Restauration Chrzanów Riesa 821/40

Hello Feldbahnfreunde!

I'm proud to be starting a thread in which we want to report on the progress of the restoration of a 1940-built Feldbahnlok built in 1940 in Chrzanów to a Henschel standard 'Riesa' design. The refurbishment works are carried out in Poland, so far without one central location.

The refurbishment will see the locomotive steaming and - while retaining as much original material as possible - we want her to be reliable in operation, so many parts will have to be replaced in the process.

Not a lot is known about the locomotive's history. She was supplied new to Bauunternehmung Heinrich Gietmann, Rheinberg. After the war she ended up in Poland and was used by Zakład Robót Kolejowych Warszawa, hauling gravel from a quarry probably until late 1960s. In early 1970s the locomotive found its way to a massive 600mm steam locomotive graveyard, where numerous 600mm 'Bauloks' met their fate as they were gradually displaced by the mass production of Wls50 ZNTK Poznań diesels and lorries. In case of our locomotive we found one of the cylinfer covers to be cracked - probably another justification for an early retirement. Luckily, unlike the majority of other locomotives, our little Riesa evaded the cutter's torch and was plinthed near a petrol station in Warsaw. In 1981 she was moved again to a playground in a park in Spała. From that place she was finally rescued by our friend - a quick money collection followed and the Riesa with three new lucky owners and a Wls50 diesel replacing it in the park - it may still be there!

Of course we would be grateful if any of the readers could tell us something more about the history of the locomotive.

More information can be found on the well known "Wciąż pod parą" website by Tomisław Czarnecki:

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Riesa still in Spała.
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mch

Back in 2005 she was moved to Rogów:

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Shortly after arrival she was dismantled but no repair works were actually carried out in Rogów, as can be read in internet. Instead parts were taken away for restoration, which is now gathering pace.

A lot has been done already:

- new front tubeplate, which was manufactured and skilfully rivetted onto the boiler by steam friends who came all the way from Sussex in England to give us a hand!

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A freshly laid row of rivets:

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Wheelsets were refurbished with new axles and pins. Wheel tyres were turned as there was enough material to turn them, but we have new ones as well.

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Cylinders were turned on a lathe and now are ready for mounting on the frames:

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At the moment work concentrates on the frames, which were shot blasted and thicknesses measured. As the locomotive spent all her years plinthed in the park without couplings the original holes were welded over in preparation for now buffers. After years of disuse the bottom plate of the well tank was nearly 1/4 of the original thickness, as all the dirt and water accumulated in the bottom of the well tank, so it will have to be replaced - of course there will be no welding where parts were originally riveted! In order for the bottom plate to be riveted back we will have to remove the top plate as well.

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Top parts of the framework were cut out and replacecd with new material due to insufficient thickenss:

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I will be updating the report as work progresses!

Marek

Dear Marek,

you have started a big project.
Wish you the best and let us know news .

Best regards from Warszawa

Martin

Hi Martin,

Just to make it clear - there are of course more people involved than just me and have been since 2005.
I just took over the physical continuation of rhe project together with Marcin and we want to speed up the progress, as it was taking far too long and we want to see the loco in steam!

Marek

Hello,

very good job - where will we see the loco working? Znin? Bialosliwie? Poznan

Regards

Ruediger

Cześć Ruediger!

All of these places - if they invite us to come!   On the same basis we would be prepared to come to Frankfurt as well.
Let's first get the job done and then decide where we would play with our little loco - there is still too much hard work to be done!

Marek

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Radsatze mit neue zapfen und achsen

Hi all,

It has taken me some time since the last report - this winter we were busy working on the frames and scanning/ arranging the huge number of constructio drawings.

Our Riesa keeps surprising us - the ultrasound testing has shown, that out of the nominal 6mm thickness of the bottom plate of the well tank there was only some 1,3mm left in some places!
A new plate has been fabricated which will be welded in the place of the old one - we chose welding, as though it is not original it will not be possible to see the rivets underneath the locomotive anyway, and it saved us opening the top of the tank as well.
The well tank was opened and covered with primer paint.

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We also got down to fabricating new buffers - all we could find was a pair of a scrap wagon that were slightly bent.

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Our Riesa deserves more! Some new elements have already been manufactured and delivered:

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MfG,
Marek

Hello,

The bottom part of the well tank in our Henschel has been welded onto the frames. We decided to weld the part together with the frames which may not be historically accurate but such a solution ensures the safety of future operation. Screw connections with gaskets have a negative influence on the rigidity of the frames while riveting would have been very problematic.

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MfG,
Marek