Maintaining the permanent way is one of the key elements in running a railway and Sandstone is no exception. It is an ongoing task that sometimes seems to be never ending. It also falls under the scrutiny of the South African Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) and is one of the major elements in their regular inspections. Of course as we are 2ft Narrow Gauge which does not really feature on the South African railway system any more, apart from Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), although there no trains have run for a very long time. This often raises questions of specifications for track standards. We have had much debate with the RSR to explain that we do not run at normal Transnet speeds but at a much lower speed! We have established, after much discussion, that we maintain our track to Transnet branch line standards.
The weather over the last 9 months has also been disruptive with above average rainfall which has caused track movement and a great deal of sand and soil washed into the ballast which compromises the track stability. In late August we started a major programme of track maintenance using an outside contractor who was actually involved in building the original Sandstone railway line.
The railway has been divided into 3 sections for the work plan:
1 Hoekfontein Station and surrounding area.
2 Hoekfontein to Grootdraai Section.
3 Hoekfontein to Mooihoek Section.
These sections will be completed in time for our Cherry Festival event in November 2022. As you can see from the attached map, the “mountain section” has now been lifted and the rail system terminates at Vailima Siding. Although a popular feature, the Mountain Section was constantly damaged by inclement weather causing numerous washaways and track movement, and it was decided to remove it and the railway ends at Vailima Siding which still gives a spectacular climb up Pandora Bank in one direction and another climb out of Vailima in the other direction. This section will be attended to early in 2023.
We also had to replace a number of sleepers under the paving in the Hoekfontein complex which were corroding. This, in itself, was quite a job! Our picture gallery shows the lifted paving and new sleepers plus many areas where the ballast has been cleaned and vast amounts of soil, washed in by the rain, removed. In all instances the track has been levelled as required and corrected aligned.
Whilst the farm at Sandstone looks forward to the Summer rains we hope they will be kinder to our railway this year!
