It’s a big week for the ‘Kalahari’ team at Dinas as the newly restored NG15- 134 joins in Super-Power Weekend for the first time.
While K1, the original FfWHR Garratt travels the line the NG15 –134 is scheduled to make her debut in steam at Dinas. The restoration work has spanned 25 years.
Adrian Strachan spoke to us ahead of the event:
“It was a momentous day on Wednesday this week when 134 moved under its own steam at Dinas for the first time in over 30 years. All the volunteers and staff involved in the rebuild can be very proud that the loco looks so good and performed very well during the first test moves. We are looking forward to showing off the fruits of our efforts at the Superpower weekend before further trials and running-in will take place on the railway”
Tell us about the origins of the loco?
“The class of NG15 locos were built in several batches, designed by Henschel in Germany to requirements from German South-West Africa (now Namibia) at the time, where there was a very long line that ran from the coast up to the mines. It was called the Otavi Railway and this loco worked there with the rest of the class. The locos were then all moved to South Africa in the 1960’s when the Otavi line was regauged to the wider Cape gauge. The locos were almost as powerful as the NGG16 Garratts working there and capable of working at higher speeds, achieving higher mileages per day and moving more goods”
How did you get involved?
“When I first used to drive on the Railway I would pass by this engine twice an hour, more or less, while driving the Garratt loco’s! I was always a fan of the NG15 as were many of the volunteers at the time. We would see it rusting in the siding and hoped it would run one day.
“Different groups had tried to progress the renovation but it was often in the shadow of rebuilding the Welsh Highland Railway through to Porthmadog and the FRCo’s NGG16 loco policy for the WHR.
“Around three years ago I was approached to take over the renovations, as the previous project leader had sadly passed away. I said that I was interested but as someone who likes to get things done, I didn’t want this to be a long-term project for me so I am really pleased at where we are now just three years later.
“This period has seen enormous commitment and effort from the volunteers and there has been good support from staff at the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways who also do skilled work on the project for us. This is paid for by the Welsh Highland Society.
“For myself, this is the interesting phase as we have made a number of modifications and tried to overhaul the loco to the highest standard we can. Now we are going to see if it can perform on the Welsh Highland just as well as the Garratts and haul the regular trains alongside them”
Have there been any alterations needed to make it suitable for WHR?
“Strictly speaking the Loco could run as it was in South Africa, as we don’t have any curves less than 50 meters on the WHR main line. The loco has 3 fixed driving axles in the frame as does the Garratt. There are some sharper curves in the Boston Lodge Carriage Shed so we have made some modifications to meet those requirements.
“There are some other changes we have made to improve the locos performance particularly as on the WHR it will run much of its time backwards uphill, differently to Africa where the class mainly ran in the forward direction, so we have centered the dome in the boiler whereas it was historically at the front of the boiler. Moving the dome gives us an inch and half of additional water margin for the fireman to mortgage on a return journey up the steep hill in Beddgelert Forest”
“We have also improved the safety of the cab design by extending the floor to remove the fallplate in the original design, enclosing the space with doors, and also modified certain key controls so they operate in the same manner as our NGG16 Garratts.
“After such a long project we hope the NG15 -134 delights everyone who gets to travel behind her on the railway in the future.”
Take a look at the full Super-Power Weekend Programme here.
