Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 190 - Weekly Steamshed Report 0 17th - 23rd June 2006 - By Gert Jubileus

22nd June 2006

The Lawley

The Lawley was shunted out of the shed for washout this week. All the tubes were cleaned and the lead plugs were re-lead and fitted back. Derrick removed the fire bars and did some modifications to the spacing of the fire bars to allow more air to come through the grates as well as to make it easier to clean her fire. This modification will make her to steam more freely. The dampers were removed and new dampers were made out of spark arrestor plates.
The Small ejector spindle-packing nut as well as the ejector steam valve spindle-packing nut was packed with rope.
Below are photos of the work done to the Lawley this week.

Cleaning tubes on the Lawley

Packing of the small ejector spindle-packing nut.

Tinting the Lawley’s lead plugs.

Cutting out new damper plates for the Lawley

Fitting the Lawley’s new dampers.

The Lawley’s grates removed.

The spacing of the grates.

The O&K's tubes being cleaned

THE O&K

The O&K was taken offline this week to prepare her for Boiler Inspection in mid next month. The boiler was washed out and the lead plugs were re-lead this week. The tubes were cleaned and she will now be prepared for internal inspection.

The O&K

Derrick fitting back the lead plugs of the O&K

The Kalahari is also due for Boiler Inspection and will come in for washout in next week as well as the Fowler B5 crane.

The Fowler

The Fowler came to the put this week because of a broken spring hanger. The spring hanger was removed and fixed.

The broken hanger

The locomotive was jacked to take the weight of the springs to replace the rectified spring hanger

The Douglas Locomotive

Huge progress was made with the restoration of the Douglas locomotive this week. The locomotive was sandblasted and painted with undercoat paint.

Below: I now know where the man got his inspiration from writing the song” There is a man on the moon!” – Jacob on the Douglas Locomotive

Henry had to do some panel beating to the dome of this locomotive and sanded the dome. The dome was then spray painted with the same undercoat.

The dome before and after.

Petrus sanded planks for the footplate of the locomotive. These planks will be fitted as soon as Derrick is finished with the rebuild of the Douglas cab.

The steel for the cab arrived on Thursday night and no time was wasted to start with the missing coalbunker on this locomotive. Below and above right are photos of Derrick building the new coalbunker for the Douglas Locomotive.

Wagon Restoration The two Dz wagons numbers 1405 and 1746 were sandblasted this week. Both the wagons were then spray-painted. One of these Dz wagons has a bad cracked axle box and the bogey will be changed with another one in next week. These were the last two Dz wagons to be restored. Below are photos of Jacob sandblasting the DZ wagons.


Two B wagons were shunted out of the storage line this week for restoration. B wagon number 2968 came to the put on Friday morning, all the braking gears and pull rods were removed and bearings were fitted and boxes packed with new axle wool. Both the handbrake wheels were broken and were replaced with spare ones. The vacuum cylinder was taken off and Petrus overhauled the cylinder.



Petrus overhauling the vacuum cylinder	Petrus fitting new bearings to 2968
This B wagon will be sandblasted in next week and then will be spray-painted. The braking gear and Vacuum cylinder will be fitted back and the brakes will then be adjusted. New vacuum chamber and release valve will be fitted. It will be stencilled and ready to be use. The Ratanga Wagon Ben made wooden window frames for this wagon and varnished the outside of this wagon this week. The inside was painted with wood primer. We only need to manufacture new doors for this wagon in next week and to fit the seats to the steel frames inside the wagon. Below are some photos of this restoration.



RAIL MAINTENANCE

Oupa finished the maintenance in Hoekfontein Station this week and has started with maintenance on the section of line between Hoekfontein and Grootdraai. KM Posts Derrick made km posts this week. The km posts will be fitted on one-meter tar poles and will be planted halve a km away from each other. This will make it easier for the drivers to book repairs on the line. Petrus have cut the eighteen poles this week. The posts will be sprayed with white paint and the stencilling will be done in black. Below is a photo of Derrick cutting out the plates for the km posts.

The Station name boards were stencilled this week and the Hoekfontein Station name was planted in the station.

From the Past...

Class 24 number 3635 cleaning fire in Winburg station in May 1988. This was the second last steam hauled train on the Theunissen to Winburg branch.

PLANNING FOR NEXT WEEK: 1.) To finish the restoration of B number 2968 2.) To finish the restoration of the two Dz wagons. 3.) To finish the building of coalbunker and cab of the Douglas locomotive. 4.) To build in floor of Douglas locomotive. 5.) To make new cowcatcher for Douglas locomotive. 6.) To finish rail maintenance on section Hoekfontein to Grootdraai and to start with section Hoekfontein to Mooihoek. 7.) To washout and prepare Kalahari for Boiler Inspection. 8.) To prepare O&K for Internal inspection. 9.) To prepare Fowler B5 for Hydro Inspection. 10.) To shunt out G wagons 3292 and 3210 for restoration. 11.) To start with restoration on 3210 and 3292 12.) To finish km posts and plant new station names. 13.) To move all items from Pandora salvage to Groenspan. 14.) To move semaphore signal from Pandora for restoration.