South African Steam by Robert Symes 1965

[@nathancorcoran5347]

This is a cool old film back in 1994 of these operations of steam locomotives over in South Africa.

[@NormanSilv]

Rode across the Karoo behind a 25 class condenser loco. Kimberly was a truly interesting place to visit.

[@Adventurescot]

Yes Kimberley and especially De Aar were both amazing places to visit back in steam days. I was lucky enough to have been a fireman on the mainline there for years. Nowadays both these towns are nothing at all and like most other towns in the New SA have been destroyed by the useless government

[@NormanSilv]

SAD! I have heard SA is no longer a great tourist stop. My dad was a Driver for the Southern Paciic back in the steam era. He was on a section that operated some Cab Forwards. He loved them. @@Adventurescot

[@avriljenifersexton912]

Very sad you don't see those anymore

[@davidvlok1755]

Brilliant nostalgic footage 👏👍

[@thejdmguru621]

And now the only steam locomotives in operation in my area is a Class 19D which runs through the hills and a Class 24 that runs along the coast line. There is another 19D and two other class 24s, one with an MX tender. But they are parked most likely indefinitely as most of them are rusted out and one even graffitied and stripped of all cabin components because people have no sense of honour.

[@Adventurescot]

It really is so sad at what has happened to that once great railway. I worked on it as a fireman for many years and when I see it now I just want to cry. There is simply nothing left. The folk that do run steam there should be given gold medals for what they have achieved. They really are doing a great job

[@godfreyberry1599]

Pity, what was a great tourist attraction pre 1994 has been completely destroyed and so too any hopes of tourist revenue for very little financial input with the very few remaining engines being preserved by the dedicated effort by private individuals & mercifully the critical funding by a British benefactor.

[@jmitc91516]

To be pedantic... IIRC, Robert Symes did the commentary, but the film was actually taken by an American - Harry P. Dodge. (I still have the original VHS tape of this.)

[@andrewboyd8073]

That is correct.

[@catswambo9706]

Is it clearer quality?

[@jmitc91516]

No - about the same.@@catswambo9706

[@robertnewell-e1m]

I worked in Rhodesia 1970 and fired those steam engines

[@stephensmith799]

@@robertnewell-e1m Wow!

[@Tom-Lahaye]

Nice footage with loco classes which were extinct in the days of the video camera, like GCA, GE and GEA garratts. The 14R by the way is a 4-8-2 and not 2-8-2. The only 2-8-2 on the 3'6" was the class 11 and the NG15 on 2' gauge.

[@Adventurescot]

There are a few mistakes in the clip but sadly I cannot sort them. I know SAR engines very well as I worked on them for years

[@simonf8902]

The steam locomotives were retained due to oil sanctions related to apartheid.

[@stephensmith799]

I’m not so sure. South Africa had enormous coal reserves but not oil. It also had probably the most well developed, modern steam locomotive classes that the world has ever seen; including units that were far more powerful than any diesel unit, more reliable and far cheaper to run. There were many refinements which made life easier for crew and shed staff. The Class 25NCs could run at 80mph which was hellish good going on a gauge of 3’ 6”. I have to admit SAR steam was ahead of contemporary British Railways steam equivalents. Why the hell was Britain still building two cylinder, inside gear, narrow firebox 0-6-0s even in the 1950s?!

[@andrewboyd8073]

@@stephensmith799 A big reason for that is because the locomotives in Britain didn't have to pull trains for quite as long distances as they did in South Africa, Austrialia, or even here in the US or Canada.

[@stephensmith799]

@@andrewboyd8073 That’s a very fair point and could explain why it took so long here in the UK for rocking grates and easy-dumping ash pans to be adopted. I’m still wondering why, if these are so obviously useful, they weren’t adopted for our shorter distance-travelling locos. The other thing is Why no Hollow Stays? Hollow stays, as you may know, ‘weep’ into the firebox if they are cracked on the water/ steam side. This enables boilersmiths to know which ones to replace immediately. With our solid stays, fitters had to tap each one to identify which might have cracks. There could be hundreds of stays to check taking far more time than the ‘tell tail sign’ presented directly by a weeping stay. This conservatism found on the ‘home’ railways wasn’t true of the private loco builders exporting to other countries’ systems. North British was a shining example, but it struggled in the transition to diesel-electric.

[@Isochest]

@@stephensmith799 SAR pioneered Metroblits back in 1980/1: 100mph running on Cape Gauge

[@stephensmith799]

@@Isochest That really is an astonishing accomplishment. But I’m unsure the meaning of ‘Metroblits’🤔