‘Steam in Action’ Kickoff Meeting :

The gloomy, rainy Saturday Depot-day was an unusual but exciting day for us of the Reefsteamers fraternity, being the kick off meeting for the new international ‘Steam in Action’ program.  The entire Reefsteamers team was called in for 10am to discuss internal Reefsteamers affairs and then to be introduced to Wilfred Mole, owner and operator of the Sandstone Estates 2ft narrow Gauge system.  It was exciting and optimistic news, but also gave us much to think about in terms of changing mindsets towards steam preservation. 

We also had representatives present from our buds in steam, Friends of the Rail.  We were to end up having a long meeting and then celebrate with a depot braai in the mid day.  Meanwhile, Class 25NC No. 3472 was being fired up for a trip to NASREC the following day, so she needed some attention, otherwise it was hoped that we’d have some time and energy to get some odd jobs done around the shed.

The afternoon work wasn’t an optimistic hope with everyone full up on food and in
a party mood.  But, we actually did get some useful work done in the afternoon!

General rule : A full house Reefsteamers meeting never runs on time! 

It could partially be blamed on the volunteer mindset, but is also a logistical issue ; as Reefsteamers members live on East, West and North Rand and some come from far afield as Pretoria.  The pre-meeting hour before our usual 10am start time is usually not that productive!  But James, Nippies and Mike Thiel were disciplined enough to continue with the Class 12 AR No.1535 valve gear overhaul.  They were refitting ‘Susan’s’ expansion link trunnions, while braai supplies, tables and chairs were being set up in the depot. 

Shaun Ackerman did the honours with the provision of the braai tables and chairs.  The senior drivers were hoping to braai outdoors on the recently greening grass, but the skies were threatening to prime over.  They didn’t even try it – just setting up the buffet and chairs alongside Road No.1 (12AR) and alongside the machine shop. 

Meanwhile Class 25NC No.3472 ‘Elize’ was being steamed up for a Sunday morning trip to the NASREC show grounds and was undergoing some pre-run maintenance and snags-busting work.  Andrew King stayed out of the preparations for the festivities and was up to his shoulders in the puddle-bottomed inspection pit of the top shed, adjusting the brake shoe clearances on the Class 25 tender. 

Somehow, I think he was happier there.

The ‘Steam in Action’ meeting started late but the waiting Reefsteamers were pacified with a large box of biscuits.  The way they eat biscuits resembles the futility of stoking a Class 15CA with tomato boxes!  We had a good turnout of regulars, driving crew, catering staff and servicing people.  It was amazing to consider how much Reefsteamers have grown in the last year.  It was especially good to see Frans van Dyk back with us after his recent heart trouble, which put him out of action on the 2007 Witbank Rotary Great Train Race.  We’re not sure if Frans’s Boiler Certificate has expired just yet – but we all hope there’s a few more good runs left in him.

It’s not nice to think about but our senior drivers are all getting older, and won’t be around forever, as tough as they currently are.  (Hint – don’t arm wrestle with these boys!)  It makes their knowledge and experience even more valuable.  It needs to be shared and passed on before it’s gone forever.

Wilfred Mole and Shaun Ackerman were running a little late – as Wilfred had a long way to travel,
and there was a GMAM Garratt Bissel truck to be loaded and towed on a trailer too.  So, chairman
Elize Lubbe started the meeting with a detailed list of instructions to the drivers and fireman concerning
rules for the servicing, cleanliness and operation of our locomotives.  The running crews were also
encouraged to get involved in the actual depot work, checking and maintaining their rostered locomotive
the day before they come on duty or at least to give the machine a bit of a clean-up.

Wilfred Mole was given the floor as soon as he arrived.  He started with his story of getting involved in steam locomotive preservation, which wasn’t really his original goal.  He got hooked when reacting in disgust to a couple of very restorable Garratts being cut up for scrap and suddenly found himself with a couple of locomotives, a team of fitters and a workshop.

The Steam Locomotive \ Railway preservation game is populated by three groups of people.  Those that TALK about preservation, those that PHOTOGRAPH preservation and those that actually DO preservation.  Of those that do preservation there are a select few who are willing and fearless enough to grab the bull by the balls and face obstacles head on.  Wilfred is one of those people – we all knew it and that lent great authority to what he had to say.  The ‘Steam in Action’ program is to be explained on a coming Web page.

Wilfred spoke of how South Africa is still the premier destination for main line steam, and how wide the international support can be.  The clubs need to team up and work on a national basis, and learn to make use of international support.  We are to be bolder in terms of asking for sponsorship or money, especially when tour or trip operators start requesting specific types of locomotives to be restored.  We are not to let minor, tedious or obstructive office bearers, officials, bureaucrats, managers or politicians hinder our course – there is always a person higher up.  We are to work from a national pool, forgetting the mistakes from the past and work to save and restore what has been left.

Reefsteamers have some more locomotives coming at the end of the year, privately owned machines moving up to the safety and stability of our depot.  Some are from Wilfred’s stock and some are privately owned by other individuals.  We are even looking at bringing a couple of diesels up for preservation and for use.  Reefsteamers is ideally placed to become a national center for Steam Preservation as our Depot is
centrally located, very spacious, well guarded and with a secure perimeter fence.  The buildings
and machinery are essentially intact, although many repairs do need to be made. 

Wilfred generously offered Reefsteamers and FotR the use of his GMAM Garratt,’ Lindie Lou’, who has been sitting in storage in our depot for a few months.  His methodology is that even though the machine is privately owned, she is to be used for what she was designed to do and to further steam preservation.  As Wilfred said, you can’t go to heaven tugging a steam locomotive behind you.  USE the machines and let EVERYONE enjoy them.  She’s going to need to have a Bissel truck replaced and as she’s been standing for a while, leaky valves will need some fettling – but it won’t be long before we have a Garratt with a piping hot firebox!

Thanks a stack, Wilf!

Celebratory Braai :

After that encouraging news, we Reefsteamers and assorted others were in the perfect mood for a celebratory braai.  The whole mob oozed into the main repair workshop, while a few went up to the top shed to keep an eye on No.3472 who was contentedly sizzling away.  The Reefsteamers ladies outdid themselves on the salads and Johann Van Vuuren, as our adopted braai meester, did his usual fantastic job on the meats.  There was no alcohol – as we dissuade drinking on the premises.  But nonetheless, the conversation flowed well as the common love of steam is as good a social lubricant as alcohol is and has the advantage that it doesn’t impair the reflexes.

I had what was probably the best seat in the house, sitting comfortably perched on the RHS of the class 12AR No. 1535 buffer beam.  I had to watch not to lean back as the smoke box’s front plate is missing but the bolt stubs still protrude. 

But from my vantage point, being a non-social mixer type of person, I quite enjoyed just eating quietly and watching everyone finding or improvising seats and mixing it up.  It was too dark and rainy to take decent photographs though.  Reefsteamers has grown to be quite a large family.

The threatening weather broke as the first lot of three loads of meat was done, and we were treated to an absolute downpour – Andrew’s recent shed roof repairs holding up well even with the cats and dogs bouncing off the corrugated sheeting.  So, people lingered while we started tidying up.

Project - Shifting the GMAM Bissel truck :

The first of the afternoon work projects was to get the spare Bissel Truck for Wilf’s GMAM Garratt ‘Lindi Lou’ squared away next the locomotive itself in our workshop shed.  Apart from the Bissel being heavy, the single-ended workshop tracks only face east – so we’d literally have to go to the opposite end of the depot. 

The Garratt is currently a bit unsafe to run as the wheel flanges on one Bissel were not rotated and have worn beyond tolerances.  We originally asked for just the axle but ended up with the ‘whole thang’.  It was a heavy ‘Thang’ too and we were all surprised and impressed that the ‘warthawg’ trailer stood up to the weight. 
The solid nose wheel on the trailer was deeply indented and the Bissel’s wheel flanges left a beautiful set of grooves in the trailer’s load bed.

The Bissel truck was lifted out of the trailer by means of the hydraulic coal grab – with Andrew King nervously attaching the chains and hooks.  I was wondering if we would burst a hydraulic hose with the weight, but the good ol’ coal grab handled the load well.  We had the Bissel Truck suspended in mid air and five of us got the trailer out of the way in case something went wrong.  The Bissel was then lifted all the way and swung gently into one of the two on-board coal bunkers.

With the coal bunkers safely loaded with a Bissel truck, the shunter was moved off to behind the shed – involving some out and back switching moves.  The ‘toy train’ had quite an entourage and passengers, but as the Bissel truck was completely hidden within the bunker walls – an outsider wouldn’t have known what the fuss was about.  We even had Tony King, who normally moves with caution, caught up in the excitement of the occasion running up behind the train, mounting the stirrups and riding along with one foot braced on the brake wheel.  It’s the fastest that I’ve ever seen him move!  Of course, me being in the wrong place with the camera, I had to hoof it along behind the little train, listening to Fred Sewell merrily ringing the bell.

The Bissel train was backed under the old depot gantry – which is manually traversed by a loop of chain
and a gear wheel arrangement.  But then it was seen that with the coal bunkers in between the gantries, there would have been no room to swing the boom sideways to lower the Bissel.  The big lump of rolling iron was gently lowered back into the coal crumbs.  It was planned to shift the load further forward and use the pneumatic hoist which runs on a track spanning gantry.

Getting the coal-bunker centrally under of the gantry involved shifting the Garratt itself.  Therefore, we pulled
the scotch blocks and ever-so-carefully inched the big green machine forwards (Inwards).  There was little clearance to begin with and we ended up with literally two inches of clearance between the cow catcher
and the rail stops.  It wouldn’t do to bend Wilfred’s beautiful locomotive, now, would it?

Then the coal grab’s boom was retracted and swung away from the bunker in the opposite direction. 
(Clear of gantry supports)  Then the overhead pneumatic hoist was hooked up to the air compressor line
and manually traversed with the chain.  It sounded very rough, but did the job of hoisting the truck clear
of the coal grab.  The Bissel Truck was manually traversed and laid to rest next to the Garratt’s track. 

The excitement of the move seemed to tire everyone out as we
then had a mass exodus leaving only about 5 people on the shed. 

Project - Preparing the Class 25NC :

The guys that remained focused on getting the Class 25NC ready for the morning run to NASREC. 
Firing, cleaning, oiling, filling up the crew water, cleaning the cab, packing tools and playing organ grinder
with the mechanical lubricator.  The locomotive was facing the wrong way around so the first task was to
turn the engine – the steam exhaust contrasting strangely with the cloudy skies with a foreground cloud effect.  The tender was topped up in proper railway fashion, from the water tower rather than a hose. 
(Albeit a rather leaky water tower – one of the many depot repair projects for which we seek sponsorship.)

Problems found in preparing the engine for the run included faulty packing on both ends of the Power reverser’s valve spool chest.  The nuts had been tightened the previous week – but the packing had loosened with a run.  Fresh 3-4 graphite packing was inserted – with a fair deal of cussing as the spanners don’t fit in that confined space and everything was already piping hot.  The turret valves wouldn’t close, so the steam supply line to the reverser had to be opened halfway along the boiler, to clear the steam at the business end.  Another job for the engineer….

The tee-piece feeding the sanding gear was leaking.  This too, had been tightened the previous week.  However, this evening’s tightening proved to be once too much and the union sheared off.  Great. 
So, we now had a jet of live steam blowing vertically downwards alongside the barrel, and we couldn’t
turn it off at the stupid turret.  (As it’s on the same line as the reverser actuator feed.)  Then, to add to
the fun, the skies burst their britches and the now-famed Saturday downpour began.  We couldn’t see
a thing – the squealing steam swirling and eddying with the fierce driving rain.

Andrew King got some bold text notes in the 3472 ‘snags list’ to get the Turret Valves sorted out.

The locomotive was backed very cautiously in under cover of the Top Shed and the pipe removed to be
brazed up.  Clearstory vented locomotive sheds don’t provide good protection against driving rain – Pat Ackerman and myself found one of the very few dry patches and parked there.  But at least the coal dust
was washed away from the top layer of coal….  These grey clouds had their silver lining!

With No.3472 all buttoned up and no more parts dropping off, she was handed over to Sakkie Kekana for minding during the night.  We stalwarts who remained through the wet evening hours had to wait out the
storm – broaching the secreted last tray of biscuits and some hot coffee.  It was a companionable time,
Shaun Ackerman regaling us with fascinating stories of his Locomotive inventory and recovery adventures
in Mozambique.  Time passes quickly when you’re with those that have become friends and discussing something that you all enjoy

- Lee Gates –

Mixed Nuts…. :