Lukas Nel and his team have been very busy prior to the holiday break. The tender tank fitment to the frame has now been completed and a handbrake plus the required levers have been fabricated. We have also acquired a number of spares to complete the water valves for the tender. Those magnificent tool boxes we showed in our last report have also had a repaint. This detail work has taken a lot of time and the steam test will now only be in January.
Our Sentinel Steam Waggon had some issues recently with its injector which is of the high pressure due to the high boiler pressure of vehicle. The water feed pump has been rebuilt by Keith Stevens in Howick and he has also fabricated a new high pressure injector from scratch as nothing was available. We did manage to purchase a set of cones from the UK for Keith to complete the injector. The pump and the injector will be fitted in the New Year and thoroughly tested prior to Stars of Sandstone 2019. Our images show the new parts and the Sentinel in action.
This well-known photographic location for the Sandstone Steam Railway has benefited from recent heavy runs and is now full and overflowing for the first time in around three years. For our photographers, don’t stress! The foliage will be cut back for the Stars 2019 event so that this magnificent photo spot will be restored to its former glory. Our pictures show the Dam on the 10th December and our feature shot is by Aidan McCarthy with NGG16 number 153 crossing the dam some years ago with a mixed train.
Our drone camera has been very active after the recent rains and we thought you would enjoy some stunning images of Sandstone Estates as we move forward to 2019 and the Stars of Sandstone event in April.
For many years the Sandstone Heritage Trust has maintained a large collection of Lanz and John Deere Lanz tractors. They are very specialised and not all vintage tractor collectors are familiar with them.