International Conference on Rail Tourism

The World Association of Tourist Trains and Trams is holding a conference in York, UK at the end of September to highlight various issues concerning the sustainability of all areas of railway heritage. These include financial and commercial sustainability, training and regulation as well as technical and environmental challenges.

The organisation was founded in 2010 with the aim of establishing a worldwide grouping to make the case for rail heritage. With decisions on problems such as the environment being increasingly taken internationally it was felt important to be able to present a unified front at this level. The driving force behind the organisation has been Enrique Diaz of the Tren del fin del Mundo in Argentina who is the organisations Vice President. President David Morgan is also Chairman of the UK's Heritage Railway Association.

We have numerous storage lines that are not properly terminated. Here are two examples of stop blocks installed at Sandstone Estates.

If anyone knows where some of these might be if they could provide us with details we will check availability.

Snow fell last week at Sandstone for the first time this year.

Thank you very much to Hendrik Coetzer who took this wonderful photo and sent it in to us.

Our pictures below also tell the story.

If I could give an account of all that I owe to my predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favour; in fact we are all collective beings, do what we may; for how little have we or are we that we may strictly call our own property? We must receive all and learn, both from those who were before us and those who are with us. Even the greatest genius would not go far if he willed to draw everything out of his own internal self.

- Goethe 

After the flooding of the Pandora and Vailima sections of our line a year ago we were left with some difficult choices.  However, due to tremendous support from a certified Rail Safety Regulator contractor, namely Flint Construction from Natal, we were able to combine resources, use mostly our own equipment and personnel, and reconstruct sections of the line to RSR specifications. 

The true test came during Kalahari Sunrise 2012 when the line was used frequently over a 10-day period by all the locomotives in the fleet including the awesome NG15 / 4 x NGG Garratt line-up. 

Sandstone DVD's, book, and videos 

We have a number of titles available to order as follows:

Anyone wishing to place an order in SA please contact Babita Hira on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively those wishing to place an order in the UK or elsewhere please contact Joanne West on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Sandstone DVDs, book and videos.

We have a number of titles available which can be ordered through our SA and UK office.

For all those wishing to place orders in SA contact Babita Hira at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Alternatively for those wishing to place orders through our UK office contact Joanne West at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Saturday 14th May 2011, oom Manie Muller returned to the place of his birth, Compagnes Drift, for the first time since he left as an 11-year-old in 1942. 

He describes what he remembers about the Farm and particularly about the Water Mill ......

Click here to view the article. Opens a separate .pdf (130kb)

The Cosmos out flanked us this year but to celebrate its awakening we took Lawley No. 97 out early today (Friday, 13th April 2012) to catch the beauty of the flowers, the landscape, and the locomotive...

The photographs below were taken by an outstanding photographer, Tessa Joughin.  Our thanks go to her for letting us feature these on our web site.

The annual Autumn Steam and Heritage Gala at Sandstone Estates in the Eastern Free State is a moving feast.  The Sandstone ethos is to combine Heritage items in an agreeable setting.  One of the best ways to do this is to use the consists on the Narrow Gauge railway to showcase other Heritage items and categories, i.e. tractors, military, agricultural implements etc.  This year a popular addition is the mixed freight category were two beautifully restored MF 35’s mounted on a flat car ostensibly on their way to a dealer somewhere in the hinterland of South Africa.