Yes that was where the train stalled going the other way at Dawn. We caught at Showgrounds, and it was slipping pretty good on the frosty rails before it died at the summit(yes, where the Water Tower is).
The train in the link above had to wait for another train to pass(weekly train bringing ashes from steam engines in Bloem. ironically), before he got the clear. This was a cool little outpost, with a station agent, so we could find out what was happening.
The engine that stalled sat there, until a local freight came up from behind and acted as a banker(pusher to the unwashed in the U.S.). The sound of that engine with machinegun like slipping was better than 3436 that you remember.
One odd note. The shot of the doubleheader almost got messed up. I had to hussle up there from the depot with all my gear. I first set up the tripod with the video camera, then started to move away from it to take my still(the one you see) with my Pentax 6x7. All of a sudden the tripod starts to topple over, and I catch the camera just in time. Stupidly, being in a rush, I had forgotten to take the video deck off my shoulder, and set-up next to the tripod leg, while I jockyed for more angle on the still. The video is running, and it will someday go into an outtakes reel, as you see the train start, then kerplunk, and see sky, then readjust everything. In the video we sold we did some editing to get that mess out of there. My buddies Video had died that morning and he missed everything for that whole morning. We found a place in town that repaired it...a loose wire. So, the next day we went back to that same location to try to repeat some of the action for him, and nothing was running due to trackwork in the area. Just goes to show, somedays you get lucky, and others you don't!
Greg
PS Maybe in 2007 I will work on one of the South Africa programs to convert to DVD. That was nice action, for sure, although the cameraman was not up to today's standards!
