Sandstone has just concluded the sale of two AY ballast hoppers to the Wiscasset,Waterville and Farmington Railway in Maine, USA, to assist them with maintaining their line and a possible extension in the future. You can read the article on this link. https://railfan.com/wwf-to-purchase-narrow-gauge-south-african-ballast-hoppers/
Chris, Garth and Basil finished up on Friday 22nd March after a very successful week of work. Just as they were leaving some new acquisitions arrived from Rouxville.
Our videos for Part 3 show: The Allis WD starting up, the Massey Harris 745 running and the Case 800 running and heading for a test drive.
The Tractor Volunteers group at Sandstone in early March 2024. Three volunteer vintage tractor stalwarts, Garth, Chris and Basil have been doing maintenance and light repairs at Sandstone this week. They have also been doing assessments on some unusual tractors that have never run there before with a view to getting them up and running.
Due to the extreme drought conditions being experienced in the eastern Free State of South Africa and the associated fire risks with such conditions, plus the fact that we are approaching harvest time much quicker than normal due to this drought, we have had to restrict visitor access to Sandstone and will only be able to host the walking tours of our Heritage collection on Saturdays when special staff will be on standby.
We would request, however, that you book in advance if possible.
We are, however, able to accommodate large groups on any day that they would like to visit. Such groups would be handled on an ad hoc basis because special arrangements will need to be made to accommodate them and bookings must be made well in advance
For all visits to Sandstone, please contact Mariette Palmer on e mail:
Another Fowler from Mount Edgecombe Sugar Estate, Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa. Sandstone’s “Sandy” has a sister!
When the current owners of Sandstone purchased the farm a Unimog 406 was part of the sale. This has been used as a Fire Engine for a number of years. In late 2023 it was time to give the Unimog a refresh and the Modern Workshop at Sandstone, under the guidance of Janki Palmer, took on the job together with a respray.
Sandstone is sorry to announce that the Volunteering event planned for Easter 2024 (March 25th to April 1st) has been cancelled.
We have decided to postpone this event to later in 2024 or early 2025 . We believe that Easter is not a suitable time to run this programme as it has caused confusion, with many of our supporters, that we are holding a public event, namely the Easter Festival, as we have run in the past. We have announced previously that we will not be holding any public events during 2024 as we need to update a number of our facilities at Sandstone so running the Volunteer event would be inappropriate.
May we thank you in advance for your understanding on this matter.
Some time ago we acquired two of these steam powered drilling machines and one of them is now back in working condition.