OPEN DAYS: Steam locos have been used during open days now that the countryside is somewhat damper.
May open day and the Sunday of Queen's Birthday were fairly well patronised, but we didn't have many passengers on the Saturday afternoon". As a result, the committee has decided not to hold open days on the Saturday afternoon of Queen's Birthday weekends.
Queen's Birthday weekend also meant a shortage of members - or so we suspected - but HEAPS turned up and so a few other jobs get done as well. MANY THANKS!
CHARTER TRIPS: These continue to flood in and at times all spare days are booked up - even months ahead. During June, we have had three mornings of kindies two groups of oldies' from Whangarei on a three-day mystery tour plus another group.
To all who help many thanks. Teresa has managed to keep the shop open for at least part of these trips and has taken a "few more dollars!"
SAFETY SCHEME: Our auditors have been and looked over our paperwork. At the time of writing this, Rodney has given us his report but Jonesy's is still to come.
As part of the Government's policy of 'user pays' - Land Transport are currently discussing their proposed charges with all rail groups. We have made a second lot of submissions to their proposals so far - but if the charges come in - (and it seems pretty certain) they will - we can expect to pay $350.00 to $450.00 per year! If we need additional work from L.T.S.A., the charges COULD BE $109.00 PER HOUR.
All members involved in the operation or maintenance of our railway will be receiving a copy of our safety scheme. In some cases this will not be a complete safety scheme but only the sections that you are involved with. When you come to work in an area NOT ALREADY GIVEN TO YOU, the printing press will rattle into life with the required section.
Remember this is YOUR COPY. It's to be used to help with your work on the railway and NOT JUST TO GATHER DUST IN A CUPBOARD (OR UNDER YOUR BED!). It's the property of the club and must be returned should you leave the club.
It is for our railway and is quits different to the schemes of other railways in some areas.
A & G PRICE LOCOMOTIVE RESTORATION AWARD: This award was donated by A & G PRICE and is presented each year to the Federation member with what the judges consider the best steam loco restoration of the year.
This year it was suggested we should enter F 185 into the competition so the required write up was produced - and lo-and-behold the BUSH TRAMWAY CLUB WON THE AWARD!
This award is a tribute to the Club as a whole - as a lot of members contributed to the overhaul in some way at various times.
NEXT YEAR THE TROPHY MUST BE RETURNED but we get a small brass plate to attach to the loco.
F 185: Work is continuing on the electric lighting system as time permits. The headlight and tail-light both work and we are making up new brackets for the pressure gauge glass lights.
The spark arrestor has reached the stage where the outside is pretty well complete and we need to get the cast base and internal section welded together. Once this welding has been done - the last step of joining the two parts together can be done.
TO ALL CLUB MEMBERS: The Committee has received the following complaint: ....
My name is 'incinerator and I have been a club member for many years. Most members do not recognise me but I am the member at the Junction the most.(No-one really talks to me).
I live on paper and plastic mostly but recently some of you have been giving me tins and bottles to eat! These play up with my stomach and I cannot digest them properly, (if at all).
I also do not like being given greenery or partly eaten food to try and eat. I am also unable to digest these properly and as a result often have furry things with 1-o-n-g tails crawling round my inside eating this partly digested food.
If you continue to give me these things, don't be surprised if I "belch" and blow-out hot tins or broken bottles. I am getting old and my digestion isn't as good as some of my modern couzies but if you keep to my proper diet, I should be able to be a club member for a L-0-N-G time.
MY WORST ENEMIES SEEM TO BE PEOPLE WHO STAY IN A HOUSE CALLED 'THE SHANTY' AND THE LADIES FROM THE SHOP.
Please help protect my stomach AND digestion.
Yours etc.
Incinerator
CB 117: Richard continues his work on this. He is presently getting all the parts sorted out for the front bogie drive. He intends pouring new white metal bearings for the drive shaft. To be able to do this, he has had to turn some pieces of steel as mandrels to take the place of the axles, while the white metal is poured into the bearing shells.
We were able to locate an old crown wheel at Ferrymead Railway in Christchurch that they had brought back to original size to enable some new castings to be made for their CB. This crown wheel was brought up by a mate of Colin Ewing (who just happened to have a truck conveniently passing through Christchurch). THANKS COLIN!
SANDFILL: The continuing dry weather got Colin and Alan talking about repairing this and sorting out the track across it, so with Alan's f our-wheel -drive 'open air' cab truck, his small 'Fergy' tractor with blade and the Club's tractor with front end loader, set about the job. To get across to some clay for filling, a section of the track had to be removed and they suddenly found our tractor could lift, PUSH or PULL into or out of place as needed. With Richard's help, at the end of about five days work, the tracksets were in place on a new curve. To help with this Richard had extended the claws on an old jimcrow so it would take a hydraulic jack. Our air compressor and air operated tools were brought out of the murky dust and used to put in new sleepers where necessary. Next job -BALLAST, line up, and pack generally, get the track into its right place. The ballast had been stockpiled nearby when Coalcorp repaired the bad slump a few years ago. It was loaded into our ballast wagon and spread over the track. More ballast is needed but a few years ago, we obtained some and stockpiled it where "Bo's" workshop was. There should be more than enough ballast to completely ballast the sandfill area.
So for those that thought the sandfill would never get used, by trains again.....the day is not far off when we can run onto it with PASSENGER TRAINS again. We have already tried the Peckett on the curve.
The track between the sandfill and Glen Afton is another matter though!!!!!!!
WEED SPRAYING: Colin and Richard (once again) spent a day during May spraying the line from the Junction to Glen Afton. This time a much better kill has shown with even the ragwort looking sick!
WORKSHOP: Not a lot more to report on this. Bob and Richard have nearly completed the boxing for the machinery section floor. The track through the workshop is in use again.
CARVAN: Bob plods away with the roof of this and has used up many packets of pop-rivets. He recently found some more rotten wood on the curved roof of the veranda and has cut out the replacement pieces ready for fitting into place.
FIREWOOD: Sid has cut up the last of the old wood stockpiled by the storage tanks. This has all been stacked in the tanks.
W E L ENERGY TRUST 'GRANT': The main theme of getting a grant from the Trust is the use of more electricity. This year we applied for the money to buy a printer for our computer (which was donated to the Club end of last year) and were granted $900.00 for this. Our computer is being used (tried out says the typist) to speed up the work of keeping our accounts, records ate up-to-date and has future uses for amendments to our Safety Scheme. To get information onto paper a printer is obviously very necessary.
MANY THANKS to the W E L ENERGY TRUST for this grant.
WAIKATO DISTRICT COUNCIL 'GRANT': We have also been successful in getting a grant of $3000.00 for earthworks at the Junction. The main aim is to re-align our present driveway from the main road to do away with an area of sharp curves near where the side of the driveway slipped a few years ago.
We get some very LARGE BUSES visit the Junction now and this realigned driveway will make their visits much easier. They are often the full width of the present driveway and more than one has helped keep the side drain clean!!!
We have several other smaller jobs at the Junction needing doing while the digger is with us.
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION LEASE: Our lease with Dept. of Conservation over the top section of our line is due for renewal. DOC have sent us the renewal from and after many, many hours work and discussion with them, has been presented for processing.
GRANT APPLICATIONS: (and this type of work) take up an extremely large amount of behind-the-scenes time but the results are often worth our while. We don't always "win" but if the application is well set out with photos and a good case presented our chances are improved.
The extras that the club comes to need can only be obtained from grants - our normal revenue is well s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d with our running costs and some restoration programs. The amount of fixed charges (insurance, boiler inspection fees, soon perhaps LTSA charges, etc.) take an ever increasing bite out of our revenue.
P D GANG: These have been away on other projects pretty well since the last newsletter but returned towards the end of June. They spent a day with Bob at the '7 mile curve' on the re-sleepering and re-gauging job. Part of this work also includes deepening the track drain and clearing clay that has slid off the cutting over the years.
The second day was spent with Bob replacing sleepers above Downer's Crossing.
TRACKWORK: Even without the PD Gang, this work has continued. Bob, assisted by several others (including our new member Isaac Broome) at various times, has spent many days on the 7-mile curves.
We recently had some fishplates cast for the transition from the 55lb to 70lb rail. There have been several very rough joints above Downers Crossing where these different weight rails join. The new fishplates have smoothed the joints very well but at $30.00 odd each are not cheap and four are needed to join each trackset.
We have several more joints needing the same treatment. The patterns were made by Bob.
NEW MEMBERS: To all new members, welcome to the Club. Most new members are helping on our open days so it is good to get some 'new' faces showing up and wanting to learn how to run a railway.
We have received a postcard from America asking for anyone interested in swapping video tapes. If interested contact:
Saul Nadler
Railway Video Library
P 0 BOX 732
HILLSIDE NJ 07205 U.S.A.
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF RAIL SOCIETIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE: This year it was held at Wellington at the Central Institute of Technology in Trentham.
L T S A's manager gave a presentation on his justification for the proposed fee recovery. This was somewhat one-sided as the latest proposal happened to be '..in the mail..' to all groups.
These were sessions for main line operators and groups like ours, so we could talk over problems we have either individually or collectively.
There was some discussion on the need for some bulk purchase scheme to try and cut costs somewhat. Most groups purchase the same type of products - e.g. oil, diesel, paint, coal etc., and it was felt that a joint approach may see better deals all round.
There was a long session on having to live with our safety scheme. To help, L T S A ARE TO PRODUCE A GUIDELINE BOOKLET TO KEEP EVERYONE ON THE SAME TRACK. Once the draft is out, we will have an input into changes we think should be incorporated into the final edition,
As usual, visits to local groups were part of the program. These visits were to Steam Incorporated at Paekaikariki Railway Station, Tramway Museum at McKay's Crossing and the Southward Car Museum for dinner. A visit to Silverstream Railway followed on Monday afternoon. I must confess, these were my first visits to these museums for many years.
One 'out-of-town' member at the conference was ex-BTC member Tim Arnold, now a legal-eagle in Rarotonga. There his hobby is overhauling a 0-8-0 tender locomotive built in 1951 in Poland and taken to Rarotonga via NZ in 1992. The overhaul is largely a one family affair but is progressing well. There has never been a railway in Rarotonga before. Another interesting point was that there are NO LAWS OR REGULATIONS in Rarotonga for railways, boilers etc,. so many suggestions were made that perhaps we would all be better off up there!!!!!
Very interesting to talk with Tim on how he is going about the overhaul so far from the type of workshops we take for granted - eg large engineering works. Even a person to inspect his boiler had to come from NZ for a week or so!
WAIPARA VINTAGE FESTIVAL: This is to be held on Weka Pass Railway at Waipara - north of Christchurch - on the 20th and 21st SEPTEMBER 1997. THEY INTEND HAVING UP TO FIVE STEAM LOCOS IN STEAM ON THE LINE OVER THAT WEEKEND.
There are to be heaps of other attractions - traction engines, vintage cars and tractors. If you're not too sure about this railway, there are some excellent shoots on television recently of their A428 in The Pass on a passenger train in the snow.
AIR COMPRESSOR: Eric has donated a small air compressor for the workshop. This has apparently sat idle for many years.
SHANTY CAT: We have been 'adopted' by a young female cat. She arrived a few months ago, complete with two kittens. The black tom kitten soon went away and Richard adopted the female tabby kitten and has taken her home.
"Our cat" is getting more friendly by the week - particularly if she thinks you will feed her.
She normally lives around the Shanty but can be seen all over the yard at times.
If you are the last one to leave the Shanty at any time, have A GOOD LOOK to see she is not inside. She recently got locked in for five days. (I hear she has a bad habit of leaving surprises in a corner).
T R 217: Ken and his Grandson have completed their work on this and its first job was helping with the ballasting of the sandfill.
CARPARK: The member's carpark has been metalled. The metal was spread roughly by truck and much tidier by Richard using the tractor and towing a piece of rail. This carpark has used by buses to turn, but it is a bit soft in places. These soft spots and the road from the station. We get a lot of favourable comments about how the native bush is regenerating under the gorse. We recently had a visit from some Forest and Bird Society members to see how this was happening.
SPECIAL REMINDER: Don't forget Special Meeting Date (July 5th 10.00 AM) to be followed by our Sponsor's Day afternoon. Light lunch and afternoon tea for members attending this day.