SUBS: To all who have renewed - many thanks. To those who haven't - we hope you will and then continue to enjoy the benefits of the Club. To all who included a donation with their subs - remember that all donations over $5 are tax deductible so you can get some money off your tax and then Winsbottton Peters can't waste it. If you haven't paid by the end of March, this is the last newsletter you will receive. If the box above contains a red dot - you haven't paid.
LOCOS: The Price Cb passed its steam test on 10/1/97 and now has a certificate. Richard presently has-the crankshaft out and away being tested to see if it has a slight bend at one end. The brake system is complete with the new blocks and handbrake fitted. The loco made a trip to the very bottom of the line after its inspection on 10/1 and sounded very different to the Peckett and F185 when coming back up the hill
The Peckett and F185 both had their open boiler inspections passed on 10/1/97. The job of getting them ready for survey was made easier by more assistance. This time Andrew helped with some of the dirty work - tubes and smokebox, while Ian and Sid helped with opening up the boiler fittings, At the time of writing this, the boilers are nearly back together ready for testing.
Because of the trouble with fibreglass mudhole door joints not really being suitable for the pressure of our boilers, two different types of door joints are being tried. Hopefully these will cure the problems experienced last-year.
STANDARDS: If you think a lot of the standards we are expected to compile and work to today are a load of the proverbial - read on and see what started this standard!
How Standards Live Forever
The world's standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used ? Because that's the way the first railroads were built in England and most other early railroads were built by English engineers.
Why did the English build them like that ? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then ? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts ? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike ill the matter of' wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The standard railroad of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and Bureaucracies live forever.
SO, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly, right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war horses.
CAR-VAN: Bob has been continuing on where Bruce left off and has made new timber sections for the veranda roof on one end. This also meant some fancy tight curves for the corners and filler pieces beside the roof beams.
P D. GANG: They have returned and are pretty flat out. Richard and the gang boxed in, then mixed the concrete for the rail track through our workshop. The rails will sit on the concrete strips and the rest of the floor will be tied into these strips.
They are presently replacing completely three track sets in the centre road at the Junction. The rails and sleepers have been down for many years and are past due for replacement. With all new sleepers and rails, we should not have to touch this section for many years.
While they were mixing concrete, the opportunity was taken to concrete in a gate post for a gate across the new road around the yard at the Junction. A post to lock the gate still needs putting in and then the road will be able to be closed off and gate locked. The lock we intend using is a standard padlock.
SAFETY SCHEME The latest amendments LTSA require - or suggest - are still with our auditor. I have been in touch with the Land Transport about them and our operating licence has been extended to end of March.
ROTOWARO TERMINUS: The whole area has been graded and pegged to mark the level of filling required to give us the asked for grade of 1 in 150 rather than the present 1 in 50. The filling to be used is fireclay and will come from the new creek bed in the cutting which will take the main road to Huntly and divert the creek.
There seems to be a holdup with the filling as rumour has it that the dump trucks to do the job will not fit under the telephone cables. A trench digger and some rolls of cable were noted in the area early in February.
A swampy section also has to be dug out and filled with fireclay.
WELDER: Richard has been so busy gumming bits of steel together for the Cb that eventually the welder said it had enough work and only gave out an arc like a glow-worm. Bob Wiseman checked it out, repaired the fault and put a new lead on. In the meantime Richard has acquired a bigger welder so now we have two - You'll be able to weld two items at once now and halve the time taken to complete the Cb!
OPEN DAYS: Yes it is that time again. You will already have received WORK NOTICES FOR EASTER. The following two are
SUNDAY 6th APRIL
SUNDAY 4th May
We could do with more people to help on these days and badly need members willing to train as firemen, engine drivers, jigger drivers. Open days can be very enjoyable if we have enough people to operate all our working equipment. Surely more of you must be interested
WORKING BEES: Yes - these are still held on the 4th full weekend of each month. The next ones are:
MARCH 22nd & 23rd
APRIL 26th & 27th
MAY 24th & 25th
There is always heaps to do so no matter what your interest are - woodwork, painting, trackwork, engineering, you name it - even scrub-cutting if you like.
FIREWOOD: This still needs cutting up and stacking in the old water tanks. Sid arrived with his chainsaw one day but as it was raining, put in the time on the Peckett and F185.
A.G.M.: Don't forget this is planned for SATURDAY 15/3/97 at 2pm in the shop. It is important that members turn up and have your say.
SLEEPERS: During 1996 a record number of sleepers were replaced. This was 109 - 6x6 square sleepers, 113 - 1/2 round sleepers and 12 long point sleepers. We must keep up this level of sleeper replacement to ensure our track remains in good order. Most of these sleepers were replaced by our PD gang but need supervision by one of our members. All sleepers must be purchased at least 6 months in advance to allow the timber treatment time to cure so it doesn't atack the steel fastenings.
The old hardwood sleepers often look good enough to last for many years but the wood around the spikes or screws is often rotten allowing the fastenings to move so that the rails are not held tight.
All saleable old hardwood sleepers are sold for garden edging and the money put back into buying more sleepers.
The enclosed article was taken from the Model Railway magazine and shows how active Rotowaro was.
There is probably more coal railed from Rotowaro now - mostly to Glenbrook Steel Mill, but it is in 2 or 3 trains of C wagons rather than to a large number of customers in LA or LC wagons.
The rail scene at Rotowaro has changed again recently with a new crushing and conveyor system for Glenbrook coal situated where the old Renown siding was many years ago. This new system has a 1200 tonne hopper- enough to fill one train for Glenbrook. The trains for Glenbrook often don't come into the Rotowaro yard now.
MAINLINE STEAM Open day: As many members have indicated an interest in excursions (and we never seem to get our act together in time) we note with interest that 'Mainline Steam' will have their GARRETT in steam as part of their open day on SUNDAY 16th MARCH from 10:00 am - 4pm
Cost/charges $5.00 per adult OR $15.00 a car-full.
WHERE? from Beach Road up to Parnell Rise onto Parnell Road,
and onto Heather Street then first on left into
23 Cheshire St
CONDITIONS OF WORK! It has come to our General Manager's attention that the conditions on next page relate to office staff. No doubt he has thoughts of making his own up for operating staff on open days. We are aware that number 13 is irrelevant as a 'cup of tea' and a 'scone' is some-times far too generous an incentive to WORK! (play).
CONDITIONS OF WORK IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
The following notice was pinned to the back door in a cupboard in an office due to be demolished in London. The notice was DATED 1852.
OFFICE STAFF PRACTICE
1. GODLINESS, CLEANLINESS AND PUNCTUALITY ARE THE NECESSITIES OF A GOOD BUSINESS.
2. THIS FIRM HAS REDUCED THE HOURS OF WORK AND THE CLERICAL STAFF WILL NOW ONLY HAVE TO BE PRESENT BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 7:00 am AND 6:00 pm ON WEEKDAYS = 55 HOURS.
3. DAILY PRAYERS WILL BE HELD EACH MORNING IN THE MAIN OFFICE. THE CLERICAL STAFF WILL BE PRESENT.
4. CLOTHING MUST BE OF SOBER NATURE. The clerical staff will NOT DISPORT THEMSELVES IN RAIMENT OF BRIGHT COLOURS NOR WILL THEY WEAR HOSE UNLESS IN GOOD REPAIR.
5. OVERSHOES AND TOPCOATS MAY NOT BE WORN IN THE OFFICE BUT HEADWEAR MAY BE WORN IN INCLEMENT WEATHER.
6. A STOVE IS PROVED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CLERICAL STAFF. COAL and WOOD MUST BE KEPT IN THE LOCKER. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT EACH MEMBER OF THE CLERICAL STAFF BRING 4lb OF COAL EACH DAY DURING THE COLD WEATHER.
7. NO MEMBER OF THE CLERICAL STAFF MAY LEAVE WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM MR ............ CALLS OF NATURE ARE PERMITTED AND CLERICAL STAFF MAY USE THE GARDEN BELOW THE SECOND GATE. THIS AREA MUST BE KEPT IN GOOD ORDER.
8. NO TALKING IS ALLOWED DURING BUSINESS HOURS.
9. THE CRAVING OF TOBACCO, WINE OR SPIRITS IS A HUMAN WEAKNESS AND, AS SUCH, IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE CLERICAL STAFF.
10.NOW THAT THE HOURS HAVE BEEN DRASTICALLY REDUCED, THE PARTAKING OF FOOD IS ALLOWED BETWEEN 11:30 am and NOON BUT WORK WILL NOT ON ANY ACCOUNT CEASE.
11.MEMBERS OF THE CLERICAL STAFF WILL PROVIDE THEIR OWN PENS. A NEW SHARPENER IS AVAILABLE ON APPLICATION TO MR .........
12.MR ...... WILL APPOINT A SENIOR CLERK TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CLEANLINESS OF THE OFFICE AND PRIVATE OFFICE AND ALL BOYS AND JUNIORS WILL REPORT TO MR 40 minutes before PRAYERS AND REMAIN AFTER CLOSING HOURS. BRUSHES ETC ARE PROVIDED BY THE OWNERS.
13. THE NEW INCREASED WEEKLY WAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
BOYS UP TO 11 YEARS OF AGE - 1s 4d p.w.
BOYS UP TO 14 YEARS OF AGE - 2s 1d p.w.
JUNIORS - 4s 6d p.w.
JUNIOR CLERKS - 8s 7d p.w.
CLERKS - 10s 9d p.w.
SENIOR CLERKS (after 15 years with owner) - 1 GUINEA p.w.
14. THE OWNERS RECOGNISE THE GENEROSITY OF THE NEW LABOUR LAWS BUT WILL EXPECT A GREAT RISE IN THE OUTPUT OF WORK TO COMPENSATE FOR THESE NEAR UTOPIAN CONDITIONS.