Category: Maintenance

Maintaining a Railway

There is a lot that goes into maintaining a railway and keeping operations safe. The Maidstone Miniature Railway operates under the Amusement Devices Act and the Society, through MEANZ, maintains our Standard Operating Procedures which cover the safe operation of the railway.

Maintenance on one of the Societies turnouts. These require cleaning around the blades and lubrication to ensure they operate correctly.

Before an operating day the track needs to be inspected to make sure there is no damage. As the railway is within a public park we occasionally have vandalism issues or lawn mower strikes that need to be fixed.

Lawn mower damage to the ground level track. This occurs if the lawn mower operator accidently gets too close to the track.

Rail vehicles are required to undergo a yearly inspection to ensure that there is no wear and tear that may cause a safety issue. These inspections are recorded by members and we have a biannual audit of the railway to ensure things are being maintained in a safe manner.

Rolling stock requires regular inspections to ensure everything is lubricated and safe.

Just like the real railway the Maidstone miniature railway is susceptible to weather events. Clearing of culverts ensures drainage is maintained to clear most rain however blocked culverts still happen which results in flooding of the railway. Most of the time this causes minimal damage to the railway other than debris on the tracks that needs to be cleared to enable trains to operate and to prevent moisture being held against the rails.

Flooding caused by a blocked undersize culvert

When members aren’t at the railway they are maintaining or building new equipment to operate. Here we the locomotives boiler removed we can see the internal valve gear. A large part of the enjoyment of the hobby is in the building and maintenance of locomotives to operate on the railway.

Internal valve gear of a steam engine under overhaul.

Boiler Tests

The recently rebuilt hydrostatic test rig

Our steam locomotive boilers are pressure vessels and need to be regularly tested to ensure that they are safe to operate. Miniature steam locomotives need to be built and meet the requirements of the Australian Miniature Boiler Safety Committee boiler code.

When retesting a boiler the first test undertaken is a hydrostatic test which involves filling the boiler with water and pressurising to the specified test pressure. As water doesn’t compress if there is a leak the boiler inspector at worst risks getting wet.

Once the hydrostatic test has been passed a steam accumulation test is undertaken to ensure the safety valves lift at the correct pressure.

The Society’s hydrostatic test rig has recently been rebuilt ready for a round of testing locomotive boilers. We have six locomotives to test over the next year as we pull some engines out of storage and return them to service.

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Braveheart one of the engines currently being worked on to return to service.