Bennett Brook Railway

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"News and Happenings".

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30/08/2010

Ng123 has been the mainstay of passenger services in recent times whilst general maintenance continues on the rest of the locomotive fleet. These essential jobs being done by members of the Friday nighters & midweek crews, whilst the roster crews keep the trains rolling.

Congratulations go out to Derek & Lee-anne who recently received a package from the stork in the form of another healthy boy - Joey David Ruston lobbed from the pouch at 1.45am much to mum and dads delight!

Just have to get a builders plate cast now!

Mussel Pool platform project - The platform is to be extended 10 metres north to allow for 5 coach trains. In conjunction with the extension, the old "Cottesloe" signal cabin, presently opposite the platform, will be relocated and placed in the extension of the platform and signalling of Mussel Pool precinct will be upgraded to include control of the Workshops and Parker's Siding points from the cabin. During this work, all signals at Mussel Pool will be out of service and white crossed to signify "signal not in use" as per the rule book..

The ex "Wagin A" 15 lever signal frame, will be re-configured and installed in the cabin. On Saturday, 31st July, the signal box lever frame was lifted out of the compound. This was done by Simon and Wayne with the tramway's crane. It has been moved to the loco shed to be worked on and is being restored in the locomotive shed.

Funding approval has been received from Lotterywest for supply and erection of 3 "hay sheds" (no walls) at the workshops. Shed 1 On the western side of the carriage shed. This will provide cover for the existing road 9 and an extra dual gauge storage road to be installed. Shed 2 On the eastern side of the loco shed across to the containers. This will be for storage of the crane and backhoe as well as a covered work area for major projects. Shed 3 On the eastern side of the pit shed for fabrication work.

It was decided to go with "hay sheds" as they are the most cost effective way of providing roofs over our heads. In addition, a building licence is being sought to erect the shed recovered from Gnangara Rd, north of Parkers Siding. Initially this will securely house NG 118 and other locos awaiting restoration clearing the loco shed for repair work areas. Before the sheds can be erected, the areas will have to be cleared. The midweek crew has commenced clearing the area west of the carriage shed.

11/07/2010

News Bits from Bob Baker

SLEEPER PICK-UP DAY

Saturday July 3 saw 9 members out on the Bushland Loop clearing up dead sleepers and recovering screw spikes and sleeper plates from the track upgrade.

A train was assembled at the Mussel Pool workshops on Friday evening comprising the Ruston, 2 Malcolm Moore hoppers, C wagon, excavator well wagon and Ashley.

On Saturday morning the train was driven from Mussel Pool to Whiteman Village Junction where it was split into 2 trains.

Wayne, Bob and Max took off in the Ruston with the Malcolm Moore hoppers to Kangaroo Flats to begin picking up the screw spikes and sleeper plates.

Peter M, Peter G, Liam and Tony went south on the Bushland Loop to the top of Robert's Bank with Ashley and the excavator and began the sleeper pick-up. Meanwhile Simon drove the Park's tip truck with fork lift in tow and Jamie drove the crane to Contractor's Corner where the sleepers were off-loaded from the sleeper train and onto the truck for removal to the Park Graveyard.

Train services were restricted to Kangaroo Flats - Mussel Pool with run-arounds at each end. The J tankers being used for the water supply on the Kangaroo Flats new platform project were moved into the seldom-used head shunt at Kangaroo Flats.

At the end of the day, 4 truck loads of sleepers were removed and all the spikes and plates were recovered between Kangaroo Flats and Contractor's Corner.

NG15 DRAWINGS MADE AVAILABLE

During Bob and Paul's recent visit to the narrow gauge railway at Sandstone Estate in South Africa one of the fellow visitors, Gary Barnes, offered to send Bob a CD containing all the structural detail drawings for both NG 123 and NG 118. Gary has the drawings for all NG15's built.

Bob had to trace the boiler numbers of both NG 118 and NG 123 to allow Gary to provide the correct drawings.

Last Tuesday, June 29, the CD duly arrived. It contains 270 drawings of NG 118 and 280 drawings of NG 123.

The CD has already been put to good use as NG 123 is presently out of service due to a broken rear pony truck spring. Full detailed drawings and specifications of the rear pony truck springs were able to be forwarded with the broken spring for new springs to be manufactured.

These drawings will greatly assist the Railway in maintaining its NG locomotives. The Association is extremely grateful to Gary for his gift of these drawings.

26/06/2010

The last month has been a sad month for BBR due to the passing away of founding member and much respected patriarch Ron Watson. His hard work and dedication helped lay the foundations for the Bennett Brook Railway of today.

Ron was a railway man for all of his working life, serving the W.A.G.R. initially at the Midland Workshops before moving into the Traffic Dept as a fireman and eventually becoming a Driver. He was a skillful man who could turn his hand to most things, including building the family home in Hazelmere where the earliest meetings of the Bennett Brook Railway were held. It would be in the backyard where the first carriages would be built and tested before the eventual move of the railway to Whiteman Park. Ron's input into the formative years of the BBR was integral to it becoming what it is today. His ability to talk to decision makers and achieve results laid the foundations for the railways future.

With the arrival of the Ng15 steam locomotives at the railway it was Ron's valuable knowledge of Steam that greatly assisted in the return to steam of NG123, with Ron becoming BBR's founding steam driver and trainer of future crews. His many skills contributed to the aquisition and restoration of many items required for the railway. His knowledge an invaluable source of information for all who had the benefit of learning from him.

Age eventually caught up with Ron preventing him from being as active at the railway as he would have liked, but whenever he could Ron was there to check out what was happening and to have a chat.

Ron's support of the organisation was recognised when he became the first "Life Member" of the association along with the loco shed facilities at Mussel Pool being named the "Ron Watson Loco Shed".

Sadly on the 30th May 2010 Ron passed away peacefully, aged 84 - no doubt he is now tending to the great engine shed in the sky.

On Sunday 6th of June a brief function was held at Whiteman Village Junction where Ng123 was moved onto the turntable, the whistle blown 3 times and a minutes silence observed.

Deepest sympathy to the Watson Family from members of the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association.

Ron's happy disposition around the Bennett Brook Railway will be greatly missed by everyone!

Week ending June 20 2010

Bob Baker

On Wednesday and Thursday Bob, “Pommie” Dave, “Unpaid” Bill, “RAC” Tony and Peter erected a removable fence on the Island Platform at Whiteman Village Junction station.

This fence has been provided to improve the safety for the children when parties are held in the Party Coach. On busy days, for example New Friends of Thomas, the fence can be easily removed and stored in the V van.

On Thursday Greg and Jamie started cleaning up the Mallet Shed and on Friday night Jamie, Bob and Wayne cleared the end of the Loco Shed so that the tamper can be moved to make repairing it easier and an area set aside for the ex Wagin “A” signal lever frame to be configured for use at Mussel Pool. Alan has drawn up plans for the lever frame support to be fabricated by Greg. It is planned to re-locate the Cottesloe Signal cabin as part of the re-build of the Mussel Pool platform project.

Also on Friday night Greg, Tony and Simon started to remove the broken spring from the rear pony truck of NG 123. Meanwhile Alan and Ross soldiered on readying BT1 for its new main steam pipe. At present both steam locomotives are out of service, but it is hoped to have BT1 ready for action soon.

During and after dinner, videos of Bob and Paul’s recent visit to Sandstone Estate 2ft railroad in South Africa were shown.

Other Happenings

Rain water tanks for steam locomotive water are to be installed at both the REVs Museum and at the workshops. This will be of great help with the management of our boilers and should save on expensive boiler water treatment chemicals.

The clean up of the storage compounds is steadily progressing with several loads of scrap having been sent off. More clearing is being done to enable sheeting of these areas with limestone base.

The tamper rebuild is well underway with the tine sockets repaired and ready for refitting.

The new Kangaroo Flats platform project continues to move ahead the mainline edge/face being in place on the 20th of May 2010. There is 12 metres of ramp on each end giving a total length of 78 metres, planning has commenced for the south side platform edge which will eventually become the new mainline when the full project is completed.

"Cloud Street" mini-series.

Bennett Brook railway has been the setting for a 6 hour mini-television series "Cloud Street". Whiteman Village Junction (renamed West Leederville) and Mussel Pool stations have set the railway scenes in the series, based on the book by Western Australian author Tim Winton and being directed by Mathew Saville. The story is about the lives of two working class Australian families who live together at 1 Cloud Street and is set in the suburbs of Perth during the period 1940 - 1960's. Due for release next year!

Click here for Archived News Jan - June 2010

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