1. business and industrial
2. energy
3. coal

Blast Pipe
November 2014
From the — HUTT VALLEY MODEL ENGINEERING
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SOCIETY INC.
6 Marine Parade, Petone, Lower Hutt 5012, New Zealand
Email address - editor@hvmes.com
Website - http://hvmes.com
Patron
- Ian Welch (Mainline Steam Trust)
President - Claude Poulsen
Ph 568-8507 cnpoul@xtra.co.nz
Secretary - Gavin McCabe
Ph 567-4487
Treasurer - Chris Gousmett
Ph 526- 3705
Editor
- Peter Anderson
Ph 232-4533
pjand@inspire.net.nz
and the
MAIDSTONE MODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY INC
c/o 95 Holdsworth Av, Trentham, Upper Hutt
5018
President - Nathan Reynolds
Secretary - Bob Begbie Ph 976-9114 rbegbie@paradise.net.nz
Treasurer - Brian Hawke Ph 528-4938
Patron - His Worship Mayor Wayne Guppy.
Location - Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt
Blast Pipe is printed with one or two pictures in colour. A Pdf colour
version is available on the website (per courtesy Charlie Lear) or e-mailed
direct to members on request.
Notice of Meetings
Hutt Valley MES
Meeting on the first Wednesday,
5 November 2014
at the clubrooms, Petone at 7-45pm.
One of Claude’s Tripping Reports.
‘Bits & Pieces’ to illustrate your latest
project will be welcomed.
Hutt Valley MES Committee
On the third Tuesday,
18 November at 7-30pm
Maidstone MES
The next meeting will be on
Thursday 13 November at 7.30pm
at Maidstone Park Upper Hutt
An unconventional illustration layout, but David’s photo needs this
space ! The train was assembled to test the power of #27 (Ian
Welch’s Garratt) near the end of the Discover Lower Hutt Day. #73,
S216, and Wee Jock, with their trains, are hauled up the grade on
the back straight.
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Photo - D. Turner
Hutt Valley MES Notes
October meeting Report - Claude P
There was a good attendance at the meeting.
We welcomed Trevor Heath, from Seattle. Who is
here for some months to work on Ian Welch’s South
African loco.
David Graham gave us an excellent illustrated
coverage of the new Boeing 787-900 ‘Dreamliner”
aircraft being introduced into the Air NZ fleet. He
covered the problems associated with supplying an
electrical feed of 90KVA. As the aircraft is all electric
*2*
motivated, with only local hydraulic units the power
consumption is terrific. His presentation was well
received and David answered many questions.
ITEMS of INTEREST - Not so many tonight.
Ross Johnson had his well made version of
“Invicta” on the table. He is having problems with
firing it with gas, as on a test bed it consumes more
steam than the gas burner can produce. There is
more to try out yet but fears it may end up “on the
mantelpiece”!
Murray Mckenzie showed us an adapter he had
made for a friend’s water blaster nozzle. A neat
piece of turning in brass.
Franz Schleicher showed us a rather large
stepper motor unit that was looking for a new home.
Chris Gousmett bought in a very tidy clock
work activated Thermo Hydrograph stating it was the
last item from the LHCC basement clean out.
Roy Hamilton gave us an overview of
what was happening on the clubroom
renovation. The carpenters have already done
some of the work on the exterior. There is
now a need for our members to do work as
well. When that is done the carpenters can finish
their work.
David Graham’s plug is the massive power
feed connector to couple to the plane. Each phase
will carry 400amps! The contacts are made of a
special alloy that resists arcing and burning even
when the plug runs hot. Each contact has a
replacement value of GBP128. The cable connecting
to the plug is so heavy that there is a alligator type
trunking which supports it from source to plane.
At the Track - Editor
We have had two reasonable run Sundays, with
a special one in between, then the two run days over
Labour Weekend. It has been quite a month. Thanks
to all those who have participated in running
equipment, helping manage the run, or turned up to
encourage and add to the activity.
The Lower Hutt City Council ‘Discovery Day’
involved running from 10am to 4pm for a gold coin
donation. Special ticketing was arranged and we had
five steamers on the ground level track, two steamers
on the raised track, and David Turner’s traction
engine in the centre. Add to that Murray McKenzie’s
small stationary engines running on air, and
there was a fair bit going on.
The raised track locos were Ross Johnson’s
Diana and Peter Targett’s Maggie while the
ground level locos appear in the photo
apart from Alan Spink’s Brynglas which
was having ‘time out’.
Labour Week End Sunday was a bit on
the grey side but the rain held off until most
of us had left. We were late leaving too, as
Gary Coburn had his Sir Christopher
Wren over for another run, and Speedy had
been steamed late. The putting away of
steam takes longer than driving the electric
or petrol jobs into their storage roads.
Thanks to David Turner the Case traction
engine has been in steam regularly and we
are all waiting to see the accompanying saw
bench he has built, belted up to the Case.
David has had a struggle trying to get a belt locally,
and has ended up getting one from the UK - due to
arrive about the time BP gets delivered. Just a few
weeks late for the Discovery Day when he hoped to
have the sawbench running off the Case.
Top - Ross Johnson’s Invicta on its running stand at the last meeting.
- And the 400amp connector.!!
Photos - Claude Poulsen
Right Sir Christopher Wren pays another visit to Petone on Sunday 26 Oct.
Owner Gary Coburn managed to get David Turner away from his Case,
and experience the joy of steam on rail. Photo - Anderson
*3*
The Monday 27th. run was
abandoned as the weather did not
clear early enough and there were
few people about. Five of us came
to do odd jobs and we caught up
with Claude who had arrived back
home on Saturday night, and turned
up at the track for afternoon tea.
Ec Wattmeter
The wattmeter has been an
interesting addition to the Ec as it
gives us a bit more information on
the state of the batteries and
running of the loco. It was written
up in the March 2014 Blast Pipe by
David Grant Taylor at the time the
system was renewed.
David Turner’s 3” scale Case traction engine and a model of a sawmill
On a recent run with Ec8 the operators were
(unpainted), designed by a Canadian, Brian Rupnow, and not long
mystified by the Watt meter coming up with
completed by David. At BEACH on Discovery Day. Photo - Turner
unintelligible hieroglyphics. Fortunately David had
the answer that it was caused by one of the
Diana on TradeMe
parameters exceeding allowed values. No damage was
Ross Johnson has put his other 5”G loco
done, and to reset the system the fuse to the wattmeter
with
ride
car up for sale with a Buy Now price of
has to be removed for 10secs.
$9000.
The
auction closes 7pm on 1 November
One of the causes of the excessive value is likely
probably before you have read this.
to be operation of the reversing switch in error, and this
is totally up to the control of the driver.
Maidstone MES Notes - Bob Begbie
Drivers - Take good care not to operate the
We wish the best to our members, to
reversing switch until the throttle is OFF and the
members at HVMES and to our readers.
loco is STATIONARY.
We do not have a lot to report for October.
It has been a quiet month even for us. We struck
Ted Barnes
good weather and managed to run our railway on
The New Plymouth newsletter ‘Swarf’ advises that
both scheduled running days. We did realise
Ted, one of our HVMES Country Members, passed away
satisfactory takings on Sunday 5th October but
in the hospice on 23 August at the age of 73. He
only achieved a meagre tally on 19/10. For some
owned the 'Mithryl Valley Railway' just south of
reason, despite the fine warm weather there were
Inglewood up Upper Durham Rd. He had been an
very few people in Maidstone Park on that day.
active and valued member with us before he moved to
I did however meet a few members of a
Inglewood and had maintained contact over the time
local downhill mountain biking club out practising
with his loco building projects particularly in the
on the steep downhill bike tracks on the hills
electrical field which allied with his profession. He and
behind our railway. I was fortunate to see and to
Judith were great hosts to the Labour Weekend visitors
be able to talk to them about some of their new
to the New Plymouth track putting on a run at his track
machines; pedal cycles, the like of which I have
on many occasions.
not seen anywhere else. The cycle frames are of a
Our belated sympathy goes to Judith and the
carbon fibre composite, rather than steel. They
family.
have a number of differently sized chain sprockets
on both the pedal shaft and the rear wheel to
Charlie Oxley C Eng., MIMechE.
achieve the range of speeds they need. Plunger
Susan, his daughter, advised me on on 25 Oct
suspension is provided for both front and rear
that Charlie had died the previous day in New Plymouth
wheels.
at the Rest home he had been at for several years.
I was told that it is possible to spend up to
Over a period of years in the 1980’s and early
$20,000.00 to buy one of the latest bikes for this
90’s - Charlie wrote for Blast Pipe on various topics
sport. I think one would need to be keen. Still it is
regarding English steam locomotive practice, and his
an interest. I guess it is not hard to spend that
experience with the various classes in service when he
amount on a locomotive either!
was an engineer with BR. During that time he came
We have not been able to progress club
and spoke to the Club of his experience with full size
projects in October but have made a start on our
steam. He retired as Asst CME NZR and a bit later
project to improve stormwater drainage from our
shifted to Inglewood for the sake of his wife’s health
station building and surrounds. We have
and he continued to contribute for some time after that
commenced installation of new guttering to our
shift. Until recently he was getting Blast Pipe out of
station building but were held back by a stormy
interest and his past connection. He was a good
period mid-month. We hope to be able to make
‘people‘ person and had a continuing interest in the
better progress as the weather improves.
steam locomotive. He was 86.
We must also press ahead, complete the
Our sympathy goes to his daughter Susan
documentation and arrange the necessary audit
McConnachie and family of Wellington.
Blast Pip November 2014
*4*
of our paperwork and operations in order that we may
apply to be formally registered as a model engineering
amusement device. We must accord that task utmost
priority.
We have had encouraging approaches from
childcare groups, kindergartens and junior schools
interested in arranging special runs toward the end of the
year and hope to be able to accommodate those
requirements. That is certainly a rewarding activity.
We have just received notice of Tauranga Club’s
open weekend, 8th & 9th November and an invitation to
the opening of their latest track extension; the second
such extension they have completed in recent years. That
invitation will be placed in our clubhouse.
From progress reports we have seen in recent
newsletters we understand this to be a very
comprehensive extension and to a high standard. We
congratulate Tauranga society on the job they have done
and thank them for the invitation to visit. I will certainly
make an effort to visit Tauranga later to see the
improvements. I last visited their track in 1998 and was
impressed with their facilities at that time. It will be great
to see the way the facility has grown since.
Activities we have scheduled for November include:*** Railway Running Days, 1.0 to 4.0 pm each day,
weather permitting
Sunday 2nd November, Team 1
Sunday 16th November, Team 2
Sunday 7th December, Team 1
*** Society Monthly Meeting, from 7.30 pm Thursday
13th November, in our meeting room in the amenities
block in Maidstone Park. If members can bring and be
prepared to talk about items likely to be of interest that
will be appreciated.
Dart Progress - Peter Targett
This month has seen the remainder of the valve
gear completed using the dimensions provided by Don
Ashton in the re-design he did for me. This included new
eccentric straps, eccentric rods, lifting links, lifting levers,
weigh shaft and various pins and bits and bobs. Quite a
few parts and different machining processes. You can see
from the photo that I've elected to try the "paint as you
go" approach I hope that will mean less work on the final
strip down and reassembly.
The plan for the next phase is the connecting rods,
big end bearings and crossheads. Once they are done I'll
move on to the new valve
chest, cylinders, pistons, valves
etc. I expect that to be a long
job.
I've already mapped the
cylinder location holes in the
frames and defined the drilling
pattern for the cylinders so
they are located in the correct
position on the driveline. This
deals with the errors
introduced when the frames
were originally made. I'd
already done a similar exercise
for the motion plate which is
now in the right place (as in the
photo) and all the holes nicely
lined up without any spotting
through.
More on Char/Anthracite
Peter Woodward, in Wales, UK, has picked
up on our Welsh Anthracite discussion in Blast Pipe
and emailed some interesting points. “I am an active member of the Merthyr Tydfil
Model Engineering Society and own a couple of 7½"G
locos. I used to work in the coal mining industry
developing and managing opencast mines in South
Wales. I use anthracite from a mine near where I live
and it is great for my locos.”
After explaining our use of char in a deep
fire he replied,
“As you can imagine we are sitting on top of the
stuff here, at least where old mines have left the coal in
the ground!
“Very interesting how you fire the char completely different from the requirements as I would
understand with anthracite. I am sure I would struggle
with that.
“Anyway, I haven't actually measured it but I
would guess I fill the fire about halfway up to the
bottom of the door.
“I would expect a good bright fire before moving
off especially if pulling a load. Without a load, I would
expect the loco's draught to brighten up the fire so not
so critical in this case. It is normal to use the loco's own
blower to brighten the fire if standing for some time and
it is going dull. Once on the move it is quite common to
drive with the fire door open for short periods to reduce
the draught and stop the safeties from lifting. This
applies to 5" and 7½" in my experience.
“I ran my 7½" Jessie for about 3 hours on Friday
with no load. I reckon there was about 1cm depth of
burnt ash in the smokebox. A few weeks ago, the loco
ran for a similar time with different drivers. The
smokebox had a good 2-3cms of ash and plenty of
unburnt coal. I guess the other drivers were using lots
of blower and maybe overloading the coal.
Understandable as they would be more nervous than
me and would not have the confidence to let the loco
draught boost the fire on the run.
“I know a lot of people talk about Welsh
Anthracite and Welsh Steam Coal. The reality is that to
some extent these two overlap and the same stuff could
be labelled either way. I have used both successfully
and would happily use them at any time. There are 2
main reasons I opt for anthracite. Firstly, it is a higher
grade of coal, generally less ash content but always
more energy, secondly, there is a mine local to me that
I did some development work on many years ago and I
like to support them.
“Anthracite is located in
the western part of the
Welsh coalfield and as
you move east it lowers
in grade through steam
coal grade to ordinary
housecoal, which these
days would go to
power stations. The
western part of the
coalfield is much more
complex in terms of
geology and is more
difficult to mine. The
price of the coal is
higher as a result of
being better, and being
harder to dig. Don't get
confused by the term
*5*
"steam coal" - yes it does the job well, but it doesn't
mean it is the best for all circumstances of loco driving.
Years ago it was plentiful, easy to dig, and did the job why would they use anything else? The drivers of the
shunters used to say the express locos got the best whilst
the shunters got the s-h-i-t.
“Our club in Merthyr Tydfil is situated in Cyfarthfa
Park - this park was donated to the
community by the Crawshay family who
were the kings of coal and indeed all aspects
of life in the 19th Century. Just above the
park is another mine which is in the steam
coal area. The club uses this and the locos
run very well.
“Maybe we could exchange some
video footage of what we do but I hope the
above clarifies what would get a decent fire
from our type of coal.
Best regards, Pete.”
using, and have suggested, is trialled in New Zealand
and reported back to them.
Solid Energy is keen to handle all the shipping
and distribution of the Char if it works out satisfactorily
for us in the hobby.
Fairlie’s New Ashpan - David Brownlow. -And another slant from the
Manukau Live Steamers in ‘Steamers
and Dreamers’ MLS has ordered and have on the
way to New Zealand a tonne of Cooper
Minerals Char that is of a 8/20 grade,
which is the best on offer that we can get
at the moment.
A new and redesigned ashpan fitted to a new
So hopefully the char will be here by Labour
hopper and redesigned air damper all constructed in
weekend and a few bags will be given out to clubs to
316 stainless have been fitted to S216. Originally the
trial. Once the trial has been carried out
old grate pivoted at about 1/3rd back from the front and
successfully, or not, Bill Krippner will be back in
on the horizontal
touch with the
centre line of the bars,
contact at Solid
but often jammed
Energy and MEANZ
causing problems.
for the next step in
The pivot point on the
getting good
new grate is 50mm
quality char for our
lower at the forward
clubs.
end which moves the
Solid Energy
front away clear of the
was looking at
wall. It works well and
importing a
the whole fire
container of char
dropping procedure is
from Pacific
quicker and easier,
Carbon in
one can even talk to
Australia and this is
the punters whilst
The Dc class battery
on hold at present
performing the
electric being built for the
until the char from
procedure, and not get
Cross Creek Railway Society
the source the
grumpy in the process.
Australian clubs are at Alan Spink’s place. Note John Antliff
Note that the pan
in relaxation, and the DNC powered bogies.
extends rearward to
contain any hot
material from passing through the
damper aperture, it also catches dust
from above.
The vertical hangers are an
additional support as the new grate is
3kg. and the hopper is only slung
from extended walls of the inner
firebox walls which are copper.
Firing with char and anthracite is
good with the air damper nearly
closed. Anthracite does need more
attention and use of the poker but to
date the loco has steamed well.
Mixing char and anthracite is very
good for the Fairlie.
Blast Pipe November 2014
*6*
An interesting observation when
steaming up on anthracite is that we
could not get the safety valves to pop
although they were starting to relieve.
On the next firing a couple of shovels full
of char were added at this same stage
and the valves popped within minutes.
The grate area is 145 x 220mm
and 50% air ratio. The Fairlie has
always been able to cope with varying
fuel qualities.
Cross Creek loco photos show a
7½”G Kiwi Rail DC class, battery electric
loco under construction. More on this
next time.
Mike Swift advises by
email that he has
improved the access to
the throttle and
superheater in his
Britannia smokebox by
letting in a panel behind
the chimney as shown
in the photos. The Brit
and the roll over mount
he constructed to
handle the loco were
discussed in the June
Blast Pipe.
Women’s Weekly Article.
If you have read your Women’s
Weekly you might have noticed an article
by Aroha Awarau in a September issue.
Ross kindly pointed it out to me and I
found it on the WW website.
The Eastern Bay of Plenty MES has
provided an outlet for her as a driver on
their Whakatane track.
“When I turned 16 last year, I received
the best birthday present ever — my licence
to drive miniature trains. I was introduced to
this world two years ago when a friend
invited me to the miniature train station in
my home town of Whakatane.
“He wanted me to look around to see
if I liked it. I immediately fell in love with the
world of little trains and found myself an
exciting new hobby.
“I’m one of the few teenaged girls in
New Zealand holding a steam ticket to drive
coal-fired railway locomotives. The trains I
drive are working-scale replicas of real
trains and come in many varieties, including
electric, petrol, steam and diesel. I mostly
drive steam trains.
“The rides are popular with children
and also the elderly who travelled on the
original trains during their youth — the
miniatures provide them with some
nostalgia. Also, when little girls see that
their train driver is a girl, they get really
excited. That’s a thrill! ------- “I have to admit I was more
excited about studying for my train licence
than my car licence. I had to take a theory
test and learn about safety and what to do if
anything goes wrong. Then I did a practical
test, just like you do with a restricted car
licence. You’re on the train with the examiner behind you,
watching your every move. I passed on my 16th birthday!
“My closest friends have supported this passion, but
I’ve had the odd teenager tease me, saying that it’s funny
or weird that I love to drive little trains. But I don’t let the
negative feedback bring me down. I’m doing something
most girls my age don’t, and I think that’s cool.
“Normally it’s the older generation who take up this
sort of hobby, ---- I hope to join the navy next year, so I
see this as a good grounding.
“I want to be an engineer — it was the train driving
that opened my eyes to this possible career path. I’m also
involved in building my own miniature train, which shows
me how much hard work and effort
is involved with creating
machines.--------- “My family loves the fact that
I’m pushing myself to try a whole
range of experiences. More
teenagers, especially girls, should
get out there and try different
things.” - from the NZ Womens
Weekly website.
Aroha pictured with some fans showing
them the works of Fa 9 belonging to
Dave Fitton, on the River Edge Railway.
Dates to Note
8 - 9 November - Tauranga Open Weekend
with Official Opening and Golden Spike of the
new elevated circuit.
The HVMES run at the track at Petone 1300 to
1600hrs on fine Sundays -- Welcome
Maidstone MES, Upper Hutt, running on the 1st
and 3rd Sundays of the month.
- Welcome there too.