Open days: August, September and October Open Days went off pretty well with our takings being average-to-good, depending on the weather. Two carriages have been in use and a couple of trips three could have been used - if we had three overhauled!
We were very short of help from members on a couple of days. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP PLEASE TURN UP AND JOIN IN. We are short of a 'trainee' fireman and a 'trainee' diesel loco driver - if interested please contact me. The pay's not too good and the hours not too long.
It must be remembered that the railway can only be run by Club Members being interested enough to learn various aspects of operating a railway. Your help is needed and I'm sure you'll get heaps of satisfaction out of its
To all who turn up regularly - MANY THANKS - without you the railway couldn't continue.
Weather: The wet weather has continued with some very heavy downpours being noticed. The repaired 'sandfill' has settled a small amount on one side but nothing to be alarmed about.
Successes: For a change the Club has had some success in some directions:
We were granted $1500 by Trustbank to be spent on tongue-and-groove timber for the XP and Xc wagons.
We were granted $500 by Waikato District Council towards a saw-bench for our wood-work department.
Huntly Power Station sponsored us for four large batteries for locos '401' and '402'.
Mike has nearly completed the overhaul of 'TR 217' and it is now at the stage of being useable again.
'F 185' has been in steam a couple of times! - Also made it to the front page of the "Waikato Times" (in colour).
Charter trips: These have continued. We hosted the Auckland branch of NZ RAILWAY & LOCO SOCIETY recently and they really enjoyed their time with us. They had lunch and a certain amount of refreshments at Waingaro before visiting us. They stayed for approx. 2 hours and were served afternoon tea.
Most charter trips have been for kindergartens. One mother even asked me if I would like ot keep a few of the kids. That's the good thing about these trips - the kids always go home.
P D Gang: We still get them regularly. They have completed ballasting the 'fern cutting' above Downers Crossing and clearing scrub around there. They are presently clearing the sides of the driveway to the station. Thanks to their work, the Junction station yard is much drier even after heavy rain.
One gang has spent two days putting in new sleepers between the Junction and Downers Crossing. Although the old sleepers appear very solid, the timber around the screw or spikes is starting to rot, leaving the fastenings loose - to a minor extent.
They have also been clearing the sides of the line above the sandfill.
Workshop: The building consent for this was approved after several alterations to the main poles. Council wanted deeper footings and a slightly larger diameter pole.
The large lathe needs someone to undertake the job of getting it out of the road. Much talk has gone on as to how it should be shifted but so far it is still in the way.
Mike has been working on getting the 'D's' back on its wheels. The side brake out of one of the oil boxes that fit under the axle bearing. He has welded this so hopefully it should be in place soon.
C B: The steam brake cylinder, piston and some of the brake rigging has been refitted. Steel has been purchased to make new bolsters for the bogies. The old bolsters were badly bent. New springs for the bogies are also being obtained.
Richard's effort at the moment has been to clean up the axle journals for one bogie. To do this, he has built a lathe out of railway rail, channel iron, odd bits of steel, 4 roller bearings, an electric motor and V-belt. To turn the journals he has been using a disc grinder bolted to the cross slide off a large lathe. He tried a ?normal' lathe tool but the lathe wasn't running smooth enough. The whole lot rumbles around - shakes the old hall and generally makes a lot of noise. It has even caused some of the resident possums to peer out of the holes in the walls to see what all the noise and vibration is about.
One journal has been completed and another well on the way. He has also spent a lot of time cleaning rust off the new bunker and painted it.
F 185: Richard fitted the blower pipe in the smokebox and put the firebars in. lan has tidied up a lot of holes in the bunkers. Trev and myself spent two days doing all sorts of small jobs and finally the boiler was ready for filling. We only had enough spare water to fill the boiler as there was an Open Day in a couple of days.
It soon became obvious that there was a bad leak either from the regulator or the gasket between the regulator valve assembly and dry pipe.
We steamed it up again for the October open day, but as we had had a lot of rain, were able to fill the water tank. We were able to test the injectors, one went good but the other needs the steam pipe heating and pulling into proper line. The steam blow was still present but we were able to chuff up the yard and load up with coal and then back into the shed. This was the first time the loco had moved under its own steam for about seven years!
A week later Ian and I took the top off the dome, removed the regulator valve assembly and found the gasket out-of-place. This was replaced and all bolted back together. The shuttle valve on the Westinghouse air compressor was found rusted up so was removed and cleaned up.
Teresa and Jan were busy cleaning the cow catcher and priming it. It has several bent and badly rusted pieces that will be replaced before the cowcatcher is put back on the loco. There is still lots of work to do on this loco but at least most of the work has been completed.
I'm sorry Richard but it looks as though we've beaten you! Perhaps you should take the suggestion of this cartoon.
Safety system: I am pleased to be able to tell you that Land Transport have recently interviewed and appointed safety auditors for our club. We are also fortunate that they are the two nominated by us. Our present Inspector Engineer - Rodney Bayley is our Civil Auditor and Peter Jones will audit the rest of the safety scheme. These are very important people to the Club but they can only audit what you have put down on paper. Some members are still forgetful or can't be bothered filling out the loco running books or booking faults. These are legal requirements and written into our safety scheme.
The safety scheme itself is progressing well and our Auditors have some parts of it for checking to see if they find it acceptable. At present, I am working on the maintenance section and it is about two-thirds complete.
TR 217: Mike has completed unravelling his different coloured lengths of spaghetti, hooked it all up and lo-and-behold, press the button, pull a string and, hopefully, it will roar into life. This overhaul has been a long and frustrating one for Mike and I'm certain he often felt like shunting it over a bank!!!
Water system: The Junction has gone very modern with its water system. We purchased an additional 5000 litre plastic water tank and put it on the stand behind the loco shelter. Richard ran the down pipe so that all water now goes into this tank. He plumbed a new electric pump into these tanks and connected it into the 3" main that runs across the yard from the concrete tank on the hill and also feeds the loco hydrant. This pump now pumps from the tanks behind the shelter into the concrete tank. He has also fitted a higher capacity electric pump to the tank at the old hall, and plumbed this into the 3" main across the yard.
There is no need to keep the water wagon in the shed to catch the rain from half the shed and then pump it up to the concrete tank. As a result of this, TR 217 is presently being kept under cover.
Car van: Carol has done a bit more sanding-down of this. Bruce has replaced all rotten tongue-and-groove.
Open days: The last one for 1995 will be held on December 3rd.
PLEASE fill out the attached work notice and return it. After the Open day, we will have the usual B.B.Q. Please bring your salads etc. and they will be put on the table as usual.
Back road: After a lot of talk and even some threats to do so, Trev and Terry spent most of a day shunting things around to get a better line up of vehicles opposite the station. We have already received many favourable comments about the new lineup.
Working bees: These are still held on the 4th weekend of every month. The next ones will be:
November 25 & 26
December 23 & 24
January 27 & 28
Newsletters: After many years of wearing her fingers to the bone Maxine has had to give up typing them. She has been finding her spare time getting less and less for some months. The Club owes a great deal to Maxine for her typing over the years. Mary will now be trying to find enough time to do this typing!
Overseas travellers:
Colin and Nell Ewing have been visiting their daughter in Aussie while Bob and Ruth Mann have been visiting Japan. No one seemed to want their bags carried as I wasn't asked.
Trees: Another 100 or so pines have been planted on an unstable area near the sandfill. Approx. 40 willow cuttings have also been put in the slip beside the driveway to the Junction. A collection of old pine trees on the Club's land at Glen Afton have been removed, cut up mainly into sleepers and are presently being treated.
Sign: Last year we received a Trustbank Grant of $500 towards signs. We have spent this money and some from general funds, on a large advertising sign beside the Great South Road just south of Huntly. The sign has been erected by Ian (helped by Teresa and Paula) on land owned by their daughter and son-in-law.
A merry Christmas and safe and happy new year.