Edge of the Seat Narrow Gauge Railroading

This is a trial balloon about reporting narrow gauge adventures thousands of miles from Chama and almost 38 years in the past. In the 1 year and 9 months that my brother Juergen worked as a fireman for South African Railways in 1982 - 1984, he wrote more than 50 letters and cards that detailed his amazing experiences. Once in a long while I re-read these letters and I am stunned by his real-life efforts on hard working steam on a busy single track railroad with passenger trains and maximum tonnage freights.

I realize that this is not regular NGDF fare, and for now I will post only one letter selected (almost) randomly. In the long run I hope that my brother will take up the reporting of these priceless recollections.

Before posting this letter excerpt from May 13,1983, I should provide a little bit of background. After finishing fireman school in Kimberley, my brother went to work hand firing 19-D 4-8-2s, commonly known as 19 Dollies or just Dollies, and stoker fired GMAM 4-8-2+2-8-4 garrats between Vryburg and Mafeking, an area Wikipedia calls the Texas of Africa. This rail line is the major freight artery between the Zambian copper mines, Zimbabwe, and Botswana to Kimberley and Capetown. In the early 1980s work was underway to replace the 60 pound rail with 90 pound rail so that high axle loading 15CA 4-8-2s and 25NC 4-8-4s could take over the traffic, but in the meantime the lower axle loading Dollies and GMAMs, displaced from more mountainous lines, handled the traffic.

Dollies normally handled the passenger trains, switching, and routinely double headed with garrats on heavy trains



GMAMs were the primary freight power. On this line they operated coal bunker first, and carried a tank car of water behind the small auxiliary tank



This letter excerpt was written shortly after my return from a visit to Vryburg and a fabulous chase of 2 foot gauge and 3 ft 6 in gauge steam in South Africa with my brother on his time off.

Mafeking, Sept 13, 1983

My first run after getting back from Johannesburg was something else; it might've changed your opinion of GMAMs. John [John Gilberthorpe, British driver and railfan] and I went north on 4068
[GMAM] with about 400 tons and expected an easy time - WRONG !! The coal was so bad, even a group of Limey railfans expressed surprise at such a mixture of dust, gravel, and cobbles being burned (not very well) in a locomotive. A bad crossing and a Devondale water stop enabled us to limp into Curnow without a blow-up. Operating had booked us to cross the passenger in Kameel -
and allowed us 7 minutes less than the official running time to get there, let alone throw a bad crossing in our path as well.

So, while the guard phoned and switched us into the interloop, to cross the passenger in Curnow, we got another much needed freeby blow up. 4068 steamed about as bad as an engine can steam without failing totally - we even came to a stand between Madiba and Sethopo !

In Mafeking we changed engines and returned with 4137 on a full load. Olaf, wish you'd been there - you'd hardly believe the same class of engine with thrice the load could go so well. The contrast was astounding; after our nightmare on 4068, it was sheer pleasure to sail up the banks and listen to 4137's cracking beat, audible over the stoker, which I had to keep turning off to let the water ease back. I don't know if they did something to 4137's valves or front end, but that day it was magic. I rode up Wirsing bank on top of the small tank , while John fired. Not much for him to do - she was firing flat box. The sound was almost deafening there. I banged off 200 feet of film on the tripod and hope the sound isn't distorted because of the extreme loudness. By the way John booked a bunch of repairs on 4068, and they found among other things , a burst super heater element and a loose blast pipe cap.

The next run wasn't anything special [except for derailing a cattle car in Mareetsane. The 4-wheeler just hopped off the track when we coupled into it], except on the way back we crossed 2 15CAs running light engine in Kameel. I hopped aboard for my first 15CA cab ride, all 20 feet of it. There are now 3 15CAs on the shunt in Mafeking; Vryburg may get some, too, later. The 15CAs are subject to the same 12 km/hr (7.5 mph) speed restriction between Kameel and Mareetsane as the 25NCs, and consequently aren't used on the road ... yet. Firing a 15CA has little in common with firing a dolly, they say not only is the box bigger, but the 15CA is fired flat box, and prefers a little extra under the tube plate instead of in the back. I hope to get a chance to see for myself some time. All the 15CAs in Mafeking are North British so far ... haven't seen any of the Alco, Baldwin or Italian ones yet.

Thursday was another memorable trip. Allan Johnstone [Australian driver and railfan] and I had 4121 and > 1100 tons after Kameel. We got a scare in Kraaipan. As we pulled in, the red tail lamps
of the train which had left 4 hours ahead of us appeared , coming toward us, then pulled away again and eventually disappeared up the hill. Your friend Hans Steyn was having a bad night.
After waiting about an hour in Kraaipan for the passenger, which Steyn crossed in Badibua, to appear, we finally pulled out. Fortunately, Graeme Hind, the last Aussie fireman in Kimberley, was riding with us. He wanted to have a try on a garrat, so we let him fire (fortunately 4121 isn't one of the tricky garrats to fire) while I peered into the darkness looking for signs of Hans Steyn. Sure enough, shortly after Badibua, we saw a light, and picked up Steyn's guard, who was out protecting his train. Having run out of sand, Steyn couldn't restart the train after this blow-up. We gave him a nudge and bumped up and bunched up the rear part of his train, and eventually got the show moving. Edge of Seat Railroading that.

We descended Mareetsane bank very slowly and cautiously. When you struggle like that, you never know when the coal might run out, and if it did, Steyn's brakes would come on. In Mareetsane the station foreman warned us Steyn's exhaust beats had gotten slower and slower and eventually stopped. Yep, there was the guard again, only this time we only ran over one detonator instead of two. Angus, the guard, said that he was only putting one detonator on the rail from now on to keep from running out! He added that he felt uneasy about coming back to protect the train, since he could hear Steyn attempt to restart it - without having recalled the guard by whistling first. Suddenly Steyn's van lurched toward us, and wide-eyed and cursing, Allan reversed the engine and retreated down the hill ahead of it. The van soon stopped, and, fortunately Steyn didn't try to bunch up the slack again before we coupled up. Angus said Steyn had already pulled the last slide in
the coal bunker by Mareetsane.

A 2500 ton train with a mid-train helper, while two parties of railfans slept innocently in the Mareetsane hotel. Good thing it was at night, otherwise the photographers would've been yelling at me for running alongside hammering the sander. Allan uncoupled from their van as we topped the bank and took it easy going down the other side. After Sethopo, we saw a red flashlite being waved, and stopped. Turns out Steyn's tail lamps had gone out, and he had run out of coal and didn't have enough steam to release the brakes. We tried to push 'em to Mafeking, but couldn't get more than a few yards. Apparently we couldn't release the brakes at the front of their train from the rear end [obviously there's less vacuum at the opposite end of the train, and we couldn't get as much vacuum in the train pipe at the front of Steyn's train as had been left in the brake reservoir before he ran out of coal]. Before we got all the "strings" pulled, a garrat from the shed coupled on and towed the whole lot in. By this time we were nearly out of water, and had to switch to the small tank.

Enough for now - better get this mailed.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2021 04:48PM by Olaf Rasmussen.