Woodford Update April/May 2018

DISCLAIMER:

As always, any opinions presented here are entirely my own, and do not represent those of the Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society, nor any of it's other membership.

 

 

I'm gonna try to do bi-monthly or-so updates of what's going on at the Woodford Railway, from here on. Try, is the word - well that's my cop-out anyway..

They'll be mostly from the workshop, as that's where I work. Although I will try to cover the navvies as and when possible.

When it rains at Woodford, it usually pours, on and off. Gotta feel sorry for the navvies. They can't do half of their work undercover.

07/04/18
Greg and Terry packing ballast around new concrete sleepers from Isis sugar mill, on the mainline approaching the loco shed points.

 05/05/18

Boiler tubes for Melbourne and Bundy finally arrive. We're hoping to get Melbourne's boiler (bottom right) finished and back in her frames this year. Before we can put the tubes in, the regulator valve needs overhauling & refitting, main steam pipe re-annealing and swage-fitted, and a number of other smaller boiler jobs attended to..

Ryan & Terry putting the steel tubes into dry storage, ready for when the time comes..
Good Japanese steel, these. Can't get this stuff domestically anymore, of course. I'd insert lamentations of having to import everything, but Australia's an island anyway, and we've always had to import a lot of stuff. Shit, half of our collection was built in Leeds!

Behind, Bundy's looking pretty sad, having been out of service since 2012, and out in the weather until 6 months ago - not that the weather has much adverse affect here in the dry countryside.
She's next in line for overhaul, and will be a much quicker and easier job than Melbourne's been. Bundy's an overhaul - Melbourne's a ground-up rebuild.

Meanwhile, in the BLC (Ex-Queensland Railways goods van body), the resident possum seems unperturbed by the presence of humans.
The Simpsons quote "I call the big one Bitey" comes to mind.

Over the last few months, our ex-Innisfail Tramway ballast hopper's been getting lots of attention to make it serviceable (and presentable). It's been sorely needed on the navvies train for a decade, but manpower is stretched extremely thin here at Woodford. We should have it back in service by September at the latest..

In addition to new bogeys (the old ones were another hopelessly inadequate sugar mill job), the wagon's getting new ballast chutes, new steps, handrails and gates on the operator's platform.

06/05/18

Ryan welds a new bolster into the frame of bolster wagon No.117, in the final stages of overhaul. We've kinda been playing "catch up" with the navvy wagons over the last year, with plenty more to go.

Welding done, and final painting underway.

My next job, a strip-down and repaint of bolster No.110. After that, it's the same for bolster 99. Unlike 117, There wasn't anything nothing wrong with 110 & 99, I just figured I may as well make these look good while I'm at it. A proper job now, should last 20 years.

New steps on both sides complete, Ryan's turned his attention to the fabrication of new chutes for the underside. After that, some further welding of the railings, front coupler mount, build an entirely new rear coupler mount, make a chain-guard, paperwork/test, etc..

We're always looking for volunteers, and you're quite welcome to join us.
If you're interested, contact the society via the Farcebook page, email at angrms @ angrms.org.au, or just ask at any of our running days. (1st & 3rd Sundays)