3117 at Springs-the old days

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Chris Janisch
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Joined: 25 Jan 2007, 13:10
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Chris Janisch »

Scanning a few slides, I came upon some shots of our very own 3117 shunting at Brakpan. This was a big job for the Springs locos, as they had to take heavy cement trains up and down to Anglo-Alpha cement. A very steep grade tested the locos swinging sharply out of Brakpan yard.
The condition of the loco is typical for the period, in 1988. Dirty, white-walled tyre, long tender 15Fs were the rule here.
3117 lost her long tender after transfer to Germiston around 1989.
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Straight out of Brakpan upgrade
Straight out of Brakpan upgrade
Near the cement factory
Near the cement factory
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Dylan Knott
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Location: Cape Town

Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Dylan Knott »

Looks mighty fine to me.
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Gabor Kovacs
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Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Gabor Kovacs »

Aaaaaah . . . ., these pictures bring back memories!

I was attending high school back in 1988, and then in those days, I would used school holidays to visit places like Germiston, Braamfontein, Millsite and even Springs steam depots or other sub-sheds, around the Witwatersrand.

I would travel by Metro to the depots, and sometimes along the way I would get off at the station closest to a yard which was still then shunted regularly by steam, and would watch the steamers performing there duties for an hour or two, before getting back onto the next available Metro and head further down or up the mainline, as the case may be, to the intended depot visit!

Back then, it was still safe to travel the metro service around the Witwatersrand!

One had to be very careful though, that you were not seen boarding a Metro train by a conductor, because many of these conductors were rather astute at recognizing who got "off" or "on" their train that they were busy working!

When the conductor made his way down or up the length of the train and the time came to check tickets, they would quickly pick-up that I had broken my journey, and my “valid ticket” was thus expired! Therefore, of course, a few times I had to fork out more money for the remaining train-fare, and had to pay extra for the purchase of an “on-board” ticket (fine) as well, as I did not buy a ticket at the station where I boarded his train.

Many a time, I was fortunate, and made my way to where I wanted to be without paying for the extras!!!

Now Brakpan was always a favourite stop-over of mine, if the intention was to visit Springs shed! I can clearly remember how locos would shunt for a about 30 to 45 minutes, making up loads in the Brakpan yard, then all of a sudden the loco would stop shunting and quickly switch tracks in the yard and couple onto the load of empty cement wagons, and head out of Brakpan yard onto the industrial line, and the train would quickly disappear out of sight around the curve, as depicted in Chris’s first photo, and I would listen to the engine working reasonably hard as it hauled the empties to the cement factory!

Aaaaah, those were the days . . . . . . . . sorely missed!!!!
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Chris Janisch
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Joined: 25 Jan 2007, 13:10
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Chris Janisch »

Yes Gabor, I was also a frequent Metro flyer-that was my main transport then since my father worked for the railways and we got 25% PTO tickets.
I used to cycle or drive if petrol was in the tank, to Pretoria Station, then hop on a suburban set leaving between 4.30-5.30am, in order to be at the selected spot at sunrise. Capital Park steam had of course ended a few years earlier. But when I look back now those ridiculously early morning wake-ups were worth it.
Didn't you ever walk up to the cement factory? I must have walked hundreds of km along railway lines back then...but then long distance running was one of my passions in my crazy youth!
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Gabor Kovacs
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Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Gabor Kovacs »

Yes, the cement factory was close by, and near enough to cycle there and back, safely!
I can only remember ever seeing the small blue diesels (probably Funky’s) that use to work most of the time as a double header set, back in those days!
Anglo-Alpha was the cement factory's name, if my memory has not failed me there!
The cement factory use to operate the south Roodepoort sidings, from the Roodepoort south exchange yard and shunted I&J food sidings, Rockla - concrete pipe manufactures, a Roodepoort Durban Deep Gold Mines’ refinery and of course the dynamite factory.

Today, the blue diesels are part of the history books, and TFR now shunts what is left of the south Roodepoort sidingst and only 2 companies use what is left of the siding, namely Lafarge Cement (formally Anglo-Alpha) and Rockla, with either TFRs' 36-series or 34-series class diesels.
At Roodepoort South yard, TFR also takes out loads of scrap metal these days, in either DZ or B-Bogie wagons!

About two years ago, Epol also closed their factory in Roodepoort and subsequently, all the Roodepoort west sidings to the west of Epol was lifted.
The Roodepoort yard is still busy, but nothing comparative to what was happening there in the 70’s through to the mid 90’s!
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Chris Janisch
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Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Chris Janisch »

Taking a peek through my slide collection, I came upon some more shots of 3117 in her working days of regular service. Here she is seen leaving Springs with the Nigel pickup, on a typical misty morning on 20 August 2007. This train normally ran tender-first out, due to the long heavy return train scheduled out of Nigel at 5pm, but on rainy/misty days the loco departed Springs stack-first, with wet rails sabotaging the pull out of the yard.
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In the yard, note the old parachute column still in use
In the yard, note the old parachute column still in use
3117 makes it look easy on slippery rails.
3117 makes it look easy on slippery rails.
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Stefan Andrzejewski
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Re: 3117 at Springs-the old days

Post by Stefan Andrzejewski »

Stunning photos. When I did my two years in the SAAF 1978-1979 I would travel by Metro from Pretoria to JHB in the early hours of the morning. Finish my duty at 2am. Get a lift to Pretoria station. The first train out on a Saturday was 5am and would get to JHB at 6.30am. I would get the bus to where she stayed and arrive in time for breakfast. The train was mostly empty and of course segregated in those days. As a kid in Cape Town I spent many an hour traveling up and down the Simonstown line. I knew where every signal and every set of points were. My friends thought I was nuts. Probably they were right.
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