Re: [Ausloco] R711 Failed

[Matthew Grass <matthew_grass@yahoo.com.au>]

Hi All

Just to let you guys know some further info about R711
and what happened today at Birregurra. R711 failed on
the down side of Birregurra. Some people in the know
believe that the piston rod bolt that holds the piston
onto the piston rod worked loose. Subsequently this
allow the piston to punch through the piston cover in
a catastrophic manner. This subsequently caused damage
to the motion gear.

The main connecting road was bent in a "s" shape. The
return crank was also bent. To sum it up, the motion
on the firemans side of the engine was pretty well
destroyed apart from the rods connecting the driving
wheels. I guess we will have to wait and see the
damage report, but from I have seen today the damage
is immense.

To give you some idea of the force involved, 19 of the
the 24 studs that hold the cylinder cover which are
7/8 inch diameter were sheared off. The other 5 were
bent around at a 30 degree angle. Also the wedge that
holds the piston rod to the crosshead was sheared
off.The piston cover had literally disintegreted into
tens of pieces.

The passengers were detrained to buses on site. The
loco and train was pushed to Colac by B61 where the R
was detached on the turntable road. B61 then worked to
Warnambool so the cars could form the 1705 up. A T
class was to be attached to the front of the 1705 up
train which would then be detached at Colac to enable
the R to be towed to Ballarat sometime on Sunday.

To sum it up, it going to take a lot of time and money
to get 711 back in traffic. The similarities of the
infamous photograph (see Hudson Power) of R748 at
Lubeck in 1965 is quite scary. To the people like
myself who are involved in steam locomotive
preservation today was truly a numbing and indeed
sobering experience.

Matthew



--- Steve Dalton <steamer711@dingoblue.net.au> wrote:
> R711 Failed at around Kp 137 on the down side of
> Birregurra today, the Big
> End Failed, I believe a pin snapped which cause a
> connecting rod to break ,
> The Loco and Train Pushed to Colac, and B76 ex
> Melbourne Light loco to
> assist,  The B Class too the car set to Warrnambool
> to form the 1705 up ex
> WBL,  the R class will be transferred to Ballarat
> sometime Sunday and
> hopefully the guys can get this wonderful loco back
> soon.
> 
> 
> BTW some have said they don't here from me much,  I
> am still here but have
> been rather busy with Work,
> 
> 
> Steve Dalton
> 
> 
>
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