Highs and lows

Our last day with the 25NC had many highs and lows. The first low was quite literal – waking up to zero degrees in Bloemfontein after a night with no heating due to load shedding (the backup power at our hotel was not strong enough for heating or power sockets). As uncomfortable as this was, it was put into perspective on seeing the many fires on open ground around the city with folk huddled up trying to stay warm.

The first shot of the day came on the approach to the station at Kloofeind, though we had a little wait here. A blackout in Bloemfontein meant that all signals had gone to black and our loco couldn’t leave until power was restored. Thankfully, the delay was short and after a runpast at the water tower (10:45) we moved on to a nearby road bridge offering a viewpoint for another couple of runpasts (11:15-25). After this, the loco set back into the station for coaling. A departure shot came next, followed by a shot at the nearby signals (13:00-30).

The hilltop view at Kloofeind

The next shot took a little more effort. It had been arranged that a local farmer would give us access to his property so that we could reach a viewpoint looking down on the railway at Kloofeind, one of the best positions on the line. It took over 30 minutes climbing up and down, across five hill ridges, to reach the fantastic view across the valley from which we were able to enjoy three runpasts. It was absolutely stunning. The walk back down was a little quicker, though it took a little while before everyone could make it down and the buses could leave the farm (15:52).

Finally, the day came to an end a little further down the line at De Brug where we enjoyed two runpasts through the station and at the level crossing beyond in the last light of the day. It was interesting to see a regular freight pass through De Brug amidst this (16:59) with a train much longer than our already quite long steam hauled cement train.

Looking back over the past week I am not convinced that I made the most of the photographic opportunities in front of me. Overall, it worked pretty well despite the large group (around 70 photographers). At one or two spots it might have helped if I was a bit faster at reaching the optimum spots on foot or by rock scrambling, though in other locations the vastness of the African landscape meant that everyone could pick a good location to shoot from. Mind you, I don’t think I’ve ever come away from a trip feeling satisfied with what I have achieved!

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An afternoon at Bloemfontein depot

The plan for our third day involved a double header of 25NCs but when this was derailed, quite literally, we were left with an afternoon visit to the impressive collection of steam locos at the very secure Bloemfontein depot and the wonderful variety of vintage electric and diesel locomotives scattered around them (including an E1, South Africa’s first mainline electric locomotive).

Bloemfontein depot

Although I didn’t take a systematic record of what I saw, I noted the following steam locomotives from classes 7 (981); 11; 15AR (1850); 15F (2976 and 3040); 19D (3332); 23 (3300); 24 (3631 and 3690); 25NC (3410 and 3454); and GMAM (4136). Among the other locos was a Class 5E1, Series 2, electric loco (E613).

I hadn’t appreciated the connection with Mainline Steam in NZ until wandering down the line of locos, belatedly connecting the dots and realising that the locos I had seen in the sidings in Auckland in 2015 had come from here (two Class 25NCs and a Garrett Class GMAM).

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