Here are a group of photos of 3801 at Sydney Central Railway Station from today (14/03/21) during the Official Relaunch of 3801... I will get a video posted up at a later date. This one during our rain soaked trip to Hurstville and return... This is the locomotive that had assisted 3801 during the weekend, 4201 (EMD A7). Due to the requirements of Sydney Trains and the fact there is nowhere to turn the big green locomotive, 4201 lead the train back to Central Station... Also at Sydney Central was locomotive 5910, ready to haul out the Kiama Picnic Train. It was not a good day for a picnic down by the seaside on the South Coast ! Cheers, Gary.
I bet it was a touch hot in the cab! The day I spent driving the tank engine in my profile picture it was June 22nd and scortching hot (30C) in Kent, it was 55C in the cab and I had overalls and safety boots on.
For those of you that didn't know.., 3801 was pulled from service back in 2007 after certain issues were found with the locomotive and mainly, the boiler. Transport Heritage through the RTM (Rail Transport Museum) were emailing updates of the rebuild of 3801 and then this all stopped in 2011 when the proverbial 'poo' hit the fan... So, what happened ?? Transport Heritage ordered a boiler from Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works (Germany) for locomotive 3801. When the boiler was delivered to Sydney and certain parts didn't line up....?? Apparently MSLW did not build the boiler to the speck asked by Transport Heritage and a feud had started between both parties. I never did find out what the results were..., although it just made the rebuild time longer than what was first planned. Funnily enough, when the tender for the boiler came up, a Japanese company entered the race and Transport Heritage could have had two boilers for the sum of the one from Germany... So I had been told. How much truth in that is still questionable. 3801 was granted 3818's boiler which needed a fair amount of work, and the engineers that volunteered their time and effort have done a sterling job fettling this boiler. Mind you not all were volunteers. So here we are in 2021 with the loco returned to mainline running after several months of testing down south and boy, does she look stunning..., again ! Cheers, Gary.
A couple of real beauties! Must have taken quite a bit of elbow grease to get them looking so smart. Reminds me, I have a few bits of Aussie metal here that need polishing(off) too Was chatting to the rels in MEL earlier and realised it's a year ago today that I was in SYD. Flew out the next day and arrived back in the UK just in time for lockdown. All the best Graham
That is some interesting information - I hadn't heard about the details regarding the Japanese tender to construct a boiler for C3801. There is much experience in Japan with steam locomotive (or, "SL" as the Japanese prefer) restoration and rebuild, so in hindsight, it is a real shame that the German-offer was selected, especially if it was three-times the price of the Japanese offering!
I believe the State Government chose DBM on good authority with the heritage movement in the UK... Cheers, Gary.
Is it just the photographs, or is 3801 a slightly darker shade of green than it used to be? I haven't seen it for a few years..... I won't post any other photos of the event here, as I have no wish to derail the thread, but here, for comparison, is a photograph I took in 1980 of 4201 when it appeared at Central (which I think back then would still have officially been called Sydney Terminal) in the 125th anniversary livery for the first time: Jim
One could speculate, but I suppose language and other cultural barriers may have also been an issue with the Japanese proposal. Having a good reference from prior clients can certainly make a big impression when making a proposal. Again, all said with the benefit of hindsight. Thank you Gary for sharing your insight into the history behind 3801's recent rebuild; it is most interesting!