Steam & Excursion > South Africa Steam 7

My last full day on the tour (I left the tour a few days early) was Red Devil day.  The famous 4-8-4 Class 26, the only one ever built ran the 134 miles and back from Worcester to Ashton on the former New Cape Central Railway. This loco was re-built from a standard 25NC with a double-Lempor exhaust, GPCS, colled valve liners, feed water heater between the chimneys and many other modifications. These modifications resulted in a 24% reduction in coal, 30% reduction in water and 43% increase in drawbar Power (Source is Far Rail's tour brochure). But sadly, it was too little to late to save mainline steam operation in SA.   I have no clue what most of that is but an Internet search can probably provide more detailed information if interested. The loco last ran on a 2003 charter and was in very bad shape both operationally and in appearance. Fortunately, it was stored in a safe location in Cape Town and restored over the past four years by Ceres Rail to operating condition.  On this day we didn't ride the train as Bernd wanted a pure freight composition. Some might argue it was a waste of time as the loco never ran on the line we utilized. However it's original stomping grounds on the main line to Johannesburg are currently not available for steam operations. 

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A few more. Including some strange looking railfan with a Red Wings cap from the U.S. The only representative from the States on the tour. While SA is one of the farthest places on earth to travel from the U.S., there were participants from Vancouver, Canada (even farther), Singapore, Australia and all over Europe. Flying time from Atlanta on Delta is one of the longest in the world at about 17 hours. However I always fly through Europe. About 7.5 hours to Amsterdam and then 10.5 to Cape Town on KLM. I mention this because Bernd is already working on something even more ambitious for next year should anyone be interested. Tomorrows post will be the last in the series. We had a doubleheader on the same line. I rode with a friend from the Netherlands and got the train at two locations before we had to head back to Cape Town to catch  a flight  later that afternoon. 

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What's with the number plate?  Aren't they allowed to have a proper SAS version?   All the years I chased the 3450 it always ran Kimberly to De Aar.  Never knew it got to Jo'burg.

I have good friends who left SA two years ago and returned to the UK after 35 years in SA. They report to me that the decline in the country in the last 20 years is difficult to imagine if you haven't experienced it first hand. They believe that within the next decade SA will become a failed state much like Ethiopia or so many other " nations" on that continent.

  The wife and I were going to go there to ride the Rovos Rail train but our friends convinced us to stay away.

   Sad but true.

   Ross Rowland

First off, nice series of pics and glad you made the effort to go down there, despite the lack of steam in general today to hire for this type of trip.

While I am not a fan of the rebuilt of the 25NC into the 26 class frankenstein engine, I find your photos pleasing especially the reflection.  As to the old stomping ground for the 25NC class(and 26), that would have been De Aar to Kimberley, Kimberly to Bloemfontaine, and Bloem to Bethlehem.  The condensors general ran south of De Aar to Beaufort West because it was even more arid, but when lines in other areas became electrified, that freed-up diesels, to displace steam on those lines.  That led to the remaining 25 class (Condensors), being modified to class 25NC, and they finished their service from De Aar-Kimberly-Bloem-Bethlehem.

I understand the entire De Aar to Kimberly line is now electrified, and traffic is much lighter, and it is no longer double track.  It was one of the last great places where you go witness mainline steam on double-track day in and day out(excluding China back then of course).

I found the comments on the state of the country to be pretty much what I have heard.  Some years back I had a sales rep who sold my videos in shops in California.  He was born in South Africa, and his father still lived there.  He told me how bad it was back then (in the 90's).  If you had a home you had a wall or fence with a gate.  He said one day his father forgot to close the gate in the front, and the next day they noticed it.  The theives made off with the motor that ran the gate!!!!

Sad state of affairs I am afraid.  As great as SA was for steam prior to about 1993, it just isn't worth the risk these days I fear.  The visit for wildlife is even questionable, and I would consider another country instead for that.

Applaud the effort for BS to do the trip.  It sure beats a lot of what we see in the world today as far as steam ops are concerned.

Greg Scholl

(PS I need to scan my 1977 SA some day).  Problem is most in the USA don't care about it.

I like the second image, the wide view.  Ordinarily it would not work very well with that lighting and location, but the red engine pops out nicely.   Kudos.

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

gregscholl Wrote:
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> I found the comments on the state of the country
> to be pretty much what I have heard.  Some years
> back I had a sales rep who sold my videos in shops
> in California.  He was born in South Africa, and
> his father still lived there.  He told me how bad
> it was back then (in the 90's).  If you had a
> home you had a wall or fence with a gate.  He
> said one day his father forgot to close the gate
> in the front, and the next day they noticed it.
>  The theives made off with the motor that ran the
> gate!!!!

  I don't see how that's any different than living in California?
 

First, I'm not sure about the plates. The plates on the other three locos we used had proper SAR lettering. But in the past, many locos that belonged to the Transnet Heritage Foundation (THF) had "National Collection" plates. So perhaps the original Red Devil plates were stolen. I know some other parts of the loco certainly were from the so called secure location in Cape Town. 

Sadly, I agree with the comments made here about the state of the country. I didn't visit SA until 1998 so can't make any comparisons with anything including the once great SAR until that date. But the infrastructure has noticeably gone down hill. And crime has upswing-ed dramatically. So I would caution those who think America is a bad place or should somehow be transformed to be careful what you wish for. Most American's have never traveled outside the U.S. or Canada...or even Western Europe for that matter, have no idea how good they have it. Yana's native country Ukraine is another prime example of how a failed economic and social policy's can wreck a country.  South Africa isn't the only African country to have regressed since colonialism ended. And in many cases such as in the former Rhodesia, native African's had it better than than they do now with good economies better and infrastructure. That said, the previous SA government was clearly racist.  But now the pendulum has swung the other way. Just my opinion. You may have a different one. But unless you have been there, you can't really  make an accurate assessment as to what has happened or what the current conditions are....the railway and it's pathetic passenger service included (Amtrak looks like a world class service by comparison). 

So go to SA while you can and it's still  a reasonablyl safe place to visit if you follow certain rules. The government has already passed legislation to in some cases take land from white owners (mostly farms) and give it to native Africans.  But how many jobs are provided by those farms? We all know how well that worked out in Zimbabwe under Mugabe's dictatorship. But at  least it allowed for steam to survive a bit longer as other fuel became largely unavailable. 

I think Anderson's run down is accurate. My friends who left SA 2 years ago after being there for 35 years said that for the final 5 years they were there they always carried a pistol when they had to go to town and on several occassions they used it to ward off robbers. They NEVER left their fortified homestead ( fully enclosed with a 10 ft. concrete wall topped with razor wire) and patrolled by armed guards with Rotweiller dogs. They ended up selling their estate for about 1/3 of what they had invested in it. The bottom has fallen out of the real estate market as most of the potential buyers are also trying to flee.

   Not somewhere I want to voluntarily go that's for sure.

   Ross Rowland

Always wanted to see that engine