NEWSLETTER - July 2004
XC WAGON:
The overhaul of this wagon was completed just before Christmas 2003, and is now in regular use on our railway – as our ‘working track wagon’.
The various stages of its overhaul and the people involved have been well reported in our newsletters, and now has been reported in the “Waikato Times” – Wednesday June 30th edition, page 5!
This wagon won the ‘Best Restored Wagon’ award at the Federation of Rail Organisations of N Z’s (FRONZ) annual conference at Queen’s Birthday weekend.
(Just goes to show that all the hard work, bad language and well-over-budget expenditure was worth while, and that as a club – we can carry out very good work!!)
I’m not sure how many times I was told to ‘…just take it up the line and chuck a match in it!!…’.
The certificate is framed and hanging in the station’s main room.
THOUGHTS from one of the ‘restoration team’:-
Good – Better – Best,
Never let it Rest,
Till your Good is Better –
And Your Better – Best!
- That must have been their Ode and Aspiration!!
This wagon is the only survivor of this particular class of once numerous wagons. There are X and XP wagons but no XC!
OPEN DAYS:
May’s open day was slightly better than April’s – but only just. We certainly need to attract more passengers. June’s open day was the best so far this year, but because of very wet conditions wasn’t as good as our normal ‘busy’ Queen’s Birthday operations.
Thanks to all who turn up and help run our railway on these open days! Thanks to Mary and Linda for their front-line positions – ticket-selling. Well done. Sean is kitchen assistant to Maureen & Lynda. Keeps the crews fed and happy!
The next open days are July 4th; August 1st and Father’s day – September 5th.
(Please remember to fill in the attached work notice AND return it). Colin is still having to “guess” who could be possibly helping!
Charter trips: another one was run in mid-May for two groups of older citizens from Auckland. We have several more inquiries. Thanks for the offers of help. These trips help to top-up our coffers.
STEAM LOCOMOTIVES:
F 185:
after much delay, the new section of the dry pipe arrived at The Junction for a trial fit before being properly welded. Richard got inside the boiler and it was bolted into place – so close a fit that it wasn’t worth cutting the weld to adjust the flange. It was then removed. Shortly after lunch I thought I was seeing things as a white ‘streaker’ was climbing the ladder to get back inside the boiler and water-blast the inside of the barrel. Yes, it was Richard. He spent most of the afternoon in there, and no, he didn’t doze off in there. I occasionally banged the boiler just to make sure!
The fully welded and machined dry pipe section was returned to us and put in place by Richard – again, inside the boiler, assisted by Mike Campbell and (long-lost but) visiting member Andrew Thompson. Presently it is being blanked off to air-test for leaks.
Once proven OK, we can start putting the new tubes in. the second end of all tubes were annealed by Eric and Don on our May open day. They must have got the hang of the job as all tubes were annealed soon after lunch!! The ends of these have been buffed to remove any scale or coke remains (so ensuring they are as clean as possible) and readied to be expanded into place.
Sincere thanks to ‘Genesis Energy’ for work on the dry pipe section.
Further progress is now being made. The base of the funnel to fit the balloon stack on has been fitted to the smoke-box.
(How about this one on a repair shop door……
‘We can repair anything - (please knock hard on the door – the bell doesn’t work!!)’
Price CB:
the boiler inspector spent a couple of hours going over the welding jobs needed on this boiler and reporting back telling us how he wants them done.
The welder’s paperwork has been accepted and the jobs have now been started – as he finds more spare time.
We have been very pleased to receive $5000.00 donation from WEL ENERGY TRUST recently towards the materials/ and the contracted work still needed on F185 and CB locos.
Peckett:
Dave Mann and son Sebastian, spent a week of the school holidays at The Junction working on the underframe and loose parts of this loco (side rods, brake gear and the like). Excellent progress indeed! (and there is another round of school holidays coming up for July, we could suggest a good place to come to again…….).
The cleaning and painting of this part of the loco overhaul is now about 80% complete.
The boiler arrived back at The Junction recently – all sand-blasted and painted. As with most jobs lately, the heavens opened and rain poured down very soon after the truck arrived! (bother).… Wheel-sets have also arrived back from Glenbrook R/way after having their tyres turned – and the crank-pins ground down as well.
Chris Mann has been very involved (along with Chris Lucas who actually visited and met with the latest contact) locating a set of Peckett & Dubs drawings and plans – from a ‘contact’ at the ‘National Railway Museum’ in YORK – England. WELL DONE… Chris Mann has reported that B.T.C. is now the proud owners of a clean copy of the ORIGINAL Peckett boiler drawing. The copy is crystal clear – we can read the dimensions at last!! Special acknowledgement to Martin Bashforth AND – the power of the internet.
DIESEL LOCOS
Colin Ewing and Alan have started working their way through the annual check sheets for all diesel locos. At least this year the ‘have done’ list will look good on #402!
Also of note, Colin Swabey has become ‘multi-skilled’, as reported by Dave and Harvey who were most impressed by his positioning of the mesh-guard.
ROLLING STOCK
MINE’S CAR:
The progress on this continues to be spectacular – and still ‘hidden traps’ are being exposed. The most recent was on the side of the car- not pulled apart! While refitting the window sills, three rotten studs were found (bother!!) What were the ‘Team of Three’s’ exact words – you may well wonder?
Dave had had a few weeks holiday – (lucky him), and the increase in cobwebs on the side of the car was noticeable! He has spent a lot of time burning old paint off the remaining side.
A lot of the pipe veranda supports needed replacing – extra unexpected expenses!! Peter and Linda Hill have arranged to get some new veranda gate catches cast.
Just when you think the overhaul is just about over – there is still the roof to sort out (have you been told of that unexpected ‘bother’??? You may have heard some of the new language) – and there’s still the inside to think about!!
The club has also had some covers for the kingpin holes in the car floor cast – Petone Workshops- as this is where the two 4-wheel D cars were put together to make our car. There was only a couple of pieces of tin ‘nailed in place’ before.
DEPRESSION! is merely anger - without enthusiasm!
AF 1047:
The last seat was finally fitted in June. Ian B is very, very thankful that this is now in position. Quite of ‘feat’ of ingenuity to get its authentic look and operation.
JIGGER:
thanks to our recent grant from ‘Sentinel Trust ‘ as the gear-box has been rebuilt. It was recently fitted and trialed by Harvey and Dave – and they are very pleased with the results to date. A new padded cushion is also being fitted and hand grips (luxury like never before……).
“TRIBUTE TO A PARENT”
Member Tony Hinton’s father recently passed away in New Plymouth. He was not actually a member of The Club, but had visited at various times before Tony left and travelled to England to live.
Tony’s father obviously helped form and maintain Tony’s interest in railways from a fairly early age.
In part – Tony’s tribute reads:- …’In 1985 it was my turn to set out for the UK but prior to departing I had a charter at The Club – a joint do with Chris Mann, his birthday and my departure.
It was a great delight to give my dad a foot-plate ride on The Heisler loco with Dick Lawrence driving. My best two mates!! It was at this time Dad told me that the family were involved in the timber industry as boiler attendants in the King Country and Whakatane way’.
Tony concludes ‘My Family and I wish to thank the Committee and members for their condolences.’
CONGRATULATIONS:
and best wishes to our Chairman – Colin Ewing and wife Nell for their recent end-of-May celebration of a Golden Wedding Anniversary. It has to be the first time ever that Colin has excused himself from ‘club stuff’ – I hope Nell got something more rewarding than a ‘book on diesel engines or tractors’?? Well done!
EXPERIENCE – is something you don’t get until just after you need it !
LIBRARY
Peter Hill has offered to take on this task. If you wish to check out our supplies to borrow a book or video please see him on our open days – or email him at peter@tsnz.co.nz : As all library and archive items are going to be re-catalogued and labelled etc, could anyone holding books, videos, plans etc that belong to the B.T.C. collection, please return to Peter ASAP.
Anyone wishing to donate items to the library please contact him also.
Book-Review:
Our member, Robin Russell is the author of a handy-sized guidebook on Glenbrook Vintage Railway. The photos – most taken by Robin, with some in colour has some various interesting information – something for every railway enthusiast! There is coverage of the history of the branch line, as well as the formation of GVR and its earlier years. Train journeying on the actual line is descriptive – with further detail of how the controls of the train run is organised. No hand-book is complete unless there is some listing of locos and rolling stock – this give a plausible descriptive listing.
The hand-books are available at Glenbrook or through RES PO Box 13-684, Onehunga, Auckland or phone: (09) 636 9361.
B.T.C. information sheets:
Colin Swabey continues to work behind the scenes producing our informative leaflets – and is considering working towards an information ‘guide’ also. Watch this space!
LTSA (Land Transport Safety Authority)
We had a visit from Glen and Graeme of LTSA just before Queen’s Birthday weekend – nothing official thank goodness, just a friendly visit while passing.
Auditors:
Both Jonesy and Rodney have been and viewed our paperwork, looked at anything they wanted to. Thank you to both of you, reports yet to be finalised!
New Railway’s Bill:
This is still before the Select Committee. Submissions were many – including our Federation: reports seem to indicate some changes will be made.
Parliamentary officials are presently considering any changes and will soon be putting them before the Select Committee again. The Select Committee is supposed to report back to Parliament in a couple of months.
FRONZ – Federation Annual Conference:
This was held in Auckland over an extended Queen’s Birthday weekend. This year it also included ‘tramway museums of NZ & Australia’ – so the numbers at parts of the conference were very high – approximately 120.
Items discussed were the Railways Bill; Charities Bill; how to attract and hold onto younger members; an interesting talk on lobbying politicians and officials; insurances – plus many other items often gleaned during ‘breaks’ for cuppas or lunch.
One of the conference’s sponsors “Trade Tools”, had put a brochure on a machine for drilling fish-plate bolt holes in rail in every delegate’s pack of goodies. We were fortunate to see a demo of this machine while visiting MOTAT. It is petrol driven and uses a hi-tech hole saw to cut the bolt holes in under 20 seconds. A very worthwhile tool (but at $6 500, you would need to be cutting an awful lot of bolt holes)….. in a loud voice “Teresa, we NEEEED one of those!!”
Several railways were interested in our petrol drill for drilling holes in sleepers – that was money well spent years ago – and funded by Trust Waikato.
Visits were made to 2-ft gauge lines in Waitakeres, Glenbrook Railway and MOTAT.
All in all, another good conference with much to consider in the future – and some now!!
Paul Dillicar was elected President after a few years break – I think he’s nearly lost count of the number of years he been ‘El Presidente’.
Congratulations to all participants – we know the hard slog overhauling or restoring – let-alone entering these items when finally completed!!
When starting a project – ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS -“Two wrongs – are only the beginning”
(“If at first you don’t succeed – then sky-diving is not for you!” and that …The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!)
The restoration awards for this year were:
Carriages Restoration -
A1514 wooden carriage, Oamaru Steam & Rail, Oamaru
Wagons Restoration -
Xc2460 (XC 544) wooden box-wagon, Bush Tramway Club, Pukemiro Jtcn
Tramway Award -
Melbourne Tram W321. MOTAT Tramways, Auckland
Diesel Locomotive Restoration -
Tr36, Pahiatua Railcar Society, Pahiatua, Wairarapa
Steam Locomotive Restoration (A & G Price Award) –
L208 'Gertie', Shantytown, West Coast.
Innovation Award -
Heritage Train, Canterbury Railway Society, Ferrymead, Chch
Rail Heritage Trust -
ex-Auckland "B" Signal Box, Glenbrook Vintage Railway, South Auckland
Brunner Suspension Bridge, Grey District Council / DoC, West Coast
Excellence Award -
Weka Pass Railway, Waipara, North Canterbury
TRACKWORK
A BIG effort is being made to upgrade our passenger-carrying track as the number of CW work-parties we get may be drastically reduced in the next few months. From the bottom of Pukemiro yard to the sand-fill, we are doing pretty much a sleeper by sleeper inspection. Some of this is to take in a few areas that need re-gauging – picked up during the six-monthly track inspection checks.
So far we have replaced about 70 sleepers in ¾ km of our main line. Some would probably do for a few more years – but the opportunity is being taken to replace them NOW!
We are also taking the time to up-grade the fern-cutting track just above Downer’s Crossing. Most of the sleepers in this section are 40 year-old treated pine sleepers in track-sets recovered from Coalcorp’s internal railway. This section if ¼ km long, and we have 60 sleepers left to replace. This is an ‘on-and-off’ type job over a number of years so far.
All this work has meant virtually no progress on the overhaul of the line towards Glen Afton. The opportunity to two work-parties at once saw one group clearing an area and erecting a new smoko shed/shelter at the 2.5 mark. A long-drop toilet was carted up there a couple of weeks later.
The other group replaced a couple of rails on the extension and then screw-spiked or spiked sleepers onto another three track-sets. At the end of the day this enabled the stored wagons to be moved further up the line.
Replacement rails were also laid out for other rails that need replacing in this area. A few more culverts have been cleared of undergrowth and checked OK.
Tim and Adam continue to carry out very useful jobs on low joints and fish-plates. They recently checked spikes over ½ km of line. Thanks to the two of you for this often unseen work!! (They were so enthusiastic, they nearly used up our year’s supply of bolts in one day)!!
How come, Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques……’
Electrical work: Lofty has been giving some of our extra lights the ‘once over’ in our workshop. A few alternations were needed to a couple, but we can now give back the miners’ lights that were necessary to .. ‘see in the dark’. There are just a few areas to check.
(Notice in health food shop window….. “closed, due to illness!”) – would never happen at B.T.C.
Air compressors
TRACK WAGON equipment:
Ian B spent some time on this (in between carriage work) and it seems somewhat better – but needs further work to make sure it unloads when working pressure is reached. Looks like another ‘Lofty’ job maybe!
DIESEL LOCO spare:
We have long had a ‘seized solid’ spare air compressor for our large diesel locos. Not much use in that condition but not an ‘urgent’ job- UNTIL ITS NEEDED!
Lofty and Richard have had a go at it to the extent it is now in pieces. Lofty has taken some of the parts away for cleaning. Looks like it will need at least new bearings and piston rings.
Huntly Railway Scene:
this continues to change. The old station was cut in half, loaded onto two transporters and removed on Monday/Tuesday 17th and 18th May 2004. The sections were taken across the new overhead bridge to Weavers Crossing – via Ngaruawahia – as it was toooooo big to fit across the Tainui Bridge (over the Waikato River) at Huntly. It is stored at Solid Energy’s grounds on Rotowaro Road until the Mining Museum can get access to their proposed museum site nearby – the site of the ‘long-gone’ screens at Weavers Crossing. Some of the sidings and the triangle still connected to the Rotowaro Branch line are still in place.
The up-main-line will soon be straightened to avoid the curve around the old station platform.
Fire Pump Motor:
no-one owned up to ‘borrowing’ it for any reason, so we have to assume it has vanished. These motors are not cheap, and we certainly DON’T have the money to just go out and buy a new one. Richard dragged out the spare pump and motor and fitted it to the water wagon. This time the motor has been BOLTED to the wagon deck and a padlocked cover has been made and fitted over the motor.
(Notice in an office: “Would the person who took the stepladder yesterday please bring it back – or further steps will be taken!”)
Training days:
These are an IMPORTANT PART OF OUR RAILWAY, and need to be attended BY ALL CERTIFIED / or intended certified MEMBERS. The Safety School should have been better attended.
Therefore the ANNUAL SHUNTING SCHOOL will be held on Sunday 26/9/04 starting at 9.30 am. Chris Mann will be conducting this. This will pertain to Y-O-U!!
Mark it on your calendars now!!
It is important that ALL members put the time aside to attend these important training days.
Working Bees:
These are still held on the Sunday of the FOURTH (4th) weekend of each month, hopefully starting around 9 am. A good attendance at the May one saw a lot of ‘odd’ jobs able to be scratched off Harvey’s list.
Trevor and Troy Willmot were covering the last of the long broken windows on the AA car while Peter and Linda Hill spent a lot of time putting small netting on the foot-boards at the trap points. These boards (and sleepers) become very slippery in wet weather, and no! before you suggest it, we are not going to put netting on each sleeper!
The next working bees will be as follows:
Mark these on your calendar also…….
SUNDAY July 25th
SUNDAY August 29th and
SUNDAY September 26th – shunting school day also.
The newsletter is a little late this month….. first time for about 12 years, so that’s not bad.
Unforeseen circumstances.
At the very least the actual ‘stop press’ has kept the news very very current.
Maybe the following is apt….
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programmes, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning!”
