Welcome to the Sandstone Estates website! Click on “About Us” to learn more about Sandstone and the Heritage collection.
Please note  we do not accept cash payments at Sandstone, only Debit Cards, Credit Cards, EFT payments & mobile application payments.

Because 90% of the company’s employees live on the farm they are considered as a single unit with a high degree of insulation from the broader public beyond our boundaries.  Obviously the regulations state that they should be confined to their homes but the farm does have dispensation as an agricultural enterprise with food production as its priority.  Therefore employees doing land preparation, doing baling of hay, land preparation for summer crops and livestock management are all on duty.  Our staff have been well briefed regarding the threats that exist and are going about their business in an intelligent way while at the same time remaining well separated from each other.  In this update we allow our visitors to spend a typical day with us on the farm at Sandstone Estates.  

AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES:- 

Firstly lets deal with our livestock.  We have many different categories of livestock and they are oblivious to the threat that exists to humans and carry on with their lives in a very benign way.  

We have a donkey sanctuary which provides a safe refuge for donkeys that are currently under threat worldwide.  The pictures below shows just a few of our donkeys including the rare bont variety i.e. multi coloured.

LIVESTOCK:-
Livestock is a big part of Sandstone’s agricultural strategy.  We have a large commercial herd of over 1000 cattle.  We started with less than 100 ten years ago and we have built the herd up very satisfactorily.  The pictures below are two 12 month old calves which have been weaned and are excellent examples of the quality of our herd. 

One non railway heritage item saved from the demise of the South African National Railway and Steam Museum (SANRASM) was an Aveling & Porter steam roller which became the subject of much research by Derek Rayner from Old Glory magazine in the UK. This steam roller was one of a number of road steam examples rescued from SANRASM but with no documentation, its history was a mystery.

Derek made initial contact with Sandstone in 2017 and then visited in 2019 for the Stars of Sandstone event. After concluding extensive research into the roller, Derek has now traced its origins and history which was featured in an article in the March 2020 edition of Old Glory. Sandstone would like to thank Derek Rayner for his hard work and for shedding light on the history of the Aveling & Porter.

Click here to read

Click here to view

NGG16A number 155 to use the modified engine units from number 141!

The original NGG16A number 141, modified at the Alfred County Railway (ACR) in 1989 and privately owned by Phil Mortimer and his son Phil, has been in storage at Sandstone since they purchased the locomotive from the ACR after the demise of the railway in 2004. The locomotive has its original engine units modified to the LD Porta principles unlike number 155 where unmodified units from 142 were fitted to the loco for a proposed overhaul of the modified ones. As ACR ran into difficulties this overhaul did not happen and 155 retained the unmodified units until purchased by Sandstone. As is well known 142 was scrapped at Paddock with 155’s engine units in 2017 after repeated attempts by Sandstone to purchase the locomotive from its owners were refused. See the sad story as featured in Narrow Gauge World magazine: https://www.sandstone-estates.com/images/pdf/nov2017/Narrow_Gauge_World_Nov2017.pdf

Click here to read the Steam Report

In line with President Ramaphosa’s announcement on the prohibition of gatherings of over 100 people due to the Covid-19 virus situation, the event scheduled to be held at Sandstone from 10th to 13th April has been cancelled. If you have made any pre bookings for accommodation please contact Leigh Sanders on 051 933 2235.