a soot belcher for Syd
 

G'day Syd,
I have edited and uploaded me video footage of the Jolly Green Giant visiting Bathurst.
https://youtu.be/VHt1HneL_tQ
You will get to earwig her puffing up Tumulla bank 1 in 40 being shoved by vintage nose job 4201.
Being back up to full boiler pressure of 245 psi, she sounds BONZER.
OK, the weather was mostly miserable.
But, a soot belcher does look more impressive in cold conditions.
White exhaust billowing out hanging above the train.
I have not bothered to trudge further west to shoot at it in Dubbo.
It snowed here last nite on that stupid Mount Panorama and in many other high elevations in the Central West.
YUCK !
I might trudge out when it returns through here on june 15.
Steve.

That is a handsome machine, these Ausies have an unknown talent for design. I have seen some Holden car designs, mostly concept, they would put the Italians to shame.

Yep as in the tv ad song lyrics;
football, meat pies, kangaroos and holden cars.
Sadly, holden cars are no longer manufactured here.
When 3801 emerged from Clyde engineering in 1943 it was painted grey.
WW2 austerity measures.
The five streamlined 38ers became known as the Grey Nurse, aka aussie sharks.
3801 does look better in green.
But, the C38 class did spend a lot of time wearing black.

One thing for sure, that Tin Can on the rear was doing a lot of pushing up the hill, but then the hill looked quite steep. Are the loco's hand fired or do they have a cheat system (worm feed like the Rhodesian 20th class loco's?)

G'day Syd,
The train load was 240 tonne including the SWT (water gin converted from petrol tanker).
I was toying with the notion of telling everyone that 3801 had been converted to oil burning.
As a jest, but decided to not bother.
Tumulla bank is four miles of 1 in 40, the ruling grade on the Main West beyond Lithgow.
The soot belching era max pas load for a 38er climbing Tumulla was 310 tons.
That equated to a 7 car air con HUB set which was the normal consist on W31.
The weasel was required to drag the shuttles back to Bathurst.
Plus also assist up the hill to maintain the tabled sectional running time allocated.
AND, to clear the section should the soot belcher fail.
Soot belchers are rarely permitted to strut around by themselves now days on the main line.
Can't have the main line blocked delaying freighters.
There being NO easy rescue potential these days since privatization and demise of regional loco depots.
The 38 class have a 47 square foot grate area.
Management considered a mechanical stoker, but decided to rely on hand shovelling.
But, it was feared the a sole fireman would not be able to maintain the 245 psi boiler pressure.
So, two firemen were initially rostered.
But, after crews became proficient with the 38 class, a single fireman sufficed.
She is a magnificent beastie and much more spacious in the cab than you Pommy Flying Scotsman.
But, regardless, it woulda been hard yakka swinging the banjo on her and sisters during the glory days.
Steve.

G'day again Syd,
I did trudge out yesterday in the frozen pea souper fog to take another pot shot at 3801.
Returning east with the entire train plus three weasels.
Drove out to the Brewongle curves, and could hear it blowing the hooter for Lloyds Road level crossing approaching Bathurst.
That be a goodly 13 kms, as the crow flies.
The mongrel 42 class EMD thing did drown out the other weasels.
But, you could still hear the Jolly Green Giant strutting along.
Doing every bit of the max 70 kph climbing the 1 in 75 curves at Brewongle.
Gone in a flash, just like the 7 other gunzels chasing the thing.
I just drove back to Bathurst.
Too risky in winter time attempting to chase a train along the wonky back road to Tarana and Lithgow.
Steve.

Thanks for the update Steve. In my day on the Rhodesian Railways, you would be hard pressed to chase a train. Not because it was too fast, but because most of the tracks were well away from the roads. Take the Dett Straight, it is over 70 miles of straight track, but only a few cart track crossing it. With single line working, you could see a train entering the straight 70 miles away at night due to the headlight. They could also see us. For about 35 miles we would both run towards each other. If we were on a passenger train and they were a goods, then we would approach them much faster as we would be at passenger speed. We seemed to get closer and closer all the time and as a young fireman, I would get very worried that we would run into each other. (although we also knew that there could not be two trains on the same section at the same time). Then we would get a amber turnout sig. or we would see the approaching train take a turnout. All of this track was in a game reserve which was once named as the Wankie Game Reserve, now renamed The Hungwe Game Reserve, which is the African name for the area.

G'day Syd,
I have squizzed video shot of soot belchers stomping around in Africa.
It amazed me that many regions would cop frigid conditions over nite.
Huge frosts on the ground.
I presume that many South African pas jobs had steam heated carriages.
Yer loading gauge was also wider than that permitted in our Bananaland here.
There is still some ex South African soot belcher parked up near Cairns.
Kiwis had acquired it with the notion of using it on the Kuranda Line.
TOO wide for the tunnels up there.
Steve.

The track gauge across Southern African main lines is 3' 6" although the loading gauge is 10'-6". In South Africa, the speed limit on main lines was 50 mph. In Rhodesia it was 45 mph, although we have been known to exceed that a few times when we would have been just 5 min's late for the club bar closing time of 11:30. Working a train from T.J. to Dett (my home depot at that time) it was a climb all the way apart from two short sections. So it was hard work for the fireman hand firing a 15th class Garratt with a full load of copper from Zambia.