Re: Naming "SMOKEY"

On parts of the South African Railways system, engines could be assigned to specific crews. Those crews often took an extreme level of pride in "their" engines, and crews were allowed to decorate and name their engines. Assigned engines could often be distinguished from pool engines by the high level of polish and by their brass ornaments. SMOKEY was far from the highest level of polish and ornamentation encountered in South Africa, but the engine did have a shiny boiler barrel, and polished boiler bands.



Smokey also featured a swallow symbol on the smoke deflectors, like some of the C62 4-6-4s that worked the top expresses in Japan.
I never had an opportunity to talk much with SMOKEY's crew, but at the water stop in Fouriesburg (or Ficksburg ?)my brother was invited to ride the cab to Slabberts, so he would have had a much better chance to hear from the friendly engine crew. I had to drive our rental car to Slabberts to pick him up, so I missed out on cab time on SMOKEY. I will contact my brother to find out if naming SMOKEY was a topic of discussion.





Oh well, chasing the train has its advantages too... in taking photos and S8 sound movies