Steam & Excursion > Zimbabwe (Former Southern Rhodesia) Steam

Sadly (or maybe happily for some) we have come to the end of this series. And I'm breaking my own rule with two photos. The first would be expected in Zimbabwe. It's Class 16 Garratt No. 602  preparing for it's days work at the steam shed in Bulawayo. This is the last working steam shed in Africa although today's it's a shadow of it's former self. Today steam is still in limited shunting use.  The photo was taken in July 2001 during a Railway Touring Company tour. But what is a 25NC doing in Zimbabwe?  Photo is No.3410 seen on the bridge at Rutenga, near the South African border. The goal of the the tour was to take the 25 from Cape Town to Victoria Falls and back. We used the now defunct Union Limited vintage hotel train. With SA's current main line steam ban, this trip most certainly will never be repeated and probably shouldn't.

There were many problems with the tour. In fact, one of the participants wrote her daily little "disaster" poems on the lounge car's chalk board. The most significant were:  1. The Class 26 Red Devil failed about four hours out of Cape Town blowing a front cylinder head clear off the loco.  2. A  passenger train derailed in front of us north of Louis Trichard blocking the line for two days. But at least we spend one day doing runpasts in the canyon just north of town. Thus plans to join up with Geoff Cooke's "Zimfest 2013" once in Zimbabwe were completely off schedule. The goal was to chase the train from Beit Bridge to Bulawayo. The hired mini vans turned up but most of the drive was done in the dark, complete with an open container of gas in the back as fuel was in short supply in Zim. Arrival was well after midnight in Bulawayo and the first photo was taken that same morning at 6:00 first light!  3. This one is a bit ironic. We finally arrived to Victoria Falls a day late with two big thirsty locomotives. But the town council had decided to turn the water off for weekend maintenance. With the huge Victoria Falls spray visible from the station both locos were towed light engine south to the nearest water column complete screwing up plans for runpasts on the bridge. Although a unique experience, the entire tours wasn't well organized. No one had bothered to check to be sure water was actually available where they thought it was. The train's consist was overloaded with two premium cars which proved to be too much for the loco at several locations. Class 25 locos were built for straight flat high speed running, not twisting steeply graded track. And the crews. All of our crew were Afrikaans. They were told they could drive with a pilot in Zimbabwe. Once there, the Zim crews insisted on driving even though they had never even seen a Class 25 before. The result was lots of friction between the crews given their different ethnic makeups. But the photos we did get can never be repeated. And I first met (no, not another love interest) one of my best train friends Giovanni from Italy on the tour. 

In a few days I'll post a summary of the program. I found the large variance in number of views by country to be quite interesting.  I have enough decent photos from South Africa, the U.K. and USA to do a short series on each if there is sufficient interest. 

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Fascinating series. Your comments made it even better.
Bob

I would love to see more photos from all of your series. I know you were trying to do only one photo per post, but each time I wanted to see more. So bring it on!

Yes, please!  More posts of your world travels to ride behind steam would be welcome.

Encore!  

I've been seriously considering going to Africa to experience the Rovos Ral train and others but very recently a couple I've known for 40 plus years and who are very experienced world travelers have advised me to stay as far away as possible. They just returned from an extensive African tour and basically said most of the continent is a basket case. There are pockets of luxury here and there but they're the rare exception. Crime is rampant, basic services are unreliable and most accomodations are barely above hovels. They said even the crown jewel South Africa has declined so drastically in the 23 years since the majority blacks took over its governance that it's barely recognizable. 

    I've taken Africa off my bucket list.

    Sad but true.  Ross Rowland 

YES, MORE.  I have to admit, I'm partial to American railroads, and steam in particular, but this photo series was great. Since most of these places I'll never get to see or go to, I'd be glad to sit back and see all you have, on my screen.   Your photos show a lot of scenery and countryside views, not seen in the average books or brochures available.   Adding trains to the photos just makes them better.   

Thanks for what you've already shared, and looking forward to more.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

co614 Wrote:
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> I've been seriously considering going to Africa to
> experience the Rovos Ral train and others but very
> recently a couple I've known for 40 plus years and
> who are very experienced world travelers have
> advised me to stay as far away as possible. They
> just returned from an extensive African tour and
> basically said most of the continent is a basket
> case. There are pockets of luxury here and there
> but they're the rare exception. Crime is rampant,
> basic services are unreliable and most
> accomodations are barely above hovels. They said
> even the crown jewel South Africa has declined so
> drastically in the 23 years since the majority
> blacks took over its governance that it's barely
> recognizable. 
>
>     I've taken Africa off my bucket list.
>
>     Sad but true.  Ross Rowland 

Zimbabwe is a wonderful country to visit and I would go back in three seconds, if for nothing else the animals and the scenery alone. It's very safe for visitors and the accommodations catering to westerners are good, as is the food. The people are also very friendly. However, Their steam program is not in good shape at the moment, but there is work going on to bring some engines back into operation, both by National Railways of Zimbabwe, and the Bush Tracks Train company who is getting a Garratt going again over at their sheds on the Zambian side. They have a 12A class that they use in regular service right now at the bridge in Vic Falls.

Bernd Seiler of Farrail puts on a wonderful show, much better than the experience related at the top of this thread, although he has no trip listed for this year, probably owing to the lack of engines at the moment.

I'm really glad I went in 2017. That was the last good year with three different engines, and being able to see the last steam hauled revenue freight in all of Africa at the Hwange Colliary. Being local crews and equipment, we had no issues getting around and getting water where we needed it. There are working water plugs at Bulawayo, Matetsi and I think a water tank car at Zanguja, plus Vic Falls, not to mention Lukosi where we ran up to the mine there and the Lukosi River Bridge. Our trip went smoothly thanks to Bernd's dogged determination plus a really good local fixer on the ground, who would get up at 3AM and go down to the sheds to make sure they were firing up in time for our sunrise shots, etc.

The important thing is, if you want to do something, go as soon as possible, because it may not be there tomorrow. I was going to go to India at the time but changed my mind when this opportunity came up. It was very worth it.

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

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All interesting comments. While Bernd isn't doing a Zim trip this year, he is going to SA for the first time in June. Regarding South Africa,  I think we all realize we won't come close to obtaining what was achieved on the last tours in the mid 2000's but also never thought anything like this would again be possible.  In some ways, I agree with Ross' comments and the experiences of his friends who traveled there. But in other ways not. Yes, crime is rampant. Living conditions horrid in many areas and in spite of some GDP numbers quoted by another poster, the economy for the average person seems to be in rough shape. But there are many five star private game parks and as mentioned there's the Rovos Rail train. The Blue Train also still provides a top notch passenger service. But with that being said, a few years back the Blue Train  hit another train at slow speed. They couldn't continue. So while stuck there, locals attacked the train and burned some of carriages.  Another instance saw the Pretoria station burned down after faulty signals delayed the evening commuter rush. (Good that doesn't happen here or Amtrak in Chicago would be in trouble).  My SA friends have so many stories about the wonderful SA Rail passenger services back in the day. Today these trains most certainly would not be recommended for the average tourist.

So there are really two South Africa's. The one high end tourists can  experience, isolated from everyday life and crime. Accommodations are excellent as is the food and service. And there's the real South Africa which has basically gone to crap under the current corrupt racist government. They even voted recently to begin land grabs per the Zimbabwe model, with forcible removal of rightful land owners. That can't end well with those in a position to provide employment on their farms often choosing to leave the country. I'll make one more comment.  I have no way to know if this is true or not, but it has been widely  broached on a SA Rail Yahoo discussion group. And my friends in Cape Town concur. One of the reasons steam was banned from the main lines and the excellent National Collection of locomotives largely scrapped is that the current SA government regards steam as a vestige of apartheid...a white man's toy. They don't care about the countless amount of Rand we used to spend on hotels, meals, transport (we used to fly SAA to get there), and other tourist activities in search of steam. The feeling is that because we were all the evil white man, they didn't want us there....even though none of us had anything to do with the previous apartheid government. 

I'm going back in June. No qualms at all about safety. We certainly won't be staying at 5 star hotels as there aren't any near the lines we will be photographing. But they will be clean, comfortable, safe, and run by friendly hospitable people. Hoping to come back with my first digital images of steam in this beautiful country and posting some here. 

Not me....I won’t go back.  I will enjoy what I did in 1972, 1974 and 1989.  That will do it.    And, I haven’t even looked at those pictures, slides, negatives and 16mm movies, in a quarter of a century.

My recently returned friends told of several instances ( one in S.Africa, one in Zimbabway)  where they felt totally afraid that  the local youths surrounding their jitney bus were going to mug them or worse. They said many areas of S. Africa are basically lawless and that the gov't. is totally corrupt and incompetent. They have begun a program similar to Mugabe's in Zambia wherein they are confiscating farms, evicting the farmers and" giving" the property over to the native blacks. We all know what that did in Zambia where food production has basically gone to zero. 

   I'll stay as far away as possible.

   Ross Roswland 

Ahhh but Ross...the natives got their precious freedom.   No jobs or food,  just precious freedom.