Friends of the Rail Forum

Bobo is definitely cuter!

A very unfortunate situation where the good samaritan was the loser.

Looks like those locos are working upgrade, just look at the exhaust from the stacks. If the location is indeed City View then the train is heading away from Pmb towards Alberts Falls and Greytown.

Thanks for the info Steve. Yep, check railed tight curves make life very difficult. On our line between Kloof and Inchanga I think just about every curve has a check rail and most bends are minumum radius 90 meter (300 foot) curves.

Running with the 19D we limit the load to four coaches on the 1 in ...

What is grade on the line out of Cullinan? With nine coaches and greasy rails I can imagine the battle!

Good news indeed! I take it the old girl must have survived relatively complete to be able to return to steam so quickly?

We had a similar incident on one of USR's Inchanga trips last month, the difference being the passengers Blackberry ended up on the ballast after going down the toilet!

The loco crew spotted the phone and retrieved it on the return journey.

The 6 January trips did indeed run to capacity. In fact there was a waiting list of passengers for the afternoon run who turned up on the day hoping to get a seat. Most of these passengers were eventually accomodated due to a few pre-booked groups that didn't show on the day.

Thanks for posting!

19D's 2637 and 2669 survive today in preservation. 2637 with USR, now based at Masons Mill in Maritzburg. 2669 is based at Creighton (Ex USR Hilton).

Please see the latest update on USR:

Hi Guys –

Unfortunately we’ll have to wait a little longer before USR can get back into public passenger train operations.

At a meeting held with Transnet this morning, the minimum requirements to get the Kloof – Inchanga line open were discussed and ...

New Zealand also operate with only the driver too.
If this is adopted I just hope the train assistants are not promoted to drivers too quickly and that they get the necessary training and have the experience needed.

In New Zealand they even take operating on your own a step further when it comes ...

Nathan, if and when you guys start a full flexible stay replacement project, I dont think it would be advisable to use the old SAR caps. We have found that the machined caps which as Simon mentioned have been redesigned with a bigger wall thickness. In addtion, the new steel stands up to corrosion ...

I hope the stay cap seats are still in good shape?
Replacing just the cap can sometimes be a temporary solution to a longer term problem...

Wow, that brings back some memories! Hard to believe that tour was over 10 years ago now..