Windcutter Project - 16T Mineral Wagon Restoration

Windcutter Project - 16T Mineral Wagon Restoration Volunteer group dedicated to the preservation and running of a rake of 16T mineral wagons on the GCR

The Windcutter Project is a group of volunteers who work with the Great Central Railway to restore to running order a set of 16T mineral wagons obtained 30 years ago through a fund raising appeal in Steam Railway magazine.

Good news for B571604 as the work is now complete following its quick trip on Tuesday to have the wheels turned in-situ ...
25/06/2026

Good news for B571604 as the work is now complete following its quick trip on Tuesday to have the wheels turned in-situ (picked up/turned & returned all in a day!) and came back looking like a model railways wagon straight out of the box.

Work this week was limited somewhat as the team was short on numbers and the heat was high.
Tim created more heat inside by welding in the second centre floor panel whilst Phil braved the sunshine outside and bitumen painted the inside of B573403 (standing in a tin box painting black paint was very sweaty work!).

So an early finish this week just before noon but we did manage to keep the work ticking along.

Within 12 to 18 months we hope to be able to marshal two 15 truck Windcutter trains at once, giving lots of photo opportunities and an occasional extra long 30 wagon train when timetables permit.

And a bonus post for this week as one of the team has escaped on a “busman’s holiday” to enjoy the delights of the narro...
18/06/2026

And a bonus post for this week as one of the team has escaped on a “busman’s holiday” to enjoy the delights of the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway and a walk over the spectacular wooden Barmouth bridge and viaduct.
Not sure the other half saw that one coming…..but who doesn’t love the North Wales scenery.

This week the GCR Carriage & Wagon staff were harnessed up on the roof of a coach painting with their special zinc based...
18/06/2026

This week the GCR Carriage & Wagon staff were harnessed up on the roof of a coach painting with their special zinc based paint and so they didn’t want the Windcutter team making dust.
Fortunately the weather was kind and the early morning drizzle soon stopped, allowing B570676 to be hand shunted into the yard for welding.
Three floor plates are now fully fitted and a fourth tacked in, plus another pillar base repair.
The “open” end had the skin to stanchion welding completed and the bracing beam was released to allow the end to be squared up. The side went in at the top 10mm (wrong direction!) so a new bracket was welded on to the underside of the brace so that the side could be pushed outward by 30mm.

Whilst Tim & Julian did all this welding further down the yard Rob started rubbing down the side of the next wagon and clearing out the floors aided by Ian & Phil.

A quick look again at B279702 showed that some end pillar work and under-frame gusset replacement would be needed as well as a new floor. However this will give the team a variety of tasks they can do and not get on top of each other.

Now the steel for B570676 has mostly arrived and the brake cylinder has been re-installed and tested the team could set ...
11/06/2026

Now the steel for B570676 has mostly arrived and the brake cylinder has been re-installed and tested the team could set about welding in the floor sheets.
Tim set to on the north east side floor and Gary did a bit of careful welding of the pre-bent lower sides (in 1m(?) lengths) to form a section long enough to do one side quarter.

When Julian arrived he started working on the pillar bottom repairs on the north west side.

Testing of the Deltic Preservation Society´s “Tulyar” interrupted work as we all watched and listened to the big beast rumble past.
A gorgeous distinctive sound from the 2-stroke Diesel Napier Deltic engine.

Phil provided some lovely homemade cake for lunch and touched up the gloss paint on B589204, hopefully this dried enough before the rain downpours appeared.

The team then had a conflab around the end of #676 and discussed the build options on the new fixed end.
The consensus was that welding the new stanchions (yet to be delivered) on to the skin before then lifting it up into position with the A-frame crane on No.3 road was the best option.

Outside B573403 had been shunted on to No.1 road behind our other wagons and newcomer B279702 has arrived on an easy shunt after being used at Quorn in the 40´s event fire brigade demonstration (think extra big waste paper bin fire!).

Clearly #403 will require a new floor and pillar base repairs, so plenty to keep us busy for the next few months……

A good turn out again this week with five of the team busy on both wagons.The weld repairs to the underframe of #676 we...
04/06/2026

A good turn out again this week with five of the team busy on both wagons.
The weld repairs to the underframe of #676 were completed by Gary and then the under seal finished off by Phil.
The old W-iron was bolted back into place by Rob so that the wagon can be moved by the shed staff in a planned shunt next week.
Whilst it was out of the shed the refurbished brake cylinder was refitted to the underframe, Ian & Julian using the sheds hydraulic lifting platform to get it to floor level safely.

The poor areas of paint on #204 were rubbed down by Rob but a shower of rain prevented repainting.

A third wagon #403 has been started as well with a good clear out of debris, that has revealed several large holes!

Plenty of varied activity for the team to get their teeth into next week.

And here are some bonus photos from Phil’s visit.Paint sag on the west side will definitely need rubbing down and repain...
30/05/2026

And here are some bonus photos from Phil’s visit.

Paint sag on the west side will definitely need rubbing down and repainting.
With the amount of dents and dings on the east side its not so easy to see if there is further work needed there!

Most of the team were unavailable this week for a variety of reasons and so not much progress to report.Phil did pop in ...
28/05/2026

Most of the team were unavailable this week for a variety of reasons and so not much progress to report.

Phil did pop in and undercoated the end door and North East side of #676.

The gloss paint on #204 had run in places before going off so some rubbing down and re coating will be necessary once the heat has gone and everything has hardened off.

It was also birthday week for Tim this week and one of the pressies was a pair of Lego Windcutter 16T mineral wagons and a workshop building to put them in! Not quite scale replicas but great fun making them.
(JG Locomotive Works - follow them on https://rebrickable.com ) for details of what parts are needed and how to build them.

Hopefully we will be back to normal next week and not so hot.
The steel for #676 may even have arrived by then!

21/05/2026

Heat and hammering to make a new hook out of scrap steel bar.

An almost dry start to the day but not enough to start painting outside until after lunch.Whilst Rob & Gary cleaned down...
21/05/2026

An almost dry start to the day but not enough to start painting outside until after lunch.
Whilst Rob & Gary cleaned down the underframe on B589204 Tim took it easy (nursing a lower back strain) and went in search of the shed cat and a new arrival (a local shunter ex Albert Looms scrap yard - used to be just off the A52 near Spondon).

Gary noticed that the coupling stowage hook on the north end of #204 was missing/broken off and so aided by Julian they set about forging a new one from a piece of scrap bar.
Lots of oxy-propane heat and a nice big anvil helped a lot.

Phil arrived with doughnuts and set about the inside of B570676 with the bitumen brush on the chassis rails & panels that were not going to need any welding.

Gary then moved the oxy-propane bottles to wagon #676 and heated up the bolts to aid removal of the door spring brake protector device that hangs down below the door and stops the open door banging into the brake rigging.
This was so that we can send it off as a pattern to get some new ones made to fit to the double skin ex-ICI soda ash wagons (where they had been removed as un-necessary) and to fix the broken missing ones on the other wagons.

Julian braved the underneath of #204 to weld the new stowage hook into place after Rob had cleaned off the remains of the old one. Julian did a great job of laying down and welding from underneath as you can see from the photos of the finished result.

Finally by 13:30 and the end of lunch the weather had brightened up enough to risk gloss painting on #204.
Ian, Rob, Gary & Tim all pitched in and finished off the whole wagon within a couple of hours.

So #204 is going well and just needs the solebars touching up, boxes and numbers applying.
Plenty more welding to do on #676 and we are expecting the new steel sheets to have arrived by next week.
If it isn’t too hot……..!

Another damp workday session again this week and so B589204 had to remain in undercoat outside in the rain.With help fro...
14/05/2026

Another damp workday session again this week and so B589204 had to remain in undercoat outside in the rain.

With help from the shed staff the RVP coach was hand shunted forward in the shed and this allowed B279742 (aka B570676) to be moved undercover.
Gary took the rest of the paint off the east side whilst Tim needle gunned the west side solebar and finished off cleaning up of the bit where the door had been open.
Rob had worked on the end door before the wagon had been moved inside and then switched to helping Tim on the solebar.

Since last week the brake cylinder has been rebuilt by the shed staff as they were using the space to rebuild their own cylinders and took the opportunity to do ours for us.

Tim started working on repairs to the bottoms of the west side stanchions and welding the skin back in place where the end had been removed.

Phil arrived back from his holidays and cleaned up some of the chassis rails and bitumen painted them before taking an early finish.

Rob set up the jack in the south east corner and then started removing the rivet heads to allow the W-iron to be removed.
By the end of the day all the heads had been removed and the broken part of the W-iron removed.

More work next week to remove the rest of the remains.
Plus loads of welding even if we haveńt got the new steel delivered. And painting if the weather is kinder to us……

Address

GCR Carriage & Wagon Works
Rothley
LE77LD

Website

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