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 been a great weekend for some unusual depot action and photographic opportunities if one had been present at the Reefsteamers Depot.  We enjoy all our projects, even if some are more uncomfortable or dirty than others, because we love steam locomotives.  Admittedly, sometimes the enjoyment comes afterwards, when the hard work is done, a cup of tea is in hand and one has a sense of satisfaction.  But Saturday’s project was particularly enjoyable as the old Booth Crane No.96 ‘Shosholoza’ was lubed and set up, and was brought out to opposite the new club house do some hoisting work.  Albeit, it wasn’t actually in steam, but running on a bellyful of compressed air.  It was still awesome to watch this old machine at work and what a shameful thing that a tender has actually been taken out for it’s scrapping.  (Along with most of the other remaining steam cranes in South Africa.  )  Two of them were illegally cut up in Kimberly and we are not going to let that happen here!  http://www.sandstone-estates.com/interim/Steam_Cranes/index.html  We’re going to do what we can to protect this historic, still functional piece of equipment and three of our guys are discussing removing the vertical water-tube type boiler and rebuilding it as a private team project. 

When we get this old steam crane back into genuine steam once more, not only would we have a steam-able, self propelled crane, we’d also have a semi-portable steam plant for testing, or pre heating of locomotive boilers.  It could even be used as a basic firelighter\fireman’s training platform.  What a unique piece of equipment to take on a rail tour to reenact a work train, or perhaps reenact putting a wagon back on the track after a derailment.  We even have the DZ’s (Gondolas) and a work caboose to make up a work train.

The Booth steam crane No.96 ‘Shosholoza’ was brought out to hoist the body of a stripped down DZ and place it on an operational vehicle for relocation.  (In South African railways terminology, a DZ, which is actually a class designation for a common drop-side DZ, has become a shorthand term for all similar SAR rail vehicles.)  The DZ’s ‘Spoorbarber’ high speed bogies are to be rebuilt and used elsewhere – they had no springs and the wagon would have been dangerous to move on the rails.  (Likely derailment.)  This is a part of our ongoing depot tidying up project – moving derelict stock out of the track-work of the potentially revenue earning Running Shed (now our Coach Shed) and cleaning up scrap metal, some of which has been hanging around literally for years.

Other work over the weekend included the preparation and roadworthy of our Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ for a Freedom Day trip to Magaliesburg on behalf of SANRASM.  (South African National Rail and Steam Museum.)  There were two trainee fire-lighters on duty.  Sunday, in fact, was a strangely sociable day as we had more people come out than on Saturday.  (Normally the inverse is true.)

Read on about how we big boys enjoy our big toys!  (All in the name of preservation, of course)

Tonka, eat your heart out!

Task – Setting up a Steam Crane :

The Booth Crane No.96 ‘Shosholoza’ has spent many months tucked away in the shadows on the No.1 road in the workshop, quietly dozing and dripping oil from the slewing ring and the prop pivots.  This grand old machine was prepared for a work day on Saturday.  The last time this machine was used was when we brought in the large Dean Smith lathe for restoration and service in our machine shop.

The steam crane and the accompanying jib wagon was brought out of the workshop with little trouble and placed onto the Locomotive Reception track for pressurization, testing and a quick lube job.  The move as done on Friday and the crane was pressurized for testing and testing purposes.  As soon as Aiden McCarthy saw this machine on the track, he went all the way back to his car to get his camera!  There’s nothing like a drizzle of oil and a bit of greasing to get a machine standing upright on its wheels again.  The myriad joints and bearings were a bit dry, but as this machine was parked under cover, there was no rust or corrosion evident.  It would simply be necessary to oil up the bearings and operate the crane a few times under ‘only’ the weight of the jib, to spread the oil in the working surfaces.  The crane took pride of place in the reception track when the Reefsteamers came in the early morning.  (Pic C01 below) 

Fireman Sakkie ‘Sakana’ Kekana busied himself with sweep n’ swill – that is, brushing off the crane’s job wagon’s tender deck and then swilling it down with the wide bore fire hydrant hose.  Much in the way of odds and sods had been stealthily gathering on the deck plates during the time of slumber in No.1 track.

It’s the first time I’ve ever seen this steam-aged brontosaurus in day light.  (First time for Sakkie too – he wasn’t going to stay away for ANYTHING!)  So we spent much time just watching and ‘grokking’ all the details.  One detail that I hadn’t really noticed in the corrugated shade of the workshop was the discrete oval builder’s plate athwart the winch frames.  This machine was built in 1936, 72 years ago and is thus, actually older than most of our steam locomotives.  (Pic C02 above)  I hadn’t realized that ‘Rodley’ is the place of origin rather than the second part of a compound surname.  (Booth Rodley) 

Upon my arrival, the vertical water-tube boiler was already connected up to a flexible air line and being charged with compressed air.  (Pic C04 below)  The jib would eventually only be moved only twice for servicing.  The main work required was to run the pulleys and the sheaves, and to make sure all the controls and valves were still operational.  The air hose connects with a standard ¾ inch claw coupling and we charged the boiler to about 80psi  (600kPa).  The boiler fittings are mostly intact but have been closed tight or blanked off – but the definitely non-original spec SAR pressure gauge announced the good news, gradually pointing towards the sunshine.  The two missing water glasses were of little consequences with a pot of air.

The two power pistons wheeze and thump in a distinct beat under compressed air operation, and the power stroke is noticeably uneven.  (The crane doesn’t have a true flywheel.)  The pair of yellow crank wheels upon which the drive con-rods thrust are of inadequate mass to function as flywheels, and have no counter weighting.  But just like a steam locomotive with the exposed motion and valve gear, it was a treat to see the reduction gears in action and the slow, but stately movement of the hook.  A view of the slewing wing, it’s radius pinion and the bevel gears down at the cab floor level, under the various cable drawers and transverse reduction shafts, was intimidating!

The freshly clean boom deck was loaded again with a pair of screw-in jacking pads (Specific parts of the crane) and some large wooden blocks to set up the crane’s side-props on the soft uncovered ground between the tracks.

Patrick Ackerman did the lubrication, dotting MH oil around the pulleys and gears, but with particular emphasis on the two sets of drive pistons, connecting rids and the big ends.  (Pic C05 below)  As stated in our introduction, this crane had been stored undercover.  The joints and friction surfaces were merely dry and not corroded or rusted.  After a second round with the MH can, the hook was lifted halfway up the halfway raised jib.  It was an intermittent job, with pauses for oiling.  Oiling the turning shafts and bearings would be easy – but a slip would put the crane operator between enmeshed gears and converging cables.  Nip points galore.  Blood and isn’t a good lubricant.

A problem that arose during the set up was that cable had ‘de-railed’ from within the grooves of the main hook’s pulleys.  The crane was last put away with the hook extended.  The hoisting cables rose up out of their grooves when the cable slack ran in and the hook lay loosely on the deck. 

To sort this hitch out (pun intended) Shaun Ackerman squirreled up onto the jib and prepared to rethread the pulley.  (Pic C07)  You cab see in the photo that the other pulley’s cable was still a bit slack.  Sakkie Kekana and Aiden McCarthy assisted in shifting the hook and realigning the cables from down below on the jib-deck.  Meanwhile the electrician’s fiberglass ladder was retrieved, a useful device through being so light, and the assistant scrambled up to help with the prying and the oiling.  It didn’t take long to get the rope back into the pulley again, and while they were at it, Patrick used the grease gun on grease nipple on the pulley shaft, between the twinned pulleys.  This was the only real issue that came up in the preparation work and the crane was ready to be moved across the yard by 10am. 

A part of the issue was that the main cable drum was full.  The cables would be still slack with the winch wound up all the way, with the outer row of the wound-in cable abutting the cable drum’s end plate.  The jib was thus kept raised and the main 36 ton capacity hook adjusted to stand just above its deck, but its suspended weight would still retain the tension within the cables, thus keeping the cables within their running grooves.  You’d also wouldn’t want the hook swinging while the train was being shunted. 

The little green diesel critter was already warm, so it was fired up with ease and used to push the crane and the jib wagon out the Locomotive Reception Track (up-grade) and then slowly out back out through the Crossover Track.  (Pic C08 below)  The raised jib hardly moved.  Our destination would be on one of the ‘Shongololo’ tracks at the outer edge of the yard, just past our new clubhouse.  Shaun was driving, with Patrick as the brakie and Lee as the photie, trying to take a photograph through the skeletal jib-wagon’s car cabin.  The shunting locomotive dropped out of reverse gear in the process, and was allowed to trundle to a halt before re-engaging the drive.  It’s the first time that I’ve noticed that the brake wheel has a left hand thread – you turn the wheel anti-clockwise to operate the screw operated brakes.

Aiden McCarthy was having a hard time trying to find a decent spot to photograph this ‘Work Train’ movement, frantically high stepping around the outer tracks of the yard and trying not to trip over backwards, especially when carrying a camera.  The length of the train wasn’t the problem – it was the height of the raised jib, which would be truncated by the extent of the camera frames.  (Pic C09 above)  Yes, the water tower sprout was safely retracted.  (You can just see the tower under the jib in photo C09 below.)  This train, of one little diesel critter and two vehicles was long enough to require the Eastern Yard Gates to be opened.  There was a delay while Sakkie Kekana went key hunting.  Fortunately, those frequently wandering keys were in their proper place, hanging on a nail on the center bulletin board’s frame, so the delay wasn’t too onerous.  We had morning traffic to watch on the Transnet lines anyway.

I don’t mind diesels as per se, but SAR diesels sure are u-u-u-u-g-l-y !  Ugh!    
(Although the EMD version of the 34 class isn’t bad in the new blue colour scheme.)

The steam crane was brought in alongside the old DZ and with sufficient room to clear the rear end overhang should the crane need be rotated.  (As it eventually did.)  The next stage of the project involved getting the air hose right across to the outer end of the yard – which presently has no air service.  Not a chance.  The existing hose was looped over the rails and under the coaches of the next day’s train.  The exercise did have the advantage of working out the twists and kinks in the rubber sheathed textile pipe though – it hasn’t been fully unwrapped in months.  The compressor line was originally connected to its usual spot, a column alongside the main workbench in the Top Shed, where we often use it for locomotive draft-blowers.  Patrick uncoupled the line and scouted for a closer compressed air coupling.  A functioning coupling was found next to the fire hydrant on the Locomotive Reception track, properly painted in sky blue too.  (Pic C10 below)  It had an incompatible screw coupling inserted but a minute’s work with a stilson wrench opened up the air line once more.  (I’d never noticed the air line there, I’ll have to remember that coupling the next time I have to get coal dust out of a cab!)  Incidentally, our depot bristles with forgotten piping, conduits and truncated bits that emerge in odd places and poke through the ground and concrete slabs.  It’s always good to find one that is still functional.  With Aiden McCarthy pulling out the slack in the newly relocated hose, us Reefsteamers got another few meters out of it.

But a few extra meters weren’t enough.  Some brand new connectors were scrounged from the club house and Sakkie was dispatched with a hacksaw to ‘borrow’ a hose I’d rather not know where.  With the hose extension and bit more slack running (Pic C11 below), we could finally pressurize the boiler on the steam crane, parked way out next to the new club house.  The ‘inflation’ was a slow job with the long, restrictive hose and we could see we’d be in for a long morning with many pauses.  A jubilee’d hose connection was kicking up dust, which didn’t help matters either.  None of us were energetic enough to walk back to the depot for a screw driver, and the clips would probably continue to slip on the smooth joining pipe anyway.  The joint had the two clips wired together – so it wouldn’t blow apart when the back pressure increased as the boiler charged.  It’s a trick I saw for the first time when helping to pressurize Class 15F No.3016 ‘Gerda’s’ boiler for boiler testing with an equally dodgy hose connection. 

Meanwhile, while the steam crane was ‘charging up’,  one of the working DZ’s was pulled from Road 2, from deep in the old Running Shed and run across to the outer edge of the yard, ready to receive the hoisted body of the bombed out old DZ.  We were, as yet, unsure as to whether we’d hoist the DZ and push the carrier wagon underneath the suspended load, or use the crane to swing the hoisted body out, around and then down again.  As it turns out, a combination of both techniques were used.

I must apologize for some of the odd exposures of the photos that follow.  We were working in deep shadow between the DZ and the crane, so I set the flash to ‘permanently on’.  It filled out the shadows but lost the contrast.  But at least you can see what was going on when the crew set up the crane.

With the boiler charging up with a hollow-bellied hissing rumble, work was underway to prepare the crane for its coming work.  The first job was to extend the center stops for the leaf springs.  (Pic C13 below)  Like a locomotive, the crane’s axle boxes are bourne on the center of the springs while the ends of the leaf springs are attached to the frame.  The top-hat shaped center stops screw down from the frame just above the leaf springs and press onto the center of the springs.  The axle boxes can then no longer move upward in relation to the frame.  The effect is to prevent any downward spring motion on the load side, effectively making the frames and wheels solid under the load.  There’s one of these above each axle.

It can be a tricky job as the hex upon which the spanner engages is above the stop-disk and partially hidden behind the frame above the aperture.  It required a very thin section spanner to be able to work at a tilted handle through the aperture.  And as often happens, the specific spanner had been mixed up with other tools in the frame decks and amongst the cab.  After some swearing and hard breathing, the four springs were blocked up on the load side of the crane. 

The swinging side props were then extended.  They were easy to swing out, thanks to good lubrication.  (Pic C14 above)  They use a simple hand operated latch to hold them flat against the frames.  With the rear left prop extended, (Pic C15 above), Shaun and Aiden started fetching the wooden jacking blocks and the jacking pads.  The jacking pads are specifically made for the crane and the threaded shaft (Visible in Pic C15 above) has to be screwed into those stands.  This means the threads need to be lined up under a heavy free-swinging prop and wooden blocks on uneven ground.  (Pic C16 below)  Regardless, aligning the jacking pads under the left rear prop went quickly with gentle tapping with heavy ‘slogging’ type spanners for slight positional adjustments.

In the dusty embrace of the crane’s cab was a cranked square aperture spanner and it was so obviously meant to screw down the shafts within the props.  It was so obviously matched and provided for the purpose that it was quite an annoying surprise to see that the spanner’s head was too small.  Patrick was quite disgusted!  So we had another scramble for a spanner to fit the square shank. 

The front prop swing out well enough but the jacking shaft wouldn’t budge.  I was dispatched to get a 16 pound mallet – as I was standing outside the two extended props at the time.  Naturally, there were no mallets in the tool store – ever had the experience of looking for a singe tool in the sprawling complex of an entire steam locomotive depot?  Bleh!  I found a mallet standing on its head in the BROOMS area of all places.  When I got back, I felt like using that hammer on a few craniums, as the fellows had managed to oil the stubborn shaft (Pic C18 below) and get it turning.  (Remember that without the proper long handled spanner, the leverage was much reduced.)  The hammer didn’t pick up any dura-mater membranes or hair clotted with cerebral-spinal fluid though, just mildly put in amongst the webs of the crane’s frames. 

The swing cables were then attached.  We had three of them and they were engaged in the shunting hooks with which SAR wagons are equipped.  (Pic C19 below)  Conveniently, all four hooks on this stripped and battered wagon were still intact.  Two loops of 14 ton capacity cable were used, forming a symmetrical four way sling.  However, the cable at the west end had been made up from two pieces coupled via a shackle.  It was decided to go to the effort of changing that out for a properly lengthed cable to eliminate the joint.  Aiden McCarthy and Sakkie Kekana were dispatched to retrieve the cable.  (Pic C20 below)  Slinging up the DZ had a few wrinkles as one of the shunting hooks was a bit bent, and we struggled to get a jammed pin out of a loop.  So that mallet finally did come in useful…

The crane was rotated about 115 degrees and then the job was raised to bring the hook in line with the center line of the adjacent track.  (Pic C21 below) I wondered if it would reach and it did – some good design work there.  The fully raised jib would also reduce the effect of leverage of the weight (the ‘moments’) against the frames of the crane.  

Setting up the sling cables went without incident with the two cable loops coming out reasonably evenly.  (Pic C22 below)  This was to be Patrick’s day on the crane and so he did the slinging work, rotation and operation.  Notice that he’s wearing gloves in the pic, (standing on the deck) as he had been wearing them all day.  Steel hoisting and sling cables can horribly slice up a pair of hands.

The operation went with many clanks and pauses as the air pressure fell in the crane’s boiler.  The long, restrictive air hoses stretching miles away to the depot didn’t help thing along either.  So we all settled down to work at No.96 Shosholoza’s pace.  (Pic C24 below)  If Shaun (left) looks grumpy in the picture, it’s because he’s telling me not to take a photo of the gang sitting, as it makes them look idle.  But there’s not much one can do when the machinery is quite literally catching its breath – so one may as well warm up the hemorrhoids on the rail heads.

The DZ body lifted slightly canted from the bogies, the east end lifting first.  But there was, amazingly, no further adjustments required of the crane’s rotation or the jib’s elevation to get the DZ’s body to lift free from its bogies.  The DZ body swing out slightly once the second bogie bolster disengaged, but the job worked out remarkably centralized.  (Pic C26 below)  The job was taken very slowly with many checks.  Shaun initially guided the DZ straight with a firm grip on the seized handbrake wheel.  It can be a dangerous job, similar to as astronauts have discovered in orbit, that just because there’s no friction (gravity), it doesn’t mean to say that inertia and moment can be discounted.  Wary of safety, Shaun stood well clear.  On continued hoisting, Shaun could no longer reach the load at a safe working distance, so he backed off.  The 12 ton load pivoted slowly and majestically on the four-way cradle of sling cables, and the eastern corner love-tapped the crane at the winch frames.  Patrick, ensconced at the levers, was well aware of what was to come, but the low air pressure and the reluctant brakes prevent any corrective action on his part.  It was only a slight bump, and the crane isn’t exactly delicate. 

Getting the DZ out involved a balance of dropping the crane’s jib, which moved the load simultaneously outwards and down.  The hook had to be simultaneously raised to maintain the height.  Because the DZ was asymmetrical, with slightly uneven slings and the weight of the brake vacuum cylinders at the west end, it kept trying to pivot inwards against the crane once more.  A hoisting strap was attached and three men were used as anchors to keep the load straight.  (Pic C29 below)  Shaun Ackerman initially tried to sit on the ground with his feet against the rails – but the inertia of the DZ was too much and would have dragged him over the rails if something went wrong.  The three man anchor worked well and they literally ‘walked’ the suspended DZ as Patrick Ackerman hoisted it again to clear the height of the working wagon and swinging it towards the work train.  It’s hard to gauge the stopping force as the crane rotated on the slewing ring, and the three man team had their work cut out to damp the swinging motion.

Oom Attie de Necker, meanwhile, had gotten bored in the depot and had come moseying out to see what was going on.  He was quickly drafted to fire up the Hunslet diesel, and to back the work train under the suspended load.  Pic C30 below shows that the radial reach of the crane wasn’t quite sufficient to safely drop the DZ onto the work train.  Those loose bogies had to be manually moved out of the way and chocked clear of the work train.  It took several attempts to get the line up right, as we’d have to drop the DZ so that the end boards of the work train would engage between the under frame brackets and the draft gear box. 

It took three attempts to line up the DZ into the work train.  It was a problem akin to nesting two identically sized vertical baking trays.  We wanted the load to be stable, but also not to damage the working DZ.  The biggest problems were the downward pointing straps against which the (missing) side doors stop when they’re open.  The triangular brake trunnion bracket was also causing obstruction, and a door had to be dropped to allow it to clear.  (Pic C31 below)  Eventually the DZ was nestled in with its almost identical compatriot (Pic C32 below) and no fingers were lost in the process.  Unlinking the sling cables went quickly. 

The steam crane was left where it was on the outer tracks as more clearing up needed to be done.  This work area happens to be almost directly opposite where the old stationery boiler plant used to be.  The semi-circular concrete saddles where captive locomotive boilers were once imprisoned are still there.  They are surrounded by a collection of scrap pipes, plates and brackets (Pic C33 above) – which are going to be removed with our yard clearance program.

TASK : Putting the DZ bits away :

The lifted DZ proved to be quite stable, being slightly canted in its bogied throne.  So we didn’t bother strapping it down.  The little green critter poodled off slowly with the top heavy load, past the Sakkie Saloon and reversing back through the Eastern Yard Gate.  (Pic G01 below)  Patrick Ackerman was the brakie and managed to stay on board right through until the unusual short train reversed through the Crossover Track and out past the Forge House.  The tracks can be a little rough out back there and the Ackerman brothers decided not to chance fouling up the dropped side-door on lineside obstacles.  They double-checked that door and saw that the DZ had settled properly and the obstructive brake trunnion bracket was actually inside the door line.  (The door was opened prior to the second successful attempt to settle the DZ.)  So they buttoned up the works DZ out by the substation.  (Pic G02 below) 

The move went as planned until it was realised that the keys had disappeared for the workshop gates and they weren’t in the club house either.  Lee went on a Sakkie hunt (as Sakkie had gone off duty after his Saturday half-day) and was directed to the guard house.  With keys in hand, the shunter crew were roused from where they were sitting comfortably in the growing shade of the workshop and the wheel turning shop.  The bolts for the gate were reasonably free and the double-deck DZ set was backed into the No.1 road of the workshop – the track that is normally occupied by the Booth crane.  We will eventually offload the DZ body in a clearing by the sides of the tracks.  It isn’t actually for scrap – just we need the wheels to improve another one of our works DZ’s right now.  Soon, No.96 ‘Shosholoza will have his bed back again.

Meanwhile, Aiden McCarthy took on the task of uncoupling the compressed air hoses and rolling them up neatly and safely out of the way of the slice-n-dice coach wheels.  (Pic G03 above)  One leaking joint in the hose is bad enough!

The two autoptic bogies were next to be moved, with the usual convoluted back and forth movements to get the green critter from the workshop right up to the running shed once more.  The rest of us took a leisurely walk across the depot and arrived before the train, even with the following day’s SANRASM train clumsily shunted across the footpath.  We rolled the bogies inwards until they actually bumped against the rear buffer plate.  (Pic G04 below)  Pic G05 below shows the reason why we couldn’t move the DZ the normal way – the coil springs are missing and the bolster is propped up by a big chunk of concrete.  The opposite end wasn’t even propped, so the bolster was uneven.  Oddly enough, although the brake rigging was partially stripped, the bright blue composite type brake shoes were in brand new condition – still having their traverse wear-in ridges.  One of the couples was totally missing (Pic G06 below) while the other coupler had the palm and the draw gear, but had lost it’s hinged ‘knuckle’ 

The bogies were snugged up together, with the wheels ringing slightly as the flanges contacted.  The short hoisting cable was selected for the drag, but a pin had to be beaten out of the sheathed loop.  After some fruitless hammering, Patrick inverted the pin and used the track rails itself as an anvil.  We coupled up the rear bogie with a shackle pin passed through built in eyes on the bolster beam.  You can see one just to the upper right of the nearest wheel in pic G04.  This meant that we’d be pulling the rear bogie which would push the front bogie by flange-to-flange contact.  It would be a tricky operation in a yard with badly uneven track and\or sharp points – but as our point geometry is meant for the long wheel bases of steam locomotives, there was little risk that the flanges would overlap and derail.

The green critter has what are known as ‘Alliance’ couplers.  They are designed to function as a conventional knuckle coupler, but with the additional use of an oval link and a pin dropped through the bores in the knuckles, the couplers are compatible with older link and pin coupled rolling stock too.  One can substitute a cable for the oval link and so it was quite easy to connect up the hoist rope to the coupler (Pic G07 below) and very carefully take those bogies away.  (Pic G08 below)  It sounded like the leather harnesses of a span of plough horses, a squeaking and a gentle jingling.  The bogies stayed on the railed all through the zig-zag move to get them back to the No.1 road in the workshop.  (Pic G09 below)

When the bogies cleared the workshop gate, the diesel was parked under the gantry and switched off, and locked in behind the gates.  It’s an unusual place to store the shunter as it normally sleeps next the caboose on the garret track.  But we’ll need to move the bogies again later, and the DZ needs to be placed out of the way too.

Project – Yard Clearance :

We are gradually clearing out our yard, the depot and the old Running Shed.  There has been adequate space for us to store our coaches and one set of the Shongololo Express coaching stock.  But when they have both coach sets at home base, and we’re not out on a trip, things get rather cramped.  We also wanted to open up the Running Shed to create some storage space for our own activities or to store Steam in Action stock and locomotives.  As SIA selected locomotives are rescued from around the country, they need somewhere safe and sheltered to be stored before restoration.

Some of derelict stock was moved out from the running shed, being the three unscrapped but bombed out Transnet Class 15F locomotives.  We’ve received no storage fees for these, so out they go on the back tracks outside our compound.  Two derelict catering cars, named ‘Buffalo’ and ‘Kariega’ have been bunted out onto the back tracks as well.  It hurts to do this, but we have to make hard choices facilitate the preservation of the active and the restorable equipment.  We now have the Class DE2 Diesel, the FotR Class 25NC, 25NC ‘No.3488 ‘Enchantress’ as well as the Simmer and Jack ore hoppers that need decent under coved storage.  And the numbers of stored items should increase with the continued drive of SIA.

The game plan is to arrange with Shongololo Express to make their rolling stock split-able – to put pluggable electric connections halfway along their trains.  The two halves of their coach sets can then be parked under full cover in the running shed.  This would free up our roadside track for future development as a proper little Reefsteamers station.

The secure, convenient Boksburg East station is gradually being stripped and may not be useful for much longer.

One of the steam locomotives moved out from the running shed was the Class 24 No.3647.  (Pic V03 above.)  This isn’t a scrap engine, although it looks like one.  Many of the parts that were removed, including the motion and valve gear, have been stored within the coal space of the Vanderbilt type tender.  This locomotive was originally sold for scrap by SAR, when Breyten closed to steam in 1987.  It was purchased from the scrap dealers by Dunn’s Locomotive Works in Witbank and was initially operated as a shunter and then stored until the works closed in 1994.  The locomotive then passed into private ownership.  It is owned by 11 members of the North British Locomotive Preservation Group, which is currently canvassing for funds of about 50 000 pounds to take this engine back to Glasgow, home of the North British Locomotive marque.  Because of the continued neglect on their part to pay storage fees, the locomotive has been moved out into open storage.  However, it is still within our fenced Depot Compound and is thus still secure from vandalism or scrap metal bandits.  It can be clearly seen from the freight lines and is actually right outside the back doors of the Top Shed, which is nearly always occupied.   

It’s a business decision as we need to optimize the covered space of the running shed for revenue earning stock, and for our own and Steam in Action’s restoration projects. 

OPERATION : Burning horse shoes in the Class 15CA. :

Not many photos in this section as I was busy!  But the experienced footplate crews would probably get a chuckle out my exploits and lessons learnt.  (I can see Friends of the Rail’s Nathan Berelowitz just sadly shaking his head with a wry smile…)

Patrick Ackerman was the duty firelighter on Saturday, with Lee Gates and Andreas Mathee as the trainees.  As mentioned in a previous news letter, fire-lighting is normally scheduled for 10am, but the fire was actually lit at 9am.  Sakkie ‘Sakana’ Kekana , although he’s a qualified fireman, is also paid to do locomotive preparation work during the week.  He drained the boiler down to a 1/3 of glass and cleaned out the front of the smokebox.  (You don’t light a fire in a tip-top full boiler as the water must expand.)  He had already gotten a barrow load of firewood ready.

With most of the dirty work already done, I fetched the wood barrow from alongside the ash pits and got started with laying out the new fire as the smokebox was still being scooped out with an old ice-cream container.  The coal was well forward in the tender, and apart from a stray coke can, the grate was quite clear.  I laid the coal bed a bit thick as I desired to fill in the front of the grate (to stop the draft short circuiting through the clean, open ash-less grate.) – and a bit of extra coal got in there through the practicing of bouncing the heel of the shovel against the lower firebox door flanges to spread the coal, some of the coal falling short.  The fire wood was laid with generous gaps – and two layers of paraffin soaked rags.  Andreas Mathee arrived early at 9:45 and was in time to see the fire actually being lit.  We all took a demo tour around the air compressor plant, which has quite a complicated start-up procedure.  It needs to have a mechanical lubricator topped up, then the condensate drains opened, the power turned on, fans and pumps turned on, before the compressor can be actually energized.  With the blower already inserted in the chimney, the new fire took quite nicely. 

The coal burnt quite well but the large gaps in the fire reduced the thermal mass.  Raising steam went without incident, although it was a bit slower than usual.  A part of the delay was that I topped the burning pile in two separate stages instead of the recommended one, as I was wary of smothering the fire with the thick bed that I had laid.  Patrick was on hand for advice and regular checks on progress as he was involved in the axle box work.  I had to be careful not to sprinkle the Bissel truck gang with coal while sweeping out the cab.  But the pressure gauge had lifted by 3:45pm, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. 

I spread the fire out a bit too early and ended up with a lustily roaring horse shoe of a fire burning at the sides of the firebox and the tapered front end under the fire arch, but it had only just started burning through in the middle and glowing coals at the rear under the firebox door.  And while I was spreading, I was listening to detailed firing procedures for a gas producer firebox, courtesy of John Rennie who was comfortably nattering away in the driver’s seat.  A tip from Patrick for next time – you can tell if the fire has burnt through by watching for a steady red glow through the air gaps in the ash pan.  (As that glow comes from underneath the fires.)  A useful tip that I hope will help me time the spreading better next time. 

That horse shoe fire was evident from the outside as the foundation ring washout plugs heated up fairly quickly, and the second set did so too, but the plugs for the siphon tubes, accessible from the backplate, weren’t too enthusiastic about warming.  This meant we were heating up the water from the bottom up and the siphon tubes weren’t really coming into their stride yet. 

I’ve stopped wearing gloves, to help build some calluses for shovel work – and it’s the first time I’ve glovelessly spread a fire with the pricker without burning myself.  You need to move with CONFIDENCE and AUTHORITY.  Gloves can be inconvenient as they reduce sensitivity and can slip under load, but a more serious hazard is that they can catch fire.  A handful of waste that somehow ignites can be instantly dropped onto the cab floor and stamped on to put it out, or simply kicked out the door way … but the delay in taking a burning glove off could cost you your skin.

I did get grumped at through the cab windows for putting a few scoops of raw coal down the left bank after being told to leave the fire alone after the horseshoe spread.  I was simultaneously annoyed and discouraged – as I was only trying to get some fresh coal burning to roll it over to the hot but dead patch in the center.  I eventually remembered that the plant-blower would tend to pull the fire back – and decided not to sulk.  As it so happened, Andreas asked to do the next fire spreading with the pricker, once that center patch got going.  I ended up doing other work and photographic patrols, and Andreas Mathee took over the fire.  Even Patrick Ackerman left his post and got busy doing fire-lighting of another kind, firing up the braai for some meats.  Attie de Necker got in on the act after polishing Dorothy’s nameplate (Pic F01 below) and the fire worked out beautifully by 2pm – an even, thin bright orange glowing bed of coals.  Steam comes out of the injector overflows before the pressure gauge moves off the zero pin, and it’s always a cheerful sign. 

Piet Steenkamp was the shed man and he put the finishing touches on the engine and had her out in the yard by 4:10, with both the firelighters, and Gerald (with i-pod earphones swinging gently), on board.  We had to pick up the entire set of coaches, pull them out and back them into the ‘front tracks’ opposite the club house.  This meant we had to proceed into the tightly curved balloon track with a full load.  The flanges didn’t squeal much but you could hear the loco flanges rubbing.  The locomotive only slipped once and Piet caught those drivers before they got away.  Unfortunately, the freshly cleaned ejector began to oxidize with the heat and ended up discolored with a magenta oxide layer.  Attie climbed on board halfway through the shunt and it was a crowded cab by the time we got past the coal dock.

Coaling was a short session as the tender was only half empty.  A bit of a twist was that engine was backed up with the cab door ways in line with the hydrant.  Andrew King was operating the scoop, as he is usually rostered to do.  Shaun Ackerman passed a thick bore hose right through the cab and sat on the step recess, and sprayed down the coal and the coal scoop.  (Pic F03 above)  We could teach ESKOM a few things about using wet coal.  It seems counter inductive, but it burns just fine in a mature fire and the water lays down the coal dust.  This results in a cleaner cab and a cleaner, happier crew.  You don’t do this so heavily on a mechanically stoked locomotive, however, as the wet coal tends to clog up the stoker worm. 

Aiden McCarthy had pitched up to take over the engine for the Sunday night-shift of loco minding.  He has a new toy, his camera monopod and had been taking pics and movies all weekend.  I thought he was brave to expose his camera to the double risk of airbourne coal grit and water spray.  (Pic F04 above)  Attie and Shaun did the wipe down.  A somewhat short Attie had to jump a bit to wipe off the tender.  But as the coal had been well damped, it wasn’t too dusty.  Shaun Ackerman used his height to advantage in the traditional boiler-at-the-coal dock wipe down. 

After the engine was backed right through the reception tracks and into the shed once more, Aiden took over quietly while the rest of us started packing up tools and thinking about a last cup of tea.  We traditionally do loco minding outdoors (which is usually quite pleasant)  – but the weather has been so miserable and cold at night, Aiden got to go inside.

PROJECT : The Chris Saayman Clean Loco Challenge :

Occasionally, friction has arisen between regular Reefsteamers work crews and drivers or firemen that aren’t regular attenders at the depot, but expect to be able to and welcome to spend time on the footplate.  And there has been, in the past, the inevitable club members who are never around when there’s work to be done, but pitch up when there’s an engine in steam and the train is ready to leave.  Probably every active steam locomotive preservation group faces the same problem.  Over the last year, these problems have diminished rapidly – we currently  have a good team with very few of those kinds of people still with us. 

Nonetheless, some of the footplate crews work on Saturdays and have to compensate in other ways.  So we ask that people make plans.  Some, like Andre van Dyk, with a busy IT job with lots of overtime, will often come even if for only a few hours.  Andre is a talented cook and often uses his limited depot time to feed the rest of the gang while they’re at work.  His food is always well worth looking forward to, and as the delicious smell wafts through the top shed and the workshop, it slowly drives us all nuts.  Another driver who has a tough time coming regularly on our depot Saturdays is Chris Saayman, as he is currently a contract driver for Metro Rail  to drive the commuter sets.

What the board members have tried to do is to encourage people who can’t regularly spend whole days at the depot to still come regardless, and to help out in minor maintenance short-tasks and especially with cleaning.  Steam locomotives, as much as we love them, are filthy things to operate and to work on – some regular extra cleaning never goes amiss.  Chris Saayman has taken this to heart and has issued a challenge to the rest of the club that Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ will be the cleanest locomotive on shed.

Chris Booysens and Timothy, his son had come for a visit and to join up with Reefsteamers.  Chris is an accomplished fireman on SAR and has many rewards and commendations.  The Reefsteamers board are keen to use him to train the young upcoming firemen in the finer points of firing.  They are to be trained in two batches.  Dawie ‘Swak hart’ Viljoen and Michael Thiel as the first batch and then refresher work for Patrick Ackerman and starting fireman training for Andreas Mathee.  (Patrick has privately fired and driven extensively at Sandstone Estates – he just needs to refresh his skills and get to know the main lines.)  It is hoped to get Dawie and Michael qualified for firing by the end of this year.)

The three men in the cab made short work of the brass polishing and cleaning of the boiler back head.  (the ‘dashboard’ of a steam locomotive, including the firebox door area.)  Chris Saayman was a bit drastic, using a fine-grained angle grinder disk to clean up the ejector.  Apart from removing stubborn marks, it was used to straighten and dress the edges and also the various hexagonal covers which tend to get battered over time.  The ejector polished up brightly but with some scratches too, and will need finer polishing.  It was a sociable time for these fellows, a good job too as the rest of the team were out by the crane and the Wehmeyer brothers working to repair a dropped window in the dining car.  But three in a locomotive cab is usually good company.

The fire lighting crew were very careful to use the blower the next day, to keep the smoke and hot back draft out the cab.  It wouldn’t do to face Chris’s wrath after blacking and sooting his brass polishing work.

Let’s see how this locomotive cleaning challenge pans out. 

PROJECT : Class 15CA No.2056 ‘Dorothy’ preparation :

As we routinely do before a locomotive is run on the mains, even on a so-called ‘short’ day trip, the topside and undercarriage roadworthy checks were done.  Our ‘Short’ Magaliesburg day trips are 96km out and another 96km back, which isn’t a short jaunt around the block.  Roadworthy is a job done with mixed emotions.  You know it must be done, and feel glad and proud when it’s done, but also hope you don’t find anything wrong.  The discipline pays off though as we Reefsteamers rarely have breakdowns on the line.  The extra work is sometimes about as welcome as a tapeworm, but it has to be done, even if we have to scramble and re-prioritize to get the job done. 

No way do we leave shed with a locomotive in a dangerous or unmaintained condition!

As this locomotive previously ran two weeks ago, the major lubrication was still sufficient and adjustments still valid.  But there’s always the minor lubrication and the visual inspection to be done.  This is a bit of a disconcerting progress for the uninitiated to watch, as the bolts and nuts are tested for looseness by rapping them sharply with a ball peen hammer, with a rapid, not-brutal flicking motion.  Finding various spanners to fit all those fasteners, many in confined spaces, would be too time consuming.  And fasteners with split pins, cotters and safety wires may not be easy fasteners on which to engage a spanner or a socket.  But a further hazard of testing the large exposed fasteners on a steam locomotive is that corrosion may bind the threads, even if the fastener is actually loose.  A sharp tap with a hammer will break the thread’s hold and that of any corrosion that has formed.  Any visible movement of course, requires immediate attention.  It’s normally a slight movement at the washer that gives a loose bolt away.

To the experienced ear, the sound of the hammer tap also indicates whether a bolt has worked loose, in a similar fashion to the response of the wheel tapper when he hears a dull clank, rather than a tight ring, when he works along the train and taps the coach or wagon wheels. 

Several cotters were tightened up underneath and one loose bolt was repaired on the right hand crosshead slide.  A number of loose bolts were found on the boiler barrel brace plates under the boiler.

The main job for pre-trip preparation though was the lubrication of the journal boxes for the tender, the newly reassembled front bogie bearings and those of the Bissel Truck.  (The trailing truck under the cab.)  Three people did the rounds, one of them being Andreas Mathee on fire lighting training duty.  The fire was already lit (an hour early) when he arrived at his rostered time, and as he has already serviced the tender journal boxes before, he was put to the work.  He was conveniently close to the firebox in the cab for fire-lighting instruction and the occasional peek at the fire’s progress.

The Class 15CA’s tender axles use ‘Plain Bearings’, sometimes misleadingly called ‘Friction Bearings’, in contrast to ‘Roller Bearings’ on more modern equipment.  This is the most old fashioned method of lubricating an axle journal on a rail vehicle.  The old, compacted woolen packing was removed and fresh packing inserted and packed firmly around the underside of the axle.  These can also be packed with small oil socks too.  When the axles have been repacked, a Reefsteamer fills up the journal oil can, an extra super-sized oval bodied oil can, and floods the journal boxes with oil.  The oil is left to soak into the wadding.  You can see the angled outer edge of the journal’s oil reservoir at the bottom of Pic A01 above.  The cotton waste acts as an oil wick, the tender’s axles being lubricated by the hydrodynamic wedging axle of the oil film that gets carried around on the machined axle journal surface.  It sounds chancy and primitive, but it actually works – with regular maintenance.

The Bissel Truck Axle Boxes (More correctly called ‘Journal Boxes’) work on a very similar principle.  (Pic A02 above)  But they entrain the oil in a tray, and use coarse woven packing-stuffed ‘socks’ as padded wicks to build up the oil film.  These are a bit more complicated to service as the trays (Which we call ‘Keeps’) have to be unbolted and slid out traversaly from the axle box frame.  Shaun, Patrick and Andreas worked on these.  The oil socks were found to be badly worn and torn – unusually for the relatively low mileage this locomotive has done since the last lubrication service.  She’s obviously a bit hard on her shoes.

A typical example of a worn and disemboweled oil sock is shown in Pic A03 above.  As luck would have it, we happen to be low on new axle box oil socks.  Michael Thiel was put to the task of squeezing out the old oil from used, intact examples of axle box oil socks.  (Pic A04 below)  He used the Top Shed workshop vice and made a glorious mess compressing those old socks as tight as he could and kneading the oil out the bulging tops and sides.  But at least that old vice ended up being very well lubricated!  Talk about dual function tasking.  The waste oil was collected in a chemical drum lid and eventually drained into the fire-lighter’s waste oil bin.  We don’t waste much at Reefsteamers….  The guts and the burst skins of the old haggi (1 haggis, 2 haggi) were also put aside for fire lighting – but they’d be used to help an embryonic fire along rather than the actual lighting process, as the waste oil is too heavy a grade to burn quickly and cleanly all on its own. 

The reason for the multitude of burst, dead woolly haggi was found when the circumferi of the chamfered axle ends themselves were felt.  (Pic A05 above)  Some of them were found to have slight nicks and dents in the outer edges – which were repeatedly ‘picking’ against the textile bags with every turn of the wheels, eventually de-threading and tearing them within the boxes.  It’s the steam locomotive equivalent of wearing holes in your socks through not trimming your toenails.  Patrick dressed the tender axles and later on, Shaun, went around with a fine file to clean up the axle ends on the Bissel trucks as well.  (Pic A06 above)

Patrick cleaned out the axle keeps with comments about using them as baking trays for loaves of bread.  (Pic A07 below)  This lead to a discussion of steam locomotive cuisine – apparently it’s possible to bake bread inside the smoke box!

The socks were stuffed in the grease store, with Gerald getting his first taste of 1:1 scale axle lubrication.  They were steeped in fresh MH oil and brought over to be inserted into the axle keeps.  (Pic A08 below)  The oil socks were found to be smaller than the ones that were removed, which presented problems in setting them out.  They need to be evenly packed, and the TRAILING edge, where the axle journal surface moves radically upwards in forward motion, needs to be 100% packed with oil feeding wadding.  As our locomotives frequently run tender-first at sustained distances at 30kph on the main lines (because they can’t be turned at some stations), we had to make sure the leading edge padding was also congruent.  The packing arrangement shown in pic A08, with two more socks inserted into the gaps, would run hot with the locomotive running backwards. 

This is why Michael was putting the squeeze on older, but intact oil socks to provide spares of the correct size. 

The Bissel Truck Axle Boxes were left disassembled while the advice of the Chief Engineer was sought.  Andrew got pounced on when he innocently came walking in.  Andrew eventually got the puzzle back together, using 11 new smaller socks in each one of the axle keeps.  You can see a freshly packed axle tray just oozing with fresh oil in Pic A09 above.  We’d be assured of not getting ‘hot boxes’ on the locomotive.  But the penalty for such a tightly packed tray was that it’s a two man job to get them back in again.  One person applies pressure to the tray and the other compresses the oil socks so they can fit under the axle.  (Pic A10 below)  Andreas and Andrew did this and managed with little trouble.

A locomotive boiler is only rigidly attached to the frames at the cylinder chest.  It is supported along the length of the frames by a series of traverse plates, called boiler barrel brace plates.  These plates are designed to buckle slightly when the boiler expands with its heat.  (You can actually see the gap close on the floor between the back plate and the floorboards, when the entire firebox physically moves backwards into the cab.  )  Those plates also startle the unwary locomotive minder when they pop and clank during the night as the boiler expands and contracts. 

The 10 bolts on each plate, in a semi circular arrangement, tend to work loose over time with all the thermal cycling.  It’s not considered to be a critical job as the brace plate serves to bear the weight of the boiler and spread it into the frames, rather than to hold the boiler down tightly.  Andrew and Shaun did the bolts on the left side, on an increasingly hot boiler.  An added twist is that the bolts have blank round heads rather than hex heads.  (As they are actually machine screws)  This requires use of a stilson wrench.  But as the clearances between the bolts and the curved boiler surface was small, only a small wrench could be used.  Because the leverages would be unmatched, the wrench operator had to jam the tapered wedge jaws or the end of the handle in some way, to be able to counter the torque provided by an open spanner and a 2 ft boiler tube as a cheater bay.  Lee Gates and Michael Thiel were assigned to do the job down the right hand side.  The wrench operator also had the task of removing the usually tightly jammed wrench after the bolts had been tightened up. 

The following day’s trip was achieved without the boiler falling off!

Pictures from around the shed :