Railway Heritage

RN 10 - The Lawley reaches the summit at Vailima

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN10 The Lawley reaches the summit at Vailima

Falcon 4-4-0 Beira Railway No. 7 was the second Sandstone locomotive to reach the summit of the Vailima extension recently. After some minor track work, which eased some curvature, BR7 successfully negotiated the climb with a short train.
Pictures by Chloe Richardson.
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RN 09 - Sandstone Heritage Trust's NGG13 Garratt no 49 takes the sun.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

Sandstone Heritage Trust's NGG13 Garratt no 49 takes the sun.

After a two year restoration at Sandstone Heritage Trust's Bloemfontein facility 2 ft gauge Class NGG13 Garratt locomotive no 49 (Hanomag 10599/1928) takes its first rays of sunlight in super shine condition. The locomotive, which lay derelict at the back of Spoornet's Springs steam depot for some 10 years in the company of now restored Class NG15 no 17 prior to transfer to Sandstone, is almost ready for the move to the Sandstone Heritage Trust running line near Ficksburg.At present the locomotive is missing a number of non ferrous parts which have been used to complete the Class NGG11 Garratt no.55 recently out shopped by Sandstone for the Paton Country Railway at Ixopo. Sandstone has committed to PCNGR that these parts may be utilised on no.55 until they can obtain replacements. As soon as these parts can be obtained from an alternative source no.49 will commissioned and will be the only operating Class NGG13 in the world. RN_09_01_rn9_s

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RN 08 - The Narrow Gauge NG11 No.55 takes it's first run

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 08 - The Narrow Gauge NG11 No.55 takes it's first run

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RN 03 - Guards Van donated by Sandstone Heritage Trust to Welsh Highland Railway

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 03 - Guards Van donated by Sandstone Heritage Trust to Welsh Highland Railway

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RN 02 - The Vailima Track Extension

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

The Vailima Track Extension

Sandstone Heritage Trust's 2-ft narrow gauge railway line at Sandstone Estates in the Eastern Free State is under construction again. An additional 1.5 kms is being constructed through the fruit orchards at
Vailima farm. This will eventually complete the balloon back to Vailima Siding. The reliable and experienced contractors, Messrs. Goldfield Track, are once again the on-site contractors.
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RN 01 - April '04 - Sandstone continues the transportation of 2-ft narrow diesels and steam locomotives from Beirra

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 1 - April '04 - Sandstone continues the transportation of 2-ft narrow diesels and steam locomotives from Beirra

In cooperation with Sena Sugar, the Sandstone Heritage Trust acquired a broad cross-section of locomotives, spare parts, machine tools and rolling stock and other items. Some of these have now been moved to Beira and the exercise of moving them to the Sandstone Heritage Trust site in the Eastern Free State has commenced.

Two of the company's Freightliners with low beds, driven by Leon Flynn and Willem de Klerk, recently made the long and arduous trip to Beira. The total distance was 2587 kilometres. It took 10 days and 1354 litres of diesel were consumed at a total of R4522.00, at a total of around 1.91 Litres per Km.

The transportation of these items was something of an experiment because one of the 0-6-0 Pecketts had already been shipped late last year by sea from Beira to Durban where it was collected.
The cost effectiveness of the operation was measured, and it has been decided to arrange a combination of sea and road for the rest of the haulage programme.

The remaining items, some of which are featured in the attached photographs, will move by sea to the Port of Maputo where they will be collected by the company's heavy vehicles and then transported to the Eastern Free State. The major reason for this is the state of the roads in the northern sector approaching Beira.


RN 121 - Reef Steamers Magazine Article by John Batwell - "The Victoria Falls Bridge"

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 121 - Reef Steamers Magazine Article by John Batwell - "The Victoria Falls Bridge"


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RN 178 - Download and read the latest Cape Rail Enthusiast Association's Newsletter (CREA)

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 178 - CREA Newsletter - June 2006

CREA Newsletter May 2006 - Download here >> 

RN 99 - The Sunday Times, 25 September 2005 - Article on The Avontuur Adventurer - by Paul Ash "A slow train coming"

Unfortunately this article is no longer available

RN 84 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive boiler

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 84 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive boiler

Related articles at the bottom of page >>

The Feldbahn boiler has been stripped down, all the tubes removed and the plates have been thickness tested etc. The interior has been thoroughly cleaned and found to need surprisingly little work.

The accompanying photographs show the inside of the boiler and the arrangement of the stays around the firebox area and the refurbished tube plates.

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RN 193 - Lest we forget, this is what the Feldbahn looked like when it arrived from the UK
RN 192 - Feldbahn locos working in Eastern Europe
RN 176 - Bloemfontein. Brigade (Feldbahn) Locomotive
RN 163 - Our Brigade (Feldbahn) restoration proceeds apace.
RN 148 - The Brigade Loco (Feldbahn) makes more steady progress
RN 132 - The Feldbahn being restored by Sandstone Bloemfontein workshops is proceeding steadily
RN 84 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive boiler
RN 72 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive

RN 72 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 72 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive

Related articles at the bottom of page >>

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Work is continuing on the ex Sena Feldbahn locomotive recently returned from Europe.

It has been completely stripped down and a list of the missing parts compiled. An assessment of the boiler is currently being carried out using some high tech equipment imported from overseas. This establishes the thickness of the boiler plates and thus its suitability for repair and further use. Early signs are encouraging.

There are also some photographs of restored Feldbahns in France taken by European enthusiast Phillipe Maurer. This is what the finished article should look like. Note by the way the very nice little turntable! (Below right).

A very interesting item on the Feldbahn locomotives is the Klein Lindner type of axle. Originally fitted to the front and rear, the latter has been removed and a plain axle substituted, with wheel flanges removed. This form of construction served instead of a leading pony truck, enabling an extra set of driving wheels to be fitted at the expense of considerable extra complexity. One side effect is that it seems to make it difficult if not impossible to turn the tyres in a conventional fashion. RN_72_02feldbahn_on_turntable_in_f_
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RN 193 -Lest we forget, this is what the Feldbahn looked like when it arrived from the UK
RN 192 - Feldbahn locos working in Eastern Europe
RN 176 - Bloemfontein. Brigade (Feldbahn) Locomotive
RN 163 - Our Brigade (Feldbahn) restoration proceeds apace.
RN 148 - The Brigade Loco (Feldbahn) makes more steady progress
RN 132 - The Feldbahn being restored by Sandstone Bloemfontein workshops is proceeding steadily
RN 84 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive boiler
RN 72 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive

RN 32 - Vintage railcar taking shape in the workshop

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN32 - Vintage railcar taking shape in the workshop

Some time ago Sandstone Heritage Trust was offered a strange looking chassis that had been found under a pile of scrap in a breakers yard.


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The wheels are 2ft gauge and consist of a four wheel bogie with a two wheel axle at the other end. No engine, mechanicals or body unfortunately and no immediate clue as to its identity. Could it be the remains of the forty seater Wickham railcar built for Consolidated Gold mines in 1956 which had a similar layout, possible as that has disappeared, or is it something else perhaps that Dunns or one of the old rail industry companies acquired or even produced?
Whatever its origins it was obviously too good to scrap so was placed in safe undercover storage in the hope that more information would be forthcoming at a later date.
More recently Sandstone was offered the body and some other parts of a circa 1910 BSA car. This once grand vehicle was an open four seater tourer but as it was far from complete and looked to be another interesting item that would also be saved for posterity but with little chance of seeing the light of day in any meaningful way again.

However, following Desmond Clarke's restoration of the small narrow gauge Wickham trolley it was decided to see if the narrow gauge rail chassis and BSA tourer body could somehow be united into one unique inspection car, reminiscent of those old scenes of early days of African railways and tours of inspection by the management.

Desmond got busy and gathered all the parts together in the workshop to see if such a vehicles was possible and lo and behold, with a lot of work, the period radiator from the car, a modern engine, gearbox, drive train and accessories, and some high class mechanical work and panel beating, turn of the century upholstery and trim it will all fit together and look like it was made that way.

Another interesting feature will be a hydraulically driven turntable mounted underneath, similar to those under the modern Trackmaster inspection vehicles, to enable the vehicle to be turned at the end of the line rather than having to run for several kilometers in reverse with the risk of damage to engine or gearbox. In the days of yore the line's General Manager would have had his party of African bearers but that's probably not politically correct these days!

Fortunately the workshop staff have plenty of expertise with hydraulic equipment as there is a lot of it fitted to modern agricultural machinery.
In the process of turning two interesting artifacts into one interesting and useful piece of vintage rail equipment Desmond and the other staff concerned will gain an enormous amount of knowledge and skills not normally able to be gained by the younger generation which will stand them in good stead for the future – empowerment at its best and most interesting.
Work continues as the accompanying illustrations show and there will be regular updates on the website.

 

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Further work has been done over the Christmas period which has included a trial fit of one of the BSA mudguards. Still in unrestored conditioned it gives an idea of what the finished article will look like when complete.

Desmond has also fitted a differential or reduction drive rear flat belt pulley mounted PTO (power take off).
from a Massey Ferguson 135. He took off the flat belt pulley, put a sprocket on it, which now makes this
sprocket on the back just visible on the left-hand-side. It is a very heavy duty reduction box which will do an excellent job.
That is one of the advantages of rail preservation alongside a big agricultural operation because you have access to lots of interesting parts that, provided you are prepared to use some lateral thinking, can serve a variety of different uses.

RN 07 - The Eastern Free State - An unlikely destination for world class steam Heritage preservation

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

The Eastern Free State - An unlikely destination for world class steam Heritage preservation

An event was held over the weekend where an 80 year old locomotive was put through its paces after having been rehabilitated. The Sandstone Heritage Trust which is part of the large Sandstone Estates commercial farming operation has a significant steam restoration capability.

Normally this facility preoccupies itself with the restoration of rare locomotives which have been saved throughout the SADC region.

Over a year ago however, a locomotive was rescued in Natal. This NGG11 was one of three survivors in South Africa, of which none were in operation. The Alan Paton Railway at Ixopo were given the locomotive in order to boost the tourism and job creation potential in their area. The Sandstone Heritage Trust agreed to restore the locomotive and this task was completed in just on a year.

The leader of the team handling the restoration was Lukas Nel, assisted by his wife Anna. They in turn were supported by qualified steam fitters and apprentices.

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The Sandstone Heritage Trust is twinned with the Ffeistiniog and Welsh Highland Railway in Wales, the oldest preserved railway on earth. Lukas Nel and Leon Myburgh, his assistant, will be travelling to the UK next month in order to exchange ideas on the latest engineering techniques needed to bring these venerable old steam engines to life.

Today commercial farming needs to remain commercially viable in order to be successful. More and more the Sandstone Heritage Trust workshops at Sandstone Estates are being recognised as a world class engineering facility and enquiries are being received from around the world for assistance with regard to locomotive rehabilitation.

Steam Railways are a growing tourist phenomena throughout the western world in particular.


RN 06 - Sena Narrow gauge locomotives arrive in South Africa

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 06 - Sena Narrow gauge locomotives arrive in South Africa

On Wednesday 14 July 2004 a further batch of heritage locomotives arrived in South Africa.
These were purchased from the Sena Sugar Estates by Sandstone Heritage Trust and bring to ten the number of locomotives in South Africa from this world famous sugar cane railway.

Latest 2ft gauge arrivals are four Baguley Drewry 0-6-0DMs, nos. D6, D7, D8, D11.

The other new arrivals are 3ft 6in gauge Peckett 0-6-0Ts No. 6, works no. 2141, built 1954 and No. 7,works no. 2165, this being the last Peckett built in 1958.

They were shipped on Sena Sugar Estates barge from Marromeu to Beira, then transferred to a coastal vessel for onward shipment to Durban from where they will be collected by Sandstone's own trucks.

These join the other ex Sena 2ft gauge locomotives - Peckett no. 14 2161/1957, no. 11 2143/1953, Baguley Drewry diesel No. 10 and Ruston and Hornsby 48DL Mk 2 No. SSE 5.

The diesels will be going to Sandstone's diesel refurbishment works near Bloemfontein, and the steam locomotives to Sandstone Heritage Trust at Hoekfontein.

Further locomotives and other equipment are expected in due course.

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RN 05 - NGG11 no: 55 passes its final test

Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News

RN 05 - NGG11 no: 55 passes its final test

In an intensive two days of steaming on the 24th and 25th of July and with varied loads, Paton Country Narrow Gauge Railway's 1925 built 2 foot gauge Beyer Peacock Garratt locomotive no:55 was declared fit for its transfer from Sandstone Heritage Trust, in the Eastern Free State, to its permanent base at the Ixopo depot of PCNGR.

The loco which had been plinthed at Weenen Station in Kwa Zulu Natal for some 20 odd years, was restored from near scrap condition by the Sandstone Heritage Trust under the supervision of Lukas Nel.

This intensive rebuild included the manufacture of many new parts which had long since been removed during its time in Kwa Zulu Natal.

First steamed in late June no: 55 had very few problems during its commissioning trials at Sandstone and no major work was required.

Over the two days the loco operated on the full Sandstone system, including the new Vailima extension and was also double headed with its more modern sister, NGG16 Garratt no: 113.

No: 55 is one of three remaining Class NGG11 locomotives still in existence but is the only one currently in working order. Until the commissioning of the K1 Garratt at the Welsh Highland Railway, it is currently the oldest operating Garratt locomotive in the world.

It is expected to make the road journey to KZN by Sandstone's own transport early in August for commissioning at Ixopo. It will be the largest locomotive at Ixopo and is expected to see an intensive season hauling trains on the fledgling PCNGR.

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