Timeslive recently broke a story on the fate of ESKOM’s historic steam locomotives. Back in 2011, ESKOM retrieved their locomotives from SANRASM and most people probably didn’t think any more about it assuming they were safely in a warehouse at Rosherville. However, ongoing industrial railway research by John Middleton discovered the locomotives dumped on the ground in the open in a remote part of the Rosherville complex where they have lain for 10 years. The historic 1879 built KITSON was taken out of the yard in 2016, repainted and plinthed in the Rosherville complex and appears secure but the others make quite a woeful sight.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/news/2021-03-03-eskoms-plans-to-restore-heritage-steam-engines-get-derailed/

The five locomotives still in the yard are all unique
BARCLAY, 1907 built 2-4-0T originally Jersey Railway (Channel Islands) No. 5 and the only survivor of that railway – it came to SA in 1928
HUNSLET, 1902 built 2-6-0ST, the last survivor of a design originally built as Table Bay Harbour Board locomotives
AVONSIDE, 1928 built 4-8-2T and the last survivor of the “Super Avonside” design meant as a competitor to the North British 4-8-2T design
HENSCHEL, 1950 built 2-6-2T an unusual one-off ordered by ESKOM for coal traffic
“BERLINER”, 1926 built 0-6-0T, originally Blinkpan Colliery

The positive side of this story is that it elicited a positive response that clearly opens the door to partners coming in and assisting ESKOM to save these very historic locomotives from a decay into oblivion.

The question now is how to build on this.

DSTV Channel, Kyknet, will broadcast a feature on the Sandstone Oxen on March 8 2021 at 21h00. Kyknet is on DSTV Channel 144 and you can view a short teaser below

https://youtu.be/6JSTI6qW74w

Recently a goods train on its way from Bloemfontein to Maseru de-railed due to the collapse of sections of the rail close to the junction of the line to Lesotho at Marseilles.  As one can see from the pictures these trucks were badly damaged and scattered along the railway line.  Fortunately most of them were full of maize and a few of them contained wheat which was unceremoniously dumped in the veld.  Nu-Pro, a well-respected local grain trading organisation, contacted Sandstone on an emergency basis and asked if we could somehow pick up these commodities and put them into trailers for removal to a nearby grain silo.  Fortunately Sandstone has in its mechanisation division a number of Agrivac machines built in Canada.  These are custom built machines which operate like giant vacuum cleaners and they can suck up material off of the ground and distribute it through pipes to wherever you want to store it.  Within a few hours a team under Josef Mokoroane, our experienced silo manager, assisted by another Sandstone stalwart Poni Ramohloki was on site together with Raymond Hohls from Sandstone.   This team completed the entire job in 4 days which resulted in the recovery of some 230 tons of grain. 

The Vickers QF 3.7inch anti-aircraft gun.

In many ways because of the significance of our 2ft narrow gauge railway in particular any other categories of preservation at Sandstone tend to be overlooked.  One of the most significant of these is our collection of military vehicles which was assembled over many years in association with the SA Armour Museum in Bloemfontein.  This arrangement is a very good example of a public private sector partnership which has worked well for both parties over the years.