Warning: Foreign Content and Images-Not C&TS

I may have posted one of two of these, but I just redid them into jpgs so lets see how they work out. Shot 26 years ago in June-July 1984, and regular service steam operations in South Africa. Since a South African won the British Open, and we shot some steam in his home town of Mossel Bay that year, I thought today would be a nice day for these three images.

(1) 4-8-4 number 3436 "Molly" storms away from the Kraankuil station after making a scheduled stop. It is on the daily passenger train from De Aar to Kimberly and headed for the mid-point service stop in Orange River about 10 miles behind us. June 1984. We did some side-by-side pacing two days in a row at 55-60 mph. One day I drove for my friend, and the other day he drove for me. This was a great sounding engine with a slightly off-beat exhaust, but not really out of square!! In 1984 it was one of the regular engines to operate on the daily passenger train and had a regular driver(engineer), so it was kept in immaculate condition, and was one of the few engines we saw with red wheels. Sometimes in the morning we would see it rushing a freight southward, so it could run the northbound passenger train. 3436 was scrapped in 1993.

(2) In South Africa there was one line that was expected to be the premier tourist line, somewhat like the D&S or C&TS. This line from George-Knysna ran freight and added a coach for mixed trains 2-3 times each way per day. Unfortunately slides severed the line(2006) and a year or two ago it was announced it would not be repaired. The line skirts the Indian Ocean in a couple of spots. Golfers may recognize George as the home of Ernie Els. This train is the early morning train(dep George at 6 am), and is at Swartvlei lagoon about 30 minutes after sunrise as it heads for Knysna. George was a great place when we were there in 1977, since the mainline still had steam with mainline Garratts stopping here(Geroge) before making the big climb up Montague Pass. Thankfully we did a little hiking on that grade and did shoot a passenger train and freight on the big climb at a tunnel that year.

(3) Everyone in America knows about Garratts it seems, so here is one for you. By 1984 only a handful of GMAM 4-8-2+2-8-4 Garratts were still in service for South African Railways and we were lucky enough to catch one in Ballast service out of Waterval Boven to Breyten. This is not that engine however. Its the Randfontein Estates Gold Mine line near Johannesburg. We shot this the last day, before flying home in July 1984. Most of the engines were ex-SAR GMAM's, and most were painted maroon, but a few engines like this one were painted blue.
Photos by me, Greg Scholl