Marshall Road Loco #55388 "Blackbutt"

Three Speed 8HP DCC Traction Engine "Blackbutt" was built in 1911 and spent its working life in Queensland working variously in forestry, sawmilling and irrigation.

We purchased this engine from Alan Robert in Queensland in 1996. Although the engine had under gone a substantial restoration at Bundaberg Tafe over 10 years and was in sound condition it was very VERY NOISY!

So Noisy that even the spectators needed hearing protection. 

We decided that to get full enjoyment of this engine something would have to be done! It is very hard to tell the origin of gear noise but that the wear in the square section  of the second shaft where the gears slide seemed one likely area. You could hear four distinct thuds per revolution. The hex slide for the third gear was also worn though to a lesser degree. The Tafe restoration had included building up worn gears with weld but the resulting profile was less than perfect. We built up the square section on the shaft and sleeved and slotted the square section on the first and second gears to match. We had new third gears cut as this was the simplest way of eliminating the slop in the hex slide. Almost all the wear had been in the gear as the hex section  on which it slide was cast steel being part of the flywheel. It has definitely reduced the noise problems. In third gear the noise is obviously predominantly from the third shaft however the speed in third gear is too fast for the rally ground so more gear work is on the agenda.

Another anomaly with this engine was that the eccentrics had been reversed at some stage and you had to pull the reversing lever back to go forward. All very confusing.