Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- Restoration of model steam engines following black Saturday bushfires
- In
- From the Past to the Future: 18th Australian Engineering Heritage Conference 2015 [Newcastle]
- Imprint
- Engineers Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2015, pp. 116-122
- ISBN/ISSN
- 9781922107435
- Url
- https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.697007686271218
- Abstract
Our house at Callignee in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland, Victoria was destroyed in the Churchill Fire on Black Saturday, 7 February 2009. The property was a total loss with the house, most outbuildings and contents destroyed. After delays imposed by authorities my wife and I were able to access the property and make an insurance claim. We quickly ascertained that many steel products such as tools were recoverable however ceramics, glass, textiles and paper-based art works and records were totally destroyed.
Twelve of my collection of thirteen model stationary and marine steam engines were recovered along with a substantial quantity of hand tools.
The first task was to rebuild a workshop capacity. New machine tools were purchased and hand tools were either restored or purchased.
I commenced restoration of the engines in 2011 and at the time of writing this paper I have restored 10 of the 12 recovered engines.
Most materials recovered have been reusable except for aluminium, timber and other soft materials. A great deal was learned about the effect of fire conditions on the materials and techniques were developed to clean, repair, straighten and re-finish most of the thousands of parts recovered.
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- From the Past to the Future: 18th Australian Engineering Heritage Conference 2015 [Newcastle] (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2015), 230 pp, https://search.informit.org/doi/book/10.3316/informit.9781922107435. Details