Railway Heritage

The latest Steam Report from the Sandstone Steam Team

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Lukas Nel and the Bloemfontein team have completed the fitting of all the copper ferrules in the firebox tube plate of number 113. Out pictures show the copper raw material, sealing the ferrules into the tube plate and the completed job.

The hard work continues at Bloemfontein with the copper ferrules being placed in the tube plate prior to the final fitting of the tubes. Our pictures show the delicate process of fitting the ferrules and a completed section of the tube plate. The ferrules are then expanded and act as a seal between the tube plate and the boiler tube when fitted.

The repairs to and preparation of the front tube plate are now complete and the retubing will begin very shortly.

The completely rebuilt boiler for NG10 number 61 has now been completed by Keith Stevens and his team at the workshop in Howick. The boiler will be collected shortly for transport to Bloemfontein where Lukas Nel’s team will continue with the final restoration.

Work on cleaning up the tube plates is nearly complete although the grinding and welding is a slow but necessary process of the retubing.

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We could not resist these photographs of our Lawley BR7 (SAR NG 106) and sister NG105 that we received from Hannes Palling. They show the sisters at Fort Beaufort where they worked sometime between 1930 and 1934 and are credited to SH Carter. These two locos are the only Lawleys fitted with the “Fowler” type bogie tender. The other photo is of Hannes’ magnificent live steam model of NG105.

Sandstone receives its Railway Safety Regulator operating permit for 2018.

The Railway Safety Regulator has issued Sandstone with its operating permit for 2018.

It has been issued without any exceptions. Click here to view

Lukas Nel and his team have now begun the descaling process on the boiler and outer firebox of 113. This is a massive task with both tubeplates requiring  normal repairs. This will keep the team busy for some time to come. Our pictures show the guys hard at work deep inside the boiler.

Work has begun on grinding the tube plate at the firebox end of the boiler on 113. This needs to be ground to be totally clean and smooth to allow the crack testing chemicals to work and also to check if the tube plate may have any bulging or be bent in any spot.

Our final Steam Report for 2017. Click on the link to see the latest Sandstone Railway news.

From all of us at Sandstone we wish all our readers Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year for 2018.
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This is our last report for 2017 before the workshop in Bloemfontein closes for the holiday break on Friday the 15^th. All the tubes have now been removed from the boiler as our pictures show and the boiler will now be descaled. The tube plates will also be tested and inspected before the retubing commences. This will be during the early part of 2018.

Lukas Nel and the Bloemfontein team have begun removing the tubes from NGG16 113. Our pictures show the superheater header at the start of the operation at the smokebox end and then the process to the remove the old tubes by grinding off the ends at the firebox end. Our last picture shows the section of the small tube which caused the failure in April 2017.

The transport of live cattle by rail has long faded into history on the South African rail system and particularly on the narrow gauge. The South African 2ft narrow gauge system itself met its demise long ago but thanks to the efforts of Sandstone a large number of rolling stock types have been saved for preservation. A comprehensive survey by Sandstone in May 2016 identified every remaining wagon along the line from Port Elizabeth docks to Avontuur. Each wagon was photographed and the images are now in the Sandstone archives. Two G type cattle wagons were identified, namely G 210 at Assegaaibos in the Langkloof and G 246 at Saint Albans on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. Both are of the type G-3. 210 was built in 1940 and 246 in 1937. Number 210 was still stabled at the old cattle loading dock at Assegaaibos waiting for a cargo that would never come again whilst 246, as the photograph shows, was basically reduced to a frame on wheels in a lonely siding. Both units have now been collected by Sandstone and transported to the Eastern Free State for preservation.