Re: A K- at speed - 1985. . .and a J as well.

Back in 1976 my folks took a freighter to Capetown and essentially lived in SA for 6 months. It was cheaper to buy and sell a car than rent. Unfortunately it got smashed in some Capetown riots during their visit. Regarding the plates, they bought I believe 6 different cab plates in Joburg where they were for sale at around $8-10.00 (not sure how many Randds at the time). Since they had a car they could carry them, and put them on the freighter. Had it been an airplane might have been a different story. Anyway my brother got some and I got some. I painted up one with background colors and left the other as is!
In 1984 when I was last in South Africa we tried to acquire more plates but they didn't have any available. However they had Garratt Tender plates available. These were small oval plates maybe 10 inches long by 5 inches high. I bought 2 of them which were both GMAM class. At the Joburg airport security made me unwrap the newspaper covered items. I had told them what they were, but they didn't believe me. So they opened it up, the guy picked up the plates, and thus had steam engine soot all over his hands. He gruffly said "Go on through". We had a good laugh out of that. Those two I painted red background and keep the raised letters natural brass. Thats about the extent of my locomotive artifacts.
Greg