6029 is owned by the Australian Railway Historical Society, ACT Division and the restoration is proudly supported by their tourist operations and by the generous donations of members and public supporters.
The society operates rail tours out of Canberra with our heritage fleet of steam and diesel locomotives and rolling stock every few weeks.
To travel in style on any of our tours, or to learn more about our collection and operations, go to Canberrarailwaymuseum.org

Dec 21, 2009

Sunday 20 December 2009

Work is slowly progressing on the first and second bogies. The assembly of the spring and equalising beams was completed with surprising ease. The last of the keep plates and support bracings are now ready for fitting. All repairs have now been completed on the first bogie. The second bogie was jacked up and all of the keep plate bolts were removed to facilitate the lift of the frame off the wheels.

The boiler now sports the copper drain pipes that attach to the gauge glass assemblies. New and reconditioned cladding sheets are being fitted around the fire box area. The injector steam starting vales were cleaned down for assessment and found to be in serviceable condition. They will be fitted after the cladding is installed.

The next workday will be January the 3rd of January 2010. All welcome.

Dec 7, 2009

Saturday 5 December 2009.

Saturday 5 December 2009.

The rebuild of the bogies continued with most of the components now completed on the first. Ian has finished the machining of the replacement pins and Barry applied the top coats of black. The replacement manganese horn plates were fitted by Shaun while John and Kyle continued on with the assessment of the horn keep plates and associated parts. We are now hopeful that the first bogie will be completed before the years end. The experience gained will ensure the speedy rebuild of the next three bogies. The last outer bogies do not have air brakes fitted so this will make for much faster progress.


Mike Ridley came down from Sydney on Friday and he was able complete two straight days work. Mike has concentrated his efforts on the boiler cradle with the fitting of the reverser reach rods and he has now moved onto the power reverser mounting bracket. Mike is also looking at the mountain of electrical conduit with regard to the eventual re-wire.

We welcome two new members to our growing team. Paul Newland and Joseph Spinella cleaned out and re-organised the JLX box van adjacent to 6029. We now have room to work on the motion and valve gear. Paul and Joseph started to clean down the valve gear in preparation for crack testing.

The fitting of new sheet metal cladding to the boiler continues. The copper drain pipes for the gauge glasses and water column test cocks were bent up using the time honoured method of filling the pipes with sand before heating. Ian has taken the large bore copper pipes for the stoker system home for overhaul. When completed, the back head piping will be fitted in preparation of the final steam test.

The reach rods from the control handle to the front end throttle were assessed and given the usual grey primer clean up. Mike Reynell has been rebuilding the camshaft and main valves at home. Thanks to Malcolm for supplying the old maintenance manuals for the front end throttle. Mike advises that he will come down from Sydney for a few days and he intends to complete the final fit out of the front end throttle and sub assemblies.

Our next workday is Sunday 20 December.