Update on the steam scene in Nairobi

[John Ashworth]

Just an update on the steam scene in Nairobi.

In May last year the Garratt failed on a trip to athi river and was hauled back to the workshop and left. After a number of conversations with Maurice the curator and others I decided we needed to do something about this or it would sit there ad infinitum. So a plan was drawn up to see if we can sort out the loco as well as stop water leaks on 3020 which is still the current loco for mini trips. . A while back Henry Gunston kindly gave me a number of 59 class garratt drawings and via Nick Lera i learnt that BOHRT also had a massive set of 59 dwgs. After a visit to BOHRT in London I bought a dozen of the most important dwgs to take with me.

So last monday five of us including four of the steam team are working on 59 and 30 simultaneously with a view to sourcing the faults. We have had the 59s two brake cylinders apart and they seem to be in good nick so have been cleaned and lubricated and are awiting new springs which we hope are in the stores. I am not sure hoe they got them out from under the power units as they weigh a ton !!

The other item which was causing problems on both locos was the slack in the oil firing rods resulting in erratic firing and uneccessary black smoke. This has been sourced as the link pins and holes on the rods and also a bracket on 59 being slack. We got the rods and bracket off yesterday and it goes for welding today I hope.

Meantime the water in 3020 tender was drained and the manhole opened to access the three valves for the water to the injectors all three of which were leaking gently but aggrevated when in steam . The rods were badly worn on the pins, so have been removed and i took them off to be welded and drilled to the correct size. The bronze valves are being ground in to get a water tight seal. A rather unpleasant job inside a rather odorous rusty tender with not much headroom. Me thinks they had dwarfs working at North British....

Also every single gate valve on both locos some of which had seized were removed, serviced and replaced. William and i stripped the drivers injector on 3020 and have begun opening up s injectors as well. The cones are showing signs of old age etc. Meanwhile Maurice has an official from KR working on obtaining access to the steam spares of which there are tons altho not neccessairly for our locos. My visit to the stores showed items for locos that have long since gone to the torch..

In a bid to find out where the steam leak on 59 is we hope to put the loco into steam tomorrow using the static boiler to help get the loco up to 150 psi. Just awiting confirmation the the static boiler will be in steam and the shunter can tow us down to the boiler..

[Mike Haslam]

Thanks John, a most interesting update, but can you tell me about Kevin, who he is, where he comes from and his rail background. He certainly seems to have things nicely under way for the locomotives. Certainly a wonderful contribution to heritage steam.

[John Ashworth]

Kevin is the author of a couple of books on Kenyan steam, as well as one on wrecks and salvage in East Africa, and a number of calendars on East African themes such as railways and aircraft. He grew up in Kenya, is a salvage diver and engineer by profession, and has been involved in Kenyan steam for some time. Useful bloke to have around!

For various reasons connected both with work and having fundis around the house I haven't been down to the workshop the last few days, but I hope to be working with Kevin and the Kenyan fitters for the next couple of days.

[John Ashworth]

Yesterday all the rods and levers were collected from the w/shop and refitted to both locos. Today the 87 Class diesel arrived around 11 and John Ashworth and self plus Paul a visitor tore round to the sheds to assist with getting the locos hitched up and moved. it was a sight for sore eyes with the 87 struggling to move a wagon plus 59 plus 3020 plus three 87s in order to get 59 adjacent to the boiler. In doing so sparks from the wheels set the dry grass alight and JA and I became self appointed firemen putting the fire out under the loco. JA has some interesting pix.. I shot some movie which we will down load as a JPEG. However all was well and when we left at 1345 hrs 59 was having the boiler and tanks filled in preparation for Mondays firing...we hope... I shall be there tomorrow to see how much water we have loaded..

Photos at http://www.friendsoftherail.com/phpBB2/ ... 319&t=9214

[John Ashworth]

I had a chat with Museum Curator Maurice Barasa this afternoon and he confirmed that the regular monthly steam trips are still on hold. However he is getting loads of requests for steam charters and weddings, and so it is likely that there will be a few one-off trips this year. There should be one in April, if not earlier.

[John Ashworth]

Morning, John. It was a somewhat dirty afternoon yesterday lying in the bottom of the 59 smokebox with a torch and steel bar but it was well worth while, William and I found three holes in three separate superheater tubes, one on the left of the petticoat and two where we saw the discolouring of the tubes on the right. Clearing an avalanche of soot etc off the tubes revealed the holes. Bingo, just as we discussed. Obviously to replace these will require the main smoke box plate taken off which would need an overhead crane or possibly just a 5 ton chain block, however as discussed maybe we could cut and cap the tubes and probably take out six elements out of the fifty. As the loco is never going to pull 1100 tons again its not going to adversly affect its performance. William and I had a browse round the store yard and could see what appears to be new s/h tubes albeit years old..

Also water was leaking out of one of 59 firemans side injectors which comes down to grinding in the valve seat as we did with 3020s injector which is now fitted to the firemans side, while the one removed is now on the drivers side having been cleaned but both awaiting cones. 59 now has the best part of 8000 gals on board so at least we have a supply to tap off. William however showed me a main water tap hidden under the engine as part of the filter in line to the injectors so that has stopped that.

30 has had its firemans injector supply pipe brazed that had a crack in it and the firing rod has been redrilled to stop the firemans lever overunning the toothed quadrant. 59s firing rods are tight so thats that..

Meantime I paid a visit yesterday to one of the GMs who had approved the spares and also a deputy who apparently was concerned the spares were being used for other purposes... by 4.30 we had the requisite authorisation for spares as of today via Ben... Who is quite chuffed in more ways than one having rushed about getting signatures...this means we hope to have 3 sets of cones for 30 and 59 and as William said also two sets for 24... William currently removing the 24 cones as I type

Finally after much chasing and long conversations in swahili it appears we might be able to put steam into 59 today around 11 and test brakes etc..the delay yesterday was filling the oil bunker for the static boiler.. ho hum so at the time of writing I hope they have lit the fire....Eric has just called to say the oily rag is lit.. its a start, we just need 100psi asap.. Thats it for now.. Will update in due course...

The boiler was fired up and after some fiddling with the steam joints we finally got pressure to the loco. However as we had already located the leak, the steam really didnt help much as there was so much in the smoke box you couldnt see or breathe. We got the blower going which worked fine and it was impressive to see steam coming out the funnel. So after an hour i shut the loco down and disconnected the the steam line. William wanted to fire 59 but I said it is a waste of time as nothing will happen. Meantime the askari caught some light fingerd youth trying to rip off bits last night or maybe just casing the loco either way he was hot trotted to the police and appears in court tomorrow!!!!

Meantime while I was looking after 59, William was busy in the stores finding cones and putting them in our stores. To date thanks to Ben we have got the ball rolling re spares... At 3 pm I wrapped up the job, settled up with the team, locked the store and returned keys to Maurice. .. while all this was going on Eric arranged an 87 and pushed 59 back into the w/shop... So all is back in order but the cones on 30 and 59 need replacing at some point.

I have started drafting a report for the GM etc inc you to read and have an appointment with Gatache tomorrow to explain whats going on and hopefully get KR interested enough to put some lolly into the loco... one can only hope...