RN 251 - A bit of this & a bit of that Flugel - by Kerry Young

15th September 2006

Interesting. Very interesting. The various books and magazines that people collect. Over more recent times, the Thursday Gang has developed into something of a book exchange. Seems there are people everywhere exchanging publications of interest. Makes for a very interesting extra to the day.

So what of the day anyway?...........................

Almost too late to get this shot. Not as good as I would have liked but what we have here is, Tr22 with the 'F' and what's left of the 'L' wagon. They have been rearranged to have the 'L' to the rear so we can work over the pit with the 'F' and also be free to roll it backwards and forwards as we complete the work on the motion. I had the pleasure of walking beside the 'F' as it was pushed back inside and followed the action of the Stevensons valve gear as it rolled. How many people have been able to do that? The gear being inside the frames makes it difficult to follow in normal practice.

This is as near as the boiler will get to the frames for some time to come, but still, it's good to have them even this close together.

Mention of the boiler, I managed to get this shot of the two great minds in collaboration regarding the smokebox of the 'F'.

This is our Ray Shearman. Driving as usual, but this time a weed sprayer. Ray does a great job with this in the season. Starts around six in the morning with the advent of the better weather.

Back to the 'F' and Roger is looking in detail at all the motion work before we bolt it up for good.

No chance for idle talk while the thicknesser is roaring in action. Our Keith was machining up some timber for the carriage.

Mention of the carriage brings to mind something I learned during the week. I heard mentioned the term 'Scarret Carriage'. Seeing I didn't want to appear to not know what sort of carriage that might be, I kept my peace and appealed to a higher authority. I received this reply............

"Further to the Scarrett designation of carriages, the name relates to the type of seat. The Scarrett seat has a roll over back, to reverse the seating position, which also alters the angle of the seat cushion, so retaining maximum comfort. They were fitted to NZR 2nd class cars from the late 1920's.

Regards,
Colin (Sir)"

There you are chapter and verse. Thanks again Colin! (Sir) The picture shows three seats in the carriage giving an idea of how the system works.

I couldn't find the 'N' wagon. Turns out it had been put on road three. There were a couple of shady characters skulking in the background when I turned up to get my picture. Who could they possibly be?

Sir Colin has been carrying out a lonely vigil on the railcar. Man, there's such a lot of work to be done there, but he assures me he has it under control.

'Bump Clearance'. It has been determined there is insufficient of the stuff on the forward R.H. end. Mike Webb is seen here reaffixing the cylinder end prior to doing another check. He and I spent some time later, re checking the truth of the crosshead slidebars on that same side. With the result that we elected to re-do the setting up of the bars. Finally got what we wanted, just as it was time to go home.

There has been track being lifted in the Firestone yard by the Saturday team. This is a bucket containing some of the rail bolts from the job. These we have been cleaning and fixing the threads, for re use on the valley line. Peter Jenkinson is really chafing at the bit to get going on that project.

That's all for this week. See you in seven days time. Cheers, 'K'.