It’d been almost three months since
our last dose of Garratts in Zimbabwe, so on Friday 18th
February 2000, Nathan Berelowitz, Eugene Armer and myself
left Pretoria to head North once again. At Pietersburg we
were very surprised to see that the 8th class plinthed in
the town has been cosmetically restored and a fine job has
been done. Grey smokebox, glossy black boiler, cab and
tender, looking fresh out of the shops in traditional SAR
livery (well except for the red and purple number plates!)
Coming over the mountain at Louis Trichardt we struck fog
and drizzle that was to stay with us until arrival in
Bulawayo. We had to contend with the terrible driving of a
couple of people, the first just managing to avoid a head-on
collision when overtaking us and two vehicles in front of us
on a blind rise. The second tried to repeat the same feat,
but to our amazement it was attempted when another car was
clearly too close for him to make it. When a head-on seemed
unavoidable (yes, he kept going faster to try and make it!)
the driver stood on the brakes and swerved onto the gravel
on the right hand side of the road, how he kept control of
the car is a mystery.
The border crossing was done in record time, in the fading
light we could see the Limpopo’s swollen waters rushing
under the bridge. Bulawayo arrival was around 11:20pm. When
driving around the outskirts of the town, Eugene put the
"Jet" into the Jetta when crossing an intersection, the
cross road being quite raised. Suddenly we were all wide
awake as a stream of sparks flew from the car as it bottomed
out on landing… Diane Putnam had offered us her fantastic
hospitality once again, so we had a cuppa with her and her
son Dwayne before collapsing into bed at about 1:00 a.m.
This was the first time we’d been back to Zim since Dave
Putnam passed away, and it was quite sad to realise that he
was really gone.
5:00a.m. and we were up again,
preparing to head to the steam shed. The weather was not
looking very promising, with drizzle and low cloud
persisting. Arrival at the shed was still great, seeing 4
Garratts in steam ready to go. A big surprise was that two
of the locos had functioning headlights! The Westgate shunt
which was previously only done by steam in daylight, is now
steam worked 24-hours. This is due to the current diesel
fuel shortage up there.
Loco situation:
In steam: 14A 514, 517 15A 395 (station), 406 (Westgate),
410, 424
Cold: 15A 386, 422 (being worked on) 16A 610
Dumped in shed: 15A 371, 382, 400, 414, 417 14A 522 16A 601,
604, 605, 608, 611 20 742
Loco Dump: 14A 518, 524 15A 388, 402, 416, 376, 377-384,
(buffer 377, cab 384), 385, 395-407 (buffer 395, cab 407)
16A 602, 614 20 749
P15 Shop: 14A 510, 515, 525 (retube, wheels reprofiled) 15A
381, 394, 421 16A 612, 613 20 730 (right hand front cylinder
and motion damaged) Class 9 115 Class 19 Unicem #1
The Unicem loco is in such poor shape I don’t know why they
persevere with it. They were lighting it up so that some
chemicals they’d added to the boiler water could take
effect, then they would let her cool down again. Perhaps it
was some of that radiator stop-leak stuff?! Took a few shots
around the shed, then headed for the station. 15A 395 was
busy shunting in platform 4, got a couple of pics of the
loco on the new passenger stock. DE6A 1962 was also busy on
the goods sidings there. 15A 410 was making life in the shed
difficult, as her whistle valve had jammed open giving a
nerve-grating whine in the background continuously. They
later dropped her fire to silence the racket!
We left the shed to visit the Museum,
which didn’t seem the same without Dave sitting on his
customary chair near the entrance. We had a look around and
chatted to the guys there. The now-vacant curator position
has not yet been filled.
A little later we drove across to the diesel depot. Just
near the junction there we saw that a derailment had
recently occurred there. There seemed to be wagons and
wreckage all over the place, with earthmoving equipment and
cranes busy clearing up. It looked like they built a road
into the cutting where it happened so that the wagons could
be removed. We later found out that 19 wagons had left the
rails. A signal failure had meant that they points were
being operated manually, and they were not properly locked
into position. As the train passed over them the point
blades moved and the train went overland…
A pleasant surprise at the diesel depot was the presence of
EL 4110, one of the NRZ electric locos. It had been in for
repairs and wheel turning and was due to go back to Gweru
the next day. DE10A’s on shed were: 1029, 1027, 1049, 1061,
1051, 1030, 1038, 1034 with 1045, 1050, 1048 and 1026
arriving later. Three Spoornet 34’s (649, 694, 695) were
also there, these locos preparing to go out on the new BBR
line. These locos have the letters BBR stencilled below the
cab window above the loco number. The weather was clearing
by this time, and we were able to get some nice shots from
the control tower of the 34’s departing.
Return to the steam shed later revealed two more Spoornet
diesels 36-270 and 36-271 on shed, having returned from
shunt duties. I gather these are being leased from Spoornet.
DE6 1609 in the new color scheme was also there. It is
interesting to note that the new loco livery has been varied
with the bonnet being painted yellow instead of grey like
the cab. Looks quite smart. DE6 1603 in yellow livery was
busy shunting the carriage and wagon sidings. We scaled the
heights of the coal stage for a bird’s eye view of the area.
15A 406 was very busy over at Westgate. 16A 603 was noted
dumped near the coal stage, as was 14 501, still retaining
its original square tank and bunker. This loco was used as a
stationary boiler for some time.
We headed over to Westgate for some
shots in the afternoon sun. 406 came steaming up from New
Grain yard with a transfer load, then proceeded to sort
these into the Westgate sidings. Nice backlit shots were had
as the sun dipped lower. We retired to a friend’s place for
a lekker braai. This guy was a fireman on the Garratts when
they worked through to Mafikeng and regaled us with
footplate stories from days of yore. One of the more
interesting tales involved a certain act that was likened to
a 15th Class slipping up the grade… Following this we had a,
how should I say, "interesting" experience at one of
Bulawayo’s night spots before we once again collapsed into
bed.
5:00 Sunday and off to the shed again. The sunrise was
shaping up to be perfect, except when we got to the loco, a
fog bank swiftly moved across the sky. There was time for a
couple of shots of the Garratts with the moon visible before
all was blanked out. Thankfully the gloom cleared
periodically which gave us some great morning shots in and
around the shed. Another trip to the station saw the Rovos
Rail Victoria Falls train present (DE10A 1060), the
passengers enjoying breakfast, the Victoria Falls overnight
and the Harare overnight trains were also in. Class 36-271
and DE6 1609 and 15A 395 were all on shunt duties, which
made for interesting shots getting the three together.
Around 10:00am we departed Bulawayo for the long trek home.
Suddenly around 70km from Beitbridge the brakes were applied
hard and a U-turn made before we sped off again in the
direction of Bulawayo. A few seconds later we came to a
screaming halt again… Why? We had spotted a train
approaching us along the BBR line, and of course a few
photographs were in order! A triple set of 34’s (668, 697,
696) headed a petrol train which consisted of 1 DZ (growing
healthy grass in it!), 32 x XPJ Petrol Tankers followed by
two empty DZ’s. I gather the DZ’s are for safety reasons in
case of a collision. We snapped a few shots of the train at
a couple of different locations, the last of which was on a
nice curved section at the 201km post, the 34’s growling
their way up the grade.
This brief interlude of action then
gave way to the long trek home again, pausing for a late
lunch at Messina followed by a photo stop at Pietersburg to
get a record shot of the new-look 8th class. We later heard
that the Rovos Rail train was almost completely derailed
whilst being turned on the balloon loop at Bulawayo… The
floods and rainfall have since cut off Beitbridge from South
Africa so we were lucky to have gone when we did. It seems
that a Rovos train has been stranded at Beitbridge for a few
days now as well.
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