned to traffic
• B954024 civils brake van body restoration commenced
• D-plates made by Tim fitted to RVP Diesel Brake Tender at GCR
• B773100 restored and returned to traffic
• B785122 restored and returned to traffic
• Freight Driving Experience with Jinty 47406
• B759852 re-wheeled (eventually!) and returned to traffic
• Flying Scotsman and Tornado both spent time alongside us undergoing repairs

We have decided to try a slightly different format for the Wagon Group online news updates from now on. This page will be updated on a monthly basis, in order to package a few weeks of progress in one place. Short pictoral updates, often posted within a few hours of a work session, will be posted on our Facebook page (which can be viewed even if you’re not a member of Facebook). So to kick us off, here was the progress made during April…

Above: Van B761651 has received black gloss topcoat to all the underframe areas, including wheels and axles. At the end of the ‘Industrials’ event it was shunted from a live shed road and moved into the old open shed, temporarily buffered up to B786075 (which is still awaiting funds to finish the doors which will complete its restoration). Now B761651 is no longer blocking any ‘live’ vehicles, the brakes can be stripped and overhauled, which will complete the restoration of this van apart from a tiny bit of special signwriting and the end blackboards yet to be applied…

Above: BR Banana van B881987 has had a metal patch applied to seal in some exposed fibreglass insulation, where the plywood had rotted away. This van is to receive some minor repairs and a cosmetic repaint as it now looks rather tatty.

All in all, an unusually quiet month for the Wagon Group – however there is a very exciting development which will be announced soon… watch this space!

Unlike the previous update, there is now an abundance of photogenic material with the end of the overhaul firmly in sight!

What’s more, we also welcome two new volunteers to our ranks, Stan and Peter. Stan will be looking at fundraising initiatives on behalf of the group, and Peter joins Tim, Philip, James and myself on the restoration team. With more volunteers available, restoration work should speed up – but the fundraising then becomes more critical to keep up with progress. You can help – please consider donating towards our cause!

Above: B786075 cleaned up and prepped with red-oxide primer as required. The brake gear has been stripped off and is undergoing restoration off the van.

Above: During March, the underframe and headstocks were painted up to topcoat, followed by the bodywork with the exception of the doors, which require replacement.

Above: The fully-overhauled 8-shoe brake gear was reinstalled with plenty of grease and new split pins throughout.

Above: B786075 now looks like this – apart from the doors and signwriting, it’s now pretty much good to go. It will join van B759852 already running in the goods rake, and B761651 will join it soon after, the overhaul of which is well in hand. We require £100 for materials to make the new doors, finish the job and get this van back in traffic – which means we need only 10 people to donate £10 each (or more of course, if you are that way inclined!)

Please help us – make your cheque payable to ‘Nene Valley Railway’, download a donation form and send it to: Wagon Group, Nene Valley Railway, Wansford Station, Stibbington, Peterborough, PE8 6LR. Please write “Wagon Group” clearly on the back of the cheque.

Above: Speaking of sister van B761651, the south side of the underframe has been cleaned up and painted. Once ply-bodied B786075 is completed, B761651 can then undergo its own brake overhaul before also being returned to traffic for the first time in many years – we will then be up to three operational vans, with plans for many more…

For some inspiration of what we’re trying to recreate with our “Express Freight” project to restore the unique NVR 1950/60s van train, and with “Flying Scotsman” back in traffic and wowing the crowds after a decade in pieces undergoing overhaul, I leave you with this beautiful shot from Steve Nakoneczny, so redolent of the early 1960s but actually taken at NVR during 1994…