International Railroad Discussion > South African industrial steam -- Tweefontein Colliery

Tweefontein Colliery located southwest of Witbank provided a spectacular show in its latter days of steam operations.  Originally using a few second-hand SAR 4-8-2s,  the line acquired eight GMAM Garratts (4-8-2+2-8-4) which were used to move air-braked 2500-ton coal trains, often doubleheaded.  When a 10,000 ton train was built, it was picked up by SAR for transit to the huge Richards Bay export coal terminal, located north of Durban on the Indian Ocean.  The Tweefontein operation was a gritty, dirty, heavy hual operation not to be missed.  Let's take a look.

1.  TC 4-8-2 #5 in July 1983.

2.  The loco shed near Boschmans   6/30/92

3.  GMAM No. 2 on shed   6/30/92

 

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4.  GMAM #3 being readied for a day's work.  6/27/92

5.  GMAM #4 hard at work.  6/27/92

6.  GMAMs 3 and 4 doubleheading a rake of coal wagons  6/27/92

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More doubleheader action of Nos. 3-4.  This was a great operation in that they didn't cater to photographers so far as aesthetics of how the locos faced, etc.  They coupled up a pair of GMAMs to a train and off it went. The tank car ended up on the front of the same train as the locos ran around the train about halfway down the line where they reached a set of sidings and the line to the transfer yard changed the direction of the train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/16 03:47 by masterphots.

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Thanks for posting. I'm enjoying all this stuff. A little late to experience it, but better than never

It's a mix of dirty and beautiful.  Thanks for posting.  Gerry

I looked up a current satellite view of this operation, and it appears that the coal mine is still in operation, but the railroad has been replaced (removed) by either a conveyor belt or slurry pipeline between the mine and where they connected to the SAR.  It appears that the railroad consisted of only 6 or 7 route miles......three miles from the mine to the switchback, and then another three miles from the switchback to the SAR connection......all with a steep up-hill grade for the loaded trains.  Somewhere I have a commercial video that includes about 15-minutes of this operation.

Keep the colliery steam coming Alan!

Cheers,
Jack

Interesting tank configuation on the water bottle car...maybe that small verticle tank is charged with air to force the water up to the locomotive....?

Chris

engine3420 Wrote:
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> Interesting tank configuation on the water bottle
> car...maybe that small verticle tank is charged
> with air to force the water up to the
> locomotive....?
>
> Chris

I have no idea....the GMAMs on SAR and elsewhere usually had a water tank car but I never saw one with that tank....could it be an airbrake reservoir?.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/16 11:52 by masterphots.