Re: [Ausloco] R711 Failed

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Does anyone know how far off R766 is from being completed? With R711 out
of action for quite a while, they would probably need to get this loco
going asap.

Matthew Grass wrote:
> 
> 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

-- 
- James Brook -

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