Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 52 - Steam Shed Weekly Report - 9 - 14 May 2005

LOCOMOTIVE REPORT: BARCLAY: Des is still busy with the machine work on slide bar of the Barclay. The slide bar is in the final stage and might be finished by the end of tomorrow. After the slide bar is finished, he will start to machine the new crosshead slippers for the Barclay. The valve setting will be done again, because it now has new bushes on the left side as well.

NO 88: Petrus started to de-scale the one unit while Derrick welded the floor. This uses a lot of welding rods, more than I could imagine.

Henkie overhauled the clack box, safety valves and one steam valve. Note all the rust that came out of the safety valve, all this rust was accumulated around the safety valve spring.

DE2:
Henry did all the work that needed to be done to the DE2. The number and builders plates were removed and are stored in the safe at the farm.

THE HUNSLET DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE: The Hunslet was used yesterday to shunt all the stencilled wagons to the station. The Hunslet was stabled in the back of the shed in front off 88's boiler. Henk and Arno removed the brake gear and the springs. The horn stays were removed and the frame was jacked to enable the wheels to move out of the horns. This was almost completed by the end of today. The wheels will be removed under the frame and will be cleaned. The company who is going to re-tyre the wheels will collect them on Monday.

THE CLASS 16 CR: Oupa started to paint the 16CR yesterday and will be finished with the painting work by the end of tomorrow.

3'6" LOCOMOTIVES:

STORAGE LINE:
The line is exactly 315 m long and starts at the tractor shed down just past the coal shed. Gravel and ash will be used to fill the ground to correct the level.
The following locomotive lengths are:
1x 25NC=28m
3x19D=67'4" =20,8mx3= 62,4m
2x15CA= 73'9"=22,5mx2=45m
2x15F=73'10"=22,4m=45m
1xDE2=16m
1x10CR=19,1m
3xlittle locomotives in town=20m
3xlittle steam locomotives at Farm=20m
Total length=256m
This store line will be built by us.
The locomotives are too long and too heavy for our lowbed.

3'6" WAGONS:
The old 3'6" wagon from Gumtree is loaded on the 2' flat wagon that we are going to restore next. Where should we place the wagon? There is a rail panel, which we used when we loaded the 3'6" locomotives. If we place it somewhere, then I can let Oupa paint it as well

3'6" WAGON AT PRES.STEYN MINE
This wagon is really a must. It is almost 100 years old. I need to find out if we can get hold of the especially old kind of bearings for it. If we can get hold of the bearings, it might be that Spoornet will bring it to Ficksburg at a speed restriction. The only problem then, will be that it will be more costly because of the speed restriction and because it then must be moved to Ficksburg on a Sunday.

WAGON REPORT:
Six wagons were stencilled this week by Arno and two of the wagons that were not completely painted, were finished. Seventeen wagons axle boxes, were packed with new wool. This includes all the wagons and coaches that we are going to use with the David Rogers tour next week. All the wagons were vacuum brake tested as well.

Arno still needs to stencil 10 wagons. All the wagons were shunted to the station yesterday and will be shunted into two consist, next week for the tour. The flat wagon with the wooden floor will be the next to restore. The dimensions of the wagon is as follows: Length = 7,6 m With = 1,68 Height not to exceed 2,1 m The B wagon no 2926 was completely restored and is available for use on our trains.

THE PE COACH:
Ben finished the painting of the windows today and will have the PE coach complete by tomorrow night.

Ben will also fit the two handrails to the dining car tomorrow. Jemina cleaned all the coaches and guard vans this week. All the seats were washed with soap and water.

ADDITIONAL WORK DONE TO WAGONS THIS WEEK:
B wagon 2947 was fitted with new vacuum chamber pipes.
OZ 3197's bogeys were painted.
GZ 2834's bogeys were painted and one new vacuum hose was fitted.

Henry is busy with the cosmetically work inside the Mobile Workshop. Two air jacks, de-railer and a proper light for the inside and outside will be fitted. It will be very helpful to have two 30 ton bottle jacks, for it is usually impossible to get the big air jack under the de railed wagon or locomotive. It will be fitted with two 30m-air pipes for the jacks. Slings and U bolts will be placed inside. RAIL CARS

THE BSA:
Des went on with the body of the BSA. Fibreglass and body putty was used to give smooth rounding.
He is going to make a new bonnet with 1mm steel sheet.

THE WICKHAM RAILCAR:
Des stripped the Wickham today and removed the gearbox to fix the clutch problem. He bought a master cylinder and a clutch fork. The fork was fitted and some work was done to the clutch plate. The gearbox was placed back and the master cylinder for the clutch will be fitted.

RAIL MAINTENANCE:
Last Saturday I did line inspection on the new line to Vailima Halt. A lot of trees have grown between the rails. We took Petrus today and he removed all of them. Petrus also packed a short distance of rail that was actually lying loose due to the rain. The ground sunk away under the line.

Derrick repaired the points at Vailima. The gap between the run through and the point blade was too narrow. This ended the gap problem on all of our points and all are on standard now.

The order for the oxygen and acetylene came through today and will be collected tomorrow. We will then do the points at Mooihoek. The checkrail must be removed and the bolts are too tight loosen them without warming them with the torch. After the checkrail is removed, we shall do the necessary rectifications to pull the checkrail nearer to the run through. This will prevent the little locomotives jumping at the V.
The points at Vailima were serviced today.

GENERAL:
All the coal that was offloaded from the B Wagon was moved to the coal shed and all the coal dust was placed in bags.
Henry serviced all the water column valves today, and all the water tanks are full and in working condition, ready for next weeks tour.
Henry fitted two new whistle boards to wooden poles and was placed near the crossing in front of the shed. The plan is to get whistle boards at the most used crossings before the tour next week.

Derrick welded the interlink that is to be used on the Avontuur tour in September.
Petrus emptied all the sandboxes of the locomotives in the wagon shed. This will be used for next week's tour.
The shed was cleaned today and the new degreasing fluid was used. This actually works great and actually sucks out the oil from the cement.

:: Sandstone Steam Railroad ::

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News RN 52 - Steam Shed Weekly Report - 9 - 14 May 2005 LOCOMOTIVE REPORT: BARCLAY: Des is still busy with the machine work on slide bar of the Barclay. The slide bar is in the final stage and might be finished by the end of tomorrow. After the slide bar is finished, he will start to machine the new crosshead slippers for the Barclay. The valve setting will be done again, because it now has new bushes on the left side as well.   TYPE NUMBER STENCILLED RESTORED REMARKS 1. B-wagon 2926 Stencilled 2005 Completely finished 2. B-wagon 2436 Stencilled ? Completely finished 3. B-wagon 1125 Stencilled ? Completely finished 4. B-wagon 1136 Stencilled ? Completely finished 5. B-wagon 922 Stencilled ? Completely finished 6. B-wagon 2947 Stencilled ? Completely finished 7. B-wagon 921 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 8. B-wagon 1146 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 9. B-wagon 1680 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 10. B-wagon 2951 To stencil ? Loaded with big steam engine ­in wagon shed 11. DZ 2901 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 12. DZ 1976 Stencilled ? Completely finished 13. DZ 862 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 14. Ay 2806 Stencilled 2005 Completely finished 15. Ay 2032 Stencilled 2004 Completely finished 16. O-wagon 4000 To stencil ? Needs to be stencilled 17. O-wagon 3733 Stencilled ? Dirty wagon 18. OZ 3197 Stencilled 2004 Completely finished 19. GZ 2834 Stencilled 2004 Completely finishded 20. QZ 180 To stencil 2004 Needs to be stencilled 21. V 3172 Guard van 2005 Only underframe was done. 22. V 3175 Guard van 2004 Completely finished 23. PE-coach 52   2004 Windows are being painted cream currently. 24. PE-coach 67   ? To be refurbished next 25. Uitenhage     ? For use with small locomotives 26. Uitenhage     ? For use with small locomotives 27. Open coach     ? For use with small locomotives 28. Saloon     ? Completely finished 29. Dinning car     ? Needs two handrails