Dinah has been working on a railway

[Luca Lategan]

Article from Die MATIE, Woensdag 19 Maart 2008
Slyabonga Africa
In all his years of experience in the field of construction, Claude Pretorius has never done a project that was run solely by women – until now. Garden Route Rail Cable Way Ltd is in the process of building the highest cableway in Africa, at the base of Cradock Berg outside George. When completed, in 2010, the cableway will measure 2,22km and will transport tourists to the summit which supersedes Table Mountain’s 1,07km summit. According to Pretorius, the project manager of GRRCW Ltd, the cableway will operate 24 hours a day offering tourists the opportunity to see areas such as Mossel Bay at night, a sight which he described as “fairy land of light.” Yet this is not the most interesting aspect of the project, because in the true spirit of empowering women, the project will be constructed by women. Running the show as the chairperson of the GRRCW Ltd is Irene Vermeulen. Vermeulen says that a Swiss Cableway Company has trained the women, who are at the heart of the construction team. The purpose of this training is to enable the women to be of international standards, in terms of cableway construction, in order them to be employable overseas. Vermeulen is one of six business women who were invited by Pretorius to invest in the project. The other five businesswomen include Darcelle Acer, Nthabiseng Lichaba, Malinda Niehaus, Zainub Ramjan, and Desireé Szucs. They all bought into GRRCW Ltd. Vermeulen says that all these women hail from the Southern Cape and are committed to the project that aims at building several cableway gondolas. According to Pretorius the cableway gondolas, which the workers are in the process of building, will seat four people. Thirty of them will be operational at a time which means less waiting for tourists. A part of the project also entails the construction of a railway to transport tourists from Campher and George to the base of the cableway. The diesel hydrokinetic rail coaches will use hydraulics to lift up and turn 180 degrees so that more trips can be squeezed in at a time.

Anyone know about this?

[John Ashworth]

The all-woman aspect of it reminds me that on the occasion of Queen Elizabth II's Golden Jubilee a few years back one of the preserved heritage railways in UK reportedly ran a steam train where the entire crew (driver, fireperson and two guards) were not only all women but were all named Elizabeth.

Details of a book on railwaywomen in UK can be found at http://www.friendsoftherail.com/phpBB2/ ... =46&t=1090

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Is that true John? I have never heard of a female steam driver in the UK.

Where there any in South Africa working for Spoornet?

[John Ashworth]

Yes - true. But I don't think there were any female drivers in the old days of steam - these are new ones, volunteers like us, trained up for heritage steam.