POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

The Aveling & Porter steam wagon was dispatched to the Municipality of Rockdale, in Sydney, on the 25th September, 1920, through the shipping agents, James Pollock, Sons & Co. Ltd., of London. Aveling & Porter company records also show that the wagon was ordered without any timber bodywork. As the timber is mostly of Australian native types, this confirmed that the cab, canopy and tray were locally built, probably in Sydney. The vehicle was the first steam wagon to be used by Rockdale Council and, despite its slow speed, was a vast improvement on the horse-drawn tip wagons then in service. Some of the steam wagon's duties included hauling rock, sand and gravel for road construction and sandstone blocks for curbing. The wagon was operated by a qualified council driver, aided by an "offsider", usually a labourer, whose duties included helping to shovel out the load, stoke the firebox, and oil and grease the wagon. The driver's day started at about 6.30 am and it took about an hour to get the wagon steamed up and ready for the job. First, coal in the firebox from the night before was raked out and the new fire started from kindling. Following this, wood was applied and finally fine coal of 0.75 inch to 1.5-inch grade was added. Once underway similar grade coke was used for the rest of the day, except for when the wagon had been idle for a couple of hours and coal was used to restart the fire. Daily fuel consumption was about five bags of coke, all carried on top of the wagon's roof. The driver also checked the water tank level, and this was topped up if necessary at the council yard. The 150-gallon capacity water tank would last two or three hours depending on the work. Refilling during the day was undertaken at street hydrants, or from creeks when working out of town. Weekly maintenance on the wagon was carried out on Saturday mornings by the driver who would clean out the fire-tubes. During the early 1920s Rockdale Council ordered two Sentinel undertype steam wagons, built in Shrewsbury, England. The Sentinels were an improvement on the Aveling wagon because they used less coke and operated faster. After finishing with the council in the mid-1920s the Aveling & Porter wagon apparently was sent out to work at the mines at Cobar, in western NSW, before ending up in a second-hand machinery yard back in Sydney in about 1929. It was then purchased by Mr W. Duguid for use on his farm at Mt Pleasant, near Thirlmere, 84 km SW of Sydney. The wagon was sent by rail to Thirlmere and unloaded at a siding used by a local timber mill, now the site of the current NSW Rail Transport Museum. As Mr Duguid's brother wrote to the author in 1985 "We got the wagon unloaded, the boiler steamed and on our way. [What followed were] three days of adventure taking the wagon three miles to our property [which can be] summed up in three words, amusement, vexation and satisfaction. The amusing part, children at the school ran out without permission lining the fence with mouths open to watch a strange engine running up the main street. The vexing part, about halfway to our property was a sandy strip of track 200 yards beside one of the Thirlmere Lakes. As soon as we hit the sand everything came to a stop. The wagon could not be steered, so we had to go home and get the horse and cart and go into the railway station and see if the station master could put us onto a load of rail sleepers. There we had some luck, back to the wagon which we had to jack up to get the sleepers in below. Then the job of laying them in the front and lifting them at the back and so on. This took us two days and on the final day we got to solid ground where the wagon took off up a steep hill which included a very sharp hairpin bend which proved no trouble. At the top we changed gear and finished the journey at a reckless 5 mph." Duguid had been a marine engineer so knew how to keep the wagon in good order. It proved very useful for pulling up tree stumps, hauling timber to his sawmill and cutting it up, and driving machinery including a chaffcutter, a grist mill and emery wheel. The boiler also provided steam to clean and sterilize chicken brooding equipment and for a honey house, honey tank and extractors as honey had to be kept warm for straining. After excellent service Duguid discarded the wagon in 1946 for a diesel engine. In 1962 the Powerhouse Museum was notified of the abandoned wagon and the Duguid family agreed to its donation. The Museum was then faced with the problem of moving the wagon which had been left for 16 years on the Mt Pleasant farm in a fairly inaccessible location. After an inspection in 1963 it was discovered that a low loader could not be brought directly to the wagon site because of a narrow, un-made road and back down that tight hairpin bend. The only solution was to repair the wagon sufficiently to enable it to be driven under its own steam down the mountainside. Many hours were spent by Museum staff repairing the water tank, removing rust from all the moving parts, removing valve covers to clean and oil the valve spindles and refitting a new gasket to the boiler inspection cover. Next, the water tank and boiler were filled with water and a successful hydrostatic test carried out. The wagon was then chocked with railway sleepers, steam raised to half the tested pressure and the engine made to turn over for an hour before attempting to move. When the gears were engaged the wagon would not move, so more steam had to be raised. Two more hours of steaming at the increased pressure had to be done before the fire was drawn to undertake the journey. This time the wagon finally moved and steamed down the mountain, successfully negotiating the dreaded hairpin bend much to everyone's relief. On safely reaching the low loader at the bottom, the wagon was secured for the trip to Sydney. Research For about 20 years the wagon was held in one of the Museum's stores before the decision was made to restore it. The policy adopted was to restore the wagon as accurately as possible to within the first few years of service with Rockdale council. However, before that the wagon had to be thoroughly researched which involved corresponding with the original builders, and various steam experts in Britain as well as making personal contact with Australian steam enthusiasts. Specifications and photographs were researched from books, journals and reprints of contemporary company catalogues. One of the most difficult problems to overcome was the reconstruction of the tip tray, of which very little remained, and no timber on the sides or back was left to determine the exact configuration. Copies of overall drawings were obtained from England showing the tray arrangement of wagons built entirely by Aveling & Porter. However, this did not tally with the various hinges, bolts and chains which arrived with the Museum's wagon. Since the tray was locally built a determined search for photographs of the wagon was undertaken to work out the appearance of the tray. With great luck two photos were found depicting Aveling & Porter steam wagons in use at another Sydney council yard at Leichhardt in about 1920. The photographs were from the J.G. Park Collection, part of the Historic Photograph Collection at the Macleay Museum in the University of Sydney. Access to the fine-grained 10 by 8-inch glass-plate negatives enabled considerable enlargement which revealed the tray arrangement of the Leichhardt wagons was identical to the remaining pieces of ironwork on the Museum's Rockdale wagon. The puzzle had been solved and the reconstruction of the tray could proceed based entirely on the discovery and clarity of the historic photographs. One more problem remained however. The historic photographs were of course in monochrome so the correct colour and finish of the tray, cab and canopy were still unknown. Paint samples were examined under a microscope in the Museum's Conservation Department to analyse the various paint layers but the results were inconclusive. It was decided to make a public appeal in the "St George and Sutherland Shire Leader", the local newspaper in the area where the steam wagon had operated in Sydney. The response was excellent and 26 people contacted the Museum with all sorts of information. Two were particularly helpful, one man had driven steam wagons in Sydney in the 1920s while the other a horse-drawn tip wagon for Rockdale Council alongside the Museum's steam wagon in 1923. As a result of their assistance all the final problems of colour and finish were solved. A great deal of invaluable oral history was also obtained regarding the operation, maintenance and social history surrounding the steam wagon at Rockdale. Restoration The complete restoration of the wagon to steaming condition was largely undertaken by Museum staff in our large workshop. The wagon was fairly complete except for the water tank, fire bars, smokestack, tray, cab, cab support brackets, engine side guards, lock bar, smoke box, suction hose and ball, and the manufacturer's plate which all had to be replaced. To start with the wagon was dismantled and all "bolted on" items removed except for rivet joints, which were not disturbed unless necessary. The boiler was chemically cleaned and de-scaled then sandblasted inside and out. The fire-tubes were removed, and tests carried out on the shell, firebox, rivets and seams. Luckily no major damage or corrosion was found. The boiler was then re-tubed and hydrostatically tested and inspected by a boiler inspector, re-sandblasted and finally painted with Dulux Hi-Temp 600. The engine was stripped down, cleaned and thoroughly examined. Very little wear was found except for the valve rods which were ground down, hard chromed then reground to size. The frame, wheels, axles and all small painted parts were bead blasted, primed, undercoated and given two topcoats of paint by brush. The gear selection yoke was repaired, and the drive chain sprocket replaced. The water tank was beyond repair so a new tank was made up and riveted by the Sydney Maritime Museum. This was then bead blasted to remove mill scale, primed and also given an undercoat and two topcoats of paint. The water pump plunger and drive gear bush were badly worn, so replacements were made and fitted. It was found that the front wheel bushes were badly worn and had to be replaced. These were turned out of bronze cored bar and fitted together with new felt seals. The rear wheel bearing housings needed to be pad welded and re-machined. Cracked bronze slippers were repaired and refitted while the rear wheel pin holes were bored oversize, fitted with a sleeve and then welded into place to return them to standard size. The steering auger was bent and had to be straightened and the worm and worm wheel were worn. Consequently, a new worm was made, and the worm wheel built up and re-machined to match. All bushes in the steering assembly needed replacement and in some cases the castings were bored, sleeved and excess play removed. All brass and copper pipework, valves and fittings were degreased, cleaned then polished by hand. The fire-door required a new baffle and this was made, fitted and riveted into place and a new ash pan and fire bars were made. The smoke box door locking mechanism was missing. With the aid of sketches supplied by the only other owner of a complete Aveling & Porter steam wagon in Australia, a 5-ton type PGP tip wagon No. 7758 built in 1912, a suitable replacement of 0.75 inch by 4.0 inch flat bar was made. A rubbing of the builder's plate from this wagon was also obtained to make up a replica for the Museum's plate. The original timber work on the wagon was analysed by the Forestry Commission of NSW who reported that the boiler lagging slats were Larix SP (Larch), the tray and cab rails were Eucalyptus Maculata (Spotted Gum) and the cab planks were Agahis SP (Kauri). Since the cab canopy and tray were rotten and in some cases non existent, these had to be made up. The canopy roof was painted and while still wet was covered with canvas. The cab and tray were primed, undercoated and given two top coats of Dulux Charcoal while the canopy roof was finished in Dulux Biscuit. The cab was then lowered in place and the tray bolted together using similar coach bolts made to the original design. It was necessary to have all but two of the original hinges remade to the same design by a local blacksmith. The chimney stack also needed replacing due to corrosion. It was rolled from16 gauge mild steel and hand riveted using mild steel rivets. The copper bezel was beaten back into shape and hand riveted on with copper rivets. A new front stay also had to be made up which was fabricated from steel pipe and plate. Two new toolboxes were built using the original materials and specifications. One was of 16-gauge mild steel and fitted to the outside of the wagon and the other was timber (spotted gum) and fitted inside the cab. The safety valves required stripping, cleaning and relapping with new springs and they were set to blow off at 100 psi. The steam gauge glass on the wagon was broken and a new, but obsolete, glass was found which had to be ground down to size before fitting. The rear brake had to be re-aligned to the drum and one strut and four pins needed replacement. The drive chain was partly worn but as the size is no longer manufactured it was decided to leave the chain as it was. The final step in the restoration was to undertake a test fire. The unit was filled with water and gas was used to fire the boiler. However, it was found that a proper fire of coke was needed to supply the necessary heat. After a number of successful steamings the wagon was put on permanent display as one of the highlights in the Transport exhibition of the Powerhouse Museum from 1988 until 1999. For some years after that it was regularly steamed at rallies including Steamfest at Maitland, NSW, and is still operational. The Powerhouse Museum has undertaken the restoration of a number of transport objects over the years but it is considered that this one was the most sympathetically done because of the completeness of the existing wagon, the extensive research undertaken and the care involved to ensure the authenticity of the replaced components. This was largely achieved through the use of original photographs of the wagon while in use during its early working life. Margaret Simpson Curator, Science Technology & Industry, updated 2011