Interesting Old Equipment, Projects & Work Places

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

In the early 1930s, my father was the schoolteacher at Goodnight on the Murray in NSW but near Swan Hill. One of the things he used to talk about when I was little was the pumping engine at goodnight Station. In the 1960s I visited there with him, and saw the engine. I can't remember the brand or any real details.

Installed early in the century, probably just after WW1, but possibly before the war, it was a horizontal single cylinder diesel, rated at 60hp at 120rpm. It had a bore of around six inches, and a stroke of around two feet. The single flywheel was about ten feet in diameter, with the crankshaft around waist level, and a fair bit of the flywheel in a pit. The muffler was an underground chamber, with a metal chimney about ten feet high and six inches diameter.

The engine was started as a compressed air engine, after being turned to the right position using a crowbar and a ring of gear teeth cast onto the inside of the flywheel rim. Originally provided with a hand pump for filling the compressed air storage cylinder it had long since had a compressor added that used a flat belt onto the PTO of a tractor backed in to the shed door.

It was usually run for 3-4 months every year, and when I was there in the sixties it had been doing so for over forty years with virtually no work required - although it had apparently twice set fire to the shed and burnt it down round the engine. Lubrication was via a total loss system from a small tank that had a row of sight feeds below it. Both the fuel and oil tanks had to be filled once a day while the engine was running.

I wonder if the engine is still there, and if it is still running?

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Sounds like the one that was in the power station at Winton. Big single National Oil Engine from Manchester. The power station was a private company initially and to get the electricity on you had to apply to be a member and buy shares. Some applicants were not acceptable for various reasons, lodge, religion, colour, etc. A bit like the old "Gentlemen's Clubs". No blacks, Chinese, or Catholics. The Shire Council eventually took over the operation and ran it until the Regional Electricity Boards were formed and the town was put on the grid.

Making bricks!
Part 1

Prior to working on a ship, I had left the farm after a big bust up with my late Father. He was a hard working successful farmer, but just could not get out of his old way of farming on a "quota" dairy farm with a guaranteed monthly income.

I moved back near the area where I had grown up and rented a vacant house on a farm. Less than 0.5 Km away from the house was an old brickwork's that had been operated for many years by the original Italian owners, but had been taken over by a Perth based manufacturer.

So, I called in and enquired about a job in the workshop. The very fact that I was living so close to the works, and so on the spot for call outs, had me a job as soon as I liked to start!

They had a horrible Mexican, yes, a real Mexican, plant mechanic, plus an older TA that was of more use than the Mexican. After a few months, the Mexican was politely told his services were no longer required!

Although I had served my time as an electrical fitter, my mechanic mate had his own old type of "service station" with attached workshop, and I had spent a lot of time working with him, mainly on trucks.

The brickworks had a bit of everything! The heart of thefactory was the "Bongioanni" clay extruder. Made in Italy to this dayit was a rugged piece of machinery. Driven by an AC electric motor it gave verylittle trouble. I cannot recall which model it was, or the HP of the motor, butit would have been similar to this:

https://vegacer.com/product/20-m/


The raw clay wastrucked in by a contractor and stockpiled. From the stockpile a CAT wheelloader fed it into a hopper, from where a series of conveyer belts fed itthrough a number of roller crushers. The most troublesome part of that was a"metal detector" mounted around the primary conveyor belt. It wasforever giving false alarms, which also stopped the primary conveyer belt. (thewhole process was interlocked from the extruder back)


The clay then fed into a mixer, where water was added toget the correct consistency. The extruder forced the clay out through a coneshaped nozzle, which was fitted with an exchangeable sized die and a"bridge" bar on which were mounted the replaceable dies that providedthe holes in the centre of the bricks.


These bricks were what is known as "wirecuts", as compared with pressed bricks. The continuous now correctlyshaped clay extrusion fed onto the "wire cutter". Although thismachine appeared complicated, it was in fact quite simple and well constructed.The whole thing moved on a carriage propelled forward just by the slow speed ofthe extruded clay, although it did have a small electric motor to return itafter each cut, and to rotate the reel.

There was an open reel like structure about 6 or 8feet long and 4 or 5 feet in diameter with about 4 or 5 longitudinal bars mountedon it. The wires were individual with and eye on each end and mounted undertension. They did break and the operator had to replace a broken wire using asmall tool while the machine was stopped between cycles. The whole carriagecontinued to move forward until at the end of its travel it "tripped",the reel rotated one position, cut the bricks, and the motor drove it back towardsthe extruder.

Attachment 161398

The cut bricks fed onto a flat horizontal conveyor belt and were taken off and stacked on pallets on each side by hand. At the end of this conveyor there was a vertical bucket type of elevator that lifted any rejected bricks, and fed them on yet another conveyor belt back into the mixing hopper on the extruder.

The vertical elevator was prone to breaking the Reynold type chains if an oversized return jammed it, so I modified one lower shaft bearing mount with some old engine valve springs so that it would start to rise up if there was too much tension on it. A small micro switch on top of the bearing housing tripped the drive and stopped the chain from damage. Mr Mexico was outraged by this and it was not much longer after this before he failed to appear.

to be continued

The staging area is in about the centre of the first pic and pic 2 on the ground .The transport of all our stuff via helo went well with one one small hiccup .On one return trip to the barge the lift rope became entangled on a antenna just near the tail rotor( either to fast or the slings acted as source of lift) With no area to land I was on the radio and John balancing on a pile of freight managed to get the rope untangled.With the wash from the main rotor as well as the tail rotor about 500mm above his head, not a nice place to be.Next our first look at what we had let ourselves into.The white spot in the middle of pic is a rock with a sand bag on it .The pilot sits with one skid on the bag while passengers depart carefully

to be continued

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5125/5...13c9587a_b.jpg

Ardent at sea.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7006/6...6f66a9b3_b.jpg
Wollongong on the slip, NQEA, Cairns



Wollongong aground, Gabo Island. Buffer " I see rocks!" Skipper " there are no rocks! ""OOPS!!!"
Vampire at sea.http://www.shf.org.au/wp-content/upl...N_-300x238.jpg
http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default...?itok=Uopwrwvd

Perth Vietnamhttps://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.hlgG_I...h?pid=Api&rs=1

under fire.http://www.ussmansfield.com/wp-conte...7/perthasc.jpg


Served on all three, wonderful ships.

http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default...?itok=q87kBgzW


Sydney , my first sea draft, 1964. Where I slept in a hammock, and learned to " lash up and stow! "


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._301423%29.jpg

Thanks for the chance to walk down memory lane. A million stories in those photographs.

Bob, were you in Darwin with the patrol boats?

I was there '75 thru '78 and made some acquaintances with patrol boat crews.

Making bricks part 2:

After the "green" bricks were stacked on pallets they were then transferred to an undercover storage area to start drying out before the firing process.

The storage area had a very low roof, so there was not enough overhead clearance for a conventional forklift. Here the fun started! There were 5 or 6 Ferguson tractors with a very basic rear mounted forklift.All petrol engine; TE 20 and a couple of early model FE35's.
They were operated by young frustrated speedway drivers, in fact, one of the drivers was from the family of the local speedway operator!

The biggest problem with them was the rapid wear of the clutches. The very conditions that they operated under meant that the driver had no option but to keep one foot on the clutch pedal ready to stop as one of his mates came hurtling around a blind corner! The brakes also suffered, but not to the same extent.

Replacing clutches was a regular event and expected.They are relatively simple to change out and we had a couple of stands with small wheels on them to enable splitting the tractor in half. Because of the fork lift it was necessary to move the engine half away from the transmission half. We always had a complete spare clutch on hand ready to change out.
The same with the brakes. A simple mechanical system to change out and adjust.

In the 18 months or so that I worked there I do not recall having any major problems with the rest of the tractor. They were tough little buggers!

to be continued

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

Bob, were you in Darwin with the patrol boats?

I was there '75 thru '78 and made some acquaintances with patrol boat crews.

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'79-'83. First 12 months ashore, the rest on Ardent.

Things are quiet, so I'll place this here.A bit over the top, as most recruiting stuff is . Good for two things, the old Vampire at speed in the beginning, and the confirmation that Engine Room Articifers are indeed men of Steel. [smilebigeye]


YouTube

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Originally Posted by bob10

Things are quiet, so I'll place this here.A bit over the top, as most recruiting stuff is . Good for two things, the old Vampire at speed in the beginning, and the confirmation that Engine Room Articifers are indeed men of Steel. [smilebigeye]


YouTube

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Undoubtedly excellent training. But I would just like to know why the young fellow at 1.15 is using an adjustable / crescent
wrench on what appears to be around a fuel injection system? In fact, why was such a butchers tool allowed in the workshop in the first place?

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Originally Posted by Old Farang

Undoubtedly excellent training. But I would just like to know why the young fellow at 1.15 is using an adjustable / crescent
wrench on what appears to be around a fuel injection system? In fact, why was such a butchers tool allowed in the workshop in the first place?

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I could not help but notice that also. A bloody great lump of a shifter in a diesel pump room. Is that perhaps one of the reasons why a lot of private sector employers don't want military trained tradesmen?

Westinghouse Air Brake once would not employ railway trained tradesmen.

There was a Fitting & Machining teacher at Yeronga TAFE who forbade the tool storemen to issue shifters to his classes. The 'prentice boys had to front up to the store and ask for the correct size spanner.