Its Cherry Festival time! An added attraction at Sandstone will be the Classic Flying collection team with two Tiger Moth aircraft and two Chipmunk aircraft in action. Flips may be available but this is subject to weather conditions.

Thanks to the efforts of Danie Pretorius and his team, our Stationary Engine collection at Sandstone has its own museum. If you search for “Stationary Engine Museum” on the Sandstone website your first document listed will be the stock list. https://www.sandstone-estates.com/index.php/stationary-engines-62/43-stationary-engines/3512-the-stationary-engine-collection

Sandstone played host to the International Police Association (IPA)-Free State National Council  meeting recently. The IPA has been in existence for over 60 years and has a membership of 420,000 members worldwide. In South Africa the IPA branch was started 37 years ago but the National Council meeting was being held in the Free State for the first time. Although attending a four day meeting event, the IPA is a non-profit organisation with a goal of outreach to charitable organisations as well as visiting some places of interest. At Sandstone our Team hosted the 46 strong IPA group as well as 16 children from David’s Place in Ficksburg. David’s Place is a children’s home and NGO that relies on donations for its good work. The children and the IPA guests were treated to a train ride plus an Ox wagon ride. At the close of the visit  the IPA presented each of the children from David’s Place with a gift hamper, which included clothing. A most welcome donation for the children. All in all, a wonderful day out for the IPA and the children from David’s Place, Sandstone salutes the International Police Association South Africa for their good work!

Our gallery shows a selection of the day’s activities.

Some changes at Sandstone Steam Railway

The very heavy rains experienced during the latter part of 2021 and into 2022 severely damaged the Mountain Section of the railway. This is the section from Vailima Siding which looped around the area of the Farm School below the Sandstone mountain and re-joined  the line at Pandora Junction. As this section sees very limited use and suffered damage on a regular basis from inclement weather, it was decided to lift the section from Vailima Siding around to Pandora Junction. As much as we regret having to do doing this the constant repairs required from weather damage were excessive.