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

Introduction :

This would have looked like a quiet weekend as there didn’t seem to be much activity around the depot.  The casual visitor would have probably been disappointed.  We were busy boys though – with a small gang busy at the end of the top shed, a bit of work amongst the coaches, and other guys buried deep and hidden inside smoke boxes and fireboxes, and one chef in the kitchen.  We achieved a lot today though.

The yard woke up in the afternoon with a number of visitors, including a large family group belonging to James Thomson, who had come to see the depot.  Pops had been a DE2 driver in Rhodesia, so naturally the family ended up congregating around and inside the faded old diesel at repose in the carriage shed.

For people like this – these machines are a rare treat, something unusual and very likely, something quickly forgotten.  But the glowing embers of what is left of the spirit of steam at the old Germiston Steam locomotive Depot still have some warmth to them that attract people.  We hope Steam in Action will fan those members to orange-white hot and create a show that attracts, impresses and encourages more people to throw in their lot with steam and enjoy it as much as we do.

But until then, us Reefsteamers are the ones that get to regularly enjoy the privilege of working with these unique, charismatic, almost living machines. 

SIA PROJECT : Ejector Strip Down for Overhaul – Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ :

Ejector.  Injector.  Ejector.  Injector.  Ejector.  Injector.  Rats.  There are at least two brain cells in the dim recesses of my cranium that have been rubbing together for far too long, and the insulative sheathing has worn off the neural tendrils.  When the ‘ejector’ brain cell fires, the neural impulse usually short circuits to the neighbouring ‘Injector’ brain cell.  I often can’t help saying ‘injector’ when talking of the brakes, and getting some funny looks from the crews.  Well, I know what I mean, so there!

One of the repair issues that came up on the list after Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’s’ debut trip to Magaliesburg was one that wouldn’t be visible from the outside, quite unlike the power reverser’s lock cylinder that was doing double duty as a slow-stroke oil discharge pump.  The brake ejector was unable to maintain a proper running vacuum.  The characteristic ‘slot machine’ lever that resides on the right hand side, clearly visible from the ground level, had to be shoved up against the backplate in the brake release position.  When the train is in motion, the lever should be in the 45 degree position (’Run’) to maintain just enough vacuum to keep the brakes off.  The horizontal position is ‘On’.  Even with the brake ejector on ‘Release’, the vacuum would only get up to 40kPa (Approx 12 Inches mercury.)

If the locomotive driver is wrestling with weak vacuum in the ‘run’ position, and has to point the brake lever to operate the larger (hence, less sensitive) cone to reestablish vacuum and pull the train’s brakes shoes back off– the lack of control may cause undesirable buff and slack forces within the train, with the tendency to back the brakes off too much, and then have to reapply them for longer.

The Ackerman Brothers, namely Patrick and Shaun, confidently settled down after some grate shaker work to opening up and inspecting the brake ejector to see just what was wrong.  They initially suspected worn or damaged cones.  Thus, the first angle of attack on the job was to remove the two prominent front-facing cone covers.  (Pic E01 below)  The lower, smaller, ‘running’ cone cap came off easily enough.  The upper, larger, ‘release’ cone was quite literally a tougher nut and needed some whacking to get it off.  Unless in cases of dire emergency, we always use some form of dolly or drift when whacking away at a brass casting or fitting.  Here, the brothers used a double faced copper hammer.  I had a scary moment seeing a steely-arced blur of the backwards swinging ball-peen hammer missing my camera lens by a few whiskers – which will teach me to peer over someone’s shoulder!  It was quite amusing to watch Patrick re-fit the socket n’ tommy bar and tense up to give a mighty heave to get that presumed-still-stubborn cone cover off, and the cover just turned docily, almost throwing Pat off his feet with the unspent forces.  These locomotives of ours really do seem to have a sense of humour at times. 

The ejector cones themselves came out with little trouble (Pic E02 above) and were found to be in reasonable shape with straight, uncut faces and decent venturis.  (Pic E03 above)  In a way, that is good news as new cones are not that easy to find.  But it’s also bad news as it means that there’s something else wrong deeper inside that rather convoluted casting and an expected-to-be-simple job becomes that much more complicated.

Further surgery commenced with removing the air valve cap from the top to remove the air valve.  Again the ball-peen and copper hammer combo was used to jar the stubborn cover loose, and once again the comedy of seeing the results of the earnest but unnecessary heave at a surprisingly loose cap.  (Pic E04 below)  The 2 stage air valve was a bit dirty but still in decent condition.  (Pic E05 below)  The center of the valve lifts out of the disk first for the ‘run’ position and the entire valve is lifted for full steam (to create full vacuum)  This was the last of the ‘easy checks’ and much time was spent in stripping the ejector in situ.  The pile of brake ejector giblets was steadily growing on the flame plate.  (Pic E06 below)

The Ackerman brothers were a bit flummoxed and defeated at this point.  Shaun went off to get one of his extremely useful reference manuals for fault finding and for hints on what to expect upon further dismantling.  Meanwhile Patrick, who’s lower eye sockets were a beautiful delicate blushing shade of brake-dust black all morning, rested wearily on the driver’s arm rest.  (Pic E07 below)  These boys are good at what they do and it’s not often they get stumped.  After discussion, poring over the annual (Pic E08 below), and with some reluctance, it was decided to uncouple the pipe work (Pic E09 below) and remove the blasted thing altogether.  It needed a closer look, some better access and lighting on a workbench to access what was wrong.

The removal process wasn’t too bad, and Chief Engineer, Andrew King, was called in to assess this big bad brass abortion.  (Pic E10 below.)  After more dismantling, involving the use of a grate shaker lever as a tommy bar, (Pic E11 below) and closer inspection, with the aid of a small MagLite torch (Pic E12 below), the general cause of the poor vacuum performance has been found.  The brake ejector uses brass-to-brass seals and thus the moving parts need to be perfectly straight and clean.  These parts all fit within removable brass valve seat inserts.  And one of these seat inserts was found to have not been fully inserted into its recess and others found to be not-fitting.  The leaks are not through the valve themselves, but in between the seat inserts and the brass casting.

Patrick is an accomplished live steam model engineer and has access to model-sized machinery and materials.  The depot ejector session ended with the undignified huffing and staggering with the ejector to the car to take home for overhaul.  It will be a fairly simple exercise for Patrick to fabricate new seats that properly fit the casing – which is probably not standard in the internal dimensions after so many years of service, repairs and refits.  The ejector is probably oversized in the internal diameters of the seat shoulders and cavities, and Patrick will be able to custom make valve seats and inserts to fit.  He will, of course, grind in and lap the valves and present Class 15F No.3052 Avril with a completely overhauled brake injector … er … ejector. 

SIA PROJECT : Grate Shaker repairs on Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ :

Class 15F No.3052 Avril’s failed grate shaker was repaired the previous week.  I didn’t get photos of the process as I was gently but firmly booted out of the depot that Saturday morning, with the mighty authority of Ackerman and King to help make the point.  Two nights of sleep short rations, topped by an all-nighter of looking after Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ during an overnight loco-minding session had finished me off.  And I had managed to drop my brand new digital camera into a bucket of hot greasy water which Patrick had been using to rinse and warm up the grease pump for the Friday-night coupling rod grease-up.  Naturally, this did both my camera and my mood a world of good.  And I misjudged the arrival time of the crew and was late with waking up the fire in the morning.  So the miz mood made me look even tirder I expect. 

The grate shaker failure turned out to be worn threads that finally had let go on the piston.  The movement of the die block could not be transferred to the grate push rods.  The fellows got underneath the wheels while the boiler was being drained through the left hand blow down valve.  (We don’t store our engines with water in the boilers.)

Today’s grate shaker related work was the stripping and cleaning of the condensate drain valves.  These devices have a little unsprung stainless steel ball that lies loosely in an outlet chamber.  The ball lies clear of the drain hole and allows condensate water to drip away freely.  But as soon as steam is applied to the cylinder – the sudden rise in pressure forces the ball against its seat and thus closes the valves.  You want to eliminate condensate from a working steam cylinder as any trapped water is incompressible.  If enough water had to build up in there – the piston would jam to a halt in a hydraulic lock as the entrapped water takes up all the space under the cylinder head.  On a fast moving engine, or one with a lot of inertia, a hydraulic lock can cause severe damage.

Most of our locomotives have problems with their grates only opening 45 degrees or less and it’s suspected that giving the condensate drains a good service would help.  Anyway, No.3052 ‘Avril’ will be the guinea pig.

Patrick was the dripper boy, getting the valves out and dismantling them.  There are four of them, one for each end of the cylinders.  They were each stripped, cleaned and inspected.  The hexagonal body of the valve forms the ‘nut’.  But as they are usually awkwardly placed, and the removable valve cap (Pic G02 above) also blocks the hex of a spanner on one side, they can get a bit graunched.  So after the valve chambers, the inlets and the exhaust ports were cleaned, the worst hex sides were re-dressed with a file.  The balls were polished with fine steel wool.

The valve seats for the balls aren’t in great shape.  For very slightly damaged seats, one can tap the balls into the seats with a drift, relying on the hard steel to form its own matching seat in the brass. However, this isn’t good practice.   It was decided to trim the valve seats down with a countersunk rose on the drill press.  But first, the elusive rose had to be found.  (Pic G03 above.)

Andrew was the one who eventually found that rose in amongst the scattered margarine tubs.  Patrick set up the drill press, making sure the drip-valve was square and level.  The rose was inserted – but the shank was found to be too short to reach the valve seat through the brass body of the valve.  (Pic G04 below)

This job became more loco fitting ‘homework’ for Patrick who has countersinking bits in his workshop at home.  He was getting quite niggled at this simple job taking so long to get done and still wasn’t able to be done and finished on site.  And with the right tools, he could get all four valves done in ten minutes, including time to wipe up the brass shavings.  By the time you’ve read this, the job will already have been done.

The short, stubby, noggin into which the manual grate lever fits was precision welded to the right profile the previous week.  (Pic G05 above)  It was carefully matched to the lever (with which Avril came totally free).  Because this noggin will no longer match the other levers, the welding machine was brought into use to inscribe the ‘3052’ number permanently onto the relevant grate lever.  (Pic G06 above) These levers tend to, er, disappear, especially on multiple locomotive tours so we needed to distinctly mark this one.  Eventually, we’ll make hooks and hangars so the levers can go back to their allocated places on the footplate, rather than whatever storage place can be found.

PROJECT : Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’ firebox Prep :

Our Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’ is probably going to be on the sick list for quite a while.  The front corners of the firebox are suspected to have wasted a bit thin.  They now need to be ultra-sound tested and verified for thickness.  But they probably do need to be cut out n’ patched and we have resigned ourselves to this fact.  That means the stays have to come out and the metalwork around the foundation ring has to be opened up.  It’s a pity as we were hoping to run this locomotive double headed with Dave Shepherd’s Class 15F No.3052 ‘Avril’ during the coming Cosmos Festival.  The valve gear and pistons were completely overhauled just 10 months ago … but that’s life in the locomotive shed.  With as many locomotives that we have, it seems that one or two of them are making progress while another one or two are ‘slipping back’ 

The firebox has been stripped out and all the rocking grates have been removed.  The fire arch has been broken up and currently lies in pieces on the shovel plate.  (Pic F01 below)  The fire arch, which comprises of modular refractory bricks, serves two purposes.  It extends the flow path of the hot combustion gasses, forcing the gasses from the front of the fire box to flow back towards the firing hole area (rear crown sheet) and only then forward again.  It helps in a small way to reduce the grit in the tubes.  But more importantly, it increases heat transferal from the hot gasses to the firebox walls due to the longer dwell time.  It prevents the hot gasses from just short circuiting through to the boiler tubes.  And the refractory material, when incandescent, helps to burn of the primary combustibles (gasses) emitted by freshly fired coal. 

This was Andrew King’s big job of the day – as befits that of the Chief Engineer.  He had to get his equipment together and passed through the hole, and get himself in there.  The mechanically stoked Class 15F has a high and narrow fire hole, with nothing much to hold onto once you’re inside.  The job was monotonous, grinding the steel work free, checking for leaking rivet heads and cracks.  (The bottom few rows of rivet heads are not visible when the grates are in place.)  A look at Pic F03 gives you an idea of just how big the 15F firebox actually is.  If it wasn’t for the mouse ‘ole, er, fire hole, you could easily fit a breakfast table for four people in there, with room for the heated food server and a dog basket in the corner.  Impressive for a ‘narrow gauge’ locomotive.  (Cape Gauge – 3ft6in is only ¾ the size of the world standard gauge of 4ft8in.)

Andrew didn’t find much untoward.  He didn’t work alone, as he had Aiden Mc. Carthy sitting in the fireman’s seat and passing facetious comments.  (Pic F04 below)  Aidan wasn’t just being a lazy pudding though.  Steam Depot workshop rules state that no one is to work inside a boiler or a firebox alone, in case something goes wrong.  If you end up trapped or incapacitated, you won’t be visible hidden within the bowels of the locomotive, and thus won’t get any help.  To illustrate the point, I was looking for the source of the grinding noise and went through the entire workshop shed twice before I twigged onto following up the trailing the extension cord and seeing where it would lead me. 

Another interesting twist on the safety side is that a mains powered drop lamp is not permitted in the enclosed cavities.  Pic F05 shows a 220 -32 Volt transformer and lamp set that is used to isolate the work lamp from the mains.  Incidentally, 32 volts is the standard operating voltage of our locomotive globes.  Andrew was also careful to wear his earmuffs – there’s no where for the echoes to go as they rebound amongst those steel riveted walls and looking for a place to get out.

When the firebox walls had been laboriously cleaned, they were measured up and marked with chalk.  (Pic F06 above.)  This is to provide a reference point for testing and to mark out any areas that may need to be cut out for replacement.  I must make a contentious point here.  We Reefsteamers don’t just polish brass and apply fresh coats of paint, but also perform some major engineering and fabrication work as required.  In spite of what certain annoying people say out there in the world of steam locomotives, Steam Operators are very definitely Preservationists too! 

PROJECT : Class 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’ Front Tube Plate Prep :

After a long period of sitting idle and watching all her sisters getting the attention, Class 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’ got some attention.  The seven new boiler tubes have arrived and are lying ready for installation alongside the road 8 of the Workshop Shed.  (Pic B01 below)  The original tubes were removed because they had thinned out at their ends because of corrosion, and thus worn short because of the draft.  In such a scenario, it is sensible to check the bottom area of the tube plate for corrosion.  We were originally hoping to save on the callout fees on a boiler inspector by having him check the boiler of Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’ and the 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’ at the same time.  But we needed motive power.  No.3016 ‘Gerda’ is now out of action which makes coordinating the boiler tests a moot point.  However, the 6m long boiler tubes we needed for Susan are hard to obtain in the first place

The lower edge of the front tube plate is to be ultra-sound tested for thickness.  This is where the most corrosion tends to occur, particular with fallen ash and especially if the ask gets wet.  But first, as much scale, crud and rust needs to be removed from the surface as possible as not to cause inaccurate or false readings.  This means descaling of the tube plate which means someone has to get into the smoke box.  Today’s someone was Aidan Mc. Carthy who got well acquainted with the obstacles within a self-cleaning smoke box.  The diaphragm plate (removed) and the table plate (Pic B02 below) deflect the forward moving hot gasses, with their load of grit and ash, to the bottom of the smoke box and force them to make a 180 degree turn.  The hot gasses actually move from just behind the smoke box door and back towards the cab again and passing through the spark arrestors.  The airbourne particulate matter is thrown out of the high speed reversing air, by centrifugal force, and gathers in a drift right behind the smoke box door.  It’s a good system, but makes these smoke boxes much more complicated than many locomotives back in the motherland.

Aidan had to do a bit of wriggle to get under there and behind the table plate and right under the super heater header.  (Pic B02 below)  Then he needed help, as he’d left the pneumatic scaling tool out on the buffer beam, and didn’t have the correct washout plug socket either. 

Luckily the chronologer and photographer (that’s me) poked his head around the smoke box front flanges just as Aidan made that discovery.  So his-nibs passed up the tools and then started the ‘little’ air compressor.  With the yellow machine steadily chugging and the rattling bur of the descaling tool starting up, a scrounge was underway for washout plug sockets.  (Pic B03 above)  Actually, they were easy to find as they’re all at the front of the shelves with the recent boiler work on the Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’, but will gradually work their way towards the middle of the tool pile.

There are several washout plugs at the bottom of the tube plate and they initially seem to have enough clearance to get a good swing with a tommy bar.  But if you add a somewhat portly Reefsteamer in that restricted space, and we have a repeat of the washout plug issues of several weeks ago.  But Aiden managed to get them out without hammering or torching.  (Pic B04 below.)

Then the chipping started with Aiden patiently working the oscillating needles into all the nooks and crannies of that lower tube plate.  It was a job that required the wearing of ear plugs and Aidan missed the call for morning tea!  He probably felt sorry for himself – but I clearly remember being put onto cleaning the front tube plate of the Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ by HAND, hammer n’ chisel and wire brush – no such luxuries of power tools.

One disadvantage of power tools, of course, is interruptions to the electrical supply or the compressed air supply. Aidan wasn’t immune.  There’s a poorly made joint in the air-conditioner line, without shoulders or restraints that kept blowing part.  Aidan was working alone in that area, so every time his tool chattered to a halt, he had to wriggle his way out of the smoke box and reconnect the works.  But he got his job done.

PROJECT : Housekeeping at the depot :

We have to keep up work around the Depot as well as the far more exciting work of rolling stock and locomotive repairs.  For, what is a locomotive without track, apart from an mud-sunk oversized multi-wheeled bean-boiler? 

Firstly we underwent the start of the annual fire extinguisher inspection and overhaul on Sunday (The day after these pics were taken.)  Meanwhile the extinguishers were laid out ready for inspection in the machine shop.  (H01)  We received two quotes and the work will be done in the following week.

Mark Berry, his son and his daughter’s boyfriend came around in the afternoon to check out the facilities, the rolling stock and especially the ex-Rhodesian Railways Class DE2 diesel.  Mark is Rhodesian and remembers seeing and hearing these units in active service, but has never actually been inside one.  After the tour was over (while I was photographing the DE2 No.1207 for a coming SIA article) the team got to work and unloaded fresh sods of grass.  (Pic H02 below)  It’s a miracle that anything actually grows at our depot with the hard ground and poor drainage.  But the grassy areas have been expanding over the last year.  This grass is to expand the green stuff in the gate house area.

A project that I haven’t mentioned much is the conversion of the old ablution block into our new formal club house.  You can see the building in Pic H03 above, which is a bit scruffy, but is structurally sound.  It’s been open for years and was filled with assorted junk.  The idea is to make a neat, formal meeting area for the club, complete with carpets, decent furniture and presentation equipment.  It’s not to be used on weekends by the dirty overalled and greasy soled depot work crews.  It is to be used for formal meetings and for visitors.  It will also incorporate a kitchenette, a toilet (which is in short supply at the depot) and a small office.

The track work that leads to the eastern gates and further out to the turning loop have been known to be a bit dodgy for a while.  It was arranged to be exposed, literally dug out of the ground and to have the sleepers checked and replaced.  This is being done by Transnet teams as our landlord, as contractual service to us as the lessees of their old depot. 

The rot and splinters that were exposed when these sleepers were uncovered horrified us.  Some of the sleepers fell apart as they were exposed … and to think we were running locomotives over these things!  (Pic H04 above)  You’ll notice that there is no ballast.  These sleepers are buried directly into the ground and it was the hard packed ground that was holding some of the more rotted sleepers together.  The problem has been compounded by the poor drainage of the ground in this area. 

It’s been a while since this lot last saw some creosote!

All the sleepers in the affected area are to be replaced with concrete sleepers and a new drain trench is being dug out.  (Pic H06 above)   Those new sleepers will give us a harder ride, especially without ballast.  But they’ll last forever!  This lot has to be done by the following weekend as we have locomotives to be turned for the weekend’s trains!

A coming depot improvement project include replacement and\or reinstallation of the approximately 680 windows around our depot!  Many are broken, and those that aren’t are about ready to just fall out with dried up putty.  Plans are also underway to get the lighting fixed up.  The 8 bay workshop is only about half lit at night, as well as the top-shed.  The yard has many derelict light standards and cables that could be brought back into use.  If we get full time staff, we’ll have to start doing work in evenings and at night time, and often trains arrive back in darkness for servicing.  Some light other than torch light would be very welcome.

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.

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Reefsteamers :

Friends of the Rail :

Sandstone Heritage Trust :

Home Page :
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Email :
Elize@reefsteamers.co.za

Web Home Page :

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Email :

trainman@friendsoftherail.co.za

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Email :

joannewest@btinternet.com