International Railroad Discussion > SAR GMA's - Sept 1975

I found a stray box of South Africa slides.  No notes and little recollection except for my general route.   I posted these on a South Africa site and along with some hisorical photos and google maps came up with  Koloniesplass for station water stop and Graff Reinett for shops.

Any comments or better location ideas welcome.

Robert Jordan

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Three more.

Bo

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robj Wrote:
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> Any comments or better location ideas welcome.
>
> Robert Jordan

I can't offer any info on locations ...
As for comments:   WOW!  I am a big fan of Garratts .... these shots are a joy to behold!
By chance, do you have any more???

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

I have a few at Mason Mill and then the little 2' guys.  For better or worse the trip was multi faceted as I went off to Kruger and other places also...

Bob




 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/18 07:27 by robj.

Gee....Krueger is still there.     BTW, those GMA’s almost always ran backwards.   Yea, I know, they were bi-directional.

Great photos and thanks for sharing them with us.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

What's happened to steam preservation in South Africa is really a tragedy. Locos that were suppose to be part of the "National Collection" have been cut up. And steam is banned from all but a few lightly used lines. Sadly, the current South African government sees steam as a white man's toy and vestige of apartheid, rather than a reason for tourism resulting in bringing much needed tourist business into the country. Back in the day, we spent thousands of Rand on hotels, flights on SAA,  food, beer, and God knows what else all in the search of remaining steam. Now, just trying to run a basic week long steam charter is almost impossible for a variety of reasons, high cost being among them. Photo is  GMAM #4704 taken at Albert Falls in Natal on a 2003 photo charter. Sadly I came to late to see the real stuff. 

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No wonder the South African economy is in such shambles. Sadly, those that predicted a disasterous result would oocur when the majority blacks took over have been proven right.

    Be grateful you don't live on that Continent as with rare exceptions the whole place is a disaster zone.

   Sad but true.   Ross Rowland

Was there in 1977 and 1984.  By 84 there were few Garratt workings.
We got some long distance passenger and freight activitiy in 1977 where these GMAM garratts were the norm climbing away from the Indian Ocean on Montague Pass.  These two trips were the best steam I ever shot!!!
http://www.gregschollvideo.com/gallery/pic4.html

Greg Scholl

PS It was nice while it lasted, and yes they scrapped a bunch of stuff including many of those nice class 25NC 4-8-4's during 2006-7. 

gregscholl Wrote:
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> Was there in 1977 and 1984.  By 84 there were few
> Garratt workings.
> We got some long distance passenger and freight
> activitiy in 1977 where these GMAM garratts were
> the norm climbing away from the Indian Ocean on
> Montague Pass.  These two trips were the best
> steam I ever shot!!!
> http://www.gregschollvideo.com/gallery/pic4.html
>
> Greg Scholl
>
> PS It was nice while it lasted, and yes they
> scrapped a bunch of stuff including many of those
> nice class 25NC 4-8-4's during 2006-7. 

Dankie vir al die pragtige fotos.

Bob Jordan 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/18 14:27 by robj.

Ross, that comment about S.A. was not on topic and racist.  Sorry to see that from you.
Riding behind 614 on the Port Jervis trip in 1997 is one of the highlights of my life. 

Guys, I have no say as to what you bring to the discussion.  But, My way back memories are of a very friendly people all around.  I was invited to stay at a Africaans house on my last day.  I remember many conversations with people of Indian background esp about my camera, SRT-101. I travelled through Lesotho meeting several locals. I hung around a Hotel Bar with Brits talking about their war days and I was a Yank.  LOL.  I can go on and on but this was all about good memories.  I have joined a SAR FB group and the good memories continue. 
I have more to post and hope we can keep it positive. 

Thank You,

Bob

Wasn't meant to be at all racist but rather just plain factual. Most African nations today have awful GNP's, barely functional infrastructures and low life expectancies. These are the current African continent facts of life. The only thing race related is that they are now all " governed" by their native black majorities. Sad but true.

   Very pleased you enjoyed riding behind 614 on the Pt. Jervis trip. It was really great to put her to work doing what Lima built her for.

   Ross Rowland

Keystone1 Wrote:
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> Gee....Krueger is still there.     BTW, those
> GMA’s almost always ran backwards.   Yea, I
> know, they were bi-directional.

The reason they usually ran "backwards" was that it was more efficient to couple the auxiliary water tank (tender) to the "front" (main water tank) end of the locomotive, and it was safer to pull the auxiliary tank as part of the train, rather than push it in front of the locomotive. In turn, the auxiliary tanks were needed to provide an acceptable range between water fill-ups, because the water capacity of the GMA's was deliberately kept low to keep the weight/axle loading of the locomotive down to allow operation on the branch lines for which they were designed. Interestingly, even the small water tanks fitted had internal baffles to reduce the water capacity still further. The almost-identical GMAM class Garratts simply had those baffles removed; the second "M" in the class designation meant "main-line only". Another interesting point: the running gear (engine units, including frames, cylinders, valve gear, drive wheels, leading and trailing trucks, etc.),  was a duplicate of that used on the 19D class 4-8-2s, for standardization purposes.

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)

Thanks for posting the photo's.

At least one Garratt is still alive and well in Australia.  It has been running excursion trips in New South Wales this past week.

I cannot post the link from that you know what site, but search:

6029-"Southern Rail Spectacular" tour-September 2018

It was posted by Bevan Wall from Australia whom I don't believe is a T.O. member.

d.