The James Hall Museum of Transport will celebrate Madiba’ s Centenary with an open day at the James Hall Museum in Johannesburg on 21st July. Sandstone has a long standing relationship with the museum and we urge you to support this worthy cause. Full details are on the attached flyer.
Frameline have produced a large number of video features for Sandstone since the inception of the Sandstone Railway. A large amount of footage was kept as reference for the Sandstone Archives and has not been previously seen. We shall be showcasing a number of these clips over the next few months and we begin with Sandstone’s visit to Angola in 2003 which resulted in the rescue of a number of locomotives from dereliction including the 1899 Decauville, “Bathala” featured in the link below.
Work continues at Bloemfontein on Phase 1 of the cosmetic restoration of this loco for Transnet. After stripping the locomotive as in our last report attention is now concentrated on descaling the various components. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show work on the cab, tender tank and boiler.
Whether you have booked or are still deciding about it, Stars of Sandstone 2019 is not to be missed. Have a look at our newly released video of what this event holds in store. You should not miss it!
As we are fabricating many parts from scratch we have had to slow down a bit but will soon pick up the pace. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show the newly fabricated reversing ratchet, part of the drop grate, the finishing touches on the roof and more small parts for the regulator assembly and main steam pipe.
Great progress has been made on the boiler of NGG13 number 49 at Reefsteamers as it is prepared for retubing.
The old tubes have been removed and the tube plates cleaned. The boiler barrel has been descaled and washed out and subject to MPI (Magnetic Particle Inspection) as have the tube plates. The initial report is that all is well. A full boiler inspection by the Boiler Inspector prior to commencing the retube will take place next week. The tubes have been cut to length ready to be fitted.
Our pictures from Reefsteamers show the boiler being descaled and washed out and the flue tubes being annealed ready for fitment and the small tubes after being cut to size.
As mentioned in our last report there are numerous small items that take up a lot of time to complete. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show the chimney in its first stages of fabrication (when received the locomotive had a wooden replica), the inner cab wooden roof in place, the boiler flange for the turret and the regulator valve in its first stages of fabrication.
Although seemingly small tasks they all go together towards the restoration of this special locomotive.
