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Locomotives
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| The Douglas Locomotive | |
Henry stripped the cab of the Douglas locomotive as well as the roof. All the bends in the plates were straighten. Henry fitted all the sides of the cab back and secured them with new bolts and nuts. The next is to fit the cab and the one side tank onto the locomotive. The locomotive will then be sand blasted completely before the spray-painting will commence. |
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Railcars
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| The BSA Railcar | |
The engine for this railcar will arrive on the farm during next week. The engine will be fitted into the BSA and will then enable Des to design and build the engine bonnet for the railcar. When the bonnet is finished, we can do all the finishing touches to the body work of the BSA and it will be spray-painted. |
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| The Whickam Railcar | |
| Des finished the rectifications to the gearbox of the Wickham railcar and the gearbox and wheels were assembled and fitted back again. | |
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Wagon Restoration
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| B-Wagons 1629, 2436, 1812 | |
Jacob and Ben finished this three B wagons. They only needs to be stencilled in next week. Britannia B Wagon The Britannia B wagon underwent a complete under frame restoration this week. The vacuum cylinder was overhauled and a new release valve was fitted. The brake gears were removed, de-scaled and painted with Red Oxide paint. The brake gears were fitted back and brake blocks were fitted. The brakes were adjusted and the handbrakes were made workable again. Derrick is finished with the steel construction work on the B wagon and is fitting a wooden floor to it. The wooden floor will be secured with two lengths of angle iron. The B wagon will then be de-scaled, and will be sprayed with spray filler before it is spray painted. When this wagon is finished, we shall upgrade a boiler that will be mounted onto this B wagon. The main purpose of this wagon will be to steam clean locomotive motions as well as wagon under frames. This wagon could also be shunted any where on the farm, where we could steam clean combines and tractors. Derrick is going to build a cab, just like the ones on the Locomotives, so this is really going to look extraordinary. |
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Other Restorations
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| Baggage Trolley Jacob de scaled the third baggage trolley and will paint it in next week. All the baggage trolleys are on display inside the shed. |
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The Big Centrifugal Pump
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Derrick build a little house that fits over the centrifugal pump outside the shed. Both the centrifugal pumps are connected to the same feed pipe from the big black water tank. This enables us to use both centrifugal pumps. The smaller one will then be used to fill boilers and tenders on operating days, while the big pump will be used for wash out purposes. This big centrifugal pump can deliver 27000 litres water in a hour. |
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Other Activities
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| The Fowler B5 | |
The Fowler B 5 was loaded this week and will undergo cosmetically upgrading. Before we loaded the Fowler, we had to remove the boom of the Crane. |
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| The Cole's Crane | |
Des and Arno serviced the Coles crane this week. Various rectifications were done to the crane and new slings were made and were fitted onto the crane. The oil was changed and new diaphragms were fitted onto the dif lock of the crane. All grease nipples were greased and the crane was prepared for the loading and moving of three freight wagons from Komandonek Station to Hoekfontein Station. Here are photos of Arno and Des busy with the Coles Crane. |
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Moving of the Freight Wagon
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| Before we could start moving the three freight wagons from Kommandonek Station to Hoekfontein Station, we had to build a 50 metre track that was laid at the back of the Waenhuis. Rails and steel sleepers were loaded onto a trailer and were taken to the Shed. Five panels were build and laid at the Waenhuis. |
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| We loaded the dolly wheels again unto the lo-bed together with all the tools and equipment needed for this operation. |
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At Kommandonek, we had to remove the stop block and have done some earth moving works before we could start loading the wagons. |
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The freight wagon then was pulled to the end of the line where we could load it. |
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Derrick loosened the brackets on the bogies and we uncoupled the brake gear pull rods before the crane lifted the one side of the wagon. |
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The bogie then was pulled away to clear the line for the Man to reverse in under the wagon. |
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The wagon then was pulled forward again to the end of the line on the rear bogie. The crane lifted the rear of the wagon, and we removed the rear bogie. |
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The Dolly wheel was pulled underneath the wagon with the winch on the Man. The wagon was secured with bolts and block and tackles. We then loaded both the bogeys onto the lo-bed. |
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We then departed for Hoekfontein with the first freight wagon. Arno was a bid shaky to drive the Man with this massive freight wagon, but I am really proud of him, he did a great job and took this wagon safe to Hoekfontein. |
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Storm Hit Kommandonek
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| A wind storm hit kommandonek last Friday, and left a trace of fallen trees all over the Station. Massive Bloekom trees were ripped out of the ground and was thrown over the railway mainlines in the Station. Spoornet was notified about this and they had to send out their trolley to Kommandonek to cut these big trees into sections to enable them to remove it from the Railway line. Here are some photos of the disaster. |
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Various
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| The weeds were sprayed on the entire Railway line on the Farm with the use of the Little Diesel locomotive. Henry did some modifications to the weed spray trolley. Here is Henry busy with the welding in of a support to the drag beam of the trolley. |
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| Ben spends two days this week to sort all the 45lb rail and 60 lb rails at Pandora. |
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From The Past
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Two Class 23’s raising steam after both locomotives replenished their water at Vetrivier in the early 1960’s. This photo was taken by the Station Master Mr Norval who manned the Station at that time. These two locomotives were bound for Kroonstad with a freight train from Bloemfontein. |
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Planning for next week
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| To move all three freight wagons from Kommandonek Station to Hoekfontein. To finish restoration of third baggage trolley. To do the Valve settings on the Barclay and to steam test her. To cut two B wagons to Flat wagons To fit engine to the BSA and to go on with the body work on it. To finish wooden floor of the Britannia B wagon. To make Road signs for level crossings To assemble cab and side tank of the Douglas locomotive To do brake adjustment to wagons and coaches |
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GREETINGS... GERT
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