No, sadly I’m not talking about a visiting engine from a quaint narrow gauge line in Europe! 8A recently came into the workshops for attention, including leaking lens rings on the main steam pipes. Lens rings are essentially doughnut-shaped metal gaskets, forming a seal between concave recesses machined into two adjoining pipe flanges, whilst allowing…

Following a noticeable drop-off in performance during last years final FETs (Footplate Experience Trains), 861 was transferred to the locomotive workshops at Belgrave to try and ascertain what was causing this decline. One of the main issues apparent from a detailed inspection was the poor state of the exhaust system (above), which hadn’t been designed…

The day creeps ever closer when we can strike a match and light the pile of oily rags for the first time. That’s not to say everything has gone exactly to plan; we have certainly had our fair share of snakes as well as ladders in getting to this stage! With the air brake system…

It has been some time since we have had time to update you, and there has been a lot of action on our South African Garratt since last time, so without further ado, here’s the latest progress: Apart from a small amount of plumbing, the Westinghouse air brake system has been completed, tested, and is…

Progress abounds down in the Belgrave workshop, as the storage racking gets lighter and the engine gets heavier! Work in progress or completed to date includes: Brake release spring and brackets manufactured and fitted. Reversing rods between intermediate and main reversing shafts have been fitted. In front can be seen the stub connection with accepts…

With the final concept design approved, the engineering team settled down to the task of producing detailed drawings for every individual component, on top of the major sub-assemblies such as the bogies, underframe and steel body frame. Sadly, we didn’t have the advantage the railway had 20 years ago; we had no spare bogies, underframes…

The big question: How to grow traffic on the Lakeside-Gembrook section of the railway to keep up with demand and manage the capacity constraints.

Many parts and assemblies are finding their way onto the something which now distinctly resembles an NG/G16 class Garratt!

Signs of corrosion through the side of the chimney … and no spare parts …. then what ???