RN 49 - Steam shed weekly report - 06 April 2005

GENERAL:

This week was a very short week due to the Public Holiday on Monday and due to the training that the guys attended in Johannesburg last Friday. All except Ben left early last Friday and did enjoy the weekend on the 3'6" locomotives. They fired on a 15F and a 12 AR.

WAGON REPORT:

Ben and I tackled the uncompleted B wagon last Friday. Ben finished the descaling
work on the B wagon and I did the spray work on it. By the end of the day, the B wagon was completely sprayed, stencilled and new vacuum hoses and handbrake wheels were fitted.

Ben and Henk used the forklift on Tuesday to place two bogies on the rail. Ben descaled them completely and fitted new bearings into the axle boxes. New axle box wool was used and he packed the boxes. He descaled a vacuum chamber tank for the B wagon, and it will be fitted tomorrow. The B wagon was lifted and the old bogies were removed and the new ones were fitted back. This B wagon will go onto the pit tomorrow and the brake gear will be coupled and it will then be vacuum brake tested and be ready to use.

Our next wagon will be a flat wagon with a wooden floor. We already have a flat wagon that was descaled some time ago and will not need much work to complete it.

LOCOMOTIVE REPORT:

While all the guys were in Johannesburg, I used Oupa and Petrus to start with the descaling work on locomotive no.88.

I moved Arno from the wagons to the locomotives to evaluate his performance and I am very pleased to see the progress he made this week. He started with the second unit of 88 this week. He stripped it almost completely, removed the driving and pony wheels. This unit is also standing on blocks like its sister unit. Arno will now strip the rest and will then start with the descaling and cleaning of all the parts.

Henry stripped the rest of his unit and is currently busy descaling and cleaning the unit.

THE TANKS:

Derrick water tested the tank after it was painted with bituaseal paint. He cut out the side of the tank and welded in a new floor for the coal bunker. Oupa is almost finished with the descaling work on the outside of the tank and bunker.

THE BOILER: Henk started with the boiler and removed the clack box and turrett that will be cleaned and overhauled to place back at a later stage. He broke out the remaining brick arch and removed all the existing fire bars and centre runner .He stripped of the complete ash pan and removed it underneath the boiler. Henk also removed the firebox doors and started to take out all the boiler studs.

THE BARCLAY:

Des fitted a new blower pipe to the Barclay. He made a ring blower pipe that fits around the blast pipe cap. He is also busy with making the same for the ejector exhaust and its success will be tested soon. Des made a crosshead extractor to assist Arno and Henry to remove the piston rods from the crossheads.

LOCOMOTIVES IN FICKSBURG:

Henry and Ben prepared all the locomotives in the Ficksburg shed for shunting. Spoornet arrived at 10h00. All the locomotives had to be shunted one by one to the side of the shed due to the limited space to the gates of the mills. The GMAM and the Rhodesian DE2 was shunted to the other side of the shed. The three steam locomotives were then shunted back into the shed. The GMAM will be prepared tomorrow for towing to Bloemfontein in next week.

GENERAL: Petrus and Oupa moved the coal that was offloaded, to the coal shed. Arno is busy machining a new housing for one of our descalers. The spring inside wore out the sides so much that the spring came out.

Three and a half wagons were stencilled this week. I am going to try my best to get more done this coming week. It is extremely difficult to be everywhere and to do the stencilling. It takes up a lot of time, because a big part of the wagon must be pasted with newspaper. Once they are stencilled, it will help me a lot to keep track of what work is done to what wagon. At the same time we shall pack the boxes with new wool.

ITEMS NEEDED:

Cream paint for the PE coach.
Yellow paint for wagon handrails and steps.
Masking tape for stencilling
Thinners for spray painting
Acetylene and Oxygen
Engine oil
We use about 8 litres of thinners in the paint to do spray work on one B wagon.
The acetylene and oxygen is being used a lot since we started to strip No 88.
I received all the other items that were needed. All the items are numbered and recorded on my computer. The guys sign out each and everything they use and must also state for what reason it is used. These lists are available at anytime if required.

WEEKLY PLANNING: 1.) Remove connecting rods of the GMAM 2.) To finish the B wagon 2926 3.) To start with flat wagon 4.) To do the necessary work on the DE2 5.) To coal all the locomotives for the coming tour. 6.) To finish the slide bar and crosshead slippers of the Barclay. 7.) To go on with the 88's tanks and units 8.) To stencil wagons and to pack the boxes 9.) To fit all the water column pipes 10.) To paint the PE coach 11.) To fit two handrails to the dining car 12.) Jemina will clean all the coaches 13.) To fill sand boxes with sand 14.) To rectify points at Mooihoek. 15.) BSA Railcar.