CLUB NOTICES

Next General Meeting: Thursday, February 27, 2014. Clubrooms, Western Hills, 6 pm [Clubrooms open at 5.30 for coffee] 3rd Sunday Running — February 16, 2014. Mid-week Workdays — Mostly Every Wednesday.

Extra Running Days This Month:

SEE PAGE THREE

THESE WORK IN WITH MUSEUM “LIVE” DAYS AND

OTHER EVENTS

N ORTHERN

VIEWS ISSUE No 267 … … … … … February 2014

Clubrooms/Running Track at Heritage Park, SH14, Maunu, Whangarei.

Recently Auckland-based WMEC member Don Moffatt has made some alterations to his NZR C-class engine in an attempt to keep cinders, etc, out of his eyes. Apparently he has made several attempts in the past to come up with something that works. The deflector, as seen on the right is his latest and appears to work but has given the exhaust note a rather sharp sound.

— Yearly Audit —

During the long weekend operations the opportunity was taken to do the Annual Audit of our track and infrastructure. It is pleasing to announce that we have passed with a tally of 99%, which in my book is pretty good. The only reason we did not get 100% was that there was an extension lead in the basement with the earth wire completely cut. Obviously it had had an argument with the hedge cutter at some stage and no one noticed it.

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket.

?

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QUIZ — What is it?

For answer see Page 4.

LIST OF CLUB OFFICERS

President: Rankin Kennedy. Phone (09) 430 8328. E-mail; jenandrankin@gmail.com

Vice President: Vacant at Present.

Secretary: Colin Smith. Phone (09) 438 7861. E-mail; brencols@xtra.co.nz

Treasurer: Herb Smith. Phone (09) 438 1214. E-mail; hsnhrz@kol.co.nz

Newsletter Editor: Ian Mison. Phone (09) 434 3125. E-mail; julianm@xtra.co.nz

Postal Address: Whangarei Model Engineering Club, P.O. Box 10233, Te Mai, Whangarei 0143.

Club Telephone: (09) 438 9520 (Available Running Days Only).

Website: wmec.org.nz

The Silly Season is Upon Us

Word must have got round in Whangarei that our track and the general museum area is good for picnics (staff and otherwise) and of course train rides. So much so that December has seen more “charters” than ever before … and according to Rodney, who does the charter bookings, it’s not finished yet.

Earlier this year we made a ruling that we would only do charters at a normal fee on a Wednesday and third-Sunday running when there were members on-site — but if any group wanted action outside these parameters then special fees would apply. This being fair enough considering the time involved getting the place up and running, in some cases for just a dozen or two people/children.

Strangely there has been no “bad press” about this decision and it would appear that the public is prepared to pay for out-of-hours charters.

We have put the trains on for a long-standing customer (NZ Refining Company Social Club). Also for CYPS and other school groups.

On December 11 last year the “Wednesday Workday” crew didn’t do too much in the way of work but were very busy giving rides to about 400 customers. We even had to bring out an extra train to cope with the loadings. This we put down to “practice” for the upcoming January Anniversary Weekend running.

The latter part of the “Silly Season” also brings with it a downturn in patronage as the sun and surf takes precedence over riding trains. I don’t blame the public doing just that as our site seems to attract the extremes of weather. At times its very hot and at others it’s wet and windy which has resulted in loaded trains taking shelter in the tunnel from sudden squalls. ■

A very well behaved group of children from the Raumanga Play Centre waiting for their next ride.

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Anniversary Weekend Running

The annual Anniversary Weekend meet went off very well. Numbers were down as I think a lot of would-be attendees were a bit “trained out” after the early January convention in Christchurch and the distance some would have had to cover was another factor. However, we did have a couple of visitors from overseas. Jeff Clifton and his wife Mary were visiting from Bunbury, Western Australia, and Martin Sams from the U.K. was here. He is the Editor of the “Cinderbarrow Flyer” the magazine of the Lancaster & Morcambe Model Engineering Society which is in the Cumbria Region of England. As an aside, the Lancaster & Morcambe group are situated in neither Lancaster nor Morcambe but further north at a place called Kendal. They took their name with them when they shifted site a few years ago. Also visiting was a member of the Auckland Society of Model Engineers and he brought along his JW (aka a Phantom). This was a first-time appearance on our track. Dave Giles, Bob Wines, Don Moffatt and Chris Arts brought their locos from Auckland for the event. Unfortunately Chris only managed about two laps of the track before having to withdraw his KB because of a blocked lubricator. It was a great pity because he had come all that way to have a run. Rodney was able to take Prince George for a workout as he slowly gets to grips with a new engine. There are still a few more things to get right. And best of all Lloyd has his new loco there and it ran like clockwork but was still having problems with the injectors blocking — a result, I believe, of the inferior water quality at Havelock North where he had it running over Labour Day Weekend. Yours truly had several drives of this loco and I must admit it had to be one of the smoothest riding engines I have driven and congratula-tions must go to its builder

Mike Orange for the superb construction and finish. The weather was mostly fine over the three days except for a short sharp and reasonably heavy shower on Sunday afternoon. Hopes were that there would be heaps a people riding the trains, but that was not to be. At one stage on Sunday afternoon there were five steamers standing at the station with nary a prospective rider in sight (crews excepted). There must have been a lot of other functions on in Whangarei, either that or people must have chosen to go elsewhere for the day. The catering for the weekend was superb and the ladies of our group deserve a great vote of thanks. These thanks are also extended to others in the group that sent along all sorts of goodies for con-

sumption over that period (note piles of food in pic above). Roger Lund did a great job driving the barbecue for the main evening meals.

A CREW IS NEEDED TO MAN THE RAILWAY ON

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND

FOR A MUSEUM

MEDIEVAL MADNESS DAY

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ANSWER TO QUIZ ON PAGE 2: Swedish engineer Fredrik Ljungström designed a number of steam turbine locomotives, some of which were highly successful. His first attempt in 1921 was a rather odd-looking machine. Its three driving axles were located under the tender, and the cab and boiler sat on unpowered wheels. As a result, only a small portion of the locomotive's weight contributed to traction. In the mid-1920s, Ljungström filed a patent on a quill drive for a steam turbine locomotive. The second design was a 2-8-0 similar to a successful freight design. Built in 1930 and 1936 by Nydgvist & Holm AB, these locomotives replaced conventional ones on the Grängesberg-Oxelösund Railway. No condenser was fitted, as its complexity outweighed its thermodynamic advantages. The wheels were driven by a jackshaft. These engines were not retired until the 1950s when the line was electrified. Three engines of this type were built, all three of which have been preserved. These can currently be seen in Grängesberg, Sweden, two (numbers 71 and 73) being owned by the Grängesbergbanornas Järnvägsmuseum (GBBJ) and the third (number 72) by the Swedish National Railway Museum. In the waning years of steam, the Baldwin Locomotive Works undertook several attempts at alternative technologies to diesel power. In 1944, Baldwin built the sole example of the S2 class, c/n 70900, for the Pennsylvania Railroad, delivering it in September 1944. It was the largest direct-drive steam turbine locomotive in the world and had a 6-8-6 wheel arrangement. It was originally designed as a 4-8-4, but due to shortages of lightweight materials during World War II, the S2 required additional leading and trailing wheels. Numbered 6200 on the PRR roster, the S2 had a maximum power output of 6,900 HP (5.1 MW) and was capable of speeds over 100 mph (160 km/h). With the tender, the unit was approximately 123 feet (37 m) long. The steam turbine was a modified marine unit. While the gearing system was simpler than a generator, it had a fatal flaw: the turbine was inefficient at slow speeds. Below about 40 mph (64 km/h) the turbine used enormous amounts of steam and fuel. At high speeds, however, the S2 could propel heavy trains almost effortlessly and efficiently. The smooth turbine drive put far less stress on the track than a normal piston-driven locomotive. However, poor efficiency at slow speeds doomed this turbine, and with diesel-electrics being introduced, no more S2s were built. The locomotive was retired in 1949 and scrapped in May, 1952. ■

When you buy quality at a high price you only cringe once.

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Other Club’s Events:

Kapiti Model Engineering Society: Open Weekend. February 15th & 16th, 2014.

Palmerston North Model Engineering Club: Locomotion 2014. March 1st & 2nd, 2014.

MALLARD CELEBRATION AT YORK RAILWAY MUSEUM

Last year was the year of the A4 Pacific. For the uninitiated a Pacific-class locomotive has a wheel arrangement of 4-6-2, and comprises of a 4-wheel leading bogie, six driving wheels and a 2-wheel trailing bogie. There was an odd addition to the A4 class when an experimental water tube boilered locomotive was reconfigured to a standard fire tube machine when the experiment was terminated. This locomotive, although referred to as “hush” never had an official name and when it became an A4 it retained a four-wheel trailing bogie — making it a 4-6-4.

It is 75 years since Mallard created the world steam locomotive speed of 126.4 miles per hour — a record that still stands today.

Of the 35 produced in the workshops of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) there are only six survivors. Four are in England (Mallard, Bittern, Sir Nigel Gresley, Union of South Africa), one in the USA (Dwight D. Eisenhower) and one in Canada (Dominion of Canada). The two north American machines which have been repatriated (on loan) to England for this celebration of Mallard’s milestone and have been refurbished and are on display at the York Railway Museum.

One of the nameplates off “Dominion of New Zealand” is in the Wellington Railway Station.

The survivors, at times, have masqueraded as others in the class and had other colour schemes and numbers. The last one was “Bittern” carrying a “Dominion of New Zealand” nameplate.

The colour schemes A4’s were seen wearing over the years. There may have been others, but I’m not sure.

Workshop Grey Brunswick Green Garter Blue

Russian Railways Logistics delivers oversized refinery equipment

RUSSIA: The Russian Railways Logistics subsidiary of national railway company RZD has successfully moved an out-of-gauge load weighing a total of 334 tonnes from the Atomenergomash plant at Volgodonsk to an oil refinery at Ryazan.

The refinery equipment was carried on two 12-axle wagons. Its route was planned by the special pro-jects department of RZD's Central Directorate of Traffic Control, with the load travelling in a single train in order to reduce the impact on capacity while the rail network is busy with summer passenger traffic.

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The Crazy English Language

Let's face it — English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig…

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Wednesday Workdays: By The Editor

The month of January was a bit out of kilter with quite a few members on holiday. But there was the usual hard-core group of members.

It was time for a few of the ride-cars to undergo their Warrants of Fitness and this was undertaken by Rodney in his role as rolling stock inspector. Most went through with flying colours and there were a few repairs to be done to one or two others.

We ran the trains each Wednesday during the school holidays and although the loadings were not great it did generate a few more bob for the club.

The wooden retaining wall along the strait to the tunnel has been given a bit of a work-over whereby another plank has been inserted at the top and the piles cut off flush. Should any one now fall off they will not get speared...

The weed spray train has been around the track doing its thing, but there is a surface spreading weed that seems to be immune to Roundup. I have no idea what it is called but it is a milkweed type of plant and if you try to removed it by pulling it out then your hand gets a liberal coating of this icky sticky goo.

Further painting of the raised track at the roller door end of the workshop is under way.

We have taken delivery of 2-tons of char which is supposed to be the last of stocks previously held by NZ Solid Energy who actually import it from Australia.

It appears that the char makers in Australia are no longer making any more. We now have sufficient for a couple of years, but what of the future?

PHOTO ON RIGHT shows the activity in the steam-up bay on the Saturday of Anniversary

Weekend. From right: John Wright, Tony Tanner, Martin

Sams (UK), Lloyd Cross, Ian McKay.

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PHOTOS ABOVE:

1 . Rodney giving Prince George a grease-up and some TLC before running for the day. 2. Our English guest having a drive of Dave Giles’ Shay. 3. Chris Arts getting steam up in his KB971. First time appearance here. An ASME member with his JW. 5 Australian guest Jeff Clifton having a drive of Bob Wines’ loco. 6 It must have been a hard night last night, but I could think of better places to take a nap. 7 . Some earthworks being done on the embankment not far from the tunnel entrance

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General Pics from Around the Site

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Northern Views

IF UNDELIVERED PLEASE RETURN TO:—

Whangarei Model Engineering Club Inc,

P.O. Box 10233, Te Mai, Whangarei 0143.

Northern Views