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International Railroad Discussion > Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria FallsDate: 07/31/17 11:53 Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Continuing our trip northwards, we departed on the train for Victoria Falls, stopping en-route for photo passes.
Our first stop was a bridge at Deka, a well known shot for railfans. I chose the sun side this time and got some beautiful morning light. Pressing on, we stopped again at Zanguga where we had morning instead of afternoon light, so I was able to get this angle with some fall colors and good use of the polarizer. Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..    Date: 07/31/17 13:47 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Crossing fences are typically made with old rail sections using the steel ties. This is at Zanguja again.
Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..    Date: 07/31/17 13:50 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Photo 1: The railway policeman attached to our group for our tour. Very helpful with any problems that should arise. Unfortunately I did not get his name, but I should be able to get it from the NRZ coordinator I have an email for.
Photo 2: here is another herald I found in the center windows of our passenger coach. Photo 3: Signs you do not see in America. Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..    Date: 07/31/17 13:52 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Water stop at Matetsi, one of the few working water plugs on the line.
We let it overflow on purpose for the first shot, one of my favorites of the trip. While filling the flexible hose came off the plug and fell into the tank! Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..    Date: 07/31/17 13:54 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Matetsi is a rural stop and the local children came out to see what we were up to.
Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..    Date: 07/31/17 14:04 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock We had our own brush cutting crew assigned to us, for any excess brush clearance we might need to get shots. this was quite a luxury. Everyone we met in Zimbabwe was very nice and happy to have our business.
Shot 2 is approaching a level crossing with a tank at Zanguja. There is a spur there and we added in a water tank car that was parked on the spur. Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more.. Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/17 21:05 by Harlock.   Date: 07/31/17 14:05 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock Shortly after Matetsi was this bridge over the river (we walked to it from Matetsi) and our final shot right at sunset was farther up the line somewhere between Matetsi and Victoria Falls just before a very large fill.
Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more..   Date: 07/31/17 14:20 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: PERichardson Bulawayo shed back in the day (1984), when over 100 Garratts were stabled there. Sad to see what's left today. But you surely max'd your photo opps with the three you had....beautiful images.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/17 14:20 by PERichardson.  Date: 07/31/17 14:20 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock PERichardson Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Bulawayo shed back in the day (1984), when over > 100 Garratts were stabled there. Sad to see > what's left today. But you surely max'd your > photo opps with the three you had....beautiful > images. Fantastic...love seeing these historical images. -M Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more.. Date: 07/31/17 14:28 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: King_Coal Great series. Is this railroad still active on a regular basis? I may have missed this in a previous post.
Date: 07/31/17 15:15 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: GPutz ThanKs for the amazing story. Gerry
Date: 07/31/17 21:08 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock King_Coal Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Great series. Is this railroad still active on a > regular basis? I may have missed this in a > previous post. Yes there is a little freight and one passenger train between Bulawayo and Vic Falls nightly. Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more.. Date: 08/01/17 20:15 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: jmt NRZ is 18 months in arrears with staff wages. The organisation is technically bankrupt
Many staff survive selling what they can purloin from work It would be interesting to know which tribal group the security staff were from Oom Robert's ruling ZANU-PF party is Shona centric, The area photographed is Ndebele heartland To put it politely, these tribes hate each others guts. They fought a low key civil war in the period 1982-1987. The Shona were successfully helped in no small part by the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade, which was loyal to Mugabe. Estimates for the number of deaths during the five-year campaign ranged from 3,750 to 80,000. Thousands of others were tortured in military internment camps At least traveling by train you are not in the predicament of motorists, who run a continual gauntlet of Police roadblocks, where drivers are shaken down for inducements to top up the copper's salary NRZ currently has fewer that 40 active locomotives, Critical cargo like Wankie Coal is moved by contractors locos The line from the SA border to Bulawayo is a BOT controlled by BBR. Bulawayo to Vic Falls is NRZ owned, but is used by BBR moving cargo to and from SA to Zambia. This is the best maintained, and most heavily used line in the country http://www.herald.co.zw/nrz-targets-35-million-freight-this-year/ Privately owned locos (AR&TS logo - they are the manager) move coal south from Thomson Junction, on behalf of the state owned electricity generator. These locos are driven by NRZ staff. The train control system collapsed several years ago as cable and equipment was stolen. SA loco hire contractors clobbered together a system utilising train orders transmitted to train crew by cell phone Recapitalisation http://www.chronicle.co.zw/nrz-suitor-offers-2-5bn-bid/ Date: 08/02/17 08:53 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: Harlock jmt Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > At least traveling by train you are not in the > predicament of motorists, who run a continual > gauntlet of Police roadblocks, where drivers are > shaken down for inducements to top up the copper's > salary We rented a car after the excursion was over to do our own tour and we were never asked for a bribe, ever. I went through dozens of the police roadblocks. Most of the time waved through, only once I had to show them the safety equipment. (fire extinguisher, reflectors, spare tire). They were all extremely polite. I basically saw it as a government jobs program. We never had any problems when the group was in the minibus either, with local drivers. Mike Massee Tehachapi, CA Photography, Railroading and more.. Date: 08/02/17 22:17 Re: Zimbabwe: Thomson Jct. to Victoria Falls Author: jmt You must be white, and seen as a tourist
Omm Robert has apparently ordered the police to stop intimidating tourists https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/06/15/mugabe-orders-police-reduce-roadblocks/ https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2017/07/26/tourism-ministry-engages-police-over-roadblocks http://www.herald.co.zw/anti-roadblocks-demo-turns-violent/ In a civilised society why do Police need to maintain roadblocks? Look at the underlying politics. You were in Matabeleland, the opposition stronghold, kept under control by Shona police loyal to the dictator |