Sandstone Heritage Trust – Rail News

RN 144 – Steamshed weekly report – 7th – 15th January 2006 – by Gert Jubileus

17th January 2006

SANDSTONE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE REPORT

THE LITTLE RATANGA LOCOMOTIVE:
This little Miss. Brakpan locomotive is in a very good mechanical and boiler condition. One of the pistons was stuck and after treatment with penetrating oil, it came loose. All the motion was stripped and Derrick removed all the rust and old paint with the wire brush.

The boiler of this locomotive was still full of water. The locomotive was re-railed this week. We drained the water and acid washed the boiler till it was crystal clear inside. The fire bars were removed and the complete boiler and inner firebox was de-scaled and painted with red oxide paint. This boiler will be given a hydraulic water test and will be ready for boiler inspection at the end of this month.

The running boards, cylinder covers and smoke deflectors were sanded of and painted with red oxide. This will now be flattened and spray painted before it is assembled again.

On the sides of the smoke deflectors we found two brass plates upside down. When we took it of we discovered that “Miss Brakpan” was engraved on the other side. We still need to find a name for this little angel.

BOILER INSPECTIONS:
The little locomotive was not the only locomotive that was washed out this week. Two class NGG 16’s; numbers 113 and 153 was washed out and are prepared for the internal Boiler Inspection by the end of this month. We still need to wash out and prepare the Fowler locomotive too. Eight boilers will be inspected by our Boiler Inspector Willie Lottering.

The boiler inspections are in three stages namely, internal, hydraulic and steam test. This is planned to be done in three days and therefore needs to be properly planned. The internal test is only a visual inspection with all the wash out plugs and mud hole covers of. This includes a hardness test on the boiler as well. We then have to place all plugs and mud hole covers back and will need to fill the boilers for hydraulic test. The boilers will be hydraulic at 25% higher water pressure than the normal working pressure of the boilers and must be in such a state to maintain that pressure without any leaks. Once this is done we need to drain the boilers to the correct level of water in the gauge glasses to steam them on the third day. The safety valves then need to be set at the correct working pressure. Because of the limited time and the quantity of boilers to be tested, I shall need all the hands working in the steam shed for the three days.

Here are photos of the wash outs this week:

THE 19 D CAB:
The 19D cab was loaded onto a flat wagon this week. This was a mission to shunt out all the locomotives to free up some space inside the shed to enable the Coles crane to offload the cab from the flat wagon inside the shed. This cab will be restored to the original condition with all the brass pipes and gauges for display purposes.

19D SPARES:
The spares needed for the 19D in Bloemfontein were sorted and moved down to the shed. The clack box and lubricator was serviced this week.

SANDSTONE STEAM RAILWAY WAGON REPORT:
With the flat wagon inside the shed with the 19D cab, it was a favourable time to load the new freight stock onto it.

We also shunted out all the wagons that we used on the harvest trains and offloaded the bales and the bags of wheat.

An Interesting consist!

We also offloaded the old B wagon and shunted them to the storage line at Hoekfontein station. All the old un restored wagons at the Coal shed will be re-railed in next week and will be shunted to this storage line where they will await restoration.

The converted B wagons that were loaded with wheat on the Harvest day last Friday were shunted to the silos where they were offloaded by means of an Agri vac.

THE RATANGA WAGON:
Restoration on the Ratanga wagon is in progress and Jacob went on with the de-scale work on the frame. Petrus sanded the wooden sides of the wagon. Some of the wood was replaced and Henry is almost finished with the fitting of the new wooden floor for this wagon. The braking gears were fitted back and the vacuum cylinder was overhauled. A new release valve was fitted and the brakes were adjusted. The handbrakes were made workable again and new vacuum pipes were fitted. Once the wooden floor is finish, it will be sanded too and will be varnished together with the outside wood. The steel frame will be painted with the same brown paint as the PE coaches. The window frames will be replaced with wooden tar poles and will give a rough and exquisite look to this coach. The existing doors, normal wagon doors, will be replaced with strong wood finished doors and suburban coach seats will be mounted inside this wagon. There are another wagon that will be rebuild the same way.

Here are some photos of this restoration:

SANDSTONE STEAM RAILWAY LINE REPORT: This week Derrick repaired the points just in front of the shed. This points and the one at the ash put was lifted and packed to remove the slacks on this points. Here are some photos of the tamping of these points:

Line inspection was done this week after 100-150 mm of rain fell on the farm. This was a good time to evaluate the adequacy of the drainage system on the new line and there was only one place where we need to fit a culvert to prevent the water from damming up near the Railway line.


SIGN BOARDS: The sign board that we used on the low bed to Port Elizabeth was fitted outside the shed. We also came to an old Post Office sign and mounted it to a wooden pole:

And the Post Office sign!

We started with a big cleaning up program that will be finished in next week. Jacob cut the lawn this week with the John Deere tractor and slasher, while Oupa worked the weed eater where the slasher can’t reach.


FROM THE PAST

Left to right: Hannes Coetzee and Gert Jubileus
The last day of Steam in Virginia. Class 15F number 3119, with driver Hannes Coetzee and fireman myself. We were not aware that Steam was about to end on Saturday the 29th of September 1990 and were notified the Friday the 28th the afternoon just before we went of duty. It was devastating news to me and in a rush I made the Last Day of Steam board that was fitted on the Smoke box door. This locomotive was not our regular locomotive and 15F number 3108 was taken back to Kroonstad just the day before. After we hauled the last Steam train to Glen Harmony, we took her back to Kroonstad. When we came back from Kroonstad, my driver and I sat down where she used to stand. We were very sad that day, it was like the end of an era . I remember that just after we left, a coal train derailed at a very high speed just on the right side track of this photo, and 28 coal wagons crashed into the ground. It took us a week to clear up the station and to rectify the railway lines again. One of the B wagons that were on the wagon list of the coal train was never found. It is believed that it buried itself under the ground and the new tracks were laid over it. A day to remember?
PLANNING FOR NEXT WEEK: 1.) To re-rail all freight wagons at the coal stage and to shunt them to the storage line. 2.) To start with under frame restoration of an old B wagon. 3.) To go on with restoration of the Ratanga coach. 4.) To prepare boilers for B.I. 5.) To move all rail to Pandora 6.) To move 3’6” wagons to storage line 7.) To clean up shed yard. 8.) To clean railway line 9.) To do weed spraying over entire Railway line. 10.) To fit back little locomotive motion and to make new lagging. 11.) To start with the restoration of the Ratanga Flat wagon. 12.) To clean up Coal shed yard. 13.) To overhaul 19D spares for Bloemfontein.
Steam greetings, Gert!