Re: 4-8-4's at speed

By 1985 the only steam passenger on the line was the daily passenger train each way. It stopped about everywhere. We made a point to shoot this, preferably in the afternoon north of De Aar. If you ever saw my South African video(Double-track Main), we paced 3436 departing Poupan in the afternoon. We were staying at Kraankuil, so we went to the overpass and got it leaving for our last shot of the run. We stayed one night in Witput cause technically the place was not open. But I had such fond memories from our 1977 visit they let us stay there a night, and even fixed us a dinner. I got the daily departing the station slipping real bad also. They were always trying hard to keep the timetable times and did a good job of that with the 4-8-4's.
Back in 1977 my brother and a Brit and I went to SA. At Witput we decided to have lunch outside on some tables there, facing the railroad. We decided to take photos of each other with trains going by, as if to say"Steam is no big deal today for us". In 77 De Aar-Kimberly was about 60 trains a day, or more that were steam. We also had the Orange Express. I know it was doing 60 as it was hard to chase. Also on that trip had an interesting thing happen. We were at Witput in a field on the other side of the depot getting trains working up from Orange River(Service stop). A 4-8-4 stopped across from us and some guy in a trench coat jumps down from the cab and comes over to us in the field. His train had to await one behind them or some such. Anyway this guy Jim Replogle was the fireman, and some dude about 20-22 years old who was from Dayton, Ohio, just 50 miles from here. What a gig he had! Anyway he wanted to let us know that the next morning they were going to run the 16E (4-6-2) number 858 on the "Rhodesian Mail", another name passenger train that was still steam back then. It is a poppet-valve engine. So we chased it from sunrise to nearly Kimberley. It was having trouble keeping the time with its heavy train, and got very late. A few local rail fans were out, and once the sun popped up, we looked to find a spot. A group of them including Charlie Lewis, Alan Jorgensen, and Dusty Durant were right at the perfect spot for the glint. We weren't as familiar with where the first sun might be. Anyway nice the kid stopped to pass on the info, and the only time I ever saw a 4-6-2 run in SA. Often wonder what happened to that guy. Good times!
One last thing....I hate the Red Devil, its my least favorite engine in SA. I know folks love it cause it was an experimental engine. All it wound up doing was sacrificing a perfectly good 25NC, and the last number built in the NC class.
Guess your stuff was a tour to SA?
Greg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2018 01:12PM by Greg Scholl.