News Sept - Dec 09
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News Sept - Dec 09
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31/12/09 Track During the last 2 weekends Gary, Kym and Scott, have been out regauging the track and replacing some sleepers on the Loop South, just outside of Whiteman Village Junction, This is an ongoing project to regauge this entire curve up to the cutting.
Friday Night Crew Report By James Waterhouse On Friday 20th, the Friday night crew did a bit of walking. The organiser of Friday night workshops, Derek Ruston, decided to show the group what the next projects can be. The group searched through the compounds and were looking for Jones couplings for Planet #2. They were successful and know what they are going to do. The next place to go to was the other compound which was down the road to find a overhead crane which is lying in bushes at the back of the compound. Also lying at the back of the compound is a wagon frame and bogies which could also be used for the ZB restoration.
08/12/09 Saturday 5th December saw the BBR annual dinner held at Whiteman Village Junction Station. A good number of members and dignitaries were in attendance on this warm evening to celebrate the railways 25th Year of operations. On the 8th of December 1984 the Bennett Brook Railway was officially opened by Peter Dowding MLA when he drove the first passenger train out of "Central Station" - known today as Whiteman Village Junction. The first passenger train consisted of the Maylands, 3 "C" class wagons, BV1 and the Ridley at the rear as seen in the picture below, from the David Whiteford collection, taken on the Day.
The evening commenced with drinks and nibblies for all before the Revolutions Museum was opened enabling those dignitaries and members who so wished to have a look around. On return to the station forecourt, a few speeches were made by founding BBR members and then Peter Dowding, who was invited along to help celebrate our 25th Anniversary milestone, before a celebratory train departure & ribbon breaking took place. On the opening day, Peter Dowding was cramped into the small cab space of the Maylands locomotive with driver Gary Howieson - 25 years later and once again Peter drove the train, though this time the locomotive was the Fowler with plenty of cab space. On return to WVJ a lovely dinner was had after a nice folk song about the railway was performed by Don Butler and his band who provided music for the evening. Further speeches were later made with Jamie Wallis being Awarded Life Membership Hon Peter Dowding was awarded Honorary locomotive driver's certificate. Peter also accepted patronship of WALRPA. Annual "Certificates of Appreciation" were also awarded to members for their contribution to the railway. These being Derek Ruston - for negotiating the successful purchase of Perry 0-6-2 Elsie Wilson - for ticket-selling during school holidays & organising the lollies for sale. Greg Harris - for his fabrication work on the water tank & bogies Ken Watson - For editing the Bennett Brook Railway Newsletter Neil Blinco - for his work & commitment as Bennett Brook Railway webmaster Scott Parker - For his commitment and work as trackmaster Trevor Franklin - for his researching and collating the records of the locomotive fleet.
Other Goings On In recent weeks there has been much activity around the railway keeping both the Midweek and Friday Night Crews busy. The Fowler had its radiator removed, re-cored and replaced, the D van has had a new tin roof fitted and a repaint is underway, work continues on the bogies for the ZB project, the QBB was released for traffic mid restoration to enable water tank project parts to be moved from Mussel Pool to WVJ in readiness for assembly.
The Compound area due east of the loco shed has recently seen limestone hardstand put down with further areas soon to be done, once existing equipment is relocated onto the new hardstand area. A delivery of timber sleepers was recently received from the PTA - these good sleepers having been removed from the Midland line during the recent concrete sleeper upgrade. As these are dual gauge sleepers they will be handy for BBR as point timbers. BBR is grateful to the Public Transport Authority for their donation of the sleepers.
Construction of a new platform at Kangaroo Flats is underway keeping Ken and his crew busy - this will see a double sided "Island" type platform built on the mainline and eventually a new loop will be built on the other side. The old deteriorating platform on the loop will be modified to resemble an old style loading dock. Recently the midweek crew assisted signals tech Bob with insulation of the steel sleepers in track circuit sections on the Mussel Pool line. The electrically operated lower quadrant outer-home signal and the light in the distant signal on the WVJ end of the Mussel Pool line are now operational. On the evening of Dec 4, the night before the 25th anniversary dinner, Rudi and Trevor helped Bob with some more steel sleepers and as a result the wig wag is now operational again also.
26/11/09 Friday Night Crew Report By James Waterhouse On Friday 20th November, night work continued on the QBB flat wagon. It will be ready for the transportation of the water tank, which is going to be built at Whiteman Village Junction. The wagon was worked on by Samuel, Ryan, Sarah and James who are all younger members and Alan who is the leader of the project. Gemco was shunted into the Mallet shed with Ruston and Ashley locomotives pushing. This was done by Michael Watson and other members helping. This was to create room in the main locomotive shed as it has become over-crowed with the arrival of the new Perry.
NG 123 continued having its superheater elements taken out. Perry No2 had it's lower front cab sides removed and stored. The drivers side reversing arm was also disconnected. The cladding (wool) removed on firebox wrapper and lastly the trailing axle suspension link was connected.
14/11/09 Friday 13th evening went well with 14 members in attendance - a bit of a shuffle of locomotives was carried out aiming toward getting Gemco into the Mallet Shed. Alan, with help from Samual and Sarah, kept things moving with the QBB restoration whilst James, Liam, Tony and Braydon removed all of the baffles and screens from NG123's smokebox before commencing to remove the superheaters. Peter meanwhile could be found at the firebox end of Ng123 washing out any remaining scale and mud build up. Derek, Trevor and Michael adjusted brakes on the Planet and then a bit of work got done on the big Perry with the dome lifted off to find a nice "Double Beat Regulator" hiding underneath and then the cab sides were removed. Greg and Simon could be found working on the Water tank project which is coming along very well. The midweek crew have been busy, with the Crib room getting a clean up and fresh coat of paint.
On the 1st of November a small, but significant moment occurred at Bennett Brook when the need for a bit of space in the Mallet Shed saw the mallet frames and the boiler, dragged out towards the pit shed, where the boiler was then reunited with the frames for the first time in many years. Unfortunately the boiler is still in need of much work however the space previously occupied by it in the shed will enable a major overhaul of the Gemco to take place. It certainly starts to look more like a locomotive with the boiler on the frames!
31/10/09 UPPER QUADRANT SIGNALS WORKING AGAIN!! The upper quadrant signals at Zamia are working again. Since the upgrade of the Bushland Loop track in 2008, these signals have been booked out of service due to faults in the track circuits caused by steel sleepers. The BBR signals department has been investigating methods of providing electrical insulation between the rails where steel sleepers have been installed in track circuits. Some prototype testing was carried out in the yard at Mussel Pool and a trial of the method using "insertion rubber" between the rail and the sleeper has been authorised by the Office of Rail Safety. This trial is being carried out at Zamia controlling the upper quadrant signals.
Signals Tech, and secretary, Bob enlisted the midweek crew of Pommie Dave, Unpaid Bill, Tony, Peter, B1, B3 and Clarrie to assist in installing the insulation. A train of Fowler, D33, & Z63 was used to transport crew and gear to the worksite at Zamia. Upper quadrant signals were used on the Eastern Goldfields Line between Bellevue and Koojedda from 1928 to the closure of the line in 1966. The signals at Zamia are the only upper quadrants working in WA.
Friday Night Crew Report By James Waterhouse Friday 30th Friday night had 7 members and worked on the new Perry, Ng15 123, Betty Thompson and QBB wagon. The new Perry had its boiler covers taken off. The Ng15 123 and Betty Thompson both had water drained and the washout plugs numbered and taken out. Lastly QBB wagon had its first 8 decking planks installed.
Friday 23rd Fifteen members came along for the night workshops. The shutdown of steam for the season meant that it was time to empty the water and coal out of these well worked engines. This also included removing the domes, washout plugs and washing the boilers out. Derek and his group are to be highly thanked as it is a long, hard and physical job. Other jobs commenced with the 'new' Perry having its cladding taken off. The bolts holding down the dome of the locomotive were also removed by Greg, making a great spark display.
The ZB guards van had its first bogie completed. Michael and Greg have being very busy creating the new frame and bogies for the wagon. This historical wagon is the last one left, but needs a lot of work done to the body and roof. Alan and James are going to take up the challenge eventually, once they have completed the QBB flat wagon overhaul and the restoration of an R wagon.
11/10/09 Friday Night Crew Report By James Waterhouse
Work is continuing on the QBB flat wagon. The re-decking of the wagon is turning into a overhaul, as Alan and James find more ways on improving the wagon and keeping its heritage.
24/09/09 Another Successful Friends of Thomas the Tank Engine Day - Sun 20th Sept 2009 by R. Barron Even though spring hasn't really gotten out of the winter mode this year yet, we still had a reasonable day with a small amount of uncomfortable damp for all. After the necessary preliminary organising, - some members had to get up really early to get things fired up and going (in a lot of departments - not only the steamers). The show got off to a brisk start and increased to its peak about 10'ish and maintained peak momentum till just about closing time. Although it was a tad coolish, it worked out to a reasonable day encouraging a great crowd, mainly young families, for this event.
Station facilities at WVJ and Mussel Pool station were revamped, to allow maximum crowd handling in a trouble free manner. This helped to ensure the railway could operate all train services safely and maintain a high standard of customer service to our passengers as well as keeping all aspects of the railway on track.
Operations planned three separate trains operating over three separate sections of line to maximise train movements and passenger capacity. This worked a treat, with Ashley and Planet #1 top-and-tailing between WVJ and Kangaroo Flats on northern section of the Bushland Loop, to Kangaroo Flats. This little blue train was the family favourite and was running to capacity most of the day with some having to try more than once to "catch the train". Then we had NG 123 working the southern section of the Bushland Loop to Zamia with PW27 Wyndham at the rear and Betty Thompson and Rosalie worked the Mussel Pool line.
We were able to display just about all of our motive power, along with most of our rolling stock and all of our equipment operated well without any major breakdowns. The steam locomotives - Ng 123 and Betty Thomson added a great extra attraction to operators and visitors alike. Even the turntable was put through its paces and attracted a lot of attention. All the trains talking to each other, along with the added input of the Station Master and Sir Topham Hatt (The Fat Controller) really impressed the public. Thanks to both Bob and Peter for that all day effort.
A good number of visitors mainly comprising of families, attended the event and we must thank all those people for supporting the railway on such a memorable day. The little kids especially enjoyed the show that was turned on for them. Judging by all the smiles we think we did pretty well. This day is as popular as ever for families, with the usual careful planning. We look forward to keeping on doing just this, so as to ensure an ongoing healthy future, in our on-going quest to provide affordable family entertainment to the public. Top marks to the organisers as well as the BBR crews who made things happen. A big thank you goes out to all members of BBR who helped out with massive preparations before the event (sometimes months ahead) and presentation especially on the day. Mainly positive feedback from visitors, indicated appreciation for the collective efforts put forward by all. Our thanks go out also to our cooperative contractors, as well as all of the other Park groups who also assisted in making the day the success it was. To the management and staff of Whiteman Park also - thanks for your efforts.
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Bennett Brook Railway Webmaster N. Blinco
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