Railway Heritage
RN 09 - Sandstone Heritage Trust's NGG13 Garratt no 49 takes the sun.
Sandstone Heritage Trust's NGG13 Garratt no 49 takes the sun.
RN 08 - The Narrow Gauge NG11 No.55 takes it's first run
RN 02 - The Vailima Track Extension
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"
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)
RN 178 - CREA Newsletter - June 2006
RN 99 - The Sunday Times, 25 September 2005 - Article on The Avontuur Adventurer - by Paul Ash "A slow train coming"
RN 84 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive boiler
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.
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
RN 72 - Work continues on Feldbahn locomotive
Related articles at the bottom of page >>
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. | ![]() |
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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
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.
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.
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
The Eastern Free State - An unlikely destination for world class steam Heritage preservation
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
RN 05 - NGG11 no: 55 passes its final test
Sandstone Heritage Trust - Rail News