Atherton-Herberton Historic Railway Inc Connecting Our Communities

June 2016 Issue 1

Herberton Railway Station Museum, John Street Preserving the past for the future.

Meet the Committee

President: Bob Slater

Vice president: Dave McGrory

Secretary: Lawrie Leggett

Assist. Secretary: Peter Harris

Treasurer: Don Lamb

Safety: Robert Howard

Infrastructure: Don Lamb

Rolling Stock: Bill Rowstron

Memberships: Judy Cooper

Management Committee:

Bob Slater

Laurie Leggett

Don Lamb

Dave McGrory

Peter Harris

2016/2017 Memberships are due! Thanks to those who have already renewed your

membership for the next 12 months. For everyone who

hasn’t, please remember they are now due.

Family $80.00; Single $50.00; Junior $5.00

For more information, visit www.athrail.weebly.com

Welcome to two new members Keith Highman and Colm Gillen.

The Tinlander will be running four days a week to the Village and

return for July. As the number of visitors to the Village at the time

of the year is high, it was decided to take advantage of the influx.

Thanks to Bob Slater, Peter Harris, Don Lamb, Dave McGrory,

Neil Robbie, Lorna Hill and Ben Gilmore for giving up them time.

Also thanks to Yvonne Slater and Sue Harris for keeping them fed.

5 Star Supermarket Herberton

Thank you to Greg and Shirley Howe and

their staff for the continued support for

our railway. Shirley donated and

organised a basket of eggs for an Easter

raffle which raised over $600. The

donation box in the shop has also raised

many hundreds of dollars for the

restoration of the Pecketts.

Business of the Month

Souvenirs for sale

We now have stubby

coolers and fridge

magnets for sale.

Stubby coolers $8.00

Magnets $5.00

Rail spikes $10.00

Remember these when

looking for a gift for

someone.

A Major Commitment Craig and Connie Kimberley have pledged $45 000 over the next three years towards our restoration projects. We have already received $15 000 from Craig and Connie. This is helping to kick start the restoration of the old wooden carriage and Peckett locomotive. We would like to thank the Historic Village staff for their continued support with fund raising and promoting awareness of our railway and its projects.

Thanks to the Tableland Regional Council

for the grant of $4200 towards costs of transport

from Portsmith of the silver carriage donated to

AHHR from Queensland Rail. The carriage is now

in position beside our Railway Museum.

RESTORATION OF PECKETTS 1069 AND 1174

We need to raise $200 000 to restore our Peckett locomotives.

YOU can help breathe steam in to our locos and make this a reality

sooner rather than later.

For the cost of a weekly coffee you can make it happen –

Become a regular contributor from $10 a fortnight for 24 months.

For more information, visit www.athrail.weebly.com

AHHR Newsletter Issue 1 Page 2

Welcome to our very first newsletter with full credit to club member Judy

Cooper for putting this together and our members who have flooded her

with contributions. It is our intention to produce a newsletter every month

so if you would like to contribute, please contact Judy.

We have had a great year so far with many new members joining to help

us with our restoration projects with days attracting over 15 volunteers, a

great effort and we can see the result of the work being done as the Peckett

comes together and our timber carriage looks better every day.

I would like to thank all of the volunteers who contribute, whether on the

job or those who do all of the mundane things behind the scenes that keep

our little show on the road. I look forward to your contributions in the

future newsletters.

Regards, Bob Slater.

Hungry?... Call in to The Station Café at Platypus Park, Atherton Try Peter’s selection of delicious home cooked pies and cakes

Open Wednesday & Thursday 8.30am-2.30pm-Friday, Saturday & Sunday 7am to 5pm

Member Profile

Our very first member profile is Lawrie Leggett. You will see his report on page 3 of this newsletter. Lawrie (and his dog Rocky) are to be found most Tuesdays and Thursdays working on the restoration of the Pecketts.

Lawrie says he ‘just loves steam’. Two years ago he was at a Herberton CWA Australia Day breakfast when President Bob gave a talk on the AHHR and its plans for the future. Lawrie has been a volunteer ever since.

Lawrie spent 20 years in the Navy working as a marine artificer. He has also spent time as Maintenance Supervisor at Cape Flattery Mines, worked on oil rigs and is a registered builder. He also maintained the boiler at the Rocky Creek Abattoir for a few years so he is well qualified to work on the Pecketts.

Atherton Herberton Railway Workshop news

from Workshop Superintendent Lawrie Leggett.

I have been with this organisation for a little bit over

two years. To start with the diesel loco 1181 was in

need of a coat of paint. This was chipped, wire

brushed and then coated with a coat of rust converter

and inhibitor then a coat of grey undercoat was

applied to give the engine a look of being loved. This

took about eight months or 460 hours.

Below is the Jerry Culloty Sleeper Cutters shed with

Peckett in the doorway with the extension underway

on the left hand side so we could store all our

belongings saving a lot of time and pilfering. The

extension was built with the help of a grant and a lot

of the foot work must be credited to Bob Slater, our

president, mover and shaker. In the shed besides

storing some of our mobile train gear we have a large

metal lathe donated by Hasting Deering, a large band

saw, now two drill presses, work benches and various

hand tools, and some electrical grinders were donated

which have received a lot of work. Electricity wiring

and lighting is in the advanced stage of planning.

Loco 1181 with a coat of undercoat

The two Peckett steam engines arrived in April

2015.These engines where built in Bristol England.

1069 was built in 1905 and started its life at Mount

Morgan then went to Mt Isa. As best as we can

ascertain, it finished work about 1954. 1174 was

built in the same place in 1908. These boilers are

unique in that they have brass fire tubes. The boiler

working pressure is 140 -160 PSI

I looked at the task ahead to try and visualise what

the priorities were, and being an old navy man the

chip and paint mode locked in as the first priority.

This not only finds the part numbers but is also a

good base for painting. So great effort has been spent

on returning the steam engines to original. All parts

are chipped, wire brushed and coated with a clear

rust inhibitor which I believe is forming a brilliant

base to cover with the pretty paint. During this

process all parts are inspected for wear, rust pitting

and overall condition.

Loco wheels are ready for crack testing then assembly.

Springs are on the left and on the trestles is the cab in the

workshop.

During this process all areas will at some time be

inspected so they can be returned as near as possible

to original. That is the plan. To date the only real

problem we have is the brake shoes are worn out and

new ones will have to be procured. Other parts can

be rebushed or shimmed at this stage.

A very kind

donation

from the

Culloty

family

really

helped us

on the way

to build a

shed

Peckett 1069 arriving ready for restoration

Lathe

donated by

Hastings

Deering

install in the

shed.

The hours spent on the refurbishment total 790 hours

to date. I hope that with all the care the workshop puts

into refurbishing the engine, it will be as powerful as

the original engine which in my hopes and dreams

will eventually do the run from Herberton to Atherton

and return. What a dream and tourist drawcard! At

this stage I believe we can have the complete engine

ready for Historic Village Herberton Pioneer

Weekend in 2018.

Along with restoring the steam engine we are

restoring a train carriage and making it a bit lighter

for passengers. The BL769 was built in 1913 in

Queensland Railway Workshop, Ipswich. The labour

to strip this carriage was done by the majority of the

work force. Now restoring it is John and Ross’s

labour of love and it is hoped that it will be completed

about the same time as the engine.

PECKETT STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

RESTORATION

From Bill Rowstron

It was decided to start the restoration with loco No

1069 and leave the larger loco No 1174 on the

back burner and totally concentrate on 1069.

The locomotive has been stripped down to its

many component parts and the work of cleaning

up the parts and inspecting them to decide what

work needs doing is underway.

The frame was found to have a small crack in it

and a piece ripped out of the underside cross piece

under the smoke box. The crack has been ground

out and welded up and the removed piece will be

replaced. The frame has been cleaned back to bare

metal and repainted together with the axle box

horns.

The axle boxes have been thoroughly cleaned and

inspected. The bearing brasses show some

grooving but this can be rectified with a graphite

compound.

The boiler has been cleaned and inspected by our

boiler inspector and given the OK. The next step

is to make up some blanks and hydraulically

pressure test the boiler.

A new smoke box was made, but, unfortunately

the fabricator produced one that was a mirror

image of the original. A second new one is in the

process of being made. Once this is made, a new

saddle tank will have to be fabricated.

The regulator valve has some erosion on the face

which will require building up and the valve

refacing.

The wheels and axles have been cleaned and have

undergone a dye penetrant crack detection and,

happily, have shown no flaws. The suspension

springs, hangers and other associated components

have been cleaned back to bare metal, examined

and re-painted.

This is the beginning of the assembly of

Peckett 1069

Carriage when it arrived (top) now partially stripped

for restoration with Ross doing the cleanup.

The eccentric straps are currently in the machine

shop having the butts reduced to allow them to be

refitted with shims to an acceptable clearance that

can be adjusted in the future as wear takes place.

The connecting rods have been taken back to bare

metal and inspected. It has been decided not to

repaint the running gear as the most common practice

is to paint the running gear with silver paint; but after

a short period of time the silver paint starts to look a

bit tatty. So we are going to polish up the bare metal

and coat it with a transparent protective coating. We

reckon that this will look much better.

The main crossheads have been cleaned up and

examined. Cracks were found in the top shoe of the

left crosshead. After some difficulty we found out

how to take the crossheads apart and the cracked

shoe is now awaiting repair.

The piston ring has been removed from the pistons

(unfortunately, one broke in the process) and we are

currently trying to remove the pistons from the piston

rods. There is surprisingly little wear on the piston

rods, but there is some corrosion pitting which we

will have to do something about to protect the

packing in the gland.

All the bushes in the brake linkages are much worn

and will require replacing along with the hand brake

screw spindle.

The slide valve rods will have to be replaced (both

are worn and one is bent). The slide valves

themselves are slightly worn on one corner but we

cannot assess the amount of work.

HERBERTON MEN’S SHED

When the Men’s Shed was set up in Herberton, AHHR offered space in the Jerry Culloty Shed so they had somewhere to meet.

Funding has now been secured from the Gaming Community Benefits Fund to build a dedicated Men’s Shed in the Railway grounds close to the existing shed. Construction is to start very soon.

Our members say a big THANK YOU for all the support the whole community has given to our projects. This support has not just been financial from donations and the collection boxes but the ‘in kind’ support given by many businesses in the district.

I hope you have enjoyed reading our first

newsletter. I am always amazed by the

passion and the knowledge of those

restoring the Pecketts and wooden

carriage. It is wonderful to see the

transformation taking place. Visit us and

see for yourself.

Judy Cooper

The Cullotty

girls cutting the

ribbon to the

shed that their

kind donation

helped build.

President Bob

thanking Don

Walker for his

donations to help

purchase sleepers.