:: Sandstone Steam Railroad ::

The Garratt gives Birth!

And what a delivery it was!

A great, greasy caesarean delivery performed by a dozen midwives, 2 chain block and tackle sets, several jacks, quite a few crow bars, several blocks of wood, one acetylene set and a camera. The 8 bay workshop was pregnant with tension – would the big steel-wheeled baby be delivered, without damage to itself or to the 28 wheeled mamma, without bruises on the humans and chips in the drop-pit’s concrete. The operation was a great (and entertaining) success and we ended up with a bouncing baby Bissel truck on trolley tracks and some steps closer to getting Mr. Mole’s magnificent machine back into Main Line condition.

Some background is probably prudent here. The ‘Big Green Machine’, aka ‘Lindie Lou’ is a GMAM Garratt that was stored at our Reefsteamers depot for safe keeping for several months. The locomotive runs well enough though, being basically sound. However, the left side wheel flanges on one of the Bissel trucks (On the leading engine unit) were badly worn. In fact, they were worn to a point, while the right hand side showed little wear at all. Mr. Mole, of Sandstone Estates, in the spirit of national Steam Preservation, has granted verbal permission for Reefsteamers to run the GMAM Garratt as we wish … for no charge. However, that wonky Bissel Truck would have to be changed out first.

If you read last week’s Depot News, you will have read how a spare Bissel was sourced and brought to
the Reefsteamers Premises. The original idea was for us to overhaul the donor Bissel truck and swap the
units out. It was thought that the frames were bent on the original. We have good news, and a spare
Bissel truck – as it appears that the frames are not bent after all. (Anyone have space for a 2 ton baby?)

Our depot Saturday workshop work (apart from Mark’s Dynamo Lube project and Fred’s Bar Coach door upgrades.) was primarily spent doing some preliminary preparation and stripping of the donor Bissel Truck
and then the big event of dropping the ‘baby’. Sunday, with a smaller crew, was spent in doing the complete stripping and cleaning of the donor Bissel to prepare it for overhaul and for fitment of new VESCONITE bearings.

The first scheduled Bissel-related work of the day was to degrease and clean the exterior of the donated Bissel. We Reefsteamers tend to schedule heavy work for slightly later in the day when all the willing warm bodies have pitched up. Although it obviously hasn’t been in use for a while, the Bissel truck was still a bit gritty on the outside. But it wasn’t so bad, as the underside of locomotives are normally absolute dirt magnets.


B01 - This is the donor Bissel Truck after having the exterior surfaces cleaned and scraped, and painted with oxide primer. Notice that the axle box bearing cover flange and the horn plates are unpainted … as they are to be removed the following day, anyway.	B02 – Sometimes the human digit does a better job than any available manufactured or improvised tool. Sakkie Kekana removed the one remaining bearing cover and scraped out the old grease. Here you see him scraping the grease of the relevant digit.

The exterior surfaces of the cleaned Bissell Truck were then painted in Red Oxide Primer to make it look nice. (Pic B01) Well, actually, to prevent further corrosion on the bare, stripped surfaces while it is being worked on and before the final finish is applied. Sakkie Kekana was put onto the job of scraping out as much grease from the Axle Boxes as possible. (Pic B02) The plan worked well, as we had a rainy weekend but we never once had surface stripped locomotive parts lying around just outside the protection of the shed’s roof.

Another little preparatory job to be done before the faulty Bissel could be removed was the removal of the
four Oil Cups and their small bore copper piping. (Wick Drip feed Lubricators – Pic B03) Actually, the Bissel Truck could easily be removed from the Garratt Locomotive with these components still attached. But should something go wrong, they’d be easily damaged. And they’d eventually have to be stripped anyway – so why not strip them out while the ‘midwives’ psych themselves up for the delivery?

Tony King (Pic B04) was appointed as the Project Leader while Lee Gates was assisting. There are four
oil cups per Bissel Truck and eight brackets per set. These were found to be in good condition, although the components were very dirty and there’s local crush and shear damage to the copper pipes. These parts were cleaned in diesel fuel and given a reasonable wire brushing. It didn’t take long before the original soft brass colour was visible where there was once greasy, gritty black crud. (Pic B05) It must have been awesome to see this hardware in an as-new condition.


B03 - The original set up of drip-feed lubricators (‘Oil Cups’) on the LHS of the Garratt’s Bissel Truck. The pipes feed regular oil drips to the axle box guides – the two vertical components you see on either side of the circular bearing end cover.	B04 – Tony King is one of the most talkative members of the club and he ruefully admits it. Here he chats happily to the photographer (Me!) while he wire brushes the hinged lid of an Oil Cup.	B05 – A collection of Drip Feed Lubricator components. From left to right : The oil pipes; a cup bracket, pipe clamp nuts. One brass cup mounting nut; two pipe clamps and an oil cup. These parts were polished further on Sunday and lightly oiled before being put into locked storage.

The donor Bissel was lifted with the pneumatic gantry crane and tipped backwards to the vertical position.
(Pic B06) The Bissel team then worked to remove the axle bolts and their sleeves. There were four, somewhat rusted bolts, two bridging the axle box apertures and two bridging the interior of the Bissel itself. They took quite a bit of inelegant whacking to get them loose. Lee was handed these heavy, rusty looking bolts and their light alloy sleeves while finishing off the third oil cup, and switched over immediately to the bolts. (Pic B07)

Actually, they weren’t badly corroded at all although one bolt was found to be bent –
probably from the extraction process. But it’s nothing a bit of acetylene massage won’t fix.


B06 – Something not often seen – the bare, assembled underside of a Bissel Truck. .Three of the four bolts and sleeves to be removed to ‘drop’ the axle can be clearly seen. Once those bolts are removed, the axle, with its two axle boxes, literally slides out the frame.	B07 – Surprise wire brush work, a collection of axle bolts handed over for cleaning. The lowest bolt in the picture has already been brushed but not yet oiled. They weren’t too badly corroded. The rustiest bolt at the top is bent.	B08 – Die Swart Man kyk aan as die ou Boere is besig met hulle skoonmakery. This photo was posed for the New South Africa and taken upon request. That is Oom Attie (Standing) and Johan Breytenbacht busy scraping out the under side of the Bissel frame. Sakkie does the supervising...

The ‘Mean Green Machine’ wasn’t in proper alignment with the wheel drop pit.
It was close – but with steam locomotives, ‘close’ usually isn’t good enough.

We didn’t have Mike Thiel with us to give the locomotive a quick push with his massive biceps, so we needed some shunter power. The little Hunslet Taylor shunter was fired up by Fred Sewell, and with Cliffie doing the shunt, the shunter was moved around to the workshop. (Pic B09) She looked odd with the ‘tea tray’, our battered, bastardized plain-bearing flat truck, complete with a bouquet of weeds in the outboard coupler. Moving the Garratt went without incident. Andrew King did the axle spotting.

Then came the investigation. Shaun Ackerman was poking around under the patient with his trusty MagLite (Pic B10) and Lee Gates was poking around with his equally trusty camera. There wasn’t actually much hardware to be removed – primarily a pivot pin bracket and an adjustable brake rod. Shaun’s prime concern was where and how to safely run a chain hoist to hold up the A-frame once the Bissel’s pivot bracket was dropped, and to still be able to adjust the height of the hoist’s hook. We were already starting to draw spectators by this time. (Pic B11)


B09 – Setting the patient up on the operating table. The Garratt dwarfs the little 150HP Hunslet Taylor shunter as it is lined up correctly over the wheel drop pit. That’s Cliffie directing the shunt.	B10 – The doctor checks out the patient. Shaun Ackerman, in the oil coated darkness, is checking the brake relay rod for the easiest split pin to remove. (It looks light because of the camera flash.)	B11 – An interesting job like this is bound to draw spectators. Here’s a rail-top view from beneath the locomotive … of Tony King comfortably directing operations from the wheel drop pit catwalks.

It didn’t take our Mr. Ackerman too long to bully out a few split pins with a bit of ball peen hammer and chisel work. Typically, he’d struggled for a while with one stubborn pin before switching to the other end of the brake rod and disconnecting it literally within seconds. Steam locomotives are like that…. The brake rod dropped, plop, into the safety hangar. (You can see the hangar in Shaun’s right hand in photo B10 above) The hangar is there to stop the brake rods dropping into the track bed should a link pin come out. But this time, the safety device was a safety nuisance and the threaded adjuster barrel had to be completely unscrewed to remove the hung-up half of the brake rod. (Pic B12) The adjustment nuts fouled the hangar so it took some shoulder work to lift the rod clear while it was split in two.

That being done, the chain hoist was brought in and coupled up though the under frame of the locomotive. This hoist was installed to take the weight of the A-frame once the pivot’s bracket had been removed.
To make things interesting during this caesarian operation, the restraint had to be made adjustable to
hold the entire Bissel truck assembly reasonably level while jacking operations commenced.


B12 – Half a brake rod hangs down out of the way of the Bissel area. See that semi-liquid grease shining on the adjuster barrel? Try squeezing by that muck, in a narrow pit, on your haunches, in the dark and that’s a test of dexterity!	B13 – Setting up the hydraulic jacks to be vertical and operating within their safe extension range. You can see the wooden shim blocks scattered about. That’s Davie Viljoen behind the Crank Pin.

Talking of jacking, before any bolts were undone, the weight was taken off the various springs and pivots.
A pair of 50 ton hydraulic bottle jacks were put under the rear jacking pads of the front engine unit and the locomotive jacked up about an inch to get the weight off from the springs. It took much re-arrangement of wooden blocks and bolsters to get the jacks lined up, vertical and within their safe operating range. (Pic B13)

A Sodium Lamp was then placed in the inspection trench to illuminate the area, as further work would require two hands. It wasn’t as effective as we hoped in lighting up the area but it was enough to put the MagLites to rest. It did make for some nice silhouette shots though. (Pic B14) Davie Viljoen was in the action this time but was soon baulked by four stubborn nuts on the pivot pin bracket. And because of the narrow trench and being between the wheels, there was no room for the usual Reefsteamers solution of cheater bars on the sockets or spanners. None of us were really surprised at the seizure as those nuts probably haven’t been removed in oh, say 150 years or so. So it was time for the acetylene persuader – heating up the stubborn nuts to cherry red, thermally expanding them to break the grip of ages. The torch job wasn’t that difficult except the coating of grease on the bracket started to burn and drip off – resulting in some spectacular pyro-kinetics! (Pic B15)


B14 – Under the beast, Davie Viljoen and Shaun Ackerman prepare to apply the acetylene torch to four stubborn nuts.	B15 – A show of sparks as the acetylene torch plays over grease and dirt as well as seized nuts.	B16 - Oom Attie (Left) and Pat Ackerman roll a wheel channel out of the way to start clearing the wheel drop pit for the eventual lift operation.

While the spark action was taking place, with Davie grunting those heated nuts off, the guys got busy
‘upstairs’ and were stripping away the sundry covers and wheel channels from the wheel drop pit.
The wheel channels are actually side-mounted i-beams which bridge the trolley tracks across the wheel
drop pit. The outboard beam was rolled out of the way (Pic B16) and the expanded mesh catwalk removed.

Watch where you tread, guys!

When the last of the bolts came loose, the pivot pin retaining bracket was carefully removed and the waiting chain hoist allowed to take the weight of the now free Bissel Truck. No one got squished. Then one of the Wheel Drop Pit’s pneumatic jacks was brought under the Bissel and carefully extended. It was a surprise to many (especially to me), who have been walking over the expanded mesh catwalk for months and not realising that there is actually functioning machinery 6ft underfoot.


B17 – The Bissel Truck is raised and poised on the pneumatic jack trolley and now the two unloaded bridge rail sections are free to be unbolted and removed.	B18 – The bolster pin and the leaf springs have come clear of the Bissel Truck as it is carefully lowered clear of the locomotive frame. That tubing and component at the top is the disconnected speedometer drive.	B19 - The inboard wheel channel is lifted up towards the locomotive (right) so the Bissel truck can be passed underneath. You can just see the left part of the removed Bissel Truck protruding on the right.

The actual removal went well – the Bissel Truck was lifted a few inches to facilitate removal of the bridge rails. (Pic B17) Then the suspended Bissel Truck was very carefully dropped until the bolster pin and the springs disengaged from their circular bosses in the bolster plate. They were pretty rusty but everything came apart easily enough. Now the Bissel truck was free to be lowered totally away from the Locomotive and moved transversally along the wheel drop pit. It had to be rotated slightly to get the A-Frame and the pivot clear of the locomotive, and to fit within the pit and it was an awkward moment. But it was done safely by three people and the half-birthed Bissel Truck stood stably on it’s chrome plated pedestal while the inner wheel channel was hoisted up against the locomotive, as to be dropped ‘behind’ the raised Bissel Truck. (Pic B16)


B20 – The angle at which the Bissel had to be slid out. Crow bars were laid on the ledge under the Pivot Eye to ease the passage.	B21 – Almost there! The Bissel Truck has been straightened out and is almost completely above ground level in this picture.	B22 – Ready to Roll. The wheels channels are back in place and are ready to take the weight of the Bissel Truck as it is lowered back to ground level.

The Bissel truck was slid out carefully at that angle, with the pivot eye being slid along lengthwise placed crow bars as a primitive but effective slide bearing. The guys were very wary of all this weight and inertia within the narrow confines of the inspection pit. But the Bissel truck was successfully moved to the lifting location in line with the trolley tracks. (Each locomotive service bay has a set of 3ft6inch trolley tracks on either side.) The big steel lump was jacked to above floor level and the two i-beam wheel channels hurriedly put back in place again … under the suspended wheels. After a little bit of alignment, the Bissel was lowered again –actually flexing the i-beam channels under its own weight.

The Garratt’s baby had been successfully delivered.


B23– The reason for the Bissel removal – a badly worn and pointed wheel flange on the left side.	B24 – Seized up bolster plate which is off-center and forcing the axle to run offset to the left, grinding against the rail head.

The long awaited roll out was a success – the pivot pin eye being lifted by an interlocked cruciform arrangement of crow bars and 6 people pushing. Then a visual inspection took place. The wheel flange on the left side were badly worn. (Pic B23) The swinging bolster plate was found to be totally seized within the Bissel truck’s frame. It was found to be slightly off center, which was causing the wheels to grind out on one side.
As stated in the first paragraph, this is actually good news as a seized bolster plate can be
freed up and overhauled, whereas a bent frame, as originally suspected, cannot be repaired.

Project - Bar Car Doors :

For security reasons, our Bar Car, (As well as the Catering Car and Lounge Car) has had the four doors permanently closed and the outer door handles removed. The doors are screwed permanently closed to the door frames. In addition, the door windows were painted out. Not only did this provide a bit of privacy, but also some space where people could stand and socialize without having to keep getting out the way of the normally inward swinging doors. It’s a safety feature too in the event of someone taking a bit too much alcohol on board – there’s no way that they can exit the coach if they make a sozzled bad-call and decide to disembark.


P01 - Two Bar Car doors lean against the Coal Grab. On the left is an original door in the current peach colour of the Bar Car’s interior and the blanked out window. On the right is a replacement door (in SAR railway green) with original glazing and clearly marked with a new ‘no-entry’ sticker. The empty lock cavity is to be plated over.	P02 - Fred Sewell, the Reefsteamers Coach Manager, gets his knees green while he carefully strips the lock and latch from one of four donor doors for the Bar Car.	P03 - Waste not, want not! Although the original Bar Car doors were screwed shut, the interior latches, handles and closers were intact. These parts will be used to fix dodgy latches and door hardware in other coaches.

Passengers are our coal and water, and we love to have them spend a day with us. But there’s always seems to be at least one macho individual who displays all the intelligence and ingenuity of a tree stump. During one of our recent trips, a passenger was determined to enter the Bar Car from the station platform, through a sealed door – and proceeded to literally kick the Bar Car’s door in. He booted our door right out of its frame and tore the interior lock loose. So Fred Swell, Attie de Necker and Cliffie Mathee replaced all the doors in the Bar Car. This time, the doors were replaced with spare doors that have intact windows, to let some light in, but clearly marked with ‘No Entry’ signs.

Projects – 12AR Valve Gear Rebuild :


P04 - The expansion links of 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’ both laid out neatly in the turning shop. The four trunnion bearings and the two die blocks have gleaming white brand new custom-machined Vesconite bearings.	P05 - The more work James does, the more he finds that needs doing! Here he demonstrates his discovery of bad vertical play in the lifting pin on the radius rods.	P06 - It’s the details that count. James Thomson has meticulously cleaned, tapped and serviced the threads of every nut and bolt in the Class 12AR No.1535’s valve gear.

Projects – Other Locomotives :


P07 - A freshly ground-in Class 25NC Turret Valve is being re-assembled.	P08 - Mark gives the Class 12AR dynamo the finger. Actually, he’s pulling as much old oil and dirt from the bottom of the oil reservoir as he can reach, before topping it up with clean, fresh MH oil.	P09 - This is a steam-turbine dynamo on the Class 15CA, one of 5 units of which Mark changed out the bearing oil. This unit had to be unmounted to get at the oil reservoir, adding much joy to Mark’s day and some cussing towards the ‘engineer’ who designed this contraption.

One of Shaun Ackerman’s first jobs of the day was to grind in and assemble a turret
valve on the Class 25NC No.3472 ‘Elize’. (Pic P07) This is the valve that failed to close
last week when a faulty sanding gear pipe union fractured under tightening, on a live boiler.

When Class 15F No.2914 ‘Spikkels’ went out on her wake-up run to Magaliesburg two weeks ago,
the dynamo failed. It was able to run but the bearings had failed, and rather noisily too. Last week
Sunday afternoon, Andrew King stripped that sick dynamo to replace the grumbling bearings and there
he made an interesting discovery. The dynamo’s oil reservoirs had been topped up with green ‘valve oil’,
which is too thick to be picked up efficiently by the dynamo bearing’s pick-up rings. The dynamos on all
our locomotives were found to have been lubricated with the incorrect oil (Valve Oil) of too thick a viscosity.

Mark had the task of extracting the old oil, as well as the crud of ages, from every
single dynamo in our fleet and topping them up with nice fresh MH oil. (Pic P08 and P09)
Its viscosity is low enough to be picked up by those pickup rings.

Other Pics from the Depot:


M01 - One of the banes of our life is the constant illegal dumping alongside our approach road. This road is also used by Shongololo Express as well as Transnet. Here a front end loader flattens the road out a bit and shifts some of the dumped rubbish. Attie de Necker Supervises the operation.	M02 - A hybrid train both howls and grumbles past the Reefsteamers Depot. Two Class 35 diesels left the TRF Diesel Depot and coupled up to three old 6E1’s to get this stalled sugar train moving.	M03 - James is the center of attention in this pic of the Reefsteamers mob enjoying the mellow sun of late Saturday Afternoon.

M04 - Andrew King checks out the cylinder castings and front end of Pat Ackerman’s ongoing project of a live steam model of a Class 19D. Yes, Andrew … you don’t need crow bars to move those cute little pistons!	M05 - Most rail rats don’t survive long in our yard with the hungry guard dogs sniffing around. But the occasional canny rodent makes the yard their home and stays out of reach of human and canine alike Here we see rodent damage in the Bar Car.	M06 - James (right) is totally deaf (both auditory nerves have been cut) so communication with him is a challenge – and yet he keeps an amazingly positive spirit in spite of his severe handicap. Here Attie de Necker leans close to facilitate lip reading.

M07 - A bouquet of flowers … Reefsteamers style. Seriously romantic! (No wonder so many of our guys are bachelors) Here, assorted greenery adorns the coupler of the ‘tea tray’, our ancient, very characterful flat car.	M08 - Reefsteamers make plans. Here the leading steps of the Management Car make a handy three level work bench for cleaning parts and storing waste of varying degrees of filthiness!	M09 – A sight to make any Safety Officer proud. Lee Gates shows a dirty face from grinder work, but the clean area protected by the safety goggles is clearly marked out in clean skin.