Sunday 22 March 2010

Before we started work today, Paul presented three pressure gauges he has completed at home. One steam drifting and two brake, all looking magnificent. This is typical of the many tasks that are taking place behind the scenes and one reason why the project is progressing so well. One pleasing fact is that almost every day a sub project is being carried and in turn is being stored ready for fitting as required.

The bogie work continued with the fitting of the Nathan four way oil distributers to the inner leading bogie. These sub assemblies were rebuilt by Ian at his home workshop and are a testament to his skills. Kyle, Stuart and Paul fitted most of the completed components required to complete this bogie. The bogie team’s advice is that the second one will be completed in much less time as they now have a firm grip on how to rebuild 60 class bogies.

Ian continued with the fitting of the boiler cladding crinoline bands in preparation for the installation of the fireman’s side cladding sheets to the fire box area. It was noted that some spiders have taken up residence in the installed cladding however the first fire should sort this out. After lunch Gavin assisted Ian with the installation of the sheet metal cladding for the main stream pipe that runs down the fireman’s side of the boiler cradle.

Howard continued with the de-greasing and steam cleaning of the leading engine unit. The years of grime and cylinder oil are gradually allowing access to actual metal. All of this work has facilitated a preliminary inspection of the draft package behind the leading coupler. The coupling and draft package will be removed at the next workday.

Alan Gardner

More progress

Paul has been doing some work at home on the Garratt's pressure gauges and sent these before and after pictures of the gauges. Great stuff Paul, just 11 to go!

Saturday 6 March 2010

As we are restoring 6029 outdoors we always make a note as to what we can expect with the weather for the upcoming workday. Showers with the possibility of rain and at 9am things were quite wet. Lucky for us the showers had cleared by lunch time and ironically we were feeling the effects of the sun by day’s end. As most of the loco ops guys were in Sydney with our operating locomotive 3016, the BBQ was held down on the 6029 work site. The 4468 diesel guys came over for lunch and as usual we solved all of the world’s problems before we went back to work.



The first bogie is now almost complete with only a few minor tasks left to do. These being the fitting of the pedestal keep plates and the manufacture of a new centre pivot bowl. The lateral control springs had to be fitted before lowering the frame into position. They were assembled with the aid of the ten ton hydraulic portable power pack. It took a few goes and we were all happy when the last pin was fitted. The reassembly went very smoothly, however the bolts holding the inner manganese liners had to be modified as they were rubbing against the suspension equalising beams. The bogie work site is starting to look like a traditional bogie repair shop and visitors can now compare a completed bogie with the striped down version.

Ian is continuing to fit the boiler cladding sheets and as a result of his efforts the drivers side is now complete. He is now concentrating on the fireman side. Now that drivers side cladding is fitted the injector feed pipes and starting valve were trial fitted and as expected some adjustments are required. Paul removed the old insulating rope to facilitate the annealing of these pipes. One advantage of copper feed pipe is that they can be adjusted for alignment after annealing. Unfortunately steam engineering of the 1950’s didn’t allow for true replication with manufacturing. As a result of this each boiler is slightly different dimensionally and most pipes have to be adjusted for fit. Ian has also experienced this issue with the cladding sheet metal and several trail fits and adjustments are required before final fitting.

Our next workday day is Sunday 21 March 2010.

Progress happens when you are not looking

Progress is being made all over the place. Photos below show the progress being made on the super-heater elements in Melbourne while in Sydney, some more exposed metal has been painted and the long awaited reassembly has started on the cab at Eveleigh.



Included is a picture of the Garratt in 1975, when it was last painted. A scene not too far away, as long as donations keep coming in.