Early Monday morning two of Sandstone Estates Freightliners departed to Port Shepstone to load Sandstone wagons on the wayside Stations towards Harding. Our one Freightliner was loaded with our Forklift to assist us with the loading at these Stations. Sadly this scenic narrow gauge Railway came to an end some years ago, wagons and locomotives were left over to the rough hands of Mother Nature.
Below left: Running down Town hill near Pietermaritzburg.
Below right: We arrived at Paddock station early Wednesday morning. Three good conditioned ST wagons were left behind when the Railway closed and were rescued.
We had to remove them between the bushes and loaded all three ST wagons on one of our low-beds.
We did not want to cut the upright beams from the ST wagons and therefore loaded the second one inside the first one. We then had to turn the third ST upside down and fitted them into each other.
Only two hours and the first three ST wagons were on their way back to the Farm.
We loaded the Forklift again at Padock and moved on to Izingolweni, about 30km west of Padock. At Padock we loaded two B wagons on top of each other and headed back to the Farm
Below : The easiest wagons were loaded first.
Below : Leon Flint doing gardening, removing trees out of the wagon.
Below : Early the next morning we quickly offloaded the wagons to enable the truck to return and reach Port Shepstone before dusk.
We used our new Crane to lift the wagons from the low-beds. The ST wagons were offloaded at a different place.
The first ST wagon was shunted down to the column at the Shed for sandblasting.
ST number 248 and ST number 619 was de-scaled and sandblasted. This will be Sandstone Estates first two Timber wagons that will be restored in the following two weeks.
Both ST wagons received a thin coat of Red oxide to prevent the forming of rust while we are restoring the wagons.
We started with extensive sanding work on the almost completed Ratanga wagon. The outside and inside will be sanded and varnished. The frames for the two doors were made and will be fitted in next week.
The first Rand water Locomotive was painted with red Oxide to scare Mother Nature. The second Rand Water locomotive arrived on Sandstone late Thursday night and was offloaded on Friday morning. Petrus immediately started to scrape of all old paint and will paint this locomotive next week.
Below: The second Rand Water Locomotive arrived at Sandstone.
RATANGA GARRATT
This week we sanded the cab sides of this locomotive and sprayed it black. The front unit tank was also sanded to a smooth finishing touch. The complete locomotive will received a final coat of paint once we are done with the fitting of the lagging.
Below: Menasse and his team, hard at work.
The cab sides are now ready to fit and await Henk to finish the roof of this locomotive.
Below: The roof under construction. Once Henk is finish with the steel work, he will build in the roof planks.
THE HUNSLET
This week Henry sanded the buffer beams and sprayed it with spray filler. He finished the spray work on all the side panels that will be fitted after he sprayed the cab and buffer beams.
Below: The finished side panels.
SIGNALS:
We fitted three signals in Hoekfontein Station this week to add to the Railway atmosphere.
Below: One of the signals on the south side of Hoekfontein Station.
OUTLOOK FOR NEXT WEEK
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ST 619 restoration
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ST 248 restoration
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Ratanga wagon restoration
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Ratanga Garratt restoration
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BSA Railcar restoration
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Move wagons from Port Shepstone wayside
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Offload wagons from Port Shepstone wayside
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Paint Rand Water locomotive
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Clean all locomotives
STEAM GREETINGS
THE STEAM TEAM!