24 October, 2014 - Ten Years Ago Today

Wow, how time flies, it only seemed like yesterday that S549 went back to Midland for the Midland Workshops Open Day celebrating the centenary of the opening of the facility.




S549 entering the workshops yard

S549 on public display

Some great video footage taken by Brett Mohen below;

 S549 being moved out of the Bassendean Museum for display

 at the Midland Railway Workshops open day 2004.

The loco was operated under Hotham Valley Railway's

 mainline accreditation with Gus Matherson at the controls.

Brett Mohen

 

It was great to see the Sammy out on the main line again however the Cartazzi axle bearing would play up on the way to Midland which raised a fair bit of concern bringing her back home to Bassendean. However she made it back with little drama. The bearing was later replaced prior to going to the Dowerin Centenary Celebrations.

 

A DVD was made using footage taken of S549 being transferred to Midland Workshops and is called "How Steam Works". It is available from the Rail Heritage Bookshop at Bassendean or can be ordered online, follow the link below.

http://www.railheritagewa.org.au/sales/sales_3.htm

Vale Joe Moir

The sad news of the passing of Joe Moir came through last Friday.

Joe was a railway man through and through, he worked on the railways for the WAGR, he help restore old railway rolling stock and items for ARHS, he researched different railway subjects and in his spare time was involved in modelling of the WAGR, one would have thought he had trains in his veins.

Joe - Fireman of S549 during its mainline trial to Muchea on 22 July 1997
Photo Jeff.Austin taken at Muchea


The WAGR S class locomotives were one of Joe's favourite engines and played a large part in her original restoration in the early 90's. His main contribution to the project was conducting engine trials up and down the siding at Bassendean to ensure all was in working order prior to being released for the mainline trial to Muchea. This happened over several weekends, up and down, up and down, check the bearings, up and down, up and down, check the bearings, over and over again. For Joe, he was in his element.



Joe overseeing the first hydrostatic test on 549's boiler - March 1990
Photo Phil Melling

Not sure how he arranged it, but Joe ensured he was the fireman for 549's mainline trial to Muchea in July 1997, maybe he told the boss, its my engine and I'm on her, OK.?



S549 "Greenmount", between Millendon and Muchea on trials after restoration
Rail Heritage Photo P10003

Joe at Dowerin - December 2006

Joe at Dowerin making sure all is in order.
Both Photo's Phil Melling

Joe will be sadly missed when "Greenmount" hits the rails again hopefully next year, but somehow I believe he will be looking over to see she's behaving herself.

Farewell Mate.
RC

Saturday, 18 October 2014 - Project Update

Well again its been some time since the last report so as the saying goes "Better late than never"

Whilst some of the team have been taking time off the project for a break, Greg, Josh and Jayden have been concentrating on removing the scale from the bottom of the boiler barrel and have done a fantastic job doing so. It has taken longer than expected due to the restrictions in the throat plate cavity previously explained but as you can see by the before and after photo's below there was a lot of debris to move. There is small amounts of scale remaining but this will be removed over the next couple of weeks.

Great job guys.!!


Before

After

We only have a couple of jobs remaining, remove the remaining scale in the boiler, remove the arch tube plugs and remove the centre supporting beam for the grate so the remainder of the foundation ring could be cleaned. However Saturday the 18th looked like it was going to be a day where all things would go wrong, a hire compressor that was needed to remove the arch tube plugs was not available, we hadn't organised a needle gun to continue with the cleaning of the boiler so it looked like a wasted day was ahead of us.

With only the removal of the supporting beam for the grate on the list of tasks that looked like it could be completed, Alec gathered up jacks, sleepers and blocks required to lift it out of its supporting brackets so it could be moved to one side. It was thought that to lift this beam which would weigh approximately 250kg was going to be a huge task in itself as there is not a lot of room at the bottom of the ash pan to place equipment to lift it.

Sleepers were placed through the ash pan doors to give the jacks an area to distribute the load and to minimise the risk of damaging the ash pan floor. A track lifting jack was then placed on top of these and fitted as close to centre of the beam possible and slowly raised until it came in contact with the beam. To our surprise it lifted easily out of the brackets of which it was then blocked up clear of these. The beam was then moved clear of the brackets and lowered so it rested on the ash pan skirt. The brackets were later removed so cleaning could continue.

The centre supporting beam for the grate

With that out of the way, what next..? We found an old needle gun which didn't work so why not try and fix it, we had nothing to loose..? Again as if it was our lucky day, with a couple of taps and words of encouragement from Greg, the tool fired up. Cleaning could recommence.

The last of the hurdles was the removal of the arch tube plugs, what have we got to loose..? Lets keep persisting in their removal. These plugs are about 80-90mm in diameter and have about 50mm of thread in contact. The previous attempt in their removal was only successful in one of the four being completed with the other three refusing to even think about moving and without a bigger compressor forget about it..!!!

Well as said before, it was our lucky day, with our small compressor working flat out all three were removed, the work area was full of smiling faces. Well done Greg and Kirk.

Arrow points to the Arch Tube Plug

Arch Tube Plugs Removed

With the plug removed, the arch tube is revealed,
to give some sort of scale of the plugs, the arch tube is approx. 60mm inside diameter.



Greg holding the last of the stubborn plugs, look at that smile..!!

After all the doom and gloom to start with, we had a very productive day. So what's next.? Mainly just cleaning prior to calling the boiler inspector to give it the once over.

Well done team, your efforts are appreciated.

Saturday 6 September 2014 - Project Update

Well it's been some weeks since the last update, so this is well overdue.

Removal of the Smokebox Concrete - 2 August 2014
A section of the concrete in the smoke box was required to be removed so the section in which hidden could be inspected by the boiler inspector. The concrete is fitted to the floor of the smoke box so it is easier to clean the ash from the floor as the concrete covers the boiler to underframe mounting bolts and the lower section of the exhaust manifold. On an S class the concrete at its deepest section is approximately 6 inches thick, so to remove it a concrete saw was required to cut grooves into the concrete and then broken up with a jack hammer. This was hard, heavy and loud work which unfortunately restricted other activities on the locomotive for the day.


The Removed Concrete

Removal of the Grate - 9 August 2014
The fire grate was required to be removed so the area of the boiler in which it covered could be inspected. Nothing seems to be light work on a locomotive of this size and this was no exception. The dump grate was removed the following Saturday. Well done team.


The Removed Grate

 

Where The Grate Used to Sit - Inside The Firebox

Boiler Wash Out - 6 September 2014
The long a tedious job of trying to clean the scale from the bottom of the boiler barrel has commenced. The scale, mainly tannin fell from the small tubes when they were removed and found a new unwanted home at the bottom of the barrel. We originally came up with several ideas to remove the scale but opted to use a high pressure hose and wash it towards the firebox and down the throat plate cavity and remove it through the foundation ring washout plug holes. On an S class the cavity of the throat plate is long and angular and it was found the scale would form a dam and would bank up which would require constant blasting to free up. It is though approximately half of the scale has been removed and the remaining should be removed next weekend.

So the list now looks like this.

• Removal of the firebox door. Completed
• Finish removal of the welds on the firebox tube plate. Completed
• Removal of the safety valves, crown mounting and clack valves so the mountings can be inspected. Completed.
• Continue clearing the stay tell tale holes. Completed, well done Chad, Jaydan and Josh.
• Removal of a section of the concrete in the smoke box so the front tube plate can be inspected. Completed
• Removal of the grate so the foundation ring rivets can be inspected. Completed
• Boiler washout to remove the scale left in the barrel as a result of the removal of the small tubes. In Progress.
• Remove the scum cock so the boiler can be inspected.

Saturday 26 July 2014

Over the weekends of the 19th and 26th of July, further work was carried out on the outstanding tasks.

• Removal of the firebox door. Completed
• Finish removal of the welds on the firebox tube plate. Completed
• Removal of the safety valves, crown mounting and clack valves so the mountings can be inspected. Completed, well done Dom.
• Continue clearing the stay tell tale holes. In progress, Chad, Jaydan and Josh were last seen inside the firebox happily drilling.

It must be noted that Greg has been doing a great job cleaning down the exterior surfaces of the boiler, removing the remaining traces of the insulation and other debris left behind from the past twenty years. 

Next week should see the following tasks well under way if not completed.

• Removal of a section of the concrete in the smoke box so the front tube plate can be inspected.
• Removal of the grate so the foundation ring rivets can be inspected.
• Boiler washout to remove the scale left in the barrel as a result of the removal of the small tubes. 

I have been asked over the last couple of Saturdays as to what is the purpose of the stays, why are there holes in the stays and why do the holes only go only so far in, well I'll give it a go to explain;

The sole purpose of the boiler stay is to maintain the distance between the firebox (inner) shell and the exterior shell of the boiler and to support these sheets when the boiler is under pressure.


Arrow points to the stay, the inner firebox and outer wrapper are located to the left and right of the stay respectively

Arrow points to the stay, the inner firebox and outer wrapper are located to the left and right of the stay respectively

 The holes in which the stays are inserted into are threaded of which a long tap is used to ensure that the thread is the same pitch between the outer and inner sheets. The stay itself is threaded however the thread is removed and the material reduced in the area that would be in the water space (white area on the photo above). The holes in each end of the stay also go past the treaded section and just into the area that had been reduced by removing the thread as per the cross section view below.

Stay showing the threaded ends, the 3/16th hole in the end as well as the reduced centre section.

Stay showing the threaded ends as well as the reduced centre section.

Cross section view of the stay.

So why the hole.? The hole or tell tale hole as it is properly referred to has two purposes;
1) To give a weak point in the stay so if it was to break it would more likely break in the area where there is the least amount of resistance i.e. where there is the least amount of material through the section with the hole.
2) To advise the operator that it is broken by allowing water to leak out through the hole.
If the stay was of solid material there would be little evidence that it was broken.

Hopefully the above gives some explanation for the purposes of stays and the reason for the tell tale hole.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Well we finally got there, the removal of the cladding and insulation is completed. The WAGR cladded the boilers before the cab was fitted and this practice continued when S549 was restored all those years ago. However it caused a headache this time around as we really didn't want to remove the cab but the cab was hindering the removal of the cladding as it was pinching the sheets, so after much debate we decided to cut the sheets adjacent to the cab walls which then made the removal so much easier. As the sheets were the originals from the WAGR days, they were heavy corroded in sections so replacements were always on the plan anyway.



 

 

Dom had done a great effort the previous Saturday removing the remaining fittings from the back head of the boiler allowing access to remove the remaining cladding. As we were packing up, Dom arrived with spanners in hand to commence afternoon shift so we will have to wait until next week to see what he achieved. 

 

 

The other task that was started was the cleaning out of the tell tail holes in the stays, there is hundreds of them. Andrew, Jaydan and Josh did a stirling job completing approximately 60% of the holes located on the outside of the firebox by the end of the day. (What we haven't told them is that the same amount of holes are located on the inside of the firebox).

Josh clearing the stay tell-tail holes



There is still some work to be completed prior to the boiler inspector giving the boiler a visual inspection, the main items are;

• Removal of a section of the concrete in the smoke box so the front tube plate can be inspected.
• Finish removal of the welds on the firebox tube plate.
• Removal of the safety valves, crown mounting and clack valves so the mountings can be inspected.
• Removal of the grate so the foundation ring rivets can be inspected.
• Removal of the firebox door.
• Boiler washout to remove the scale left in the barrel as a result of the removal of the small tubes. 
• Continue clearing the stay tell tale holes.

With a little luck, the jobs will be completed over the next couple of work days, at least the list is getting smaller.

Saturday 28 June 2014

What makes a project successful comes down to the team and the way they interact to reach a common gaol, a good team can move mountains. The team on the S549 project is a very good one and it is currently moving a "mountain" class locomotive with some momentum.

The target for the days activities was to lift the sand box to allow for the last of the cladding sheets to be removed followed by the removal of the insulation.

To do this the ladder had to be removed, then the sandbox lifted by packing it up with timber blocks (Remember a crane is not available or accessible to do any heavy lifting where the S class is currently located) so the sheets could be slipped over the fastening studs.

The insulation could then be removed, a chicken wire cage held this against the boiler barrel so this had to be removed first, hopefully the insulation would come away with it, Wrong..!! It had to be plucked off the boiler in clumps.

The team grew again this week with welcomed guests Ned and Josh lending a hand.

Whilst this was going on, Dominic continued to remove the majority of valves and fittings from the backhead of the boiler. The amount of progress made in this area was not originally planned for at the start of the day so it was an extra bonus.

We're getting closer, Saturday by Saturday.