SMR 10 class

Over the last few months in-between the live steam work I have been at South Maitland Railways inspecting the 10 class 10 & 18 that belong to the Hunter Valley Training Company, with an assessment of the locos. It has been a refreshing jaunt outside the 4 walls of my own workshop.  From time to time I have undertaken heritage work and find it enough of a variation to nicely offset the models.

The engines were moved to the historic red shed for inspection on the pits by the new SMR diesel. The workshop drop pit cradle was removed and the rust cleaned off and repaired for undertaking some work on the driving wheel axleboxes. The drop pit was cleaned out, rusty tracks cleaned up and the ladder and the cradle was repainted.

The mechanical inspections required a CAD file to be started to check certain things, and brought up the subject of the original sizes and drawings. A project plan and Gantt chart was also done for future work to be undertaken.

The SMR drawing series and master drawing index has been written up, and information and drawings kindly sent me by many friends of Westinghouse compressor and brake valves, and turbo generators, Detroit lubricator and so on. It is a very comprehensive file of the 10 class drawings and all the purchased items bolted to the locos.

Also a set of maintenance standards has been adopted from the NSW 50 class which is applicable to this class of loco. Some components vary but most are very similar if not the same design. This pre-work in establishing some written standard is valuable for any future operations.

A set of inspection and check sheets has been able to be remade copying off what was found in another 10 class mechanical history file. Also some other inspection sheets and maintenance intervals have been adopted from others.

Much has continued to keep surfacing on the old SMR workshop techniques and ingenuity, a tribute to the men who kept these locos going for so long.

It is not a promise of steam returning on the SMR line again, but work continues in the mean time to collate the data and look at the costs and a plan. It has been hard work to pull it together but it is exciting to see things in a more complete state at least on paper. From my perspective a chance to serve a historic railway in Maitland has been a valuable experience and introduced me to many wonderful people along the way.

I put my NP WOOLLEY station sign on the lamp irons just for fun!

Happy steaming!

Nigel