I suppose the idea was sown when Lewis Yates' reconstruction and restoration of the Gas Light & Coke Co. dumb-buffered wagon got seriously underway and I saw Lewis cut the very large lumps of oak tree to size by hand. With memories of the Saturday Wagon Club of days gone by and a vision (and in several case the reality) of crumbling trucks turning to dust for lack of care, somebody said "It's a shame" and it wasn't long before the idea germinated. Kicking the germinated idea around with other people a nucleus of interested and concerned members began to gather and formed the Saturday Wagon Club.

A start was made by identifying the wagons in need - but as we couldn't find one that wasn't in need we categorized them into 'quick and easy' and 'longer term'. The grain hopper was chosen as a quick and easy and Lewis Yates, Terry Walden and Colin Ashman began in mid-June. Quick and easy ones are just that. They give a morale boost early on.

By early July I still had not appeared but guilt overcame me and in between guarding a slug-powered train I helped Lewis with his germinating grain wagon. I appeared again on the Sunday - silly fool - I should have known Lewis would still be at it, so after an hour I dragged him away to the Toad and fed him strawberries and cream. That did it, we didn't feel like work but put the world to rights instead.

I hear that one week there were as many as six members, and serious consideration has been given to starting a second project at the same time due to overcrowding on the first. Now 'overcrowding' must be a rare word in departmental reports!

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry on the hopper, permission was gained to tackle the mineral wagon on the Wembley headshunt and half of this has now had a second coat of primer, whilst the hopper is in undercoat. That is not bad going for four days work.

"So what will it be next?" I hear you ask. Well, plans can get over ambitious but the basic plan is to work on steel wagons in the summer and wooden in winter in the shed, expanding to smaller trollies etc. as the workforce allows with the aim of completing one wagon a month. At that rate we should be ready to start repainting in three years time. We have our collective eyes on some interesting ideas - watch this space . ..

Oh I misheard you, my apologies, you would like to help but don't want to butt in on our 'club'. Have no fear ANYONE can join in. At least one of the gang of four will be on site every Saturday. The only requirement is that you want to help. We have plenty of wagons courtesy of Andrew Bratton and plenty of paint courtesy of John Carter. Come and join us for a morning, a whole day or as often or seldom as you like. The membership fee is a desire to improve the image of our wagons. When did you last air your views at arms length to the side of a wagon? We meet in the down yard outside the shed somewhere as it is not far from the kettle!

Almost finally, it is very pleasing to announce that Society funding has been approved for the purchase of suitable timber for the rebuild of the match truck currently lying in a collapsed state at the end of the short siding. The rebuild will begin this winter under Lewis' exacting control - is there another carpenter out there eager to lend a hand on outsize two by two?

As a final note and an idea of Lewis' high standards can I suggest you seek out the old LYR dray in the up yard which looks very different now. It would be very unfair of me to tell that story so I shall leave it to another but suffice it to say that when LNWR was found on a wheel hub a certain picnic saloon was left all alone for the afternoon!

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 1993 and so does not reflect events in the 20+ years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary. The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.

Reference:
The Wagon Bash - Tony Lyster - Quainton News No. 73 - September 1993