Re: SAR 25NC "Molly" (Greg)

I shot the Red Devil one day. It was requested as special power to pull the daily passenger train Kimberly to De Aar for a group wanting to ride. The return working had the last condensor #3511. That was two really odd engines for one day. I can safely say I was no fan of the Red Devil. It sounded like Hell, and looked even worse! All that conversion stuff did no good in the long run either!
Sorta like what John Craft equated a F7 to a CF7, stating that a good F7 gave its live to make that crappy CF7, or something like that. This was when one used to ride behind L&N 152 on excursions in the 80's!
A regular 25NC was more to my liking. At least when they got rid of the condensors, many of them were converted back to Non-Condensors, like many of the originals. A 25 class was a Condensor, and a 25NC was not, just for the record. I think the 3450 was classified a 26 was it not!
Greg