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  Enthusiast Activities - Loco Maintenance and Restoration

Work on locomotives, carriages, freight wagons, depots and associated infrastructure is carried out by the one team of three paid employees and dozens of volunteers from all walks of life.

The tasks involved in the routine maintenance, repair and overhaul of locomotives and rollingstock are many and varied. They can range from trademens’ work such as boilermaking, welding, fitting, turning, mechanical, carpentry and carriage building to general work such as cleaning, painting and chopping wood. As well there are many different tasks required around the Depots and associated infrastructure to support the operations of SteamRanger’s trains

This page consists of two sections; an outline of the role that volunteers can play followed by an update on the present mechanical status of major items of rolling stock

 

A substantial workshop facility was established at Mt Barker Depot in 1996 following the transfer of our operating base from Dry Creek. Most maintenance,repair and overhaul work is undertaken "in-house" by staff and volunteers under direction of appropriately qualified team leaders. Some more complicated tasks or those requiring special facilities or certification are outsourced. A smaller running workshop is maintained at Goolwa Depot, staffed mainly by local volunteers.

A comprehensive records management system has been established to cover work procedures, servicing and maintenance tasks, requirements regarding pressure vessels, worker competency and occupational health a safety. All workshop work is required to be fully documented, carried out in accordance with agreed rail safety and industrial procedures,and formally inspected. Ongoing quality assurance and audit proceduresare mandatory. Certificates of competency are issued where appropriate

    Facilities

The machine shop is equipped with

  • four lathes,
  • four drill presses,
  • two grinding wheel machines,
  • two mills,
  • a shaper,
  • a cylindrical grinder,
  • a vertical borer,
  • a horizontal borer,
  • a 60 tonne press,
  • a power hacksaw and many other items of support equipment.

A welding bay includes two oxy LPG sets and five welding machines (including one M1G).

Power tools include five angle grinders, three electric drills, magnetic particle tester and a nibbler supported by too many hand and specialised tools to mention. Pneumatic tools include needle guns, riveting guns, torque wrenches, air motors, air jacks, grease pumps and die grinders. Other items of equipment Include a 10 tonne hydraulic porta-power, chain blocks, hydraulic and screw jacks and a 5 tonne crane.

Facilities have keen set up tor the servicing, testing and adjusting of air brake components and for the calibration of pressure gauges and air safety valves against master gauges.

Wood working facilities include circular bench saws, a radial arm saw, a planer and a rebater, together with a large collection of carpenters' tools.

A number of items and facilities support the depot operations, including a Leyland truck/coal grab/crane; two depot air compressors; inspection pit; truck shed, paint shed, store sheds; oil store; two battery chargers; mobile platforms and scaffolds; steam cleaner; boiler washout pad; marking out table; hydrostatic pump; washing machine; cupboards and racks for tools and parts and large quantities of nuts and bolts.


    Personnel

The Mechanical Services team is headed by the Mechanical Services Manager, Craig Dunstan

Craig assumed the MS Manager role in May 2007 after having been a SteamRanger volunteer for many years. He comes from a background in the motor vehicle trade where he currently fills a managerial role.

In between his mechanical services supervisory duties, Craig is training as a fireman and eventually loco engineman, accumulating the long hours of "on the track" experience required.



Day to day operations at Mt Barker are overseen by our newly appointed fitter Shaun Cassidy

Shaun is a Queenslander who commenced employment in 1997 with a company contracted to undertake plant maintenance at the BP Refinery on Bulwer Island in Queensland. Most of this work was associated with high pressure steam and turbines. He progressed from an Apprentice - Tradesman Mechanical to a Fitter and Turner, Maintenance Workshop

He was recruited to SHR in 2010 and has set up home with his family in Littlehampton, close to our Mt Barker depot.




The depot facilities are also used for rollingstock maintenance. Personnel working in this area are featured on our Rollingstock page.

Our loco and rollingstock employees are complemented by a number of qualified volunteers in the fitting and turning, carpentry, upholstery, painting and decorating, welding and electrical trades. Volunteers typically contribute from a half day to several days of effort each week, at mutually agreed times.

Volunteers not qualified in a trade commence by assisting with tasks such as cleaning, painting, assisting tradesmen and general housekeeping and are progressively supervised and trained to undertake more significant tasks as their level of competence rises.



   Workshop activities

Workshop activities fall into two major categories

Running maintenance

All locos and carriages are mechanically inspected prior to their use on a train service. A schedule of required routine maintenance tasks must signed off to meet accreditation requirements.

Running maintenance on steam locomotives can involve tasks such as greasing, oiling, cleaning smokeboxes, fireboxes and injectors, coaling, varied mechanical jobs, inspections and locomotive cleaning and brass polishing. Much less effort is required on diesel locomotives and carriages with servicing and cleaning being the main tasks.

Repair and heavy overhaul

Selected locomotives and carriages are taken completely out of service as necessary and as part of a forward looking programme to conserve and upgrade rolling stock.

Specific components are identified for major maintenance or rebuilding. In extreme cases the vehicle may be completely stripped down and rebuilt. Locos Rx207 (pictured), F251, Brill railcar 60 and a number of wooden passenger cars have undergone major rebuilding in recent years.



    Train Crews

Volunteer crews are drawn from the loco maintenance team to crew all our trains. Volunteers typically start by assisting with cleaning and lighting up locomotives and progress through a rigorous training program to qualify them to operate as firemen and drivers on increasingly more challenging sections of track and with particular classes of engines.

Training involves gaining of both technical and safeworking qualifications. Trainees are provided with appropriate documentation and training opportunities and progress through structured assessments under the guidance of an assigned facilitator.

Certificates of competency are awarded as milestones are met.

Look here for details


    Contributions and Assistance

Ongoing and special project support, supply of services and materials and financial donations to loco maintenance are most appreciated and often enable difficult to fund activities to proceed.

Recent contributions have come from Mike Bruer, David Groves, Brenton Job, Trevor Spsche, Brian Carter and Rod Stone. Many of whom are volunteers who already put in many hours of dedicated effort.


    Becoming Involved

For more information on becoming involved in this area,
contact our Mechanical Services Manager, Craig Dunstan
Phone: 0402 850 650 (AH)
or click the logo below and send him an email.
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Current Activities

The following information and most of the photos have been supplied by our Mechanical Services Manager or members of his team
Work continues five days a week and more progress has no doubt been achieved out since these reports
so watch this page for a further update.

Information last updated to early October 2011 or as indicated

Reports for earlier periods have been archived HERE

To ensure you have the most recent WWW page press your browser RELOAD button NOW!

Main characteristics and photos of our full fleet can be found here

 
Rx207

Steam loco Rx207 restoration complete!

With congratulations all round to our mechanical services team we can finally announce that our 1913 vintage loco Rx207 "Dean Harvey" has now returned to service between Goolwa and Victor Harbor. It operated its first Cockle Train service on Sunday 13th March.

Rx207 operated various scheduled services on Cockle Trains from March 2011, including a majority of subsequent School Holiday services.

This has been one of the more positive happenings of recent times for all in SHR, enthusiasts and the public. There has been strong interest from SR people, passengers and many lineside "train spotters". The trials and tribulations of achieving 207's return have been progressively reported elsewhere. The loco's improved pulling power (new piston rings); straight ahead movement (misalignments significantly reduced and rebuilt pony truck); improved ride (new tyres, refurbished spring gear, tamped track etc) are all positive testaments to the enormous amount of work undertaken by many dedicated workers in their respective fields.


621

Steam loco 621 restoration also complete!

The final step in 621's restoration was a test run to Goolwa depot and return on Sunday August 21st hauling steel car 710 and DE loco 958. The trip was a success with the boiler steaming excellently, as would be expected with an all new heating surface of tubes and flues. With the exception of one oil feed pipe to the driver’s side piston rod coming loose and the fireman’s side trailing truck axle box running rather warm all else ran like a Swiss watch. Tied in with some very crisp stack talk produced by the baker valve gear, there were smiles as far as the eye could see.

621 has subsequently hauled the regularly scheduled Southern Encounter and Highlander commencing on Sunday August 28th and right through to the end of November. It is scheduled to operate selected Cockle Train services over the busy 2011/12 Xmas / New Year period.


Rx224

As with 621, negotiations with a donor were successful in obtaining funding for the purchase of a complete set of 1 7/8" fire tubes for Rx224
The new tender frame for Rx224 is progressing at Mt Barker Depot.
Red Hen Railcars

These cars are seeing regular use from both Mt Barker and Goolwa on charter trips and some "Cockle Train" services, both as single cars and in a three car set with baggage 824.
Brill Railcars

Brill 60

Brill Car 60 is continuing to perform well and has been particularly busy over recent months operating Cockle Trains in the absence of a steam loco, as well as special movements to Currency Creek, Strathalbyn and Mt Barker.

Phil Neville was succesful in finalising installation of a new vinyl floor surface in the car. This involved the removal of all seats in the saloon, while the floor was sanded and the vinyl laid. At the same time the existing seats that have become torn (6 three person seats and 3 two person seats) were re-upholstered . This was done in Red Hen red vinyl as they are not Brill seats.

To get Brill original type seats would be quite costly - they cannot be cast as costs are too high and so we will have to look into manufacturing 56 frames or even considering reversible seats (especially for RC43).


Brill 43

Preliminary planning work is continuing on the rebuilding of the Brill car obtained from John Wilson at Clare.

A couple of details have been provided by Phil Neville

  • Quotes are being obtained for the main batch of steel for refurbishment of the car.

  • John Yard is keen to do the windows frames. He has made one frame out of galvanised sheet making up presses and dies to do so . It has now been decided to use brass as with steel the galvanizing would rub off with use and rust would occur. John has sourced brass sheet at a good price. There were only 30 sheets available in Australia (in Sydney) and these have been purchased and delivered to us. John is now working on them.


Ivan Marchant's photo of the car was taken near Gemmells on a crew training run on the 1st October 2007.


    
Diesel Electric Locos


DE 958's New Radiator

During 2010 we have been reporting on the need to construct and refit a new radiator to DE958 which cost some $16,000

Ian Johnston's first photo below shows the radiator on our now strengthened support frame prior to lowering a bit and sliding the radiator into the loco and lining up with all its fittings - sounds and looks easy but it still took some time and suitable words and the second photo shows Brenton and Mathew Job busy pumping the old coolant back into 958 to check for leaks. A number of internal panels then needed to be refitted once all leaks were dealt with.

F251

Not currently used as an operational locomotive

Boiler Condition

  • The loco's boiler certificate has now expired. Our boiler inspector reconsidered the condition of the firebox tubeplate and noted that the tubeplate has a record of cracking after each 300km of running.

  • The loco was last certificated in 1995, when over 140 cracks were repaired. At that time it was approved for only five years of further operation.


Problem detected with Wheel Flanges

  • Early in 2007 it was noted that the flanges on two of F 251's driving wheels were below condemning level and also that wheel #R5 was a borderline case. The flanges were last routinely measured in early 2000 and at that time it was noted both flanges were very thin. Since then, F 251 travelled 3400 miles up to the end of that year when Rx 207 was recommissioned. This indicates that the distance was sufficient to tip the flange from being very thin to being condemned.

  • From the thickness remaining on the tyres and because the flange is so badly worn, it is doubtful if there is sufficient to allow for a full reprofile of all wheels. Accordingly F 251 is not available for any service until all wheels have been either reprofiled or retyred, which ever may be the case.


 
520

520's tender was routinely drained and inspected in December 1998 after the normal running season. This confirmed previous evidence of corrosion and wastage of the underframe, where the tender had been extended down to increase water carrying capacity. Calculations based on the static and dynamic loads on the underframe indicated that the tender frame had reached its design life, having been subjected to over 55 years of ongoing corrosion and to rectify this will require substantial strengthening and long term anti-corrosion coating.

Mechanically, the loco is in good condition, but the boiler and smokebox need attention. In 1994 the loco was converted back to a coal fired boiler by superficially covering over the oil burning apertures in the boiler backplate. This approach is not now acceptable to our boiler inspectors and initial work involving stripping fittings in the cab was commenced prior to discovering the tender corrosion problems, but has not been further progressed. A full rebuild is required to address wasting of material in the smokebox. This will require reproducing a complicated smokebox profile.

The unfortunate outcome of these inspections is that 520 will require over $200,000 of work to put it back in reliable condition. Steam hauled "Southern Encounter" trains will therefore utilise either double headed Rxs or 621 for the foreseeable future