Stage II - Rolling Chassis

The is the largest and most important part of the restoration as this is the part of the locomotive which will have an effect on every other. We will restore all components so they perform as well as they did the day they rolled out of the Philadelphia factory, this will not be a too difficult since most parts are missing and will need to be manufactured. It seems unlikely that any improvements will be made to the running gear of the locomotive as it worked well before so there is little point in changing it. There will of course be an improvement due to the more modern material being used in the fabricated parts.

On arrival to our site the frames first required extensive cleaning and removal of various random parts, the steam chest and cylinders were all full of dirt and river gravels.

We have removed most of the compensating gear, valve rockers, front running board and headstock, boiler stays and brake gear. The saddle has been cleaned of most of the dirt and stones. The sections of frame which were buried have been scraped free of all foreign material in preparation for sand blasting.

One of the members of the Canterbury Steam Preservation Society, Albert Buckley, donated his plant and time to sand blast the frames so on the 20th of August 2003 we begin the second stage of this project. Unfortunately we were unable to complete the entire frames that day and since then for various reasons little further progress has been made in this aspect of the task. We are now making arrangement to complete the sand blasting and panting so no further degradation of the steel work occurs.

It is hoped that in the near future we will be able to put the frames up on some temporary bogies to facilitate its movement around the site.

No.9's wheels are 4'1" in diameter with 12 spokes, these were similar to those fitted to the V-class locomotives and also the same diameter to those on the Baldwin Ub-class, however these had 13 spokes. It is hoped that we can source these wheels from a dump site.