NEWSLETTER - September 2004
OPEN DAYS:
July open day was pretty good, passenger wise with August’s about standard (considering the weather). Thanks to all who turn up and help run these days.
The next ones are:-
September 5th – Fathers Day
October 3rd
November 7th
December 5th – last for 2004.
Please fill out the attached work notice and return it promptly. It is easier to work out rosters with these notices in front of me. Thanks in advance for doing this.
CHARTER TRIPS :
We have had two kindies visit us the day after our August Open Day and have another two planned for end of August. Thanks to Peter & Linda who have helped on these days (shown the ropes by Teresa); same too to Jan and Trevor – any more offers would be appreciated. We have had several more inquiries - but no firm bookings as yet.
STEAM LOCOS:
F185
– The only white stuff coming out of the boiler was Richard’s breath one cold day recently while working inside the boiler.
The first air test on the newly replaced dry-pipe failed, with bad leaks around the joint to the rest of the dry-pipe. Mike came up with a ‘newer brew’ of sealant and the test passed OK. Between the first and second fitting, Richard spent a few hours in the boiler brazing up a copper pipe joint that had come apart.
Once the dry-pipe was proved OK the boiler tubes were put in place and are presently being expanded by hand in the firebox. Richard has a large air drill that will be used to expand the tubes properly. He had to make a few attachments so the air drill can use our tube expanders. Those helping so far are:- Mike, Don, CJ, Richard, Dave & Ian B and our CW work-parties. Might sound easy – but a large number of hours have been put into just getting the tubes to the stage we are at.
I’m not sure how many of our members have ever been inside a boiler or firebox but they can be very cold places – particularly with a heavy frost just outside the shed!!
PRICE CB
– Our welder has spent two days seal-welding both ends of the stays Richard replaced. This job is now finished and on his next visit he should start building up the wasted areas of the boiler shell – throat plate and front tube-plate. (If you think that’s the end of the stay job – wrong – as there are still 200 ends to be cut off near the weld!)
Richard also has the engine unit out of the loco for work on it. He has put stainless steel sleeves on the piston rods as we found that our intermittent use left a small amount of water lying between the cylinder drains and the bottom of the cylinders: Just enough to cause rust pitting on the piston rods. He has also pressed one gear off the drive shaft so that he can build up the worn teeth. This is one of the reasons the engine unit is so noisy when running. The gear is all set-up for welding but he has been away with the flu – must be all the frosts lately.
PECKETT – James Whyte has visited us and spent some time inside the boiler again. He wasn’t able to gas cut the top ends of the girder stay hangers, so has left them for another occasion While in the boiler, he checked our tem-plate we are grinding the girder stays to and marked the stay bolt centres on it. One girder stay is nearly ground to shape – another long job.
Special thanks to Ian Jenner for transporting the Peckett wheel-sets (at very reasonable ‘cost’). Most of the small parts of the Peckett have now been cleaned, undercoated and had one coat of topcoat so far – a wet weather job for our CW work-parties.
Chris has been getting prices to get liners put in the axle-boxes, and new girder stay hangers made. Much easier to read the dimensions on the very clear drawing. Still the one I obtained from Prices about 30 years ago was a copy of a copy of a copy of the original 1923 drawing. We are trying to find out if the rest of the drawings for the loco are also at York Museum.
JIGGERS:
SIX-MAN JIGGER
Special thanks to Dave and Harvey, we had the six-man jigger running during August open day, and carried quite a few passengers on it. They (also helped by Trevor Willmot) are presently building a turntable for it – to make it easier on their backs they reckon! Believe it or not, they had trouble getting red paint, and even more trouble getting a suitable finish… The jigger is fitted with a squab for ‘passenger comfort’ – thanks too, to The Sentinel Trust, Dave, Harvey and Margaret for the generous financial donations to get this on-track so promptly.
(The jigger now has rubber mats on the floors to try and stop too much damage to the paintwork!).
A rather novel addition is the fitting of a parking brake. Just a car hand-brake lever, but much better than a ‘stone under the wheel’.
Colin Swabey has produced a safety leaflet for our jiggers to be handed to passengers. It is slightly different to the one for our trains.
BUSH JIGGERS:
For many years the club has been “home” to two bush jiggers from Mamaku’s NZR sawmill. These carried workers on their tramway and was travelled over by some of our original members in the mid-1960’s. These jiggers are privately owned and, despite many attempts, we could never get agreement to overhaul them. One was used on our line by us in the early days for trackwork.
Ian Jenner has now reached agreement with the owner and has taken the older one back to his warehouse in Auckland for an overhaul.
Because of its doubtful condition and loose parts – several of our members present that day (but living in Auckland) left before Ian’s truck and its unusual load – just in case they came across a traffic jam caused by ‘an old truck in pieces on the road’. Not sure how many pieces fell off on the journey but the first was close to the bottom of the driveway at the Junction so it had only gone about 150 metres!!.
I (Colin Jenner) checked it at his warehouse in early August and it was nearly all in bits – dismantled intentionally this time. Some parts look in pretty good order but others are just good for patterns to get new pieces made to. This jigger never ran under its own power on our line. The jigger went to Auckland as a back load when the Peckett wheels were returned from Glenbrook Railway.
It will be a long overhaul but will be an unusual addition to our railway when it returns. I hear from my niece that the staff at Ian’s warehouse couldn’t work out where all the rust had come from when they turned up at work on Monday – until they looked out the back.
MINES CAR
– Progress on this had slowed somewhat for a couple of weeks– as two of the members have been busy on the six-man jigger.
The tale of woe continues, more work has been found, on the side not completely overhauled so they’re still not out of the ‘pull apart’ stage yet. While “repairing” the window-sills, the Team decided to replace these – BAD CHOICE! They then had to replace further timber supports, and the spirit level bubble is still surging, it hasn’t met the middle-marker yet!!
The boys work schedule surged ahead Sunday 22nd, and have finally gotten to the finishing work – which now includes to the undercoating. The roof has not even begun yet!!
DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES:
MEREMERE DIESELS
Colin and Alan continue to work their way through the annual check sheets for all our diesels. A new problem is a ‘chuffing’ sound on 401 – could be a head gasket leak. They were spied out looking these over one recent mid-August Saturday.
Is anyone else able to help with the maintenance of this important side of our railway?
DS LOCO
– Wally has now shifted to Tauranga so doesn’t spend as much time at the Junction (plus it is winter!). He has pulled the top tank off the radiator to try and stop the leaks.
TRAINING:
This forms an important part of any railway and ours in no exception. Congratulations to the following members for recently passing club certification, are:-
Harvey - jigger driver
Peter - guard (And probably by the time you read this newsletter, Colin S - diesel loco driver.
It is most important that members who start training in any part of our railway operation complete it – or at least let me know if they don’t want to continue! We have a lot who have started, given up but are still shown as “under training”.
Our safety scheme contains a requirement for members who operate on our railway to attend annual refresher training. The March refresher safety school was not as well attended as it should have been.
Remember: that the shunting school will be held on Sunday 26th September starting at 9.30 AM. ALL certified members or those currently OR “intending” to train PLEASE - BE THERE!!
TRACKWORKS –
A large amount of usually unseen work continues to be put into this side of our railway. We have spent a couple of days packing joints and levelling a bad area on the sandfill – with another day or so left to do.
The fern cutting just above Downers Crossing has now had all sleepers replaced, the ‘kinks’ barred out, the side drains deepened or tidied up and is now ready for ballasting.
So far this year, our CW work-parties have replaced just over 200 sleepers – mostly on the passenger carrying section of our line. Our CW work-parties have spent many days deepening or digging new drains on some sections between the Junction and the Rotowaro terminus. Regauging of more sections of our railway has been done.
NEW MEMBERS:
WELCOME to our newest members. We have had a steady number joining each month, so our older members will notice a lot of new faces working in with our “old-hands”. The Committee is currently organising a club only day sometime before the end-of-the-year (this will take place in lieu of a ‘working bee’ day). NOTICE WILL BE SENT OUT ADVISING ONCE DATE VERIFIED. (Will attach information at end of this Newsletter).
GROUNDS –
These continue to be kept in tidy condition by Alan and our CW work-parties. Mary was noticed pruning dead heads off the hydrangea bushes recently.
STATION AREA –
This is kept in order by Jan, Teresa and a few others while the station and carriages are regularly cleaned by our CW work-parties. As you read - a lot of unseen jobs that regularly need doing. Special thanks also to Linda and Peter Hill for having a cleaning session in the first-aid room – (the fact that a fat rat’s workings were seen in the station prompted this cleansing frenzy) – and to Harvey for blocking the rat’s entrance way…….
Another unseen job recently was Mary painting the toilet at the shanty – talk about sitting down on the job!
CARPENTERS WORKSHOP -
This much needed workshop is back on the agenda again – with a view to making sure it happens this time! A sub-committee led by Harvey has been getting prices and figuring out exactly where to put it and trying to think of all the things needed for it. They will report back to the main Committee.
Bruce has started clearing the area but still has heaps to do. Then there’s the wattles growing above the site to come down and be cut up and all rubbish got rid of. Site-works and track work are the priority – which will include an extended inspection pit.
“The advantages of being disorderly is – that one is constantly making exciting discoveries……”
BATTERY ELECTRIC LOCO –
Chris Lucas is back from his overseas jaunt and had a good working bee on this loco recently. With two needle guns in use – most of one side of the frame was cleaned and undercoated.
AUDITORS -
We have received these reports from Rodney and Peter. A couple of things yet to attend to - but nothing serious or urgent.
RAILWAYS BILL –
The revised version was back before the Select Committee recently and our Federation was called to attend a meeting with the Select Committee. Thanks to our Federation Members for presenting on behalf of us all.
WORKING BEES –
These are held on the Sunday of the 4th weekend of the month starting around 9am.
Pretty good attendances outside of those ‘planned standard dates’ have seen Harvey’s list in the workshop altered many times. Chris Mann had organised his team on August 22nd – and once again more work was carried out measuring necessary materials for the remainder of the Peckett project – and the weather wasn’t too bad either. Trevor and Troy Willmot spent some time in #3 car, positioning patches on the ceiling.
We noticed that the five Sundays of August caught some members out – but the standard practice of ‘fourth WEEKEND Sunday’ continues to be our normal working-bee for the month.
Congratulations and thanks to all those keen members who also turned up on Sunday 29th – excellent weather and once again many projects have progressed because of your input.
Chris Lucas and his Team have made good progress of late. Thanks boys.
OVERALLS:
The Club should be hearing about these supplies shortly. The hold up is the number we have requested to replace our existing supplies. In the meantime, carry on wearing the grey/blue when ever possible on-site.
STOP PRESS:
We have just received confirmation that a grant application to TRUST WAIKATO has been successful. Another item will be able to be crossed off the list of projects! A hand will be called for to help with the cladding of the annex forge-shelter. Special thanks and acknowledgment to Trust Waikato Members for their continuing support of our numerous projects.
30th anniversary
‘since Club operations on Rotowaro – Glen Afton branch line’
This will be celebrated with a
PLAY DAY: - Club members FAMILY DAY:
The Committee has chosen SUNDAY 31ST OCTOBER (5TH weekend of the month) to organise this social day.
As the previous weekend is the fourth weekend of the month and also Labour Weekend – that will continue as the ‘normal’ programmed working bee – for those keen to carry on with their projects.
In the meantime – this extra weekend allows the club to plan this play day for club members and family. “ Of note: The B.T.C. Safety Scheme’ will still operate!!
Starting 11.00 am – with A B-B-Q lunch is planned, but request those attending
bring a salad to be shared:
Sausages, sauce and bread will be supplied by club.
If you want steak – B.Y.O.!!
