Re: Naming "SMOKEY"

Smokey, was number 3415 which makes it one of the 20 North British locos. 3401-3420 were the NB engines, and the others were German. These engines tended to be stationed at Bethlehem, or at least some of the early numbers.
I rode the cab of 3405 from Fourisburg to Bethlehem on a doubleheader freight, so was in the same area your brother rode. This was a nice area to shoot steam every day. All 4-8-4's, and no diesels on the line! Nice images and nice remembrances. Not sure if I saw Smokey or not. Did see several others of course including 3401 which had a regular crew and was all cleaned up with brass decorations. One of my favorites was 3436 which ran from De Aar to Kimberly and had a regular crew. This one had red wheels, and some decorations. Its name was Molly. I did some 55 mph pacing of this engine on the daily passenger train to Kimberly. Saw it 2-3 different times while there. It was scrapped sometime in the 2006 time-frame or maybe before. De-Aar to Kimberly, and Bloemfontein to Bethlehem were the two best places for the 4-8-4's and thus were my favorite lines. George-Knysna was nice also with the baby "Berks", those 24 class 2-8-4's along the ocean. Sadly a slide closed the line about 15-20 years ago. It was like the D&S or C&TS of South Africa. I posted this before....Meet on the De Aar Kimberly line. Daily Passenger train and a freight. This line saw about 40-60 steam train moves per day back in 1977. It was down to about 30 or so by 1984. This was July 1977. All three engines have the long tenders, which meant they were formerly Condensing engines. Thus they were originally classed as 25 class(Condensors). The engine in Olafs pic was originally built as a 25NC, or Non Condensing. The 3 engines in my shot were built as condensers, but when they arid regions were either dieselized or electrified, there was no longer a need for the condensers. Thus they were modified and considered 25NC after the conversion. I give them credit for doing that, as it saved many engines from being scrapped. When we were there in 1984, there was only one serviceable 25 condenser in service, number 3511. Got to see it on a local freight one day, and on the daily passenger the next. South Africa was THE BEST place for steam in the world in the 70's and 80's in my opinion. It was very similar to steam in the U.S. during the early 1950's. My friend used a crank telephone to call his kids back in the US. July was their winter, so best for photography.
Greg




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2022 10:47AM by Greg Scholl.