RN 101 - Weekly steam shed report - Gert Jubilius

24 - 30th September 2005

The moving of the 3'6" coaches to Hoekfontein

The three passenger coaches that were moved from Ficksburg Station last week were moved by road to Hoekfontein Station this week. The three coaches were placed behind the Class 10CR. First of all, we had to plan the moving of the coaches very accurately and then worked the plan. The Mobile workshop was taken to Vailima siding with the Hunslet diesel locomotive. All the tools, jacks, slings and shackles were placed inside the workshop. This really made things a lot easier and came in very handy with compressed air in a second. First of all we had to uncouple the first coach and pulled it to where we could easily it. All the coaches braking gear pull rods were removed together with the safety chains on the bogies. The quarters were removed from the centre pins. Here are some photo’s taken before we started with the loading:

After we had lifted the coach on the one end, the tractor had to pull the one bogie clear from the operation.

A plate that was fitted to the fifth wheel of the Freightliner was used to secure the front of the coach. The Freightliner had to reverse in under the coach.

The coach was secured with bolts and block and tackles to the plate on the fifth wheel of the Freightliner, and after this the coach was moved again to fit the dolly wheels under the back of the coach.

Spoornet was notified about the loading of the coaches at Vailima, and we did place two red flags at both ends of our working place for the safety of the Sandstone team. The dolly wheels were lifted with the crane and were moved to the back of the coach. The coach was lifted again and the rear bogie was removed.

The dolly wheels had to be aligned at the back with the use of block and tackles. The crane then slowly let the coach down, while we had to align the centre pin to fit into the centre hole of the dolly wheels. The coach then was secured with bolts onto the frame of the dolly wheels. It took one hour to travel with the coach from Vailima to Hoekfontein.

While Baas was on his way to Hoekfontein, we loaded the bogies onto the low bed and secured them with block and tackles. We then left for Hoekfontein and the coach was offloaded on Tuesday.

The Offloading!
We first had to move the massive Class 10CR out of the way.

Second we had to offload the bogies and push them far out of the way on both ends of where we wanted to offload the coach.

The coach then was reversed back over the railway line, in alignment with it as well.


After the bolts on the dolly wheel frame were loosened, it was lifted and we pulled out the dolly with a tractor and a sling. The one bogie was pushed underneath the coach and the coach was put down onto the rear bogie.

The coach was then moved backwards on the one bogie to enable us to lift the front of the coach without moving the crane. The front of the coach was then lifted and the freightliner pulled out under the coach. We pushed the front bogie in under the coach and let the coach down onto this bogie. Mission completed and we loaded the dolly wheels again onto the low bed to repeat these steps again until all three were offloaded by Thursday morning. The first and second coach was moved forward to clear the line for the third coach to be offloaded. After we moved the last coach to Hoekfontein, they were pushed back and were coupled to the brown coaches. The Class 10CR was also pushed back again.

Petrus and Oupa cleaned the Class 10CR while Ben and Derrick waterproofed the coaches. Above are some photos of the offloaded coaches at Hoekfontein.

NARROW GAUGE WAGONS: B-WAGONS NUMBERS 1629, 2436, 1812:

SOFTENER HOUSES: Henry is almost finished with the third softener house and will have all finished by Monday afternoon. Oupa also finished the cosmetic upgrading of the boiler at the ablution blocks.


A 19D front bogie was also loaded onto the low bed for Bloemfontein.

From the past
Class 19D number 2692 on the Theunissen- Winburg branch line in June 1979.

Steam Greetings, Gert