Once again a tremendous amount has happened since the last Newsletter - if the work you have done isn't mentioned, that's probably because 1 haven't heard about it.
OPEN DAYS: All open days have been very well patronised - even though the October one was extremely wet! The very welcome takings have helped us push ahead with some restoration jobs and purchases.
Many thanks to ALL who help.
CHARTER TRIPS: These still continue to pour in and for September we made very close to the takings of September's and October's open days!
Erie and Andrew have been helping out as drivers when I haven't been available. Eric and Mary came down for one charter the day before - lit up early, then waited - and waited, and waited .... Two hours after the group should have been at the Junction, they gave up and put the loco away.
Thanks to all who help with these trips - they certainly help our bank balance.
ROTOWARO STATION: At the time of writing this, the station is still at Rotowaro awaiting reasonably FINE WEATHER for the contractors to get stuck in: (Probably by the time you read this, it will be on site at the Junction).
The hassles have hopefully finished as far as the red tape and permits are concerned. Andrew has had many urgent calls to sort out some aspect of the station that the 'powers that be' wanted to know. One of these was about wheelchair access to the station - quickly sorted out when they were told to look at the plan - and in particular the double doors!
DIGGER-TRACTOR: For some time, we have considered buying a better tractor (complete with digger and front-end loader). Mike found one in Hamilton that could 'possibly be purchased for a reasonable price'. It was checked by Alan and the Committee decided to s-t-r-e-t-c----h the bank balance and buy it. Colin Ewing and Alan have been having a "play" with it to see how well it works and how 'useful' it could be!!!
Alan had it at his place in Glen Afton to do a few small jobs on it perhaps this is the reason he had it at home! 1 saw his grass cut about the time he had the tractor home-but don't remember buying, a grass-cutting attachment!
Our other tractor packed a sad and needed repairs. The thrust bearing in the clutch packed up and the steering to the front axle threw a wobbly. Alan towed it up to his place with his little 'Fergy' with Colin Ewing steering our tractor. It was rather a 'struggle' getting up the steep hill to Glen Afton. The clutch was repaired and a new front axle fitted by Colin and Alan. It does not need a chain block rather than the steering-wheel now!
LOCOMOTIVES:
CB 117 - Thanks to those who have donated towards the restoration fund for this loco. Remember - ALL DONATIONS OVER $5.00 HELP KEEP SOME OF YOUR TAX 0UT OF WINS TONE'S P0CKETS!
We have had the crown wheels cast. Richard machined two for the front bogie - rather an awkward job as there were about five different precision fits needed to ensure the crown-wheels sat correctly. He says he forgot all engineering learn't, watched or thought about at the Junction and went back to old fashioned engineering. In the next breath he told me the only way he could cut the crown wheels in half to fit on the carrier was to use a GAS TORCH! The crown wheels are cast as one piece but have to be cut in half to get them on the carrier.
He has now pressed the pinions onto the driveshaft, fitted the crown-wheels and coupled the front bogie and drive shaft up to the engine.
During a test run to the bottom end of the railway and back, he reports that both bogies turned in the right directions! , rather than one wanting to drive backwards and the other forwards.
Part of the work on the bogies was having to pour white metal into the bearings for the axles and drive shaft bearing.
The next challenge - do the same for the rear bogie!
F 185:- The new cast steel base for the funnel has been cast and 'Wingnut' is arranging to have the internal funnel pipe welded to the base - aren't you lan???
Eric, Sid and myself have been stopping air leaks on the pipework for the air brakes. This has been a long job but is necessary to pass the air leakage test that form part of our Safety Scheme.
These tests have been satisfactory.
PECKETT - Mike has been busy making a balloon stack arrestor for this loco at the same time as the one for F 185. Part of the spark arrestor was in place recently to allow it to be fitted to the present funnel and the next section measured and cut to size. Both pieces have been taken off for more welding.
A number of air leaks were also found on the air brake pipework on this loco and most have been fixed. One of the air leaking tests has been passed.
CARRIAGES: Ian and myself have been busy checking and repairing air leaks on the Mines car and No3 car. Both carriages have now passed their air leakage tests. The brake pistons have been removed, checked for cracks in the leather cup washers, greased and refitted.
CAR VAN - Bob continues work on the car-van and now has the second veranda framework almost completed. Brian has put some varnish on the interior plywood and is about to put more on - aren't you Brian??!!
TR 217: Ken continues to battle with replacing the clutch cylinders and pipework for this loco.
P D GANGS: We have had many visits from them lately as a lot of their other jobs are too wet to get at. Not that we are complaining. They have been putting in a lot of new sleepers near the sand-fill, at the Junction and near Hangipipi Road. They have spent three days with Bob re-gauging the rather sharp curve as you leave the Junction going towards Glen Afton. Some sleepers are also being replaced here.
They did an extremely good day's work replacing all point sleepers, under the point onto the pit. This was one of their 'best days work' on the railway ever.
This job on the point was assisted by Eric and Richard.
The Gang have also cleaned most drains along the yard at the Junction and cleared a lot of gorse from a fenceline near Hangapipi Road.
TRACKWORK: Other trackwork has included re-sleepering near the sandfill by Bob and Richard.
During September we arranged with Solid Energy to BUY some 55 lb tracksets from their sidings in Rotowaro Yard. These tracksets had been lifted and stacked for some years, so it was possible to drive a truck right beside them and load them on board. We arranged with a cartage contractor in Hamilton (YES, WE PAID!), that had a truck and hiab large enough to lift them whole, to transport them on Saturday 6th September. The aim was to use these tracksets to form the main line of our new terminus. This was accomplished with the tracksets roughly laid in place.
Thanks to Colin E, Alan, Bob, Wingnut and Mike ('supervised' by Alan who was there in an 'advisory capacity' that day, due to an injured knee), for their help with this work. Next job is to join these up to the lower end of our present main line, then line them up properly and see about some ballast.
We have also arranged with Solid Energy for 3 X 551b turnouts from their Allison screens for use in our new terminus.
ROTOWARO YARD: This was officially closed on 12th August 1997 by Tranzrail. 5 kms of track and points are soon to be removed and the whole area stripped of soil and clay for the Open Cast Mine. Late in August, the new main road from Huntly to the Junction and beyond was opened. This new road bypasses the Rotowaro township area and is laid across an area that was recently an opencast mine! The old main road and all roads around Rotowaro township have had all tarseal and metal dug up for internal roading around the mines.
Well worth a trip out to the Junction just to see the area previously not seen from the road!
CALENDARS: We have for sale the following calendars.
R.E.S $12.00
Loco Engineers $13.50
N Z R & L S (desk type) $12.00
NZR & LS(wall) $19.95
These make very good Christmas presents! Cheques please with orders.
FIREWOOD: We still have a large stack of pallets that need cutting up for light-up wood. Any offers to cut these up????
Our supply of light-up wood has taken a real hammering in the last few months.
OPEN DAYS: The next and last few for the year are: -
2nd November
7th December
PLEASE FILL OUT THE ATTACHED WORK NOTICE AND RETURN IT.
SOCIAL EVENTS: Last Newsletter mentioned a social get-together on Saturday September 6th - this coincided with an extremely busy day at the Junction - The 'ladies' really excelled themselves and put on a ROAST DINNER AND PUDDING for all present. This was very well received and at least one member was seen with TWO LARGE HELPINGS of the main course. This was followed by a film evening of some of Eric's movies. All-in-all an excellent day AND evening! There were some rather tired members that went home that night and then turned up next day for Open Day!!!
It is planned to have our usual BBQ and get together after the last train on December 7th : PLEASE NOTE THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR!
WORKING BEES: The next ones will be held on:
OCTOBER - Labour Weekend (also planned Open Days)
NOVEMBER - 22nd and 23rd.
DECEMBER- 27th and 28th.
We can ALWAYS USE MORE HANDS to do the ever increasing amount of work needed on our railway.
ALSO NOTE: ANDREW WILL NEED EXTRA HELP IN THE COMPLETION OF RESTORATION WORK ON STATION BUILDING IN READINESS FOR OUR FIRST 1998 OPERATING DAY!!!!! Please let him know what you are prepared to do AND WHEN.
MODEL ENGINEERS EXPO: Tauranga Model Engineers intend holding an international model expo at their railway at Memorial Park, Tauranga between 8 - 12th January 1998. They are hoping for a very large turnout of model locus, boats and possibly a traction engine or two!!!
I'm not too sure if by 'international' they mean models from the South Island or
not? Anyway it should be a good show.
RADIOS: Alan has arranged and fitted a new system. It is presently in the 'temporary station masters office' at the Junction - (the cab of Diesel loco 401) and gets used every open day by Ken and Brian.
SAFETY SCHEME: our Auditors visited us during our Open Day on 7th September complete with pens and pads of paper. They inspected our paper work particularly brake inspections, talked to all sorts of members in various jobs, and checked the repairs and re-sleepering carried out near the sandfill after the derailment.
RE-STRUCTURING: As part of the 're-structuring' at Huntly Power Station ninety-five were made redundant, including some of our members. As I was one of them, the Club paperwork now has to be fitted in when time is available at home. (Typist comments ... "It will NEVER be possible for Colin to 'retire'.. there's not enough time to do so!!!! We all wish you well with future employment prospects Colin and of course BUSH TRAMWAY WORK COMES FIRST!!!!!)
However, around this time Jan and myself managed a long arranged short holiday in Fiji. Unfortunately for Jan, our visit to Lautoka was on a Sunday, so all shops were closed! The only thing working was the sugar mill and of course its narrow gauge railway! The locos on this railway are all 6-wheel diesels and 90% of the wagons 4-wheel roller bearing cane wagons. I did see a few bogie wagons for carrying ballast or refined sugar.
The cane trains themselves get along at a fair speed - we saw three long cane trains arriving at the mill - one consisted of 108 cane wagons. None of the wagons have brakes of any kind!
Judging by the number of wagons carefully parked on their sides near level crossing, there must be a large number of level crossing accidents!
The main lines are all 66 lb/yard rail rolled by BHP. All joints on these lines have extra long fishplates with six bolts rather than our standard four bolts. A lot of joints are now welded and there is a lot of concrete sleepers being put in.
We saw about eight locos out and about that day - some waiting while cane was loaded and some disappearing down very light weight branch lines
- A lot of cane wagons are taken to the cane fields for loading rather than bring the cane to the railway. This is accomplished by using a tractor with a trailer with tracks on it and a ramp. The wagon is loaded on the trailer via the ramp and taken to the cane fields. It is then placed on a portable trackset in the field while the tractor returns for another wagon - or takes a loaded wagon back.
At one stage we noticed a tractor and trailer driving along the railway. Out in front, the tractor-driver had his kids placing cane dropped off the cane trains at right angles to the rails. As the tractor was driven along the railway, more of his family loaded the stacked cane onto the trailer - talk about-free enterprise!
The mill must do very heavy overhauls on their railway equipment as I noticed several pallets of brand new tyres for their locos.
The only steam loco we saw was in front of the hotel opposite Nadi airport we only spotted it as we shot past in one of the local buses.
There is a tourist train that runs near Sigatoka - about half way between Nadi and Suva but this was up on blocks when we went past.
JUNCTION DRIVEWAY: The drive up to the Junction has been completed. Colin used Alan's Fergy with a rear grader blade to push truckloads of rock onto the newer sections. He was assisted at times by a PD worker who kept making 'remarks' about the 'useless machinery' we were using - the PD Worker's machinery - A SHOVEL!
WELCOME ABOARD: Greetings to our newest Members, Vern and Heather Hoggard, Bryan Beddis and Bruce Lusby. We also hear that two of our members are not in the best of health, we wish them a speedy and full recovery.
CONGRTULATIONS extended to Chris and Julie for the arrival of their second son.
As this will be the last newsletter before Christmas - we hope Santa is kind to everyone and you enjoy yourselves during the festive season.
I have just heard that a two-year-old riding on our train last open day and 'keen'
On ' Thomas the Tank Engine' was heard to say in a loud voice to his mother -
"Look, here comes the fat controller". (Our head guard was coming through the train!)