ROTOWARO TERMINUS: In my last newsletter, I reported on a deal with Solid Energy over our proposed terminus at the Rotowaro end of our line. I am able to say that the deal as outlined has been agreed to by both parties and the sum of money suggested at the AGM has been paid to us.
Now that the paperwork side is over, the real work will start. This will be a tremendous job for us even allowing for the removal and resiting of the station being done by contractors. We hope that some of our members who we do not see very often or at all will pitch in and give a hand.
OPEN DAYS: All our open days so far have been well patronised and the two carriages are left coupled all day. At times we get very short of helpers - particularly in the shop - and could do with a few extras. The shortage of members helping on Open Days means that the ones working don't get a real break all day.
The next Open Days are:
7th July 10.30 to 3.30
4th August 10.30 to 3.30
1st Sept. 10.30 to 3.30
A lot of our helpers are arriving at the Junction almost as the first train is about to depart, This is really too late as a lot of work is needed beforehand getting things ready - be it in the shop or on the locos.
WEL ENERGY TRUST GRANT: We have been fortunate to receive a grant of $2000 from this trust. The grant we applied for is to upgrade our electrical supplies. At present we have two meters and therefore pay two lots of fixed charges. This grant will enable us to have a new supply from the power system installed into our loco shelter. This will back feed to the station and shops. We have already received a quote from a local electrical contracting firm for this part of our alterations. A new meter will be installed at the loco shelter. The rest of the grant will purchase most of the cable required to go from the loco shelter to the hall and connect onto its existing switchboard. This will allow the meter in the hall to be removed.
The whole idea originally came from Bob Wiseman and we have been quietly working towards this ever since.
SOCIAL EVENING: As a result of last year's social evening at the Blue Room, we were asked by many members to consider holding one annually. We would like to hold one for members and friends on the Saturday evening of Labour weekend, again at the Blue Rooms. We need to know how many and who would be interested in attending as soon as possible to see if it is worth organising. Mary - just make sure Eric doesn't decide to bank the loco fires that night!
We also need to know what you would like for a meal. There are new cooks at the Blue Rooms and I'm sure they will organise what we would like. Have a good think about this 'do' and let us know as soon as possible.
SECRETARY or TREASURER: The amount of paperwork required to run the club continues to increase despite all you read in the newspapers about a paperless society. As a result Teresa is finding the job of Secretary/Treasurer very time consuming to such an extent that it interferes with other interests -.like housework! She has asked that we find another Club member to take on one of the jobs. Is any one interested in taking on one of these jobs? Let us know if you are interested.
SWEATSHIRTS: We will shortly be getting a new batch of sweatshirts printed. These will be available to members at $25 each. If anyone wants to order one - let Teresa or Jan know.
CLUB LIBRARY: Jan has agreed to be Club Librarian. This library presently consists of 2 videos and a few railway books. One is a history of the Club and has been around for a while and the other is "The Rimutaka Incline - The world's last Fell Engine donated by Ken & Una Davies - If you would like to borrow these - See Jan.
Occasionally the club has items it considers surplus and has now made a policy of offering these items for sale to members before offering them to outsiders. At present we have two items
1] A goose neck point lever, complete.
2] A cab plate from Bb 619.
If any member wishes to make an offer, please contact us in writing.
We have already had offers from people outside the club for these items.
Cb: The saga of the crack in the boiler is hopefully at an end. We got more gear from the power station. and it showed up some cracks on the outside but not for the length seen from the inside. The next hurdle - what to do about it. Chewing gum didn't really seem good enough so an approach was made to the management of the power station to see if their welders would be able to do it. Luckily the answer was yes so a welder arrived at the Junction complete with welder, leads, grinder and LPG bottle. He rigged up the grinder and started grinding where we had marked the crack. He kept grinding and grinding and grinding each time discovering a crack where there shouldn't have been one. He finally ran out of the crack when he had ground a wide slot about 220---25Omm long and about 6---9mm wide. This was rather alarming as the loco had obviously run for some years in the latter part of its working life with this crack just holding together for part of its length and a 'mickey-mouse' weld repair for the rest of its length. However a few hours and nearly a full packet of rods later, Richard and the welder breathed a sigh of relief - the job was complete! The welder also seal welded the ends of the stays recently replaced.
The next job is to test the boiler by a hydraulic test and at the time of writing this newsletter, this still has to be done.
A lot of the steam and water pipework is now complete. The engine has been given a talking to to try and overcome a slight knock and being out of beat slightly. Richard is also retaping the holes in the foundation ring of the boiler where the ashpan bolts to.
The brake equipment is also being looked at with all large pins on the bogie frame being machined true and bolted back on the bogies.
F 185: Work continues on this as time permits. New window slides for the front of the cab have been cut out by 'Wingnut' and should be drilled and varnished soon allowing the windows to be fitted and keep the rain out.
CHARTER TRIPS: We have now had 3 this season. One a group of senior citizens having a day in the country.
Chris arranged an outing for some of his clients and all had an enjoyable day.
On 19/5, the Railway Enthusiasts Soc descended on us. I don't think any of us have been so busy at the Junction before. The ladies in the shop were so flat out, it reminded me of a scene at a Railway refreshment rooms in bygone years. We ran 4 trips in three hours, each with two photo stops and no stops for crew refreshments. All in all a very hectic day but a very welcome one. Thanks to all who turned up and helped you were certainly needed!
Speaking of Charter Trips - perhaps we could do something similar.
THE LAST RAILWAY JOURNEY.
RIPLEY - Believe it or not, plans are being drawn up for Britain's first burial ground for railway buffs in Ripley. The Midland Railway Trust at the Derbyshire town aims to set up a track-side cemetery and hold wakes in its dining cars. A planning application has been lodged with the borough council.
Mr Alan Calladine, from the Midland Railway centre, said the coffins will be taken to their final resting place by train. "The intention is to build a small station adjacent to the burial site so special trains will stop there." -PA
The last couple of months at the Junction have been extremely hectic.
After at least 10 years of planning and often saying the job was urgent, the road from the station to the Shanty has been dug out. We now have a large flat area being the car and wagon and paint stores that extends to behind the oil store. This job was done with a digger and was supervised and assisted by Bob. As soon as the telephone cables are buried the road and an area for members car park will be metalled. There should then be no reason to drive through the yard to the Shanty. DON'T TRY AND DRIVE ON THIS NEW ROAD UNTIL IT HAS BEEN METALLED - you'll need to be dug out!
XC WAGON: In last newsletter I mentioned some T & G timber we had purchased from a Trustbank grant. In between the rain towards the end of May, Bob managed to get half of one side of our track wagon re-clad. Some of the wooden framing also needed replacing.
DS LOCO: The loco is now back on its wheels, thanks to Mike and Wingnut. One section of the coupling rods has been put on so far.
P D GANG: They have spent a few more days at the Junction. Work continues on the roof of Eric's carriage and about half of the new plywood roof is in place. The chippie that was in the gang has now finished his time but several others are continuing with this.
They spent a day putting in new sleepers just below the pine trees at the Junction, another day chopping up wattle tree sections for firewood and another day on cleaning up the yard at the Junction.
WORKSHOP: Just when you thought this project was forgotten about, a well-driller was employed to drill the holes for the footings of the poles. This Is only possible as the DS loco could be moved out of the way.
All told, the 8 holes took about 3/4 hour to drill a bit quicker than digging by hand. The PD Gang have put the poles in the holes. The next job is to line the poles up and concrete them in place. At last, after many months of delays, a start has been made.
TRAP POINTS: The goose neck point lever for the trap points has been replaced. The new lever needs to be closed at the start of an Open Day and opened again at the end of the day. It is locked with a standard club padlock. This point must not be run through while it is open. An operating instruction for this point has been issued. Any abuse of the point will see it revert to the goose neck lever arrangement. This trap point was originally put in at NZR's request to save any run-away getting out of the Pukemiro yard. Even though we are no longer connected to NZR or Tranzrail, this point is still an important safety feature of our line.
STOP PRESS: Richard has decided to get modern and has installed a light in the toilet at the station. I'm not too sure if he likes to read a magazine while meditating or got sick of not knowing if it was toilet paper or a possum tail at hand on the wall!
WORKING BEES: As you can read in the newsletters or see when you visit the Junction, there is always heaps to do. Please come along and help. The next ones are:
July 27th & 28th
August 24th & 25th
September 21st & 22nd
THE FIRE CREW: It would seem we have two types of fire crews at the Junction. Those that put out the scrub fires accidently started by sparks from our locos and those who light fires deliberately and then watch them burn. A lot of our male members have had some practice with the first type so far this year and to them we are very grateful.
The second type is more concerning as it involves some of our female members and more junior members. With 'Little Flick' standing by - the remains of an old house near the Junction was set on fire and all those attending ran around throwing bits of wood on the fire to keep it burning. A swarm of resident bees did not take too kindly to this treatment but luckily did not attack anyone. The end result of this fire was a problem got rid of!
PINE NEEDLES: One of the problems with growing pine trees is the pine needles and when they fall on to a railway they rot and turn to earth and keep the water level up in the sleepers. Bob has spent many hours in past years raking them up and burning them. A couple of weeks ago, a couple of neighbours turned up with large sacks and asked if they could take some to add to their compost bins. An offer like this doesn't happen very often so they were told to help themselves as often as they liked.
FIRST AID: The committee has taken a new approach to First Aid on open days as we only have a very limited number of First Aiders in the club. We are now getting the Huntly St Johns to assist on open days. So far the only call for them has been a cinder in a child's eye. If you see anyone needing attention, contact the St Johns on duty at the Junction. Don't forget to fill out our accident report for anything except minor injuries.
One of our resident first-aiders, Bruce, needed attention recently. He was trying out the new trap point lever when it appeared to leap out and hit him in the nose - or was it a case of getting your nose too close!
PATTERNS: Over a large number of years, we have regularly visited A & G Prices in search of plans for our equipment or patterns when we have needed to get some castings made. As a result of these visits, we were told some years ago that if a big clean out of old patterns came about we would be contacted. About the middle of May I received a phone call to take a large trailer and collect some patterns.
The main patterns store at Prices contains literally millions of patterns from small oil cups to large flywheels. All patterns that have not been used for 12 years are to be thrown out.
So far I have brought back and stored at the Junction nearly all brake block patterns - some for locos long gone but which could be modified for other locos. I have also looked for and collected likely patterns in State Coals and Portland Cement racks. I have to make at least one more visit as there are heaps of tyre and wheel centre patterns. A large selection of firebar patterns known to have been the store about 5 years ago is no longer to be seen. I have been warned that a lot more patterns were stored in a very old hotel on Prices boundary - the Royal. This hotel is also being cleaned out - returned to the owners and then auctioned.
Some of the patterns obtained will be useful to other rail societies and if no use to us will be given to them.
The last major cleanout was in the early 60's and saw most of the patterns for Prices steam locos thrown out. Rather surprisingly a pattern I found on the side of the staircase in the main pattern store was the smokebox front for a CB!
We now have brake block patterns for all our steam locos.
TRACTOR: It is surprising how you come to rely on various items of equipment at the railway. One item is our tractor, which is not often mentioned but is in frequent use. Recently a pin in the steering broke and the tractor could not be shifted. Luckily it was just clear of the railway lines. For a while nothing was done to repair it although an alternative stronger front assembly was looked for.
Suddenly we found ourselves getting short of coal and with charter trips and more open days looming, more coal was needed. The tractor is needed to load coal from where the truck delivers it into our storage wagon.
Colin Ewing and Richard dismantled the front assembly, removed the broken pin, made a new pin, reassembled everything and got the tractor mobile again.