Coventry Dies - New South Wales?

The recent thread on modified Coventry dies has re-awoken my curiosity regarding a purchase made long ago, in a fit of enthusiasm, or madness. I bought a large box of Coventry die sets via, I think, the late lamented Chris Heapy website. They're all quite large dies, for 1-1/4" and 1-1/2" dieheads. While I have both sizes of diehead, realistically they're probably a bit big for my lathe.

The curiosity arises as some of the thread sizes are rather odd, and a lot of the dies have been engraved, or stamped, presumably by the original owner. Many die sets are marked with:

NSW or NSWTD

The only thing an internet search brings up is New South Wales Transport Department? There are two sets engraved as above but also with:

CHUL. LOCO. SET No.2

Oddly one set is 7/8"-14 UNF and the other 3/4" Whit.

Other odd sizes are 1-1/16" and I have some extended dies marked 1-3/6"-10, presumably Whitworth, but also stamped COPPER. Although many of the dies are etched with AH (Alfred Herbert) the copper dies do not appear to have a makers mark. Neither do they have the arbitrary number which is used in conjunction with a gauge when re-grinding die sets. This leads me to believe they may have been made in house?

The sizes, and some being for copper, makes me think of boiler stays?

So, anyone got any ideas? If nothing else how did a box of dies from New South Wales end up back in the UK?

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I wonder if CHUL . LOCO SET No2 could mean they came from Chullora depot here in Sydney ?

Ian.

Now that is interesting! It may well do, as one set is actually marked CHULL. Looks like we may be onto something here.

Does NSWTD still exist?

Andrew

I doubt it as the rail system and its repair yards are but a shadow of their former glory .

I'm only guessing but i remeber the Railcorp logo and commonwealth engineering (comeng) but they no longer exist so i would say NSWTD was before that

now we have traansport nsw etc .

Maybe you could contact Australian rail historical society ( www.arhsnsw.com.au ) maybe they could shed some light on the subject .

Ian.

Hi Andrew,

The NSWTD was a departmental successor to the NSWGR (Government Railways). Off the top of my head, it would date back to the 60's. It was succeeded by another set of initials in the early 70's, and then by several other sets of initials.

Chullora workshops were, and remain, a major locomotive and rolling stock repair workshop, servicing steam and diesel, as well as wagons.

It would appear that you have a collectable from us!

Hugh.

I forgot that i have a few dies marked SRA ( state rail authority) yet another alias that the rail system in NSW has used.

I am intrigued as to how they migrated to the UK though.

I would imagine that they would have been quite expensive and something that would need to be signed out of the tool store so not easily nicked !

Ian

Ian/Hugh: Thanks for the interesting information. I haven't emptied the whole box of dies to see how many are marked, but I think it's a fair few of the 50+ sets of dies.

Ian has identified the most interesting question; how on earth did they end up in the UK? The die sets are not small or light; the box probably weighs 10kg+.

Of course a supplementary question is what do I do with them? I doubt I'll ever use them, but they're far too good to recycle. May be I should contact some heritage steam railways?

Andrew