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News from the Tourist Railways Edition No 37
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31 March 2008 |
ATHRA - Association of Tourist and Heritage Rail Australia Meetings The ATHRA Meeting held in Canberra was a great success and was addressed by Brian Nye from ARA, who spoke on the ARA's work and the NSW regulator, Caroline Walsh, who spoke on the new regulations. A presentation was made by Alan Gardner from RISSB on boilers and it was emphasised that when RISSB make the new standards available for comment to Heritage Rail and others, comment must be made. Otherwise no comment means that we agree with the proposed new standard.The pre - conference tour visited the Heritage Railway at Cooma and participants enjoyed a trip on the railway's rail motors from Cooma to Chakola. At the conclusion of the conference the participants visited the Australian Museum and had a rare ride on the Museum's steam paddle steamer on Lake Burley Griffin. The group then inspected the ARHS Canberra Museum and depot and enjoyed an evening meal in the Southern Aurora dining carriage.
Cooma Railway - ATHRA Chairman inspecting the Rail Motor Photo J. Frost The next ATHRA General Meeting and the 3rd Annual General Meeting will be held in Cairns in September 2008. The programme has now been issued and can be found on the ATHRA website. ATHRA Awards ATHRA will make the following set of awards for Heritage rail for Australia for 2008: Then awards will be for: ATHRA - Excellence Award ATHRA - ARA - Graeme Breydon Rail Safety Award. ATHRA - ARTC - Infrastructure Restoration Award. ATHRA - Workshops Rail Museum - Research Excellence Award. ATHRA - Locomotive Restoration Award. ATHRA - Steam Locomotive Restoration Award. ATHRA - Tourism Promotion Award. ATHRA - Passenger Vehicle Restoration Award. Cinders and Ashes This publication can be read online at the ATHRA website and you can subscribe to have it sent to your email address automatically. It contains news of National events and happenings throughout Australia on Heritage Rail. The address is www.athra.asn.au ATHRA Alerts The Association has set up a system of "Alerts" to immediately draw to member's attention urgent changes which are taking place in the rail industry. Alerts No's 1 to 13 were issued in 2005. No's 14 - 27 were issued in 2006 and No's 28 to 36 in 2007. For details please see the ATHRA website. Click Here Victorian News The Association held its first meeting away from Melbourne when the Daylesford Spa Country Railway hosted a visit from delegates on Saturday, 23 February 2008. Attempts had been made to meet off site in the past but no one had offered until now to host such a meeting. A very good attendance of delegates were present and it is hoped to hold further country meetings in April and October 2008 at possibly Queenscliff and Bendigo. Victoria has been plagued with thieves attacking railway control signalling since the recent sharp increase in the cost of copper. Victoria Police have been active and two large hauls have been made of stolen copper which has been seized as it was about to be exported from Australia. News from our Members Australian Railway Historical Society - Victorian Division. Heavy Harry, the largest steam engine ever built in Australia and resident at the Newport Museum has received registration as a "Heritage Object" on the Victoria Government Heritage Register. In the Museum the wooden IB wagon is to have the upper section replaced and T94 is to receive a new buffer beam. Both exhibits are in need of some very heavy work and an appeal is made for people to help in these repairs. The Hitachi electric carriage has been graffitied but was returned to condition with a lot of hard work. Melbourne has the unfortunate reputation of being the graffiti capital of the world. The Torrens Carriage is being repainted on the outside in green. An open day was held at the Museum in January and this generated substantial publicity in the news. The Great Railway Swap Meet was fully booked out. The February Issue of Newsrail had a series of photos on the operations of Victoria's last branch passenger service, the Stony Point line, an article on the Craigeburn electrification and G class operations. Ballarat Tramway Museum The Museum farewelled the late Mrs. Jean Maxwell who was the last conductress to leave the Ballarat tramways. Together with her husband, Arthur Maxwell who was the Senior traffic Inspector for the SEC when the SEC ran the Ballarat tramways, when the tramways closed they purchased and ran for a number of years the tearooms in the Botanic Gardens then known as "Lake Lodge". Once again the tramway is to take part in the 2008 Begonia Festival and will operate a free tram service for the three days of the Festival. Jobs completed in the workshop recently include the testing and tagging of all electrical appliances by an electrician, the completion of No 14's truck, the replacement of a worn out trolley wheel on No 13 and the preparation of a bracket arm to replace a bent one near depot junction. A recent couple of wet days, a rarity in recent times, revealed serious leaks in the motorman's windows on Trams Nos. 13 and 33. These were resealed and repainted. The "temporary" advertising signs added to the horse tram some years ago for its visit to Melbourne were finally removed, revealing the more historic ones underneath. A motor and armature swap has been arranged with the Bendigo Tramways. One of No 14's armatures was found to require complete rewiring. Bendigo Tramways has swapped two restored suitable armatures for two Ballarat MV 101 motors which are not suitable for use in Ballarat and which can be used in Bendigo. The armatures will be checked and installed in the Ballarat motors by DBB in Melbourne. When this is complete and the motors are reinstalled No 14 can be made mobile again and No 28 lifted so that a defective field coil can be replaced. The motor swap is not an ideal solution because this can only be a one off means to resolve the problem of aging armatures and the cost of rewinding them. Three street lights have been restored by stripping them back to bare copper. These were donated twenty years ago by a sympathetic SEC employee who had just removed them from Lydiard Street, where they had hung since 1938. They are extremely attractive and too valuable to hang outside. so a home will have to be found somewhere inside the shed. They will also need to be converted from DC to 240 volts AC. Five new sleepers were installed on the depot side of the king points, replacing a few which had ceased to contribute, and making for a smoother ride through here from the new shed. The tram fleet achieved 100% reliability during the summer. Over thirty four days of continuous operation not one changeover was required. A remarkable turnaround occurred when No. 27 required a bearing to be re-metalled after many years of hard running. It was out of service for only eleven days. Clear plastic weather blinds have been acquired for No. 661, and some have been fitted.
The Bellarine Railway
The track deviation at Lakers Siding has been completed
and the next job to follow is the new shed.
The railway is a focal point of the Queenscliff Music
Festival in November and had excellent patronage.
Tasmanian Guards van DB46 is being overhauled and has had the
addition of air brakes supplementing the vacuum brakes on
the carriage. It has had a full repaint and buffer
modifications. Carriage ABL14 is also having a major rebuild and
the window sills are being replaced and the doors and
windows are being rebuilt. The carriage will be fully
repainted. Once this carriage is completed the railway
will have an authentic Tasmanian swing door set.
Work on Locomotive T 251 is continuing and a new tube
plate is to be cut. Defective fire box stays
are being removed . Major work has been done
on the tender under frame with two wheel sets being
changed from spares.
Suma Park Station has become a request stop and it
is hoped that it will become a regular
stopping place.
Daylesford Spa Country Railway
The railway recently hosted a visit by the ATR which
was the first meeting of the
organisation outside of the metropolitan area
ATR Meeting Train at Bullarto
Photo J. Frost
Friends of the North Australian Railway at Adelaide
River.
They have been working steadily on their site and
are about to open their own web site. This can be
found from the ATR website.
Melbourne Tramcar Preservation Society W 834 The four external are currently with Arthur Ireland off site where he is undertaking the work of plugging the holes that were drilled for barrel locks, reinstating the standard MMTB latches, and installing D-moulding on the doors to improve their appearance, prior to repainting them. He also has the two internal cabin doors off site and is re-varnishing and repainting them prior to reinstallation. Work on 843 itself has concentrated on the repairs to the chassis and flooring of the No. 2 end cabin, where some rotted timber has been replaced, and all components primed and sealed prior to reinstalling the floor. Spare Parts Trams Further progress has been made on the dismantling of SW5 809 with both cabins now removed, and the majority of electrical and pneumatic equipment removed from the underside of the tram. Daniel Edwards has continued to work on dismantling the interior of the tram to salvage all reusable beadings and fittings. Ian Seymour from the Australian Electric Transport Museum at St Kilda recently visited Haddon and collected the components that had been removed from W7 1008 for use on their W7 1013. The motorman’s visors collected for the Perth Electric Tramway Society were also delivered to them in February by Kym Smith while he was in Perth for work. Spare Parts Storage The major project over the last quarter has been the sorting and stowing of the spare parts that have been collected from Newport and from the trams that have been dismantled. A second shipping container has been purchased for storing parts, and both containers have now been fitted with shelving and are being progressively filled with sorted components. Both containers have also been fitted with revolving air vents to make the interiors a little less oppressive on warmer days. As part of this process, previously compiled spare parts stock listings are being updated and transferred to electronic database, for inclusion in our Safety Management System documentation. Serviceable and tested components are also being identified and tagged as part of this process. Daniel Edwards and Anthony Smith stacking components in one of the spare parts storage containers. Photo Jacqui Smith Supply of Cab Front A request was received from Yarra Trams for assistance in supplying a cabin front to use to replace a damaged front on W7 1019 which had been involved in a collision. Yarra Trams offered to supply some controller components needed for the overhaul of the under floor controller on SW5 843 in return for the swap. After consultation with Mike Ryan from VicTrack to ensure that VicTrack was happy with the exchange and that it was within the Spare Parts Protocol that is being developed by VicTrack, the front was delivered to Southbank Depot during March.
John Withers, Frank Schroeders, Anthony Smith and Arthur Ireland remove one of the cabin fronts from SW5 809. Photo Jacqui Smith Accreditation The other major project over the last quarter involved the completion and implementation of the new Safety Management System. The draft SMS was circulated to members who requested inclusion in the consultation process, with alterations made and the final version issued for implementation on Sunday 30 March 2008. For a tramway that operates only 450 metres of track on an as required basis, it is interesting to note that 120 various manuals, procedures, standards and forms were needed to meet the requirements of the Rail Safety Act, with the cumulated documentation being well over 1000 pages. While the initial rewrite has taken as substantial amount of time and effort to get completed and correct, it has allowed us to put in place processes which better reflect the operations at Haddon, and to implement processes which in the longer time will make working at Haddon safer and easier. Puffing Billy - Emerald Tourist Railway Board The railway took part in a model railway display at Sandown Park in March. The Day out with Thomas has commenced its 2008 season and the venue at Emerald has been changed to the area near the turntable. The railway has a new Government Board Member, Mr. C Banger, from the Department of Infrastructure with the retirement of Mr. John Hearsch. John has been associated with the railway since 1957. The railway is holding the Great Train Race on the 4 May 2008 and a large number of runners against Puffing Billy is expected. Work on the restoration of the Climax engine is proceeding and the new smoke box door has had new hinge blocks fitted. Over the years, the smoke box door was set at different heights and with various hinge configurations. It is being set in its original position with the hinges as when it first entered service. The smoke box barrel is being fitted to the boiler and the door plate is being installed. When the smoke box is aligned correctly, the rivet holes will be drilled and the boiler will once again have a smoke box riveted on the front. A special tap has been ordered to rework the hole for the barrel-filling plug. The pattern for the new chimney base has been ordered. The drawing is nearly complete for the new blast pipe A new steam pipe from the dome is needed. The design calculations have been finished and verification of the design should be completed in the next couple of weeks. As with much of the workshop efforts, a lot of time is spent in drawing and doing calculations BEFORE the components are made and fitted. It may take only a few minutes to bolt on a part which has taken weeks of drawing and manufacture. Not many bits are available off-the-shelf. South Gippsland Tourist Railway The railway has completed its rejuvenation of the line from Loch to Nyora and the entire line was reopened to heritage train on 12 January 2008. Bridges have been repaired and a number of sleepers placed in the track to allow train to once again to run the entire length of the line
. First Train to Nyora Photo J. Frost Steamrail The Steamrail Depot at Newport may be used to assist in the filming of a Mini Series "The Pacific" . Work has been done on turning S313 into an American engine only for the film company advise that the train shoot is now easier in the USA than in Australia. At the moment the project is up in the air!
Steamrail Open Day Newport Workshops. Photo J. Frost Engine T 364 is to have some attention to its paintwork and will receive a full repaint its first since 1993 when it was first restored by Steamrail. T395 and T 356 have been working on the Warrnambool line under hire to El Zorro. S 313 has had some electrical repairs carried out as well as some minor body repairs. The engine was about to take on the livery of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad when the job was cancelled and the decision was to repaint it in VR Blue and Gold. Then a further contact was made by the film company to go back to the L & N scheme At the moment they are awaiting further contact. Consequently work on B 72 has slowed down as the manpower was transferred to S 313. Work has been done on the nose compartment of the No 2 end. Work has also been done on the full strip out of cab No 1. R766 has left Newport by road and is now in NSW as a 4'8½" engine. This is the first conversion to standard gauge as was envisaged when the class was manufactured in the UK in the 1950's. The annual boiler inspections of the steam fleet has taken place and all passed. D3639 has had some work performed on the inner firebox. and other work to keep it running. R700 is to receive the wheels from R766 and repairs have been done to the trailing truck axle box horn lines, replacing the brake cylinder pipe on the trailing truck. A2 986 is having its "Drag Box" being repaired and because of the nature of the metal used in the engine's construction the work of repair is very slow. Carriage 6 BW is in the paint shop for roof repairs and some minor work has also been done to the interior. 1BCE is to receive a full overhaul once S313 is completed. 3ABE has had roof repairs done. The Goulburn sleeping car has had some wiring repaired. Steamrail is in the process of leaving the Tarp shop and yard as this area is to be resumed to be used for electric train stabling. The Newport Open day was a great success with many visitors present and equipment on display. The group reports that there has been a recent amount of suspicious activity around the Newport heritage rail precinct in recent weeks. This has culminated in the theft of some copper pipes from 707 Ops workshops. A suspicious vehicle was seen in the area, a mid 1990's Ford Fairlane / LTD?, silver, no rear number plate. Due to possible accident damage, it had what appeared to be red cellophane covering the rear brake lights.
Steamrail Open Day Newport Workshops. Photo J. Frost The Victorian Goldfields Railway The railway was closed over February to allow total occupation of the line to carry out maintenance work on the large bridge at Muckleford Creek bridge. A number of piles have been replaced in the bridge and sleeper replacements carried out on the section of track between Maldon Junction and Castlemaine, which was previously under the control of Pacific National, and had little work done on it while under the control of that body. The DERM is receiving a fresh coat of paint and now looks very smart. Locomotive K 160 is out of service pending boiler examination and will be withdrawn later in the year for a major overhaul. While K160 is out of action the service will be maintained by J 515 and J 541. J 549 will be returned to service before K 160 is withdrawn. In the January edition of the railway's Newsletter there is a nostalgic article on the running of a train to Shelbourne and an interview with the railway's Operations Manager. Tramway Museum Society The Museum introduced colour into its January Newsletter. It was noted that missing parts for tram X2 680 have been found and these have now been refitted. This car was a prototype for the class and the fitting of the skirts ensures that the restoration is correct for this tram. While trams in a class can be considered to be uniform, as the years pass changes are made when overhauls are done and each car becomes a little different from its fellows. The tram is now almost complete with some work needed on the roof canvas. Tram Q 199 is slowly being restored with the original varnished interior being brought back to its original condition and the exterior also receiving attention. Ballasting of the track has continued with some sleeper replacement. A further 50 sleepers are to be replaced in the near future. Tram W3 667 was returned to Melbourne for use in the filming of the mini-series "The Pacific". The tram ran in Flinders street for the filming and it was the first time in 30 years it had been in the city. As many other trams had to be moved to allow 667 to go to Melbourne several other trams had some work done to make them mobile. W2 667 had a new life guard fitted and W5 752 had a replacement part replaced in the line breaker. Both trams are now operational. Tram W1 427 was used in January 2008 to help in the making of a music video for a group called "Panic Attack". Updated 21 April 2008 |
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