Six hours by the riverside

Our bus brought us out to Perdeberg for a view of the railway bridge over the Modder River on the line between Kimberley and Bloemfontein, where our first scheduled stop for lineside photography was planned with 25NC 3437 hauling a cement train.

It was an interesting spot which we reached around 9am after a little ramble through thick greenery, hoping not to find out what might have made the rather large burrows on the riverbank. I wondered how 70 photographers would find sufficient spots on the riverside, but somehow we found a way to spread out. However, the view still required a little bit of work to make it suitable for a large group of photographers. One of our group stripped off and got into the river to clear the tall reeds obstructing the view. Undoubtedly, the most heroic bit of shot clearance I have ever seen!

A South African class 45-000 diesel-electric runs light engine over the bridge in the midday sun after a working to Kimberley

Our train didn’t seem to be making an appearance anytime soon, so we set about chopping down some overhanging tree branches and then collectively dragged these away. Who needs Brexit when you can have a new age of Anglo-German cooperation instead!? Eventually news filtered back that our steam locomotive was in fine fettle, but the diesels had failed. Somehow we rustled up every available ounce of remaining patience, talking about anything and everything – with a little bit of Midnight Oil in-between.

It was 3pm when our train finally appeared. The sight of 25NC 3437 with the cement train was rather wonderful and deserved the round of applause that followed the first of four runpasts. After the train passed everyone got moving to take up new positions. I headed over the bridge trying not to think about the thin metal plating visibly flexing as we walked across. I have become accustomed to focusing straight ahead and not on the long drop… still, this was better than the Burmese and Turkish bridge crossings I have experienced.

On the other side some rusting cars had been repositioned for best photographic effect, providing a second spot, followed by a third shot from the other riverbank and then finally one from up top, back across the other side of the river. An hour of frenetic but intensely rewarding photography.

25NC 3437 crosses the Modder river with a cement train

The day concluded with a shot from atop a hill looking down on the river bridge (with access kindly provided by a local farmer) and then a remarkable glint spectacle at a crossroads in the last moments of sun. A quite incredible finale, prompting another round of applause. As we headed away most of us were still marvelling how a day that felt quite hopeless turned around in the last two hours.

A widespread blackout was evident as we drove back into Bloemfontein at the end of our day with residential areas in darkness, traffic lights off and streetlights out. We have largely been spared the effects of loadshedding as they call it here, but this was a stark reminder of the problems facing the country.

As a side note, I was able to reflect on a surprising family connection as I stood at our increasingly muddy spot by the riverside. My great-uncle served with the Wiltshire Regiment during the second Anglo-Boer War at the Battle of Paardeburg, fighting on the banks of the Modder River by the railway bridge. What are the chances that I would end up here over 100 years later!? It is a surprisingly small world sometimes.

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Spurts of steam action

Our second morning with the remarkable 25NC produced spurts of action, carefully timed to try and match up with the short lived bursts of sun under otherwise cloudy skies on the banking away from Broadwater, just outside Douglas.

25NC 3437 climbs the bank at Broadwater

The landscape here was more agricultural, with a distinctive red earth in the ploughed fields beyond the track. This was followed by a long and tasty brunch on the terrace in the Broadwater Estate with a view across the river Vaal.

In the afternoon we made a return to the rocky outcrop we climbed yesterday, a little further down the line towards Belmont. The sun had completely disappeared by this point and the weather radar indicated that heavy rain was about to hit. We managed to squeak in a few runpasts before the rain arrived, heading on to Kimberley when it became clear that the rain had set in for the day.

Steaming out of the history books

After our little steam tasters in Pretoria everyone was eager to move on to the main event, photographing a run from Belmont to Douglas with a class 25NC (non-condensing) 4-8-4 steam locomotive hauling a freight train.

25NC 3437 on the line between Belmont and Douglas

The 25NCs were the most powerful steam locomotives on the South African Railway network for many years, along with 90 condensing versions of the 25 built at the same time. Fifty 25NCs were constructed between 1953 and 1955: 11 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow and 39 by Henschel at Kassel in Germany. All but three of the 90 condensing versions of the 25 were later converted to non-condensing, in the 1970s and 80s. Our locomotive for the day, 25NC 3437, was one of the original batch of non-condensing locomotives built at Kassel.

The class first saw service in 1953 and some were still in commercial use as late as 1997 due to the locomotive shortages in the country. It took a quite extraordinary effort of engineering, negotiation and paperwork, as well as considerable investment, to bring these locomotives back to use on the mainline, in spite of the seemingly endless difficulties to be overcome. And at the end of all that, here we were by the lineside at sunrise waiting for the seemingly impossible to happen. After more than two decades a 25NC would once again grace the tracks.

Over the course of the day we photographed 25NC 3437 hauling her freight train between Belmont and Douglas, with some terrific views from a hilltop near Sheephouse, before finishing up with some shots around the derelict station at Douglas in the last light of the day. I’ve never seen these massive locomotives in action before but what a majestic sight they cut crossing the South African landscape. It was worth coming out here to see this.

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