Depot News Report
sATURDAY,
15 September 2007

Projects – Class 12AR 1535 Valve Gear Bushings :

Work continued on our Class 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’. She hadn’t done well during the preparation for the hydraulic boiler tests and our Chief Engineer, Andrew King, has deemed it prudent to replace seven of the boiler tubes anyway, which renders the testing a moot point. She doesn’t leak …, yet, but the tubes are a bit thin. We could have squeezed some more operation time out of the present set of tubes but as Andrew has already stated concerning his high standards “Not on my watch’.

Leaky boiler tubes are not only wasteful – if they fractured suddenly in operation, they can
cause serious scalding to anyone who happens to be in front of an open firebox door at the time.

Meanwhile, the valve gear has been stripped out on both sides. Walshearts valve gear is great but it sure has a lot of links and pivots! James Thomson, our expert fitter and turner, has started the process of machining an entirely new set of bushings for this almost 90 year old locomotive, from an ultra modern material called ‘Vesconite. It’s a high grade engineering plastic that looks disconcertingly like thick walled plastic conduit. But it is amazing stuff – self lubricating, non hygroscopic, economic to machine and it has no scrap metal value. Andrew King had the Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’ kitted out with these bearings as a running experiment 8 years ago and there have been no problems.


Sakkie Tekana, who is almost ready to pass as a qualified fireman, spends his Saturday morning work shift patiently cleaning Class 12AR valve motion pins and pivots with a paint brush and a bucket of paraffin.	For goodness sakes, don’t lose any of those parts! This is a spread of the cleaned bushes, trunnion bolts and grease nipples from our Class 12AR No.1535 ‘Susan’. James Thomson is going to make a full set of new bushes for each pin that you see here.	Here is a Vesconite tube being machined down on our lathe to make two die block bushings. We aim to eventually have all our locomotives using this synthetic material as it is hard wearing, self lubricating, non hygroscopic and has no scrap metal value.

Purists might object to the use of white coloured synthetic bearings on a locomotive (The vesconite bushes on the Class 15F 3016 ‘Gerda’ were grey.) And I gotta admit that the newly machined bushes do look odd. But they’ll soon blend, colourwise, in with the inevitable dirt and grease. If Reefsteamers can improve on the original engineering and\or materials at an economical price, we will do what it takes to keep our locomotives running through to the next century!


Looking rather like an isometric technical drawing exercise, here’s a cleaned Class 12AR die block with newly machined and installed Vesconite bushing (in sparkling white) and the radius rod pin.	A test fitting of a die block in one of the Class 12AR’s expansion links. The pins fit into the radius rod which imparts the movement along the slot. (Vertical, in the locomotive) The big brass bushing left of center is one of the trunnion bushes on which the expansion link swivels.	Lee Gates gleefully used the 50 ton hydraulic press to push out the bushings on these four trunnion plates – much easier and more sophisticated than the club hammer and drift method.

Projects - Work on some other locomotives :


This is the sealed LHS blow down valve on Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’. She is under preparation for hydraulic testing of the boiler. You can see a metal backing plate protruding from the valve halves and you can just see the cut rubber sealing disk above it.	Loco Lipstick. We’re working on getting Class 15F No.2914 running as to use her current 3 year boiler certificate. Driver Attie de Necker has repainted the buffer beams, foot walks and wheels on all the locomotives, and electrician Fred Sewell supplied the brand new numbering labels.	Class 15F No.2914 has been out of use for a while. Her main steam pressure gauge is presently away for recalibration and somebody had mounted the steam chest pressure gauge in its place to tidy things up in the cab. Shaun Ackerman starts removing the gauge to put it back in the right location.

There is a conflict between hard core steam photographers and the more casual steam fans and day trippers. The hard cores like their locomotives to be in a ‘as-worked’ condition, the grease and grime making up the atmosphere of the picture. Day trippers and casual fans prefer to have their locomotives nice and clean. Actually, many wouldn’t notice if a locomotive was particularly clean, but would notice if it was particularly dirty. Reefsteamers prefer to keep their locomotives clean, not only as a matter of pride in their appearance, but also because it makes them safer and more pleasant to work on. We are not, however, in the business of maintaining and running so-called ‘super-shine’ locomotives. Attie de Necker and the gang have spent the last two weeks painting up the buffer beams wheels and trims of our currently working locomotives.


A displacement lubricator being prepared for over haul. The filler thumb screws and vent screws have already bee removed. Driver Shaun Ackerman overhauled 2 of them for the Class 15F 2914’s missing pipe work and fittings.	Lee Gates installs a reconditioned Displacement Lubricator on the Grate Shaker steam feed on Class 15F #2914. That’s the cab spray hose valve visible at the top left. No, we don’t like the red and blue colour scheme of the cab either.	Andrew King tightens up a cleaned and overhauled tender filler bell coupling on the tender of Class 15F 2914.

Class 15F No.2914 has been standing idle for a while, with a current boiler certificate to boot. She’s in good mechanical shape but the pipe work and many of the fittings were missing. The guys have been replacing the pipes over the last few weeks and over this weekend, some of the lubricators were replaced from stock parts that had to be overhauled and modified to fit. One went onto the steam-powered grate shaker and the other lubricator went onto the power-reverser.

Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’, who took her last run on her boiler certificate two weeks ago, has had the smoke box stripped and the spark arrestors removed. Johann and Juan (aka ‘Nippies’) have started sealing up the leak points such as the safety valves and the blow downs in preparation for the hydraulic boiler test. We expect the locomotive to pass but her tubes will likely need replacing next year.

Projects – Coach Work :


A stack o’ stickers. We’ll get the brass versions done one day – but in the meantime, Fred Sewell has been arranging stickers and logos to ensure all our locomotives are properly numbered and the coaches are properly labelled.	An example of new labelling work – an ex-toilet is labelled as a store – our on-board guests will no longer be confronted with the boxes of Christmas decorations contained within this store when they are looking for some relief.	Andrew King did the sniffer dog act and tried to track down an elusive gas leak we are experiencing in the catering car. The pipes in the pic were pressurized but we couldn’t detect anything. And no, we didn’t use a match to light our way. And just who is the daft brush that screwed in the pressure gauge facing the wall?

At least something is alive in our yard. Our grass and the trees are greening up nicely after the dry winter. This particular grassy spot right next to the loco receiving track is the favourite outdoor lounging spot of the Reefsteamers gang.	The club sparky, Fred Sewell, was converting Coach # to use 3 phase power. This is a close up of the high contact pressure disconnectable plugs we use. (They will uncouple without mechanical damage should the inter-coach wiring be left connected during an uncoupling move or accident.)

Photos from around the shed :


Saturday treat – Booking Clerk, Les Smith made up two pots of lamb and lamb curry poitjie kos with his wife’s secret recipe. Yours truly got the first dig as the club guinea pig and it was superb. And I couldn’t get the secret out of him either	A sad sight at the back of the old forge building is the cut-down Class 15F that was torched by mistake. The cylinders and axles were saved. Here you can see behind a driver wheel where the last cut was made through the frames above the last axle, when the torch job was stopped.	Lee holds a new locomotive water gauge glass tube complete with two rubber seals at either end.

A view of the completed new high-pressure water stand next to the coaling dock. It is to be painted green to conform to piping codes. That little brass tap’s stub had to be welded four times before it would stop leaking.	Lee and Andrew spotted water running down an inspection pit in the old running shed. The leak turned out that this safety valve, installed to protect a recently installed PVC water mains, was miss set and hunting under mains pressure flexing the long plastic pipe.	Andrew King cuts heavy duty baling wire. He was literally ‘shed man’ for the day and had tasked himself with tying down some loose corrugated sheets in out main she’d roof – before they lift with the winds of summer thunderstorms.

Two heads and four hands in this shot of Andrew and Fred figuring out why the red phase wasn’t powering up from this vintage fuse carrier. (Andrew is operating the interlock bar while Fred holds the voltage tester.)	Here’s the vintage fuse carrier. It was working fine, but the interlock linkages had lost a pivot screw on one side – so only two phases were pressed back against their contacts.	NEVER use a camera flash on an elderly electrician testing on a live distribution board. It looks too much like an arcing fault for his comfort and pulse rate. Here Fred is installing auxiliary BS546 plugs on the side of a DB.

This weekend was quiet with only 6 fellows pitching up on Saturday and four on Sunday. It was decided to catch up on work around the depot. Andrew King braved the terror of the 40ft ladder to tie down some flapping corrugated iron sheets. The guys also repaired a badly holed rain gutter pipe. The gutters actually run UNDERNEATH the valleys of our shed roof – so any leaks go right through to the shed below. The original plan was to use semi-circular galvanized sheeting strapped up with wads of silicone – but eventually a more elegant solution of metallic ducting tape was used. Just in time for the summer rains!

Fred Sewell was commissioned to get an old grinder back into working order – we have various stone based grinders but this machine has a wire wheel and an emery flapper. After fetlting the contactor box, Fred found the problem was at the DB. He was high nervous and had the right to be – for one has to squeeze into a space less than a meter wide – facing bus bars and live wires. The fault turned out to be the linkages in a fuse carrier – and so the old grinder got to chunter and grumble once more. (It was put into commission to facilitate James Thomson’s quick cleaning of his busing work.)

Fred also reinstalled broken BS546 power sockets on a secondary distribution DB. We use heavy electrical equipment and domestic sockets get easily damaged or embrittled by the heat of bad contacts and high currents. There never seems to be enough power points in a locomotive shed.

The boys also rigged up a high pressure high volume water stand next to the coal dock, fed by PVC pipe from the main shed. The pipe work has been in for a few weeks now. The whole lot had to be fabricated by hand, including the mounting bracket. But the part that gave the most trouble was the little malleable pipe stub that they fitted to the stand pipe to conveniently have a brass water tap at the spot as well. The metal wouldn’t merge with the weld and the joint kept leaking. It took four attempts to seal the piping off before Lee got to do firing practice – with ashy soil and grass roots. So now we can water the engines as we coal them, instead of previously in the main yard as a separate movement.

Les Smith deserves special mention. He is our bookings clerk and an ex fireman. He is currently unable to partake in heavy work because of his health – but he is a frequent visitor to our depot to keep in touch and also for the marketing related work. This week he brought in a real treat – starting a plain lamb and a curry lamb potpie kos at about 7am. Many of us guys, especially the bachelors, go a whole Reefsteamers day without food and not really worrying about it. But a mid-day lunch is always nice and this food was very welcome. Because of the low turnout over the weekend, Les has quite a few leftover to get through this week! But even Andrew King, who normally eats like a budgie on a hunger strike, had two helpings. What an endorsement of Les’s great cooking. Although I noticed that after the second helping of the curry lamb, he suddenly volunteered to make tea for the gang, something he never normally does ... was the curry getting to him, I wonder?

Paul Hloben, our Reefsteamers Videographer, came in with some proof photos for his 2008 calendar work – based on our 2007 Great Steam Trek. It was awesome looking at those photographs and realising that myself and these guys sitting around me were on board that train, servicing and driving the engines and making that trip happen. And that is what being a member of a Steam preservation group is all about – the participation and the resultant memories of a lifetime.

- Lee Gates -