As part of an ongoing social media programme, Ford has been producing two minute video productions which are aired on social media, particularly Facebook. The productions, which will run to 26 episodes, are of visits to Ford owners and users throughout South Africa and their experiences with Ford products with both modern and older vehicles featured.
The film crew visited Sandstone Estates on July 12th to film our experiences with Ford vehicles which range from a 1915 Model T, a 1930 Model A and various trucks and tractors from the 50’s and 60’s to modern Ford Ranger bakkies. Although Ford is no longer a producer of tractors under its brand name, Sandstone have a number of Ford models from the 50’s that still give sterling service on the farm.
Our 1935 Ford V8 pick up which is unrestored from new and our 1951 Ford F100, which journeyed to the Equator on a rally in 2006, were featured by the film crew.
The final sequence was with one of Canadian Ford military units from WW2 which was driven towards Grootdraai where the film crew met 20 oxen especially inspanned for the occasion. As a tribute to Ford one of the oxen had been named “Ford” for the occasion.
Our picture gallery features the line up of Ford vehicles for the shoot, Alina Halafu, from our farm office being interviewed, filming the Canadian Ford with our 20 Oxen inspanned and finally, “Ford”, our newly named Oxen.
We will keep you posted when the episode, number17, is aired on social media.
The regulator assembly for the NG10 is now complete and ready to be fitted the locomotive. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show the components and in particular the dome assembly for the regulator valve. Work will continue on a number of other items as we approach the steam test of number 61.
The James Hall Museum of Transport will celebrate Madiba’ s Centenary with an open day at the James Hall Museum in Johannesburg on 21st July. Sandstone has a long standing relationship with the museum and we urge you to support this worthy cause. Full details are on the attached flyer.
Frameline have produced a large number of video features for Sandstone since the inception of the Sandstone Railway. A large amount of footage was kept as reference for the Sandstone Archives and has not been previously seen. We shall be showcasing a number of these clips over the next few months and we begin with Sandstone’s visit to Angola in 2003 which resulted in the rescue of a number of locomotives from dereliction including the 1899 Decauville, “Bathala” featured in the link below.
Work continues at Bloemfontein on Phase 1 of the cosmetic restoration of this loco for Transnet. After stripping the locomotive as in our last report attention is now concentrated on descaling the various components. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show work on the cab, tender tank and boiler.
Whether you have booked or are still deciding about it, Stars of Sandstone 2019 is not to be missed. Have a look at our newly released video of what this event holds in store. You should not miss it!
As we are fabricating many parts from scratch we have had to slow down a bit but will soon pick up the pace. Our pictures from Lukas Nel show the newly fabricated reversing ratchet, part of the drop grate, the finishing touches on the roof and more small parts for the regulator assembly and main steam pipe.
