Return to duty Climax 1694 - PBPS

[ozbob]

http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/news-events/climax-locomotive-recommissioning/

Climax 1694 steams again

- on the 85th anniversary of it entering service!

Climax geared locomotive No.1694 was officially launched back into service on Sunday, 8 September, 2013 at 9.30am with a special return trip from Belgrave to Emerald.

Some photographs:



















Photographs Malcolm Dow 8th September 2013

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Background:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~telica/Puffing_Billy_Climax_1694.html

The Puffing Billy Railway's Class B 25 ton Climax locomotive, Builder's No. 1694 is historically important not only because of its service on the Forests Commission of Victoria (FCV) Tyers Valley Tramway, but also because it is one of only 19 Climax locomotives which survive worldwide, only about four of which are currently operational.

It is the only one known to have been built to 2 ft 6 in gauge. It is also the only intact survivor of about 53 steam locomotives which operated on Victorian timber tramways.

From 1988 to 2001 it operated on the Puffing Billy Railway, at Belgrave, Victoria. In 2001 it was taken out of service for a major rebuild. That rebuild was completed on 13 August 2013 when the locomotive was fitted with its trucks (bogies). The first test of the restored locomotive took place on Friday 16 August 2013, when the locomotive was run successfully around the yard at Belgrave.

The restoration has included – amongst other things – major work on the boiler and frames, new wheels, axles and gears, and replacement of a number of castings.

Climax locomotive No.1694 was built in 1928 by the Climax Manufacturing Company of Corry, Pennsylvania, USA for the Forests Commission, Victoria (FCV). The FCV had purchased it for use on its Tyers Valley Tramway, which carried sawn timber from Growlers Creek and Ten Acre Block, via Tyers Junction to Collins Siding on the Victorian Railways' (VR) Moe – Walhalla 2 ft 6 in gauge railway.

The fact that it is 2ft 6in gauge is a peculiar accident of history, as the Tyers Valley Tramway was entirely separate from the VR's Walhalla line, and used different rolling stock.

The Tyers Valley Tramway closed in July 1949, and the Climax locomotive was stored in the open at Erica until the mid-1960s when it was transferred to the Puffing Billy Preservation Society's (PBPS) Museum at Menzies Creek for static preservation.

In the early 1980s a team of PBPS volunteers began the major project of restoring the locomotive to operating condition. This task was completed in 1988, and the locomotive was used on special trains until 2001, when it was taken out of service as – amongst other things – it required major boiler work.

After the restoration of Beyer Garratt locomotive G42 to service in 2004, work commenced on Climax No.1694. The boiler work is now complete, and work has commenced on the frames and running gear.

Problems have been found with cracks in the axles, and it has been found that these were due to a fundamental design fault, due to the trucks (bogies) having been designed for 3ft gauge, not 2ft 6in. As a result new axles and wheels will be needed, and these will be costly (around $A95,000).
Unique features of Climax locomotives

The distinctive feature of the Climax locomotive is that the cylinders do not directly connect to the driving wheels. Instead they drive a cross shaft near the centre of the locomotive.

From there the drive is transmitted to the driving wheels through rotating shafts, universal joints, and skew bevel gears. The driving wheels are mounted in two four-wheel bogies so that they can easily follow sharp curves in the track. None of these features are found in normal steam locomotives.

The result is a locomotive that is extremely powerful for its size, and that will cope with sharp curves and steep grades with ease. But this is at the cost of speed; Climax locomotive No.1694 is just about flat-out at 13 km/h (8 mph).

The skew bevel gears are unusual; this is because the longitudinal shafts are on a different plane to the axles and the main drive shaft (i.e. they pass above the centre line of the axle, and below the centre line of the main drive shaft).

When the first Climax locomotive was built in 1888, the formulae to design the gears was not known and the first patterns had to be made by trial and error. The technical name for this type of gear is straight cut bevel with non-intersecting centre-lines, and their use in large scale industrial applications – like locomotives – is extremely rare. Climax's well known competitors, the Shay and the Heisler, used normal bevel gears.

The slides below were photographed in 1957 at Erica by my grandfather.

Erica Sawmill.  The line to Walhalla can be seen as well.



HiRes --> http://backontrack.org/images/vr_ng/climax/PICT0001.JPG


The Climax (1694) in the open at Erica



HiRes --> http://backontrack.org/images/vr_ng/climax/PICT0002.JPG



HiRes --> http://backontrack.org/images/vr_ng/climax/PICT0003.JPG



HiRes --> http://backontrack.org/images/vr_ng/climax/PICT0004.JPG

Photographs P G Dow 1957

[ozbob]

Climax locomotive No.1694 at Belgrave, 16 August 2013.

From http://members.ozemail.com.au/~telica/Puffing_Billy_Climax_1694.html

[ozbob]

Some photographs I took at Belgrave mid 1990s of the Climax

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Found a couple of photographs of 1694 at PRO Victoria


https://metadata.prov.vic.gov.au/imagefiles/12800-P0001-000044-080.jpg



https://metadata.prov.vic.gov.au/imagefiles/12800-P0001-000044-090.jpg

August 1928 after the Climax was assembled by VR at Newport Workshops (photographs by VR). 
The Climax was transported to Moe and ran under its own steam from Moe to Collins Siding on the 3 September 1928.