Found this picture of Sezela No 3 amongst my sugar cane pictures, and thought you would perhaps be interested in it, seeing that Sezela No. 3 is at Sandstone. The picture was taken by the late Eric Angus, I estimate about 1966 to 1968. From the structures in the back ground it would seem at the mill.

Best

Regards

Hannes

While up in Ixopo Denis Usher and Andy Selfe visited with an artist friend who is based there, Mat Lourens.
Mat has perfected a very unique technique of "sand painting". He has done a picture of a steam train on the line near Creighton. It is absolutely beautiful and the medium he uses makes the picture come alive. The picture really does not do the painting the justice that it deserves. These paintings are unique in that Mat is the only person in the world that does them in this way.

The picture is done completely without any paint and only undyed mineral sand is used.
Mat paints with a special glue, which will not discolour or crack and then sprinkles the necessary colour of sand over that area and when dry, removes the excess. He developed the technique for Richards Bay Minerals to do a mural for their foyer 15 years ago, using their products instead of paint. So these are valuable strategic metals mined from the beach at Richards Bay.

This painting is virtually indestructable!

Unfortunately this image does not really show it to its full advantage, because the normal paintings have their colour on the surface whereas this has its colour within the translucent grain so with a strong light the colour comes from within the grain giving a tremendous 3D effect.
This is just a small file to facilitate downloading but should be interested in a larger file or a file showing the sequence, Mat would be glad to send it to you. Any further info would also be gladly sent to you. It may also be of interest to view Mat’s website at www.matlouwrens.co.za
You can contact Mat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tessa Joughin sums up the essence of our recent weekend visit by the Tractor & Machinery Holiday Club - 18th/19th February 2007.

We have sprayed the weeds on the railway line, preparing for the Steam Weekend.

General repairs were made to NG 4.

Here you see us steaming up the locos for the Kelsey Tour group.

Preparing and cleaning the Lawley for some beautiful photos!

We prepared all the big locos very early in the morning!
Stocking the Sentinel steam truck with coal.

Steaming the crane to do the days work.

Planning for the next week:

Move all the old Garratts and other locos and wagons to the storage line.
Join together the Port Shepstone Garratt and bring it down from Vailima load onto the storage line.
Shunt all the wagons and steam portables that were used during the steam weekend back into the loco sheds.
Clean the fires and smoke boxes of all the locos and portables that were steamed during the weekend.

A busy weekend over 17th-19th February resulted in some top class photographers making the trip to Sandstone Estates to see what was happening. Dennis Moore, one of the most accomplished of our photographers and the author of the magnificent book 'Sunset of Steam' featuring the dying days of steam in South Africa, both Cape Gauge and Narrow Gauge, has sent us these photographs.

Dennis, thank you for these great photographs. It is the only reward we need for organising these weekends.

Newly restored NG4 with a small mixed freight configuration. NG4 is not a small locomotive and it can therefore be double headed with some of the bigger horsepower narrow gauge locomotives at Sandstone. Here she is double headed with NGG 16, No. 153.

Again double headed, this time with our Peckett Saddle tank, No.2161

Reefsteamers report that their 15CA 2056 ran their first official main line
trip. Thanks very much to Shaun Ackerman for the update. Reefsteamers are
extremely competent at restoring and returning locomotives to steam. The
proof is there for all to see. Report below:

"Our 15CA 2056 ran her first official mainline trip on Thurs, 1st March hauling the Shongololo train from Nasrec back to Germiston. The short spur out of Nasrec is not the most photogenic but is extremely steeply graded and the locomotive was captured any how just leaving the spur and re joining the mainline with a crystal clear bark disturbing the peace.

What a wonderful sight and sound!"

Please see our website for the full story and more pictures.
www.reefsteamers.co.za