News Jan-Apr 07
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News Jan-Apr 07
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30/4/07 New Page Added - Permanent Way Equipment - Click Here Mussel Pool branch to be closed for Sat 5th and Sun 6th of May to enable replacement of Transom timbers on the Bennett Brook Bridge. No services will operate from Mussel Pool station during this period. Train services will be available from Whiteman Village Junction station with trains operating Loop Services only.
Friday nights continue to see a good turn up of members to assist with maintenance of the locomotive fleet. Members also enjoy the chat and get together on Friday nights. As we are now in May and have had good rains in recent days, this means that Steam Season is almost certainly here. Ng123 is almost ready to go with only minor items to be finalised. A good clean and a touch up of paintwork is also required. Some dramas were encountered with 123 in the last few weeks when a fractured tender bogie frame was discovered. This has required separation of the tender from the locomotive to enable removal of the bogie. As we are nearing FOTTE day it was decided to pair 123 with the tender from sister locomotive NG 118 (until repairs to the failed bogie can be carried out) to enable some running in of the newly bored cylinders. This swap of the tenders occurred on Fri 27th of April providing for an unusual looking colour scheme.
24/4/07 80ft Turntable info added - Click Here Mussel Pool Station page - more info added - Click here In the last couple of weeks the BBR has been quite busy with many people travelling during Easter and the school holiday period. The railway operated everyday during the April holidays. Friday maintenance nights have continued with much getting done on Ng 123 and BT1. On Sunday 15th of April the BBR Boiler Inspector visited and inspected BT1 in "Open to Atmosphere" condition giving it a clean bill of health. Ng 123 was given an "In Steam" inspection and after setting of the "Safety Valves" was certified for use for the 2007 steam season. Since the boiler inspection BT1 has been mostly "Boxed Up" with all washout plugs and the Fusible plug refitted. Tank tops have been bolted down, Gauge Glasses have been inspected and replaced, Smokebox fittings - blower nozzle, chimney petticoat and spark arresting equipment have also been refitted. Only the Dome remains to be put on before a steam test and inspection. Minor and everyday maintenance has been attended to on the diesel fleet also. Planet #1 has given some difficulties recently with the Vacuum pump but otherwise has performed well with holiday services. Rosalie has seen occasional use filling in for the Planet when required. Maylands & Yellow Rose have received some maintenance from Scott and Michael in preparation for the approaching FOTTE day. Planet #2 has also seen some restoration work. Gemco "Wyndham" is still awaiting suitable parts for reconstruction of its final drive. Work continues on the track with the midweek crews inserting sleepers where required at a steady pace. Refurbishing of the Whiteman Village Junction station, ticket and souvenir areas was completed by B. Baker and friends prior to the school holidays. A job well done Bob.
7/4/07 "Good
Friday" work evening had a good turn out of 12 adults and 4 children. The
"Lovely Ladies" Leanne and Anne, took care of the excellent sea food
BBQ for our “Chain Gang” and kept the kids occupied while the rest of the
crew went to work. We put in 9 steel and one wooden sleepers for the evening (
but who’s counting ) and then had a leisurely trip around the loop to top the
evening off. Travelling the railway at night has its own romantic charm about it
and if you haven’t done it and get the opportunity its well worth it ( you
might need to change a few sleepers though to do it). These evenings make for
good social get togethers too.
30/3/07 NG 123 Moves under steam for first time since 1995 On Friday evening 23/03/07 the crew gathered once again to progress work towards moving Ng 123 under its own steam. After moving the locomotive from the loco shed to the pit shed, much was accomplished on this evening, with all the lube pots cleaned, all the rods fitted, vacuum hoses and safety chains sorted out and secured, tender bogies oiled, the main steam delivery pipes olives lapped and the left hand delivery pipe installed.
These jobs finalised, brought us to Friday the 30/03/07 which was to be the night we aimed to move Ng 123 under its own power. Derek was on the scene early in the day to finish installation of the right hand delivery pipe, exhaust pipe, blower and ejector ring and associated pipes. Steadily members turned up to assist in putting the final pieces into place to see our Big Engine move once again. 11 members were on hand at various stages of the evening. At 5pm the last of the fittings in the smokebox were installed, the boiler filled and the match was struck. The fire crackled into life as members busied themselves clearing away tools and assorted bits and pieces from the footplate of the NG. Last of the jobs to be attended were coaling the tender, the reconnection of the fireman side lubricator lines and the cylinder drain cocks before we headed off for Dinner - Pizza enjoyed by all along with a good chat. Around 8.30 the needle lifted off the stop on the pressure gauge.
Driver "Blinco" commenced starting up of associated fittings as the steam pressure climbed. Light bulbs were found for the cab lights and the weather shield was refitted too. The lubricator was started and cylinders were checked for oil being delivered to them. With full pressure achieved around 9.45pm and with all going well the cylinders were gently warmed through before the regulator was opened a little further and away Ng 123 went for the first time under its own steam power since 1995. A couple of runs were made up and down the shed road to check all was well before we eased the loco down into Mussel Pool yard for a bit of a longer stretch of line to test it on.
Many journeys were made up and down the loop at Mussel Pool for testing of the loco, with members wanting a footplate ride and a blow of the whistle as well. A big thankyou to all who have assisted with getting Ng 123 to this momentous point. Now to finish off the smokebox spark arrestors, fix some small jobs needing work and tidy the old girl up for Thomas Day.
26/3/07 Maylands Loco info Added - Click Here 21/3/07 ATHRA Meeting The Association of Tourist and Heritage Railways Australia held one of their six monthly meetings at the "Revolutions" transport heritage centre in Whiteman Park on the 16th, 17th and 18th of March, hosted by the Bennett Brook Railway. Delegates from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia attended. Interstate delegates visited Pemberton Tramway, Hotham Valley Tourist Railway, Bennett Brook Railway, Perth Electric Tramway Society and Rail Heritage WA during their time in WA. By all reports the meetings were productive and all enjoyed and found interesting the tours of WA railway sites.
Safeworking Course On Saturday 3rd of March a safeworking course was held for new members wishing to get involved in train operations and for existing members wishing to revise. 9 members attended the course which was presented by Operations Manager Simon Mead with assistance from Daniel Corunna and Scott Parker. All participants passed.
18/3/07 Washout, Tank Tops, Superheaters & Rods Friday evening 17th March saw a good turnout of 8 members on hand for the work night. With a long evening ahead, Derek, Neil, Richard and Adam were on hand early to start putting the last of the superheater elements into Ng123. New elements were found last week to give some trouble when inserting into the superheater flues, so with a little tickle on the tube wrappers with a grinder, they slid in nicely and soon all elements were in place. With the elements in place next job was to light a fire once again in 123. With the elements having stood around for so long we wanted to give them a good steam clean before connection of the header to the newly rebored cylinders. After about 4.5 hrs of making steam the regulator was opened around midnight and steam blown through the superheater elements for the first time in many years giving a colourful display of steam, soot, dust and grime from the smokebox. Whilst we were waiting to get up steam on 123 members set about other jobs. Scotty did a little work on the Maylands which seems to have gearbox problems being stuck in 1st gear. Bob, Richard, Kieran and Rod replaced the tank tops on BT1 as they had been painted the week previous. Then Bob and Richard commenced a washout of the boiler on BT1. A rather bedraggled and wet Bob later emerged - at least someone was cool on this warm night. There was also a bit of horn blowing going on as Kieran attempted to get his newly aquired set of Canadian Horns to work.
Neil and Derek busied themselves with preparation of the connecting rods and associated bearings for refitting to to 123. By the end of the night (1am) with assistance by all present, both connecting rods and the drivers side eccentric rod were lifted into place and fitted to the locomotive. All that remains in major components to be refitted is - 1 eccentric rod, 2 union links and 2 Main steam delivery elbows and then we should be able to move the locomotive under its own steam.
9/3/07 Work continues on NG 123 The last two Friday evenings have seen more work on NG123 by members Jamie, Simon, Michael, Derek, Adam and Neil. After our previous steam test which helped provide a good list of things to be fine tuned, jobs done on Friday 2/3/07 were :
Friday 9/3/07 saw the crew commence installation of the superheater elements to NG123. Fortunately it was a pleasantly cool evening as this job is hard work. By the time we decided to call it a night at Midnight 2/3rds of the elements were in place. Next will see another steam test to check progress on assorted fittings and also to blow steam through the elements to remove as much built up debris as possible before connecting the steam delivery pipes to our nice new bored cylinders.
7/3/07 WVJ Outer Home Erected Over the Labour Day long weekend, the BBR signals branch got animated and erected the first Lower Quadrant signal to be installed on the railway for quite some time. This signal is to be the Outer Home signal protecting the Mussel Pool branch line approach to Whiteman Village Junction. It will be electrically operated and controlled initially by track circuitry. The signal came from the Guildford Training School and was donated by WestNet Rail
After several weeks of preparation, S & T Project Manager Bob Baker organised his team of assistants for a 9am start. The day commenced with loading of the mast onto the QBB flat wagon. which was hauled by the Fowler Diesel up to the work site just south of the Beechboro Rd entrance road crossing. Scott drove the crane by road to the site and Simon followed on the "backhoe" which was used to dig the hole. The hole for the base of the signal was dug soon after and then it was not long before the signal was standing in position. Also assisting were Adam, Peter and Richard. The signal erection was completed by 1pm when the crew adjourned to the workshops for a well-earned barbeque.
It is anticipated that the signal will be made operational when the project manager returns from his enforced holiday on the railways of Europe.
Foot Bridge at WVJ The new "Foot Bridge at the north end of Whiteman Village Junction Station was opened for use on 8th of February 2007.
This bridge was originally located at Subiaco station and was relocated to Whiteman Park in 1998 along with the station buildings. It has been in store until more recent times when in conjunction with the "Revolution" museum project, it was deemed desirable to have foot bridge access over the railway.
After much planning, reconstruction of the footbridge commenced in late September of 2006 and was mostly complete for some time, with landscaping, footpaths and "Signing off" of associated safety issues, delaying the actual opening for use, till early in February.
3/3/07 Lower Quadrant info Added - Click Here 24/2/07 NG123 goes to Steam Test
Guildford Signal to be Erected The signals department are currently working towards erecting a electrically operated semaphore signal from the ex WAGR/Westrail Guildford Training School. Bob Baker has been preparing the signal for installation as the "Outer Home" signal at Whiteman Village Junction on the Mussel Pool branch. At time of writing the signal has been painted and all fittings put in place. Thanks to Peter Gould for assisting Bob with this project. An update will be added when the signal is erected.
General Operations All train services have been operating well with the "Planet" being the locomotive seeing the majority of use with the "Rosalie" the bigger Fowler diesel being used when needed. Evening "Bush Dance" trains have been operated by the BBR for this popular Whiteman Park dance and picnic event, over the summer months. These nights give BBR members the chance to do a bit of operating in the dark giving a contrast to daytime operations. Next Bush Dance services are - 24/02/07 & 10/3/07 The BBR generally clocks up around 10,000Km of travel in a year. During the 05/06 financial year, Locomotives used travelled -
Thank You to all members on the Roster who assist with regular train operations and to those who Volunteer to assist with the Bush Dances. 2006 News Archived (Click Here)
20/2/07 Point
Motor Installation Progressing
Information added to Freight Wagons page (Click here)
6/2/07 Electric Staff Repair Report by B. Baker As a result of the fire at Whiteman Park on December 3 2006, the electric staff safeworking system used on the line between Mussel Pool and Whiteman Village Junction was out of commission. Staff and Ticket, using the blue staff used until 1996 was re-instated as the safeworking system on the Mussel Pool Line. The telephone/electric staff line housed in the concrete ducting between the Mussel Pool signal cabin and the aerial pole route near Bridgewater was burnt in the fire. On
Wednesday January 31 2007, the midweek crew assisted me in replacing the 350
metres of cable. Replacing the cable was not as simple as first thought as in several places the heat must have been so intense that the cable sheath melted and stuck to the bottom of the troughing. The
old cable had 8 joins in it – everyone a potential fault.
We now have a brand new cable with no joins – a much more reliable
outcome. By
2pm on the day, the electric staff was back up and working and the last train
from Whiteman Village Junction left with an "Electric Staff".
The Staff and Ticket was again retired to the Operations Manager’s
House for safe keeping. My thanks go to the midweek crew who assisted me in getting it up and running so quickly.
2/2/07 New Page - Orenstein & Koppel, Magnet No.3, Mallet (Click Here)
NG123 Works Progress On a sweltering 40+ degrees in the shade day at the BBR workshops, the Friday work party set about installing the "Superheater Header" casting into the smokebox of NG123.
A few set backs over the last few Fridays, have delayed this installation, however everything was now in order and offering up of the header to the main steam pipe studs occurred around 4pm. A couple of minor adjustments were required before the header was slid onto the studs at 5.30pm with much "Grunt and Heave" from Derek in the smokebox whilst Paul manipulated the crane and tackle block from which the header was dangling through a hole in the smokebox, behind the chimney. If you have ever handled a large chunk of cast iron, you would know that installing such an item in a small space on a stinking hot day is damn hard work. A pause for some cool refreshments was naturally had after much rejoicing.
After moving the NG into the pit shed, some work was also carried out on the tender and water supply lines to the locomotive, making the tender now ready for use. Now that the header is in place another hydrostatic test will take place. If successful this test will progress to a steam test to ensure that the union of the mainsteam pipe, the header and the front tubeplate, is a steam tight fit. All being well the superheaters can then be installed, as can the steam supply pipes, Blast Pipe, spark arresting equipment which will finish off the smokebox. The BBR crew intend to have NG 123 in service for the 2007 steam season. It was still 29 degrees when the team left for home at 11pm.
1/2/07 BBR Web Site Back on Line Due to some server issues and our provider Member being away on holidays, the BBR site has been unavailable for a couple of weeks. BBR apologies for any inconvenience caused by this outage and hopes that you will continue to look in on our activities. New Page - Ticket System (Click Here)
Friday Work Nights The BBR holds Restoration / Maintenance Nights quite often on Friday Evenings On Friday 15/12/06 the crew set to putting Ng 123 to a Hydro test to check for a seal on the new main steam pipe to the front tube plate. This involved putting a fire in to "Warm Through"
Click here to visit the Restoration Nights Page (Click Here)
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Bennett Brook Railway Webmaster N. Blinco
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