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.
Steam Railway magazine has published an obituary from Sandstone Heritage Trust on this great man who sadly passed away in late 2017. Click here to read the article.
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.
Click here to read
This is our last report for 2017 before the workshop in Bloemfontein closes for the holiday break on Friday the 15th. 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.
