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Rotorua Society of Model Engineers - multi-gauge 3½", 5" and 7¼"

October 2010

Visit the official website: rsmenz.com

A group of six members of the Hamilton club descended on Rotorua for their regular monthly run in October 2010.

It was a great day in all respects and as well as having a drive of John Heald's BEAU SEJOUR, I was also busy with the camera. Here's a (rather larger than usual) selection of shots of the day.

John Heald talks to Dennis Collins whilst raising steam on BEAU SEJOUR

Stefan Lipsey was there with his daughter and Clive (his father) with his father's "Sweet Pea"

Raising steam on Dennis Searle's NZR WAB-class

Dennis (here with his wife Ramona) has just finished building John's new boiler (see below) and there was cake and bubbly all round

Paul Newton was having trouble lighting a candle on the cake. Kind of ironic that a man of his experience can't start a fire!

Some visitors had a birthday party and brought along a "train birthday cake". The club is a popular venue with families

John Bremner seemed to spend a lot of time driving John Heald's loco - but then it is a delight to drive

The blossom is beautiful at this time of year

Stefan and his Dad's Sweet Pea "JJ"

John Bremner again. The part of the track alongside the stream is lovely

John Shelton looking way too comfortable driving the club's diesel

BEAU SEJOUR on the turntable at the end of a lovely day

John Heald's workshop

Then it was on to John Heald's workshop to see progress on his Darjeeling B-class. Here you can see (just) all three of his locos: BEAU SEJOUR is awaiting to be cleaned down after running all day; on the left under the cover is his other Kerr Stuart TAGUS (these are virtually identical unless you know what to look for); and on the far-right are the frames for his new Darjeeling B-class, with the boiler at the back of his workshop

The frames with finished cylinders and wheels. Next job is the valvegear

The new 2205 duplex-steel boiler. To keep within the New Zealand 50 litre limit on boilers, the front tube-plate is much further back than it should be and thus the extended smokebox.
Interestingly, because duplex-steel is so much stronger than normal boiler-plate it doesn't need to be so thick, and as a result, the boiler will be lighter. In fact, John reckons that even though it is a large loco, when finished it will be lighter than either of his Kerr Stuarts!

For more photos and progress updates on John's B-class, visit Rotorua's website: rsmenz.com

Paul Newton's workshop

The it was round to see Paul Newton. He's doing some adjustments to an NZR J-class he built some years ago to increase the side movement of the rear truck. I'd love to see this loco in steam

Shame the tender wasn't there too. Being a 3' 6" prototype it is one big loco!