Steam in Action – An Association Incorporated under Section 21  –  Registration Number 2007/035119/08
www.steam-in-action.com  -  Email : joannewest@btinternet.com

Introduction :

Wow – this one turned out to be a long super-deluxe Class 23 tender-sized edition.  I’ve included some photos from two weeks ago to bring you up to date on the Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ tender welding \ reinforcement project.  This project has been needed on this engine for at least four years now … and now after the death of many welding rods, it’s finally done! 

The extension of the white metal casting for the Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ Bogie bearing was also an interesting sequence to describe.  Hence there is another ‘how to build a locomotive in 10 easy steps’ type article – starring Andrew King.  Aiden Mc. Carthy did a mains-water pressure hydraulic test on the boiler Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’, with Lee Gates assisting.  There was a ‘false leak’ as the boiler washout plugs hadn’t been tightened on the back plate after the recent boiler washout was completed – and you could hear the pressurized water squirting into the cab.  When these errant plugs were tightened, the left hand clack valve and a vent valve were found to be leaking.  These were re-seated and weren’t entirely unexpected leaks.  You normally have to reseat a valve or too when pressure testing a boiler.  However, there’s a nasty surprise in the mix too, as there’s another leak under the firebox cladding – looks like a stay has failed.  This letter is already too long for the website, so you’ll see the pics and read of the misdemeanors of the boiler hydro boys when we tear into No.3016 to find that leak at the upper left of the firebox.

We had five and a half guys out on the coaches today, so there’s a lot to describe – but that’s good, as we’re always behind on our coach work.  The ‘half’ was Fred Sewell who is recovering from an operation to remove a tumour from a kidney.  (Thankfully, non-malignant.)  He was well enough to potter around the power car and put fresh stocker son certain vehicles – but trying to lift a starter battery for the train’s generator van finished him off.  Fred WAS told to take it easy but he can be a teeny bit stubborn at times…

Anyway – I trust that you enjoy reading this somewhat lengthy report.

PROJECT : Class 15F No.3052 Tender Brace Welding :

This was perhaps the most urgent project of the day.  As a steam club, we are anxious to get David Shepherd’s Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ back on the high irons and into revenue earning service on behalf of Steam in Action.  However, we also need extra power as our class 25(NC) No.3472 ‘Elize’ is the only locomotive that we have that’s currently fit for main line use.  (Especially as Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’ has sprung a leak which will delay boiler certification.)  ‘Avril’ has most of a three year boiler certificate left to go, combined with a newly thoroughly cleaned boiler and it’s a shame not to use that combo.  In fact, the locomotive had two teams working on her today, with a painting team working in tandem with the tender team. 

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be that much remaining to be done on the tender.  But ample areas of rusty metal and a bent rear scuttle plate delayed the proceedings.  By the end of a hard day’s welding and grinding, this old tender is now stronger than it was when it was originally made.  And considering these aren’t exactly delicate pieces of equipment to begin with, that is really saying something!  By the end of the day, Dawie was totally sick of welding, Shaun’s brain slightly addled with the toxic welding fumes, the grinding disks were much reduced in diameter and the tender deck was generously scattered with burnt out ends of welding rod.

This work actually started two weeks ago with the installation of the vertical side bracing on the tender coal hopper walls.  There isn’t a news letter covering that work, ‘cuz this old keyboard puncher was busy working on an article for Class 25(NC) No.3488 ‘Enchantress’ as well as working on a convoluted building project for my employer.  But to get you up to track-speed, here are some photos from two weeks ago.

The welding job went with very little trouble apart from the occasional rocky start when trying to find decent welding earth points.  You could hear the frustrated tapping from the workshop bay.  The problem was that the support braces had gone rusty in storage.  (Pic U02 above)  However, the lower angle of the webs was slightly too deep and they all had to be cut down.  The raw cut triangles of 6mm thick mild steel needed some careful handling with sharp edges and a lethal looking point!  (Pic U03 above)  The guys carefully fitted one, and then Patrick clamped it in turn to the rest of the stock and used it as a template.  (Pic U04 below)  Of course, this would only work if the sloping coal hopper ramps were straight and consistent.  It turns out that the old tender is still straight and true and the cut down webs all fit.  North British knew how to build good stuff. 

Pic U06 above shows the progressing of the side braces down the right side of the tender.  Patrick took care to chamfer off the sharp edges of the triangular webs so that any future coal trimmers working at this level don’t get punctured.  When eight full length braces were installed, four to a side, the first of the two cross breams was installed and welded in – with some tapping to get it level.  The first beam is simply a span across the top of the tender and is intended to help prevent the sides from bowing out.  The second, lower beam was placed in a position to be used for a chain hoist to pull the rear scuttle panel back into alignment – you’ll read about this in the next section.

New covers were made for the stoker driver universal joint (Pic U10 below) and the Stoker Gearbox access hatch.  (Pic U11 below)  The universal joint cover was fitted with a new pair of half-barrel hinges, while the gearbox cover was welded to the existing, intact hinge.  However, the time saved on using the existing hinge was lost in making a double-angled cover panel for the corner of the coal hopper.  It was fabricated on the 50 ton press, using a crow bar as a mandrel in a pre-bent corner.

And now, onto this week’s work!

One of the jobs that had to be checked from the previous week’s work was the extension of the width of the stoker trough covers.  You can see the extension welded onto the edge of the plate in Pic T01.  The original plates were found to be slightly too narrow and unfortunately, the incorrect dimensions were duplicated onto the new plates when they were cut.  The unmodified new plates felt borderline ready to drop out of their slots and into the stoker trough – which would make the fireman’s job really interesting.  Actually, they were rotating and the diagonally opposite corners were jamming and wedging in the longitudinal slots.  Simply preventing the plates from rotating in the slots quite as much really eased their operation and allows less space for coal to jam in the guide rails too. 

The new stoker trough plates are smooth, rather than the checker-plate stamping on the old plates.  (This should make them easier to withdraw.)  However, the holes still need to be drilled to suit the head of the round pricker bar.  The new plates are easy enough to move around in an empty tender, an empty trough and clean guide rails - but a much more positive grip will be required when shuffling the plates forward from under the leading edge of a ramp of coal.

The first task concerning the brace welding was to force the rear scuttle plate forward.  It’s been bent through years of overhead coaling and the circular section top beading has delaminated.  You can see the bend in the foreground of Pic T03 above.  Furthermore, the original two scuttle plate braces were totally eaten away with corrosion and years of coal trimmer shovel blows.  The tender coal hopper now has two non standard beams welded right across to help brace the sides from bulging out at the top.  Pic T03 shows the braces being installed two weeks ago.  The rearmost beam was mounted deliberately lower than the front beam, which almost at the top of the hopper.  The lower beam is at the correct angle to attach a block and tackle and to provide an anchor point to pull the scuttle plate forward.  (Pic T02 above)  This was done gently and evenly before the braces were fitted and throughout the day’s welding, the host was shifted and tightened as appropriate to pull the bent plate up against the new 90 degree braces. 

The partially uncoupled water chute lid was removed and laid aside on the top of the tender for future work.  (Pic T04 below)  It looks rough with much surface rust but is, in fact, in almost perfect condition … straight, with intact bracing and hinge barrels.  The failure happened between the fixed hinge parts and the chute sides.  The water chute thus stood half open the whole day and the guys were storing their tools on the second, intact lid, and even using it as a workbench.  I was just waiting to hear the cussing as a nudged tool, perhaps a spanner or a tape measure, went tumbling down into the open, waiting, empty tender tank.  Fortunately, nothing fell down there and No.3052 ‘Avril’ will not be running with built in rattles from mysterious rusting artifacts drifting in her water supply.

The scuttle plate was patched 2 weeks ago on Sunday 27 January.  But the welding still needed to be ground down flush.  This was done by Dawie Viljoen at first and was later taken over by ‘Nippies’ Juan.  (Pic T05 below.)

The new braces were to be fitted with footing plates, whereas the original braces were welded directly to the horizontal deck plate above the water tank.  But there was the problem of putting a vertical triangular brace on top of the original welds.  Although the remnants of the welds had been ground down – it’s unwise to weld on top of welds, which results in a brittle joint.  Moreover, it’s unlikely that you’d get an absolutely straight joint between the new steel and the old weld – resulting in pockets and weak points in the new weld.  So Dawie had to weld down a pair of footer plates to cover the existing, ground down welding ‘scars’.  (Pic T06 above)  What was interesting about this little job was that the plates were beaten slightly convex.  Thus they formed shallow curved bridges over the protruding original welds and presented their edges smooth against the deck plate.  (A truly flat plate would stand proud of the deck.)  I had to climb on the tender several times to work our what our Dawie-Dude was doing – but it was well worth it to see him beating the plates with a pry bar against the railway tracks, and chasing the skittering plate after each blow.  Because the plates are slightly convex, Dawie took care to weld the open ends completely closed as well to eliminate any crevices where water might sneak in through capillary action and set up corrosion under the braces.  (Pic T06 above.)

An extra task that had come up was the patching of the ends of the new patch plate.  (General view in Pic T02 above)  The long top and lower edges were able to be cut back to sound, solid (if stubbornly bent) metal, but the ends weren’t.  And it’s hard to weld a plate flush with heavy gauge rusty lace.  (Pic T07 below)  Short vertical patches were welded over both the ends of the main patch plate.  They fill up the holes and brace the edges of the weak weld on the ends of the main patch – and are invisible from outside.  (Pic T08 below)

The new triangular braces are slightly longer than the originals.  They were initially welded on the short horizontal edge and tacked at the lower rear.  Then the chain hoist’s hook was uncoupled and moved to just over the brace and tightened up again to pull the bent scuttle plate inwards to lie in contact with the new triangular web.  You can see a shuffled hook in Pic T09 above.  In this pic, Dawie is tacking in the footer edge and you can still see the vertical gap at the back of the web.  Those gaps gradually being pulled closed as the welding progresses upwards, means that the new webs are already under tension – which should help the scuttle plate from being bent any further than it is.  Luckily, we have good coal scoop operators but sometimes little accidents do happen. 

Once the two triangular braces (webs) had been installed (Pic T10 below), it was time to use the new bracing to advantage, and to bully the bent out section of the scuttle plate inwards between the newly welded support.  It was a good test of Dawie’s fresh welding and nothing parted.  (Pic T11 below)  Eventually the Ackerman special was brought out and some Reefsteamers style panel beating ensued – with Shaun acting as the dolly.  (Pic T12 below)  The hammering wasn’t to bend the plate inwards, but rather to close the delaminating top bead, which was holding the warp.  It was amusing to see the rust, dust, welding rod ends and coal dust all jumping up in time to the hammer blows – from the rear of the tender’s water tank right up to the shovel plate at the cab. 

After this rather crude operation, horizontal braces were welded into the corners – being a definite improvement over the original as no braces were originally fitted.  (Pic T13 below)  But first, the rounded RHS end of the scuttle plate had to be pulled towards the back of the tender as it had moved inboard while the center of the plate was straightened in the previous, quite literally, panel beating operation.  So the chain hoist was uncoupled, humped backwards over the scuttle plate, and connected to the lifting hooks already built into the top of the water tank.  The warped end was pulled towards the rear of the tender before the plate could be welded in.

Andrew King was called in to check the work and pass approval, which he did.  (Pic T15 above) The tender interior still needs to be wire brushed and painted with oxide red.  The water chute’s lid needs to be reattached.  The stoker trough plates need to have pilling holes drilled through them.  The tender steps and the shovel plates need to be labeled with high tension warning signs.  (Overhead cantenerary) and the brakes need adjusting.  But this tender should be ready to be filled with coal again by early Saturday Morning, 10 February, for this engine’s first revenue earning run under the flag of Steam in Action.

PROJECT : Class 15CA Bogie Bearing Casting :

When our Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ came limping home from Magaliesburg with a hot foot several weeks ago, we ended up stripping the entire bogie to take advantage of the repair job and see if there were any other problems.  It turns out there was, as the bogie springs were found to be mismatched.  But today, Andrew King got stuck into fixing up some of the obvious damage.  The two piece Bogie bearings are of white metal.  The carrier (outer) bearing also comprises of the thrust face that bears behind the wheel.  This thrust face had been damaged and displayed evidence of melting.  Pic B01 shows the original bearing condition.

The repair job would involve creating a mould to suit that horseshoe shaped profile and then melting some fresh white metal, and casting a new raw surface.  ‘Building up the bearing’ as if were.  Andrew had already been scrounging for scrap sheet metal to make himself a custom fitted mould.  It took quite a bit of ingenuity to take a mould to fit that profile and my respect for Andrew went up a few notches when I saw the results.  The job started on top of the tender of the Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’.  (Pic B02 below)  The reason for this is quite prosaic – that’s where all the angle grinders and extension cords were, within easy reach of the tender boys.  And the typical tapered water hopper makes a handy knee-high work bench. 

Andrew then disappeared for a while, leaving his work pieces next to ‘Avril’.  He was on a scrounge for a circular object that matches the diameter of the half-round axle impression in the bearing.  After several choices, he found a hydrant bell coupling that would do the forming job a treat.  (Pic B03 above)  So the center part of the mould was wrapped around that pipe and seated home in a vice.  This had to be done without creasing the metal. 

Getting the semi-circle located was easy enough.  Care had to be taken to get the corners at 90 degrees; otherwise the corners would be cast curved and waste much time in grinding to square up the bearings.  So here in Pic B04, you see the bearing-boss doing blacksmith work, tapping the corners square against the ‘Top Shed’ anvil.  The straight sides of the bearing slots had to be put in next.  This would be more critical as it would be hard to make a clean adjustment should the width work out wrong, or the semi-circle ends up off center.  Naturally, this required many test fits as the mould was taking shape.  You can see a test fit in progress in Pic B05, below, and the mould is starting to look like a compound archway, or framing for a door with a Victorian semi circular fanlight above.  The fussing and the many test fits paid off as the inner mould fitted perfectly on the first attempt – but that those second corners were troublesome to clean up as the curved section in the section obstructed access in the vice. 

Once The King had the mould sliding into the bearing to his satisfaction, it was time to cut off the excess length of the metal strip.  The pieces to be cut off are in Andrew’s hands in pic B05 above.  Once again all the power tools were available at the tender top and Patrick Ackerman, who’d just arrived, assisted in holding this convoluted strip against the water chute while Andrew fired up the grinder.  (Pic B06 above)  Luckily the guys had brought a good stock of disks with them, so the grinder was running with a fresh disk and thus made a clean cut.

With the inner mould cut to shape, Andrew then sourced a similar steel plate from scrap and bent it loosely to fit the outboard curved profile.  He assembled the mould with some wire, and a pair of G clamps.  (Pic B07 below)  The steel strips were left dry – no spray n’ cook and no margarine was used. 

The casting was interesting to watch.  The white metal stock comes in large slabs that look like metallic chocolate bars (Pic B08 above), and appropriately enough, in branded as ‘Fry’.  (Older South Africans will remember ‘Fry’s’ chocolate.)  One of the characteristic of white metal is its low melting point and malleability.  So we didn’t need an oven to do our casting.  An acetylene torch would provide enough spot heat to melt the white metal down to liquid form. 

The casting was done in two stages.  Firstly the existing surface had to be heated up to semi-liquid state again.  (Pic B09 above)  This is partially to bond the two castings together but also to prevent the soon-to-be cast white metal solidifying almost instantly upon contact with the cold large casting.  (Heat sinking.)  Then the hustle was on to get some fresh white metal down ‘on the deck’ before the working surface cooled down again.  Pic B10 below shows a fresh slab of white metal being put to the torch while Pic B11 shows the slow rhythmic pouring process.  Because of the large mass of the bearing casting absorbing the heat, the fresh metal cooled down and solidified quickly and it was only a matter of minutes before the mould could be knocked apart.  However, it was still too hot to be dismantled with bare hands.  One of the interesting points that Andrew brought up from his experience is that it would have been better to have made the mould fabricated from rusty steel plates and sheets – white metal doesn’t stick to rust.  Nevertheless, he managed to get his contraption dismantled with less mess than taking the paper wrapper from a sticky cupcake.  (Pic B12 below)  You could see where the white paint had burnt and melted into the casting but that’s immaterial.

The two bearings had to be matched again.  The inner bearing is actually a trough like affair that normally holds the oiled woolen waste as a lube packing.  Andrew and Aiden took it in turns to grind and fit the two bearings together again.  Although the two workmen properly wore goggles, the grinding was still hazardous to those walking by.  The metal is too soft to produce sparks – but the invisible flying fragments can still be felt and get in eyes.  It took a lot of fettling to get the bearings to fit together – with great care and frequent checking as it is much easier to take metal off than to put it back on again.

SIA PROJECT : Painting of Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ :

Avril was obviously well loved in her time of storage and had many of her details and salient features painted up.  And amongst those cosmetic embellishments, she had ‘bull’s eye’ wheels – with red axle spots and white hub rings.  The adopted Reefsteamers standard is black wheels and white rims, with the walkway rails and the smoke deflectors highlighted in white.  No offence is intended to the person who originally painted this engine.  But we try to paint our engines in a simple fashion for consistency in appearance and to be as close to the usual SAR colour schemes as possible.  Quite apart from this, bright contrasting colours get dirty quickly.  I’ve seen freshly painted bogie wheels get fouled up to a dark rusty brown within less than 10 minutes on an engine that was steamed up after standing for a while, staining the paint with vapour-bourne rust from the cylinders.

Following are some photos of the details of painting.  This engine is running for the SANRASM Steam Museum on Sunday, and will debut with fresh makeup on the run.  I will be sure to get some nice pics of this engine to share with you then – especially with a new camera tripod that I’ve just brought and am itching to try out in the field.

So Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ had some new makeup applied – and glittering toe nails rendered back to natural colour.  Her smoke box and buffer beam were painted last week.  This week was the turn of the wheels, the valve motion hangars, tender side frames and the tender wheels.

And she’s looking BEAUTIFUL!  (This admittedly, is not hard for our wonderful old steamers.)

Observant readers will notice that the frontspiece photo for this section shows that the locomotive number is missing from the buffer beam.  The reason is simple; Uncle Fred Sewell hasn’t had the stickers made up yet.  He’s our laminated sticker man and will either make up a fresh set for No.3052– or cut a set of appropriate digits from his existing strip stock.

The cab was painted as well.  The gauge back plates and the regulator mechanism had been highlighted in red.  (Pic P04 above)  These were all repainted to glossy black.  Not only is it standardized but also emphasizes the shiny brass and hides the oil streaks!  (Pic P05 above)  Juan replaced the driver’s seat with a spare one from our Cache.  The original seat was loose and the vinyl starting to break up.  Note the original SAR&H green. 

PROJECT : Coach Maintenance:

The coach work started with some morning shunting with two blocks of cars being moved.  The carriage and wagon gang were set loose on the old lounge car, a day sitter and a tanker.  Fred Sewell pottered around in the Power Van doing light duties while recovering from a Kidney Operation.

Tony ‘Shaky’ King has taken on the project of cleaning all the vacuum brake cylinder rods on our rolling stock.  This simple sounding job isn’t as easy as it seems.  These rods are chrome plated and very exposed dangling under the wagon frames.  If you use too aggressive grade sandpaper on the rods, you will damage the chrome plating and ensure corrosion further down the line.  Too fine a grain a paper, you waste time and polish up the dirt.  An additional factor is that these are vacuum cylinders, which means that loose dirt and corrosion will tend be drawn inwards into the cylinders through less than perfect glands.  (It is actually a known weak point of vacuum brake systems in general – they tend to suck in contaminates through leaks and gaps.  More commonly encountered compressed air or hydraulic oil cylinders tend to move the contaminates away or scrape them off at the seals. 

Tony used wet and dry paper, and on one occasion, soaked hemp (Pic C02 above) to provide some lubrication of the cleaning work.  He found thinners and benzene to be reasonably effective in dissolving the mainly petroleum-based residue.  But the results were too dry once the solvents had evaporated.  Paraffin was finally adopted as the cleaning solution, which, while not as powerful in dissolving the crud, leaves a nice protective rust-preventing film on those chrome plated rods. 

The main coach project for today was the installation of vestibule windows in the lounge car.  The doors had originally been fitted with windows but had been blanked off over the years.  We could live with running a coach with a darker vestibule, but as the lounge car is one of the popular, high-pedestrian traffic vehicles in a typical train, we wanted to get it back to its former standard.  Luckily we have a small cache of spare windows salvaged over the years.

Technically, the window replacement job wasn’t too difficult but of necessity, a two man job.  This was interesting because there isn’t much room for two gentlemen in the vestibule and working from the outside becomes a one handed job as one hangs onto the coach while standing on the top platform step.  The two old blanking panels came out with little trouble (Pic C07 below) and fortunately the original seal lips are still in reasonably good condition.  The thick gauge steel sheeting used for the door skin stood the old coach in good stead.

The seals were test fitted before attempts were made to replace the glass.  Some of the glass still had original decals on and thus it would be a double shame to accidentally break it.  (Pic C08 above)  The seal strips have become slightly hard over the years but are pliable enough to be fitted.  But they are of too heavy a gauge to use the waxed string technique that you’d use to fit a car’s windscreen.  The Wehmeyer Brothers (Specialists in all your coach restoration needs) made two attempts at one window before gauging the fitting properly.  The thick lipped seal had to be patiently levered over the steelwork.  One window had to have the painted decals scraped back to fit the seal’s grooves.  (Pic C09 above.)

These seals are compound seals and an extra strip is tapped into a circumferential groove to close up the grooves and clamp the seals.  Eventually, the old number decals were scraped off (They didn’t match the coach number anyway) but the original ‘exit \ uitgang’ sign was retained.  Many of the older glass stock items also have sticker residue from years of varied service.  One door had to have the glass installed twice.  (Pic C10 below)  The glass is symmetrical.  But over the years of service in the harsh South African climate, the window seals have distorted slightly.  The glass had to be removed and the seal rotated 180 degrees before refitting. 

PROJECT : Coach Axle Greasing :

This was a Classic Cliffie job.  But old Cliffie had the luxury of having his son, Andreas, with him today.  So Andreas got to do the spanner work and to lug a 10 liter bucket of white grease around the shunting yard.  The two coaches had all their axles individually checked (simultaneously with the coach windows being fitted.)  No coach axles or wheels were found to be missing. 

No damage was found in the axles but the original grease was in somewhat mediocre condition.  With the low mileage we do, we generally do the axles one a year.  But it looks like we may need to increase the frequency of the greasing with the increased traffic demands resulting from Steam in Action.  Fortunately, it isn’t a complicated or physically demanding job.

PROJECT : Class 15F No.3052 Tender Filler Hose :

How would a ‘Gricer’ identify a genuine Reefsteamers tender once the stickers have been taken off, or the magnetic signs have been pinched as souvenirs?  (As has happened a few times.)

No, it’s not by the bulging sides, and the glittering streaks down the paintwork, rippling with water seeping through the rivets and seams.  Our tenders are much better than that!  No, you check out the plumbing hardware on the rear face.  All the tenders on our operating locomotive fleet have all been fitted with an extra water filler hose which is accessible from ground level.  This project was completed before our 2007 Dave Rogers tours on our operating locomotives.  An example of this work is shown in Pic W01 below.  The three auxiliary water tankers were modified the same way as well.  South African locomotive tenders are designed to be filled via an overhead water gantry, via a tapered water hopper.  These overhead gantries are now quite rare in the post steam days and filling the tenders with fire hoses has become the more usual practice.  But using hoses brings its own set of problems.

Filling a tender or a tanker via these retro-fitted pipes has the obvious advantage of the convenience of filling up from ground level.  It also reduces the number of sharp, kinked bends in the intake.  Filling a tender with a hose fed through the water chute from the ground requires two bends that will kink the pipe, restricting the flow and also pinching the pipe against the thin edges of the water filler chute.  There is also a safely factor in involved.  Our Footplate and Service Crews can now top up their water supplies without climbing up on the top of the tender when the locomotive is parked under electric cantenerary.  And by using a bell coupling, the end of the high pressure hose is positively restrained, which eliminates the possibility of it whipping around and braining someone should it get loose from someone trying to hold it in a water chute.

Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ doesn’t have a full up-and-over type water pipe adorning the tender.  (Yet)  But the tender does have a low mounted brass gate valve fitted.  This valve was fitted by the good staff of Sandstone Heritage Trust to prepare the engine for her epic transfer run from Ficksburg.  (Pic W02 above)  Those who have read up on that adventure will remember that we pulled the transfer train with No.3052 ‘Avril’ hauling the 25(NC) No.3488 ‘Enchantress’ back to back, with a matching valve on her tender.  The valves were positioned to place a transfer water pipe between the two engines and use the 25(NC)’s Worshond tender as a 12 wheeled canteen.  We had enough water to do the 460km run from Ficksburg to Kroonstad without topping up.

Patrick Ackerman came into the depot at about 1pm, after a frustrating morning of forgetting items and having make arrangements for engraving.  This was an ideal short-afternoon task for someone competent at inverter welding – so Pat got the job.  He started the project in fine style, sourcing a threaded pipe elbow and a bell coupling and chamfering the edges preparatory to the weld.  The initial attempt was a 90 degree elbow with the bell coupling welded onto the female end.  (Pic W03 above)  Incidentally, the pipe used is high pressure seamless steam piping – nothing but the best for our locomotives!  But after the welding was done, he discovered that the transfer valve is too close to the buffer beam and a coupled hose would get in the way.  He hardly even swore.  We did humorously debate cutting off the back of the tender water tank and extending it by about a quarter foot, so the filler pipe would clear the buffer beam. 

More seriously though, we could have fitted a short extension pipe, with the hassles of cutting and matching threads.  But something that’s been discovered with this type piping is that the more threaded joints you have in the pipe run; the more likely it is that you won’t get the final fitting in a neat, logical orientation as the pipe has to be tightened.  While the bell coupling ending up at an odd angle before the threads snug up wouldn’t affect the operation much – it would just look very untidy.  So the decision was made to cut the elbow down to a 45 degree angle.  This meant that the newly welded coupling had to cut off again, as the female pipe end needed to be cut off. 

We were having problems with two welders or combinations of welders and grinders going to the same time.  There were occasional imprecations and resigned grunts from within the tender’s hopper as the power occasionally tripped out.  The project will be completed next week.  Eventually a proper top-entry pipe will have to be made – as the back pressure of several tons of water on a low mounted fitting might be problematical for weaker hoses and the not-infrequent problem of weak water pressure in fire mains around the country.

PROJECT : Groundwork for new Turning Shop :

A project that we’ve discussed for a while is the relocation of the existing turning shop, which is currently the usual domain of James Thompson.  There are actually two reasons for this.  James’s shop, which I’ve come to call ‘The Lathe Cave’, is inadequate for our purposes.  Secondly there’s a donated large lathe in the main workshop, which is waiting to be put into a final and operable position.  It has been formally identified as a safely hazard during a recent safety assessment, because it protrudes into the main workshop walkway and is also a breach in the personnel fencing that is required to surround the machine area.

The existing machine shop has several problems.  Firstly, it has all the water proofing abilities of a spark arrestor grid, with a holed corrugated roof and many broken windows that overlook the lathe.  It’s not too unusual to see James starting his depot day looking disgusted, with sopping wet footgear, sweeping last night’s zinc-galvanizing flavoured rain water into the inspection trenches.  Apart from being unpleasant to do your work standing in water, it’s a definite safety hazard when one uses electrical machinery and the constant moisture is certainly not good for the machines and the tools themselves. 

We hope to get the machine shop into a dryer and more pleasant location, with much better lighting and security.  (The existing ‘Lathe Cave’ cannot be locked.)  It’ll be more productive to have the machinist(s) working close to the fitters, without having to walk across the depot.  On the social side, it would be more pleasant for the machinist to be closer to the center of things, rather than isolated and sometimes cut off working out in the distant back corner of the ‘Top Shed.’  This is especially true for James who is totally deaf, which, combined with his usually remote location, means that he can sometime inadvertently gets left out of things and more importantly, .. sometimes misses his tea!

Furthermore, we want to eventually use the purposely ventilated ‘Top Shed’ for the lighting-up, loco-minding and live servicing of engines, rather than using the workshops with their non-clerestoried, non-ventilated roofs.  (Pic L04 below)  That 8 bay roof fills up quickly with smoke and can become unpleasant, especially when burning coal with a high sulphur content and also the fire is still being drawn by a plant blower.  So by moving the ‘Lathe Cave’ out of the Top Shed, down to the presumably fresher air of the main Workshop, and putting the smokin’ machines in the Top Track, there’s less chance of literally smoking the machinist out.  Coal smoke is nostalgic, atmospheric stuff, and smells great – but not if you have to breath it for hours on end! 

When Steam in Action takes off, we’ll have more need of the top shed to do servicing and caretaking of live engines, rather than cold-grate repair work.

The new turning area project has started with little fanfare except the demolition of obsolete mounting pads during the week.  The existing cables for long ago SAR era machinery are still safely embedded in the slab.  So, once we can find the other end of those cables within the distribution board, we have electricity conveniently laid on.  Our long term goal is to reactivate the entire machine shop area.  The machines, most of which are actually heritage items in their own right, are basically intact.  With some minor repairs and lubrication, they just need to have the electricity supply reconnected to be put back into service.  This workshop area could become a working museum for Steam in Action.

Pictures from around the shed :

- Lee Gates -

Primarily driven by three entities, Steam in Action aims to
stabilize and further develop steam and rail tourism in South Africa .

Steam in Action Links :

Visit the Steam in Action Internet Home Page :            http://www.steam-in-action.com/

Download Steam in Action manifesto in PDF Format : http://www.steam-in-action.com/manifesto.html

Register to join Steam in Action (On Line Form) :         http://www.steam-in-action.com/register.html

Contact Steam in Action by E-mailing :                        joannewest@btinternet.com

Reefsteamers :

Friends of the Rail :

Sandstone Heritage Trust :

Home Page :
http://www.reefsteamers.co.za.

Email :
Elize@reefsteamers.co.za

Web Home Page :

http://www.friendsoftherail.com/

Email :

trainman@friendsoftherail.co.za

Or  chrisj@spiderconnect.co.za

Home Page : 
http://www.sandstone-estates.com

Email :          
joannewest@btinternet.com