Saturday 6/3/2010
During the week, the small few members present, decided to make it their goal, to restart PVH, No. 21.. Numerous attempts were made during the week, with various configurations of storage batteries, and a combination of X18's batteries. (Now removed for a battery box rebuild)
Finally, the problem was diagnosed to a bad connection on one of the cables from the stationary storage batteries, to the loco charging point.
With a little re-rigging of the cables, and a little assistance from the "jump start" function on the battery charger, the engine finally rotated, quick enough to fire, after 6 years of sitting idle!
Unfortunately movement wasn't possible due to an inconvenient configuration of steam loco tenders behind it, and the vast amount of crap being stored, on, under, and around the loco itself. It's envisioned that within a few weeks, it'll be possible to get it out and give it a run up and down the loop.
Elsewhere, ACS2 got another window removed, and ABL2 had more paint stripped, with attention being turned to the roof. Y2 also had a few more air leaks seen to, X18 received more attention in the cab area, and Mathew made a few new 3ϕ extension leads for the workshop
Thanks to some inquiries from James, Tassal donated a spare 6LW Gardner engine, suitable as a spare for the U engine.
Saturday 27/2/2010
With all the new trackwork pushing up the old Wye formation, and our current road access to the rear of the yard being on same, the road was slowly being encroached on.
To counteract this issue, we dug out, and installed concrete drain pipe into the culvert alongside the wye formation, to utilise the opposite side of the culvert (beside the coal road.) This was correctly setup with appropriate fall for drainage and backfilled with coal chips, too small to be burnt in a fire box.
This exercise took most of the day, with just enough time in the afternoon, to drag a couple more lengths of rail into place for to bring the western leg of the wye to the point where the frog for the set of points starts.
The work day was ended at the unusually early time of 1530, to allow enough time for socialising, railway films and the AGM at 1600
Saturday 20/2/2010
With a nice day and a nice clear wye leg, work commenced on the extension towards the back of the yard.
The track, when first layed by the work for the dole crew, all those years ago, was layed too far to the east, and off the original alignment.
The morning was spent realigning the existing track to the original alignment, and replacing a rail which was installed the wrong was around.
one section of rail, was rather stubborn, and reluctant to bend nicely. It was necessary to apply the crow to induce a curve into it. A crow, (for those who don't know,) is a heavy three point bending frame. As the central point is screwed in, the rail is pushed out between the two outer bars, that hook over the rail head.
By late afternoon, we were to the point of bolting on another couple of lengths of rail. The inside rail was bolted up temporarily as matching transition plates are getting hard to find in our stock piles, and some existing ones will have to be modified.
The need for transition plates came about as, to date the western leg of the wye was laid in 40lb rail. The remaining rail in stock is 45 or 60.
The inside rail was easy to pin down to the new stock of steel sleepers, and the outside rail, although not pined down, still bent around the curve as the inside rail was manoeuvred into position.
Saturday 13/2/2010
Whilst a number of the regulars continued with rolling stock repairs such as stripping paint off ABL2, repairing windows on ACS2 and fixing sanding valves on Y2, a crew decided to undertake a shunting exercise to clear the unfinished east leg of the wye to allow trackwork to recommence on extending the wye.
Locomotive U5 was prepared and started and with KG145 as a match truck, set about progressively dragging clear ES18 (the Grover van), The 'B' class underframe and the PC (H) underframe (loaded with E208) which were placed on the eastern end of #2 Carriage Road.
U5+KG145 then added FFC2 and went on to collect EE32 and then QJ5+ZJ23,which were shunted onto the old carriage road, joining the SF, EEE and other QJ. The last vehicle on the wye was CC262 which was shunted onto #1 Loco Shed Road in front of M1. Prior to removing the CC, the opportunity was taken to clear some of the junk along the wye formation, by loading it on the KG.
Once the CC was dropped off, the U and KG set off to the western end of the yard. Plans to move the OT, C & CCC off the coal road to take the KG up to the coal dump to unload (throw off) the load of junk had to be abandoned when the U, which was having "issues" couldn't shift the OT+C+CCC. Therefore the KG was left on the coal road to be dealt with at another time.
With the wye leg now clear, the opportunity to get stuck into some track work next week is now good to go.
Saturday 6/2/2010
During the week, we had a delivery of sleepers, that were owned by the local paper mill at boyer. Many sidings around the state were privately owned and some within the paper mill recently became surplus to requirements.
Our crew was put into heavy laborious work, carefully removing them from the pile and stacking them on pallets arranged by type. We were donated about 200 altogether, which will allow us to finish our wye, and repair any problem areas within the yard.
Some other members took it upon themselves to mow some more of the grass, which is rapidly becoming more and more unruly.
Of the rails that are already in place around the wye, the majority needs pulling around into a tighter curve. In anticipation of laying more track around the wye, 20 sleepers and 2 lengths of rail were roughly positioned ready for installation.
Elsewhere in the yard, later in the afternoon, some of the crew dispersed to strip more paint on the ABL and to perform more window repairs on the ACS.
During the day the forklift was utilised extensively and win between jobs, was used for doing a general yard tidy-up, rearranging pallets and other larger objects.
At some point during the day, one tyre on the forklift was damaged, so the final task for late afternoon was to replace the offending tyre, with the only spare onsite.
Saturday 30/1/2010
Today was a day of many varied tasks taking place.
The U engine was started to move the Y, allowing the track machine out and closer to the shed so it can be filled with fuel from Ex-EBR Loco No.21, which was filled with fuel but is currently unserviceable, so is being used as a fuel storage tank. The U engine has already been filled off it and there's still plenty left for future filling of other diesels that require it.
The proportional valve from the Y was completely disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled. but still has a small leak, although it is better than it was, the goal is to eliminate all leaks, so we'll have to have another look. The Y also had the engine starting valve removed and the same treatment as the proportional valve.
The yard crew also got some civil work done today. James did a spot of brush cutting during the morning, while Geoff and John relocated some of the pallets on the Wye formation.
The ABL had one of it's doors stripped down to the bare frame.
The X engine had another door jam created, and the door frames were cleaned up ready for the jams to go in. Additionally the cab received a general clean up ready for some cab fittings to be reinstalled.
The ACS had more window work performed and had last week's window re-installed, and another one removed.
Saturday 23/1/2010
This week saw another window come out of ACS2 and the previous one go back in. Paul is determined to give the same treatment to every window that's been leaking or starting to part from the frame.
ABL2 got a good crew again for body work and work is progressing nicely
The X engine got started getting some more work. Specifically, attention to cracked and rusted window frames. During the afternoon, Mat fabricated a new door jam to replace the originals, which were bent and twisted from the rust build-up behind them. The new jam was so accurate, that it was a perfect fit on either side of the cab. Quite a surprise considering how many times the various X engines had been in accidents
The Y is still receiving attention with the aim to remove all air leaks/ electrical problems/ water leaks/ and make it a more reliable loco. It had it's pipe work reinstalled (removed the previous weekend) and the proportional valve was removed and dismantled to fix another minor air leak and an additional non return valve was checked and reassembled.
Saturday 16/1/2010
More scraping of the ABL was again, the hot project of the day. A big welcome to our two new members, Andrew and Peter who assisted James, Aaron, John Kingston, and Frank with this ongoing task.
Geoff occupied the day with painting preparation work on ACS2 and Paul, more work on removing and repairing the window seals. The frames behind the windows are still in very good condition and don't need any repair work.
A couple of us had a look at the oil pressure switch in Y loco, which seemed to be causing a starting problem. The Lubricating oil doesn't get to pressure and cut out like it's supposed to before firing.
A pressure gauge was attached and oil pressure from the oil priming pump only gets to about 15 psi, instead of the usual 27 psi before starting. After starting pressure comes up to 60 psi as started in the manual. The filters on the loco were inspected and cleaned, but didn't solve the problem.
The problem is still not yet solved, and we shall need to consult the manual, which, fortunately we have on hand thanks to help in obtaining copies from the National Archives. The National Archives is set to be shut down and moved interstate. Many documents that are very valuable to all Tasmanian rail societies are stored in this facility, and if it goes, will be a major loss for Tasmania. Anyone wishing to assist should write to their local federal member for parliament.
Saturday 9/1/2010
Today saw a good turnout, but as the weather was scorching by early morning, external projects (such as steam engine reassembly) got canned.
The ABL had it's usual scraping and even had some extra hands to help from the normal crew.
Paul continued working on ACS2 and removed another leaking window. The seals behind have started to fail, so the whole frames are being gently removed, new seals made and fitted, and the window reinstalled.
Y2 got some attention in the compressor room from Lyndon and John. This loco. has always taken a long time to make air pressure, so a modification was made to allow an air hose to be plugged in and pressurise the system without the noise from the engine masking the noise from the leaks.
The air intercooler was found to have a big leak straight off the main receivers. This was removed, re-welded and put back in. However, surrounding pipe work has been found to be heavily clogged with oil, so efforts are underway to remove and clean them individually.
This issue would suggest the compressors rings need replacing, so we'll probably restore the spare larger Y engine compressor and install that in its place
Saturday 2/1/2010
The scraping of the ABL keeps progressing. The original green and cream paint requires chemical assistance as it is extremely tough, a credit to Waddington's coach building skills. The bare aluminium panels look quite smart.
The reassembly of steam locomotives (lying in bits from the asbestos removal) was begun, starting with H5. The cab is nearly complete and some fire box cladding and walkways have started going back on.
The station is in the process of getting a cleanout, as there is a lot of unnecessary paperwork, and generally useless rubbish that is no longer needed or functional.