| Posted by on December 20, 2013 | |
Hi, I worked on this Garratt 30 years ago when it first arrived at the museum from South Africa on low loaders, seem to remember that the haulage company took a transformer out to South Africa and brought the Garratt back free of charge, correct me if I am wrong. before it arrived we had to construct two lengths of narrow gauge track to stand the tank and tender on at each end of the yard, the boiler section was placed on stands between and in line with the ends about 20 - 30 yards from each other. after removing the water tank and coal tender from the chassis we spent about 12 months grit blasting the whole loco, then painting it in red oxide. after extending and joining the two ends of the track together under the boiler section, the boiler section was lifted and the two ends rolled into position so that the boiler section could be lowered back onto the chassis. then the loco was inched to the far end of the track. the other end of the track was bent round to line up with the door to the power hall. a steel cable was connected to the front of the loco, then the loco was pulled via a pulley by a diesel shunter going carefully in the opposite direction up to the power hall doors. the next day we built the track inside the power hall as the picture above shows and connected to the track outside, then again using the cable / pulley / diesel shunter combo we carefully pulled the loco indoors to its final resting place.
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