The VERY BEST of the season's greetings to each of our members. This Club extends these also to our numerous Sponsors - thank you all for support in the many guises. Also, special get-well thoughts for some of our members who are not in the best of health currently - a healthy New Year to you all.
So Yes! it's the start of a new calendar year and the start of a new financial year for the club. A club subscription renewal notice is enclosed. We hope all members will renew their subs - and hopefully include a donation - and early this year, rather than later!
This year we hope to make much progress with the overhaul of The Peckett and complete boiler repairs to CB 117. Both of these jobs are very dependent on obtaining more grant funding.
We would also like to complete the overhaul of the Mines carriage - year 2002 saw progress in some directions on this car and very little progress in another direction.
OPEN DAYS: Both November and December open days saw very good turnouts of passengers - in fact the usually "quiet" last months of the year, saw very good passenger numbers indeed. December was made good by some club outings: Morris 8 Club, Waikato Military Vehicle Clubs and an unexpected visit from some motor cycle enthusiasts. Colin & Matthew (aided by Mark) Swabey were 'chief snag burners' for the day. Wet weather meant F185 could be used on the trains during November open day - but extremely dry weather for December restricted it to Pukemiro Yard. We were somewhat short of qualified staff for December open day - so some unusual faces were seen in unusual places!
ELECTRICITY: We were extremely surprised (****!!!) to receive a MASSIVE power bill at the end of October and there was much 'muttering' about who could have used so much power. I have since been keeping a regular check on the meter and will continue to do so. We would hope that EVERYONE will think about their use of electricity while at The Junction: do the shanty lights need to be on all day - day after day? Or does washing need to be done every day? Do the workshop or loco shed lights need to be on while you are not in these areas for long periods? The list could go on!! Let's just say 'big brother is watching!
The problem turned out to be the fault of the power company who had not done an 'actual reading' on the meter for 6 months - only sending estimated readings - and hence lower accounts. But as with power companies, if you don't pay the bill, they end up pulling your pole fuses ..... so we pay.
The same can be said of the use of the phone for toll calls. While some may say we are being 'picky', you need to remember that the cost of waste must come out of money that could otherwise be spent on maintenance, repairs or restoration.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: This will be held on Sunday 16th March, in the Railway Station building at Pukemiro Junction - starting at 1 PM. Please mark this important date on your calendar now! An Agenda will be sent to each financial member one month before - now is the time to T H I N K about a good and energetic committee to continue with progress for our railway. Can YOU spare time to go on the committee? Formal notice will follow with nomination forms. REMEMBER, names in to Secretary ten days before this Meeting. Copies of THE CLUB RULES are available for viewing in the Club Rooms or on application at minimal cost. Our Chairman (Colin Ewing) reiterates that ALL Committee positions are open for nomination from financial members- (who have been club members for at least a year), and NOW is the time to organise suitable nominees.
STEAM LOCOMOTIVES:
F 185 - after the tube failure last year and signs of other tubes being in a similar state - we decided to re-tube the loco this summer. The grants obtained covered the cost of a set of tubes - and the tubes were thus ordered. At the time of writing this (mid-December) the tubes are due in a few days (Delivered 18th!) All bricks, concrete and exhaust steam pipes have been removed from the smoke-box and the fire-bars taken out of the firebox, ready for an attack on the old tubes. It is still hoped to have this loco ready for April 2003, but this depends on YOUR help. Any offers greatly appreciated. The Waikato Council District Wide and Huntly Community Board 'discretionary grants' has covered most of the price of the tubes. Mike Andrews has been working on the partly completed spark arrestor for this loco and we hope it will be completed and fitted by April. For 2002 - F185 was in steam 132 3/4 hours and ran 180 kms.
CB loco: Not much to report on this currently.
Peckett: Not much to report on the boiler repairs - but we have an engineer who thinks he can repair and replace the crown stay bolts without having to remove the girders from the boiler. This will save a heap of money and we are doing some more 'checking' about this. The situation is not helped by a probable change in boiler inspectors, as a review of their areas now means our present one in Tauranga does not now come to Hamilton, but one will probably come from Auckland. Chris and Neil were down in late November and spent most the time water blasting the under frame or scrapping years of grease and oil/muck mix off the wheel sets. There is also one more working bee planned this year on Sunday 22nd - let's hope the weather is kinder to these volunteer work-parties.
MINES CAR: Ian has spent another day working on the second end of this car. The under frame was wire brushed and painted by the CW crew one wet day. (PD is now referred to as Community Work)! Work is progressing on the bogie. The new timber cross-members has been cut to shape and all holes drilled. The springs are back and bolted into their final shape. New hanger pins had to be made. These pins are 40mm diameter and 600mm long. The old ones were probably original and badly pitted.
XC WAGON: A 'burst of progress' and Harvey goes back to work!!!!! - so hasn't been seen on such a regular basis. Work has been concentrating on the last end - also in very bad condition with much rotten timber and a rotten angle iron bottom plate. The framework on the last side has been completed and two sheets of plywood are in place. The underframe was scraped and wire-brushed and painted by a CW crew on another of our wet days.
Wally Rawlings often turns up with some 'bits and pieces' we need - hand tools for the workshop or some other items. Thanks Wally!
Ancient Railways:
Thousands of years before modern railways were invented, the principle of guided wheels was being used in Greece. The Diolkos railway nearly four miles long was constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth. Believed to have been built by Periander in the early 6th century B.C. and used until A.D. 900. The track consisted of leveled limestone blocks cut with two parallel grooves five feet apart to held the wheels of trolleys Small warships or empty cargo vessels were mechanically lifted onto large trolleys and pushed along the track by their crews and slave gangs. The benefit was to connect the Gulf of Corinth with the Minoan Sea and avoid days of sailing.
(A lot of our members complain about having to push a hand trolley of gear short distances!!) Better not let our CW Crews see this, as they often push a hand trolley loaded with gear 1 km up the line when working on sleepers if no-one is available to drive a loco.
COMPUTERS: Perhaps computers aren't as modern as we are generally led to believe. Did they have e-mail ??????? and all that goes with it?
And what about this:
In 1900 some Greek fishermen were blown off course in a storm and after sheltering on a small rocky island, Antikythera, they came across an old wreck. They reported their discovery to the authorities and eventually archaeological experts recovered relics from the wreck which they dated as 1st century B.C. Careful removal of 2000 years of accumulated deposits revealed bronze and marble statues and some small bronze gear wheel fragments with a Greek inscription. Over the next 20 years he made a minute examination and used x-ray photography to eventually succeed in assembling the surviving pieces and discover what it was. It turned out to be a complex computer for calculating the movements of the sun, moon and some important stars. If Greek technology was capable of producing such a complex computer, what else was discovered and subsequently lost??
DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES:
401 - & - 402: Some work has been done on the air compressor belts and fan belts on these locos, largely by Colin Ewing, (and anyone on hand to assist). The carefully measured ones were - WAIT FOR IT - tooooo big! - so the old ones were put back on, and the new ones exchanged. Mary recovered the driver's seat in 402.
TR 217: Richard has spent most of his time on this loco. It now goes very well, but there is still some work to do on it. He has dismantled the brake gear and thoroughly overhauled it - a 2-1/2 day job, as some of the hanger pins were rather reluctant to move! He has been working on the engine covers and doors and is getting it ready for painting.
FIRE-WOOD: Request for firewood to be cut up. We need much more for next year, and also the need for the wagons this wood is currently stored on. We need to put the sleepers stocks somewhere and transport around the railway is essential.
TRACKWORK: Could this be our CW crew's Transit van heading up the line past the Hangapipi Road level crossing?
Our recent inspections have revealed the bad condition of a lot of the 8" X 6" tanalised pine sleepers we obtained as part of track-sets from Coalcorp's own railway. Most of these sleepers were put into their railway during 1960's and early 70's so have really has the expected life of H4 treatment. The ones across the sand-fill are being replaced - 76 done so far and another 33 to go. The rest are in better condition and can be left for, hopefully, another 12 months. This rather unexpected but urgent job has taken our efforts away from the completion of the bottom terminus trackwork and slowed the over-haul of the line towards Glen Afton. There are several other areas with this type of sleeper in use, but all on straight track so an eye is being kept on them as well. This work is an unexpected cost, but unless done, the track would have had to be closed until repaired. Progress on the line towards Glen Afton has meant we have shifted our passenger train limit board -out another 20 metres - mightn't sound much, but it is a bit more progress. Just past this board, wagons are stored on almost completely overhauled track - about 60 metres, and new sleepers have been put almost through another cutting. The area being worked on at present is the 2.250 km peg on our rail-way - 1 km up past the station at The Junction: this cutting has been a real problem as one of our early coal-mining neighbors scratched ground with a digger or bulldozer to find the coal seam. This clay from this work got washed across the line almost for the whole length of the cutting: Over the years this has been 'graded' to rail-top level by weed-spray trains etc using this section of line, but the clay is probably 1/4 metre higher out past this. All this clay has been dug out by hand for the full sleeper width and largely dumped over the bank by our CW crews, a long and back-breaking job! Fortunately we are just coming out of the area of the clay slide, so life in our sleeper crews should ease somewhat. The track in the cutting will need new ballast and the clay at the sides will need removing with a digger. This area is about the 8-mile peg on the branch line in N Z R's days.
To allow for work on the sand-fill and track overhauls, we have just taken delivery of 230 new 6 X 6 pine sleepers. These have all been taken up the line and stacked in our sleeper stockpile, just past the sand-fill. Another time consuming but necessary job. We have just received a Grant towards further purchases of track fittings from Glen Afton Citizens and Sports Club (Blue Room) community fund - all helps for this project
This year, we have put into our railway: 228 X square sleepers, 222 X 1/2-round sleepers, 12 X point sleepers, 48 X replacement fishplate bolts, 4 X long point bolts.
-This is a pretty good effort for ONE year - but how many of our members even think about this side of our railway? ?????
WORKSHOP: The transformation of this area continues. A large workbench out of the hall was recently manhandled onto a small trolley and taken up to the new workshop - when an area is cleared for it! More gear has been carted up to the loft - we could do with some more sets of shelves for this area - If anyone knows of some at the RIGHT price! Also, 2 litre plastic ice-cream containers.
A surprising amount of work is still done in what remains of our 'old' workshop in the hall.
HUNTLY RAILWAY YARD: All sidings not in use are presently being removed by Sims - operators of Pacific Steel in Otahuhu. The only siding opposite the station in use is the loop, which is used to cross or allow trains to pass. The rest hasn't seen any use since the Ngaruawahia Bridge was repaired after the last bad derailment on it. Most of this yard was re-configured and re-laid in fairly recent years. The only trains to use the rest of Huntly yard, are the coal trains to Mission Bush - usually 3 a day. A large part of the yard will apparently become a new 'by-pass' road until the long awaited Auckland-Hamilton expressway bypasses Huntly completely.
LAWN MOWER: Our current 'Masport Lawnmaster' mower has done a bunk. Unfortunately, the pull start cog replacement is more than the mower is worth. Would anyone be able to help with 'spares' from one in the back of the shed, or better still, one that no-one needs anymore. IT MUST BE STURDY!!
WORKING BEES: Don't forget these essential club activities. Can you help! The more members who turn up the more work on projects that gets done (even if its helping out with cups of tea, lunches or cleaning up after the grotty work is done) - standardised to SUNDAYS - THE 4TH WEEKEND OF THE MONTH:
Mary Burns AND Nell Ewing - we wish you both a full recovery. You're missed.
Alan Manning has stood down as Vice Chairman and from the Committee because of work commitments. We haven't seen him very often this year for this reason. We thank him for his input into the running of the club and hope he will help with work on our diesel locos when possible.
Bruce McLuckie is Vice-Chairman until the A.G.M.
Doug Black passed away recently in New Plymouth. He was a member of the club during the late 80's and, as an ex NZR driver, often drove our locos on open days. He was a top roster driver in Taumarunui and I can remember him on the expresses - sometimes even got a cab ride with him. When steam finished, he resigned and went to firing stationary boilers - ending up as a panel operator at New Plymouth and Huntly Power Stations. When he retired, he went back to New Plymouth where his son lived.