Observer19

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Full Name: The New Zealand Railway Observer

Issue Number: 19

Issue Date: February 1947

Volume and Number: 4/1

Pages: 18

Page Range: 1-18

Cover Image: n.a.

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CONTENTS

Society Notes

The Leopoldina Railway - a metre-gauge Railway in Brazil - by E. W. Robson

Mainline Gradient of the New Zealand Railways Part 8 Auckland to Rotorua, Thames and Taneatua

Recent Railway Literature

• 4-8-2 Class15F Locomotives for the South African Railways
• The Narrow gauge Railroads of Colorado
• Locomotive Stock Book - 1946 (British)

News, Note and Comment

• The first of the long-awaited Ja_Class_locomotives left Hillside Workshops on 12 December 1946. Being loco_Ja1242, with builder's number 365/1946.
• Loco_Ka957 went inti service early in December, being the third non-streamlined
• Loco_Ab748 and Loco_Ab704 have appeared with ballast blocks over the leading bogie
• The Ab_class_locos will undergo some changes when re-boilered.
  • Boiler pitched a foot higher
  • Fitted with a deeper throat and combustion chamber
  • Fitted with a deeper fire-box
  • Boiler to be moved slightly forward
  • Trailing bogie to be redesigned as a Bissel truck
• A certain amount of redesigning is likely to also occur with the Ww_class_loco reboilering.
• Loco_X446 emerged from Hillside as a 4 cylinder simple after overhaul but had to return for a number of days to fix a valve-gear problem. Delivered to Ohai Railway Board before year's end
  • Alterations included rebuilding of the front end including cylinders and outside steam pipes, fitting a tender cab and cowcatcher, provision of back-up sand-boxes over the trailing wheels.
• Twenty more locomotives are to be converted for oil burning, probably Ka_class_loco's based out of Palmerston North, with consequential additional oil fuelling facilities at Wanganui, Napier and Palmerston North. Paekakariki and Taihape already have facilities
• Loco_F20 from Invercargill district has been at the Dunedin Gas works from 25/11/46 - 17/12/1946 while their Loco_A66 (built in 1873) was undergoing an overhaul.
• Loco_Wf468 arrived in Christchurch from Picton in late November. Loco_Wf390 returned to Picton a little while after Loco_Wf468 arrived.
• Loco_Aa_653 sown in the illustration at the foot of page 93 in the December issue, was the first re-boilered Aa_class_loco to work up as far north as Auckland
• Loco_Aa_653 ran into a slip near Kopaki and was marooned for several days.
• Ohai Railway Board
  • A Second lX_class_oco has been purchased from NZR Loco_X446 arrived late in 1946
  • Former stand-by was Loco_Wd317
• Tasmanian Government Railways
• Riding on the Footplate
• Locomotive chimneys
  • Most Wf_class_loco's have squat stovepipe chimneys
• Ex W&MR cars now restricted to Auckland due to their height
• Speed recording
• Tunnels in New Zealand
  • there are approx 180 tunnels in NZ, 100 in the North Island
• Mount Maunganui
  • Now a Borough, so station servicing it had a name change
  • Old PWD line partially lifted during latter part of 1942 and relaid to the RNZAF Airport, about 1.2km total length
  • Rail tractor "Planet" did good service on that line now parked up and track overgrown with weeds.
• EMU's have been used to relieve pressure on the Ed _class_loco's for Wellington - Paekakariki off peak services
• Waimea Plains Branch Memories
  • Schoolboy s got to know the crew, Drivers;Tommy Carter, Jack Leishman, Teddy Crone and Doug Nickless driving V_class_loco's with a top speed of about 30miles per hour
  • The Old_K_class Loco's could do muck better, especially if running late.