Steam & Excursion > A few steam pics from the DEEP south..as in Zimbabwe =;

Hello all, just wanted to share a few low resolution photos from a few weeks back.

Image 1: A class 16A Garratt running early morning in Plumtree.

Image 2: Class 14A Garratt rests at a location known as "Cement" close to the city of Bulawayo.

Image 3: As number 519 sits, the crew tries to get rid of some clinkers that were causing a great deal of grief. Not sure I would want one of those hot coals to fall on my rubber boots...

Cheers,
Karl



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/12 14:24 by oldhound.

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Image 4: a "friend" that joined us on one of the early run-bys. At first we thought it was dead because it did not move very much, but after a few photos it slowly moved away. He was right on the path and very hard to spot, we are really lucky we didn't step on him, especially since we later learned that there are no facilities to keep the anti-venom locally. For those not familiar with this guy, he is a Puff Adder.

Image #5: a short trip from Thomson Junction, is the Hwange Colliery, where one solitary Garratt was working. This particular engine was in pretty rough condition, and there were currently no replacements available to relieve it of its duties (There were several other engines sitting in the shed, but not in running condition).

Image #6: Not relishing walking through waist-high grass, given the earlier snake encounter, we cautiously found an open area at a location simply nicknamed "Palm tree."

Thanks for the look,
Karl
www.steamengines.ca

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I enjoyed viewing your images. Thanks for posting. TRS

Great photos!!
Looks like the snake just had lunch, so it would be moving slow!
Mike

These must be from Geoff Cooke's tour. From all reports, things went quite a bit smoother than in years past. What was the general condition of the locos? Did things run reasonably as planned? Did you see any improvements in the economic conditions in the country? What was the situation at the Bulawayo shed? I was last there in 2001 but would consider another trip based on the apparent success of this years tour.

You are indeed correct, this was from Geoff's tour (in conjunction with Tanago Tours).

The locos, aside from the one at Hwange Colliery, are in quite good shape. With diesel prices as they are, and an abundance of coal for free, I imagine that they will try to keep these locos in service as long as possible. Indeed, the folks in Botswana (pictures to be posted soon) are putting 19D's back in service and have no interest in getting diesel locos.

Overall, events went off quite well, but there were of course times when we spent a lot of time waiting for problems to be resolved. One major one was that we kept setting fires along the line, keeping the fire crews very busy. (at one point they called for evacuation and re-inforcements, but to their credit they managed to get it under control). Overall, I feel the crews did a superb job giving us what we wanted, within their means.

The folks in Zimbabwe suffered horribly with the inflation around 2008 and since going off their own currency things have been improving (Western Nations take note: printing $100,000,000,000,000 bills {yes, that's 100 trillion dollars} does not make people wealthy). There are still conditions that could be improved upon, and I hope that these folks continue to rebuild after the financial nightmare. In spite of the tough conditions, the people were extremely friendly and helpful. At no time did I feel unsafe (except from animals wanting to eat or bite us). At the market, people left their goods out all night without security, or fences, apparently nothing gets stolen.

Lastly, the Bulawayo shed was a paradox. Certainly, seeing several Garratts under steam at one place was great, seeing the pieces/remnants of what must-have-been one of the most amazing steam sites in the world was a little sad. Some folks on the trip had been there during the 80's and they were very saddened by the state of things. So, from a "what is" perspective, it was good to see, from a historical perspective you might be a little disappointed.

Hope that answers your questions, please feel free to ask more, or PM me if you like.

Cheers,
Karl

Great photos; thanks much for posting. I guess Zimbabwe steam just will NOT die, and I'm glad to see it.

Hugh Odom
The Ultimate Steam Page
http://www.trainweb.org/tusp

YouTube has got some very good videos of single and doubleheaded Garretts working hard in that "neck'o' the woods"! Just thought I'd pass that along.

Wonderful Karl. Eager to see more on your website!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Thanks for the great shots!!

So this is "for real steam" and not "fan trip" steam?

This is clearly worth an airplane ride or two. Could you pass along some contact information for the tour operator?

Many thanks!

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Hello John, just to clarify, the trip/tour consisted of both working locos as well as "fan" trip locos. It breaks down this way:

1) In Botswana, (pictures will be up later today in another post) there was no fan component, just working steam in the BCL mine, near the town of Selebi-Phikwe. They run 19D's, have 3 in operation, with one more being rebuilt for later in the year.

2) In Zimbabwe, they had several Garratts in working around Bulawayo. These are used for shunting duties, and several of their engines were used for or "fan" trip.

3) Also in Zimbabwe, they have a single Garratt at the Hwange Colliery that is used exclusively for mine duties. They did allow us to pose it for a few night photos. The Garratt that we brought from Bulawayo was used by the mine after we were done with it for the day.

4) In Victoria Falls they occasionally use a steam loco for a tourist train onto the Victoria falls bridge. It was uncertain to me how frequently it is used, there were some conflicting reports.

Overall, for my budget, the trip was not inexpensive; however, if you have never been to these places and want to see 19D's and Garratts in action, as well as amazing wildlife, this might be worth the time and money for you.

The tour provider in this case was Geoff Cook and the itinerary that we used can be found at:
http://geoffs-trains.com/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe2012.html

Hope that helps,
Karl

Many thanks

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Thanks very much for these great images and all the information. Anxious to see more!

John Bush
Omaha