Rescue of Rand Water Board "Nigerian" locomotives by Sandstone Estates

One of the most rewarding things about having a web site is the amount of useful information that is supplied to us voluntarily from people around the world who have often had firsthand experience with the locomotives or railway artefacts in question. Andrew Boucher is one such person and he has attached this delightful photograph and interesting background as to how he came to be involved with this class of locomotive.

I was interested to hear of the rescue of these locomotives by Sandstone Estates in August. You refer to them as "Nigerian" type, but did you know that the Gold Coast (Ghana) Railway also had 27 of this type, delivered between 1930 and 1953,the most obvious difference being a larger cab than the S.A. locos.

I lived in Ghana in 1964,and made many good friends on the railway at Kumasi. They were very kind to me and I spent many hours driving these locos while shunting in the yards there, although as a small boy I found them heavy to handle! I attach a photograph taken on one such occasion.

Sadly, Ghana Railways saw fit to scrap all its steam locomotives, and those surviving in Nigeria may have been cut up by now, so I was pleased to learn that Sandstone had snatched these two from the jaws of the scrap man!

Regards
Andrew Boucher