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Contents Front page ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 My Love Affair with Railways: HL Pivnic ......................................................................................................... 3 Where do I begin? ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Brunswick green DS no.513 Congella ........................................................................................................ 6 South Africa’s Blue Train ............................................................................................................................ 7 The Boys Book of South African Engines by Francis H. Sibson. ................................................................ 8 Charlie McLean......................................................................................................................................... 15 “Spoorweë is in sy Bloed” ......................................................................................................................... 16 Masters of Steam...................................................................................................................................... 19 Theo Espitalier Frank Holland and Frank Garrison ................................................................................... 20 Railway & Photographic Society of Southern Africa ................................................................................. 20 Trams ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 David Sheperd .......................................................................................................................................... 29 Historic Transport Association .................................................................................................................. 30 16E no.855 ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Class 25 No 3496 ..................................................................................................................................... 31 South African Transport – road – rail – sea – air ...................................................................................... 32 Jubilee Special.......................................................................................................................................... 35 Camaraderie: Jubilee Special ................................................................................................................... 36 Inspections by motor trolley ...................................................................................................................... 41 Fauresmith ................................................................................................................................................ 43 Steamsound ............................................................................................................................................. 43 Union Express & SA Vaal ......................................................................................................................... 44 Railway Museum ...................................................................................................................................... 45 Union of South Africa ................................................................................................................................ 47 1984: SAR Police Award .......................................................................................................................... 49 Railway Dining Cars in South Africa ......................................................................................................... 50 1985: Museum .......................................................................................................................................... 51 Rohan Vos ................................................................................................................................................ 54 South African Railways & Harbours: Photo Journal .................................................................................. 57 The Trans Karoo ....................................................................................................................................... 58 The Amatola ............................................................................................................................................. 59 Atlantic Rail: Stefan Andrzejewski ................................................................................................................ 60 Disclaimer and Greetings ............................................................................................................................. 61
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Front page A Young Les Pivnic on the footplate
MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH RAILWAYS My Love Affair with Railways: HL Pivnic Where do I begin? Well, it might be appropriate to begin by saying that my love of railways and the SAR & H in particular, might be the result of genes that I inherited from my Mother. My Mom was from an Afrikaans family Krṻger – and her Dad was a fireman on the Cape Government Railways/SAR stationed at North End, Port Elizabeth. Two of her Uncles were also employed on the Railways – one was involved in electrical maintenance stationed at Bloemfontein, while the other was at one time, the Station Master at Springfontein. So I have railways in my blood! This manifested itself pretty early in my life – as a 3-year-old visiting Durban on holiday with my parents in 1938, I was totally fascinated by the miniature steam train that used to operate near the Durban Snake Park on Marine Parade. The train had several open “toast-rack” carriages but there was also a white-painted miniature balcony coach with tiny swivel chairs inside. I used to make certain that I had one of those seats for the ride. This early love of trains was also encouraged by my Mom when she took me with her “into town” as we used to say in the old days in Johannesburg. The main shopping area was concentrated in the central city – the outlying suburbs only had cafes, butcher shops and the local pharmacy and green grocer. For general shopping one would automatically catch a tram or bus into town. These shopping trips from time to time, usually provided me with a new toy train or a Dinky Toys double-decker bus – I loved buses and trams too! My Mother recognising my love of things transport, knew what to buy me! In 1939, my Dad who was a pharmacist, left retail pharmacy and joined Petersens – a medical ethical company as a sales rep and he was posted to Bloemfontein as the Area Manager for the OFS. While living there, my Mom’s Uncle Dan (referred to earlier) was catching a train to Brandfort and we went to the station to see him off on the night train to Johannesburg. Finding Uncle Dan on the platform, he took my hand and went up to the engine at the end of the platform. He lifted me onto the footplate and I looked at this roaring fire in the cab and I don’t know how I did it, but I scaled down the cab steps and ran as fast as I could down the platform to the far end where the train’s van was! My Dad came running after me and found a petrified youngster totally freaked out by that visit to the fiery engine! Little did I know that in time, I would grow to love those machines very dearly! I’ve often 3
thought about that incident that night on Bloemfontein’s main platform and I suspect that the engine was probably a class 15CB.
Class 15CB that I photographed at Bloemfontein in 1953. My Dad was later, offered a better position back in Johannesburg so we returned to the “Golden City” and I started school at Rossmore Primary. In 1941, my Dad decided that it was time to join the SA Army in the Medical Corps. Before he took this step he bought me a really special present for my 6th birthday – a Lionel Electric train. I was over the moon with this new set. I chose a freight train set because it had a bigger engine but I also longed for an additional set of passenger coaches. This had to wait – there was a War on and my Dad had other more important things to worry about. He was posted to Baragwaneth Hospital and later transferred to Snell Parade in Durban. My Mom and I moved to Durban and we stayed in a boarding house on South Beach. I immediately became aware of all the grey ships that were arriving and leaving the harbour. My love of transport was expanding to include ships and harbour tugs as well! Trains remained my first love and trips during the War to Johannesburg and locally on trains to the South Coast for school outings made my interest in such things even greater – I was totally hooked!
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Photo SAR During the four years that I lived in Durban, I managed to learn the names of the big SAR & H harbour tugs that were stationed there. They were – Sir William Hoy, Sir David Hunter, E.S Steytler, T.Eriksen and Harry Escombe. In those days they all had plain yellow funnels – the green stripes were only added after the War in 1946. I spent most of my time living in Durban in residential hotel named the Twines Hotel on the Esplanade opposite Dick King’s statue on his horse. We had the newly-opened line from Congella to the harbour running along the water’s edge and goods and troop trains were regularly seen on this section. Ironically, one of the regular locomotives seen working along this line was the class DS no.513 – a diesel-electric loco just recently imported in 1939 from Germany! Here she was working for the Allied forces in South Africa!
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Brunswick green DS no.513 Congella
She was painted in the same Brunswick green that was used on the class 1E locomotives. In 1945, we had what was called the “Victory Cavalcade” held in Albert Park and the Railway Administration laid a special temporary track from Congella into the park and brought a section of the Blue Train down from Johannesburg to display and promote the Railways in the forthcoming peacetime. My Mom took me to the park and we walked through the dining and lounge cars of the Blue Train and I remember the special “smell” of the air-conditioned air in those beautiful coaches. Meals were served in the dining car but Mom on a soldier’s salary couldn’t afford this special luxury so we just enjoyed looking through the set. Soon after this event, the War was finally over and my Dad came back from the Middle East and we moved back to Johannesburg where he took up his previous employment in civilian life. Back in Johannesburg, my Mom & Dad used to visit my Dad’s parents who lived in Troyeville and we used to take the tram to Bez Valley to go and visit them. The starting point for this service was in Loveday street between Market and Commissioner streets. It so happened that the Railways had their Tourist Bureau right there in Loveday Street behind the Union Castle Building. Every time that we went to catch the tram, my Dad had to pop into the Bureau to ask for a Blue Train brochure for me. I have still got one of these brochures in my collection and I treasure it to this day!
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South Africa’s Blue Train
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The Boys Book of South African Engines by Francis H. Sibson.
One day I got a special surprise – my Dad brought home a book for me entitled - The Boys Book of South African Engines by Francis H. Sibson. This book became my “bible” on SAR steam engines. It covered the whole fleet and I studied it so carefully that I could now recognise any class of engine that I saw out on the line. We lived near the main railway line to Germiston in de Villiers Street in a block of flats. I would regularly walk to the line and watch the trains go by but in the late 1940s, the Railways had acquired the old Wanderers football and cricket ground and construction of the new station started in earnest. I spent many an hour watching the new station grow from a dusty construction site to a new row of platforms and buildings which would include the new Railway Headquarters – Paul Kruger Building on Wolmarans Street. During this time there were area restrictions in place regarding the sale of fresh meat and I was sent by train to Vereeniging on a regular basis to collect meat parcels for my Mother. This was for me, absolute bliss because this meant that I was having regular train trips behind steam on the line to Vereeniging. The engines normally used on this service were classes 15A, 15AR and 16CR with an occasional 15F doing the job.
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Class 15A no.1970 working a local from Vereeniging. These regular trips to Vereeniging totally sealed my enthusiasm for trains and railways in general. By this time, I had finished my schooling and I had started work at the Central News Agency in Johannesburg. My heart was in railways but my Mother was dead against me joining the Railways as a cleaner at Braamfontein Loco which was what I really wanted to do. Anyway, I was now earning my own money £16-10-0 per month as a store man in the Fancy Goods department. This allowed me to save money for trips and then I discovered that one could buy photos from the Railways! This was great – I went to South Station Building on de Villiers Street and found Mrs Hermanson in the Photographic Section of the Publicity & Travel Department. She had Cardex-trays FULL of lovely railway photos – engines, coaches – the whole spectrum! Nearly all my spare cash went into buying copies of these photos – black & white prints.
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Here is a tiny selection of the type of photos that one could buy:
While this was brilliant, it was not enough for me! I also wanted to take my own photos and I bought a British-made “Warwick” cardboard box camera for 12/6 – 12 shillings and 6 pence. This would be the first of a long line of cameras that I would buy over the next 50 years! In fact, photography became an essential part of my railway enthusiasm. After a while and more saving, I was able to buy my first decent camera – a German-made Zeiss Ikon Nettar. This folding 120 roll-film camera was the bottom of the line product from Zeiss but I couldn’t afford anything better at that time. By this time, I was doing a lot of train trips whenever I could – I would certainly spend my weekends travelling on trains to either Pretoria or Vereeniging. On the latter section mentioned, I had the opportunity to travel on main line trains and this was really thrilling. Up until 1953, Bloemfontein-based class 16DAs and 16Es worked trains 4Up and 11Down right through to and from Johannesburg with Braamfontein men taking the engine over at Vereeniging. I can recall trips on 4Up behind a 16E on the section via Kliprivier and Germiston that were thrilling beyond belief! While employed at the CNA, I need to explain that the department where I worked (Fancy Goods) specialised in preparing bulk orders of toys for staff of various organisations for their Christmas Tree parties for the staff’s children. Amongst these, was the SAR Footplate Staff Association – Braamfontein Branch. They would send two of their members to choose the toys for each child on their lists. This is how I met two engine drivers – Special Grade – one a steam man – Bill Thackeray and the other gent – Morré Watson – working on the electric units. I got to know both these men pretty well and the result was two footplate trips – one with each of them on their respective trains. The trip with Watson was in the cab of a 2M2 motor coach on a train to Bank via Midway. The second trip was on a 15F working train 432 – I rode from Johannesburg to Vereeniging also via Midway and Lawley. On this trip Bill actually handed me the regulator between Lawley and Evaton. This was one of the greatest thrills of my life – I was actually driving a 15F hauling a top-link main line passenger train! Bill kept an eye on me of course to make sure that everything was under control. When we got to Vereeniging, I bid Bill and his mate farewell – I was looking a 10
bit dishevelled (sooty) but ecstatic over the experience that I had just had! Riding a footplate is one thing but actually driving the train is something else! When I opened the regulator, I could feel the power of my steed throbbing under my seat! I had a couple of other brief rides with him as well – wonderful stuff!
I wrote an article for the SAR & H Magazine on Bill – here it is:
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Bill actually remained in the Service for several more years in the casual capacity of a “Smoke Inspector� – he would circulate around the private sidings to ensure that the footplate staff on steam engines were abiding by the rules to keep smoke down to a minimum. I had another great friend who was also a driver Special Grade before going on pension. I got to know him well during the final years of his service when he was Running Shed Foreman at Braamfontein Loco. He would arrange for particular engines to be booked to work trains that I intended to photograph out on the open lines. I was particularly keen on getting photos of 15A no.1970 working various passenger trains and he would assist me in this regard. In the photo below, engine 1970 is seen working a local passenger train from Johannesburg to Vereeniging via Meyerton.
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Charlie McLean Here are two photos of Charlie McLean – one taken in his earlier years for a publicity brochure dealing with the Blue Train and the second one below – taken after he was already on pension but sitting in his favourite place and a place that he knew very well – the driver’s seat on a 15F.
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Charles McLean was better known amongst his colleagues as “Oom Charlie”. Mr Mac, as I called him out of respect for my seniors, was very active in footplate staff welfare and as a result of his heavy involvement in footplate staff matters, he was extremely well-known in Braamfontein Loco and for several years after his retirement. My collection of official SAR photos and my own from my camera was building fast – shown below is a selection of my own photos taken over the ensuing years.
“Spoorweë is in sy Bloed” My love of railways also embraced the making of models of locomotives using balsa wood as the main material. My Ouma Krṻger had a small dress-making business in Roodepoort and I rescued empty fabric cores which I used as the boilers on my models. I started off with a very simple model of a class 7 and then tackled a 15CA and finally my piece-de-resistance – a model of a class 15E that won a silver award at the Rand Society of Model Engineers at the Rand Show. Through a friend, I met a man by the name of J R Willemse who worked for the P & T Department of the Railways. He wrote an article about me and my models in 1953. His article appeared in the SAR & H Magazine before I completed my 15E model.
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In the article above, Mr.Willemse referred to me as - still being at school – this was possibly a little poetic licence because I was already working at the CNA. At a later date I went into the P & T office again for the photo shown below.
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Ten years later, I would start writing my own articles for the SAR & H Magazine. In fact, the contribution of articles for the SAR & H Magazine resulted in me meeting and getting to know various people in the Publicity & Travel Department in Johannesburg – especially the successive Editors of the Magazine over a period of several years. Amongst these acquaintances’ was a Mr. WA Bell who was also a rail enthusiast as well as a railwayman by profession. This man was a real gentleman and I always spent some time with him discussing trains when I visited the P&T Department. I wrote articles on dining cars, locomotives and my experiences on the Railways. In so doing, I became well-known in several other departments of the SAR. Although I didn’t know about it at that time, these articles would – later in life – lead to me being offered a job in the Railway Service – more about that later. Below is the cover page, typical of the articles that I wrote dealing with the SAR.
Masters of Steam
While all this private study of the SAR & H was going on, I had left the CNA and after a brief period with the John Chapman Tobacco Co., I joined another tobacco wholesaler – Jacoby & Co in Kerk Street, Johannesburg. I was destined to remain in their employment for 15 years but my heart was still in railways! By this time, I was also earning a lot more money so that I could give vent to my love of cameras which in turn was coupled to railway photography.
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Theo Espitalier Frank Holland and Frank Garrison My passion for railways resulted in me meeting several people with a similar interest and among these were several well-known personalities in the railway world – Theo Espitalier who was a senior draughtsman in the CME’s Office in Pretoria and himself a co-writer of articles on SAR locomotives with Mr WAJ Day a previous CME. I also met up with Frank Holland – a noted SAR steam enthusiast and previously an SAR draughtsman. Then I met a man who would become a close friend – a man who was employed in the Railway Service and was known as a time-table-compiling genius – Frank Garrison. Frank and I were soon doing several excursions together, to photograph trains. We would also spend many evenings discussing trains and pouring over his vast collection of railway photographs.
Railway & Photographic Society of Southern Africa In 1960, I got together with Frank and a few chaps who all loved trains – Jaap Felix, Tony Spit and a fellow by the name of Williams. We met informally at the Johannesburg Station tea room and discussed trains. A year later, we as founding members decided to form a new group that would cater for the rail enthusiast. We named the group – “Railway & Photographic Society of Southern Africa”. We wrote letters to the editor of the Johannesburg Star newspaper to make our presence known – hoping to recruit new members to our fledgling group. It worked – chaps from all walks of life contacted us and our membership was soon growing rapidly. We did find it necessary to change the name of the group slightly because we were also attracting people who were interested in photography but not necessarily – trains! So the group was renamed – “Railway Society of Southern Africa”.
Trams Our first major outing as a group was in Johannesburg in 1961 to bid farewell to the trams. The final trips by tram were taken to the Malvern terminus before the services were changed over to diesel buses. In the photos below, are scenes of the trams in ordinary service and on the last day in March 1961. On the last day a 4-wheeler was specially decorated to carry the Mayor, Mayoress and other dignitaries to the Malvern terminus. It is ironic that in this modern day and age, trams are being re-introduced world-wide in major cities. Johannesburg came out in force on the 18th of March 1961 to bid farewell to the trams – crowds gathered in the streets to say goodbye!
A tram turns into Loveday Street for the Malvern route.
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4-wheeler was specially decorated to carry the Mayor, Mayoress and other dignitaries to the Malvern terminus.
Here are some of the crowds in Commissioner and Eloff Streets.
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Mayor Marais & the Mayoress at Malvern Terminus The RSSA as it became commonly known expanded at a rapid rate and even to the point where branches were opened in Cape Town and Durban. We regularly held meetings in hired rooms and organised outings to places of railway interest.
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Here is a photo of a typical RSSA group visiting a Loco Depot. Left to right: Eddie Mecl, Douggie Fallwell, Tony Spit, Bennie Gruzin and Peter Lucas.
We also started a Society Newsletter in the form of a simple typed account of our activities and items of railway interest. Here is one of the early covers of our little Newsletter that was filled with interesting stuff!
It gradually grew in stature until it was possible to include a more substantial cover which even introduced a bit of colour as shown below. Our little Newsletter slowly improved to a fully-fledged publication in full 23
colour. However, today the content is not as interesting as it was because of the demise of steam traction and the general decline of railway services in South Africa.
Apart from organised RSSA outings, I still went on extended personal trips when I was due for annual leave – usually around Christmas time. Typical of such trips was a holiday spent in the Cape and naturally I had a ball photographing old Cape Town station which was due to be replaced by a new one.
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The famous meeting place on old Cape Town Station - under the clock! I also didn’t miss out on the trains – in the early 1960s, real oldtimer engines were still doing suburban work around Cape Town like this 5B leaving with a train for Malmesbury. Photographically, Cape Town was a rail enthusiast’s paradise in the 1960s. I used up roll after roll of film – we didn’t have digital photography in those days! I was on the verge of a big change in my life!
A casual evening spent at a fellow enthusiast’s home would lead to the biggest and best change in my life. Up to this time, I had had the odd date with a girl but my reserved nature resulted in me devoting almost all of my time to my pet love – railways! This was about to change! At the friend’s home I saw a young lady that caught my eye and I eventually plucked up enough courage to ask her out on a date. That was it – I was hooked – this time on a young lady that would become my life-long partner and in time, would share my interest in railways. Initially, I kept my love of trains away from Carol – I was scared that she would think that I was crazy, chasing after trains with my camera. I eventually told her about my passion for railways and I took her on a local train to Vereeniging and back. Carol enjoyed the outing – I was feeling much easier! 25
After courting my new-found love for 14 months, we decided to make it permanent. We married at the Methodist Central Hall in Johannesburg.
Not long after we got married, I was needing a “railway fix” and I suggested a weekend trip to Kimberley. After arriving in the “Diamond City” we took a bus to Beaconsfield and I soon had Carol watching the trains go by as evidenced by the photo copied below. Carol can be seen sitting on the lower steps of the footbridge at Beaconsfield Station. I now had the best of both worlds – I had a lovely wife who was quite prepared to share in my interest in railways and I was back with my love of railway photography. In the mid-1960s, the SAR was very busy with electrification and regrading of main lines. This in turn gave me the opportunity to photograph final steam workings over various sections of main line. One such example was the final steam working of train 196 (Durban to Johannesburg) which I photographed at Union Junction near Germiston.
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Over the following few years Carol and I did many trips to the OFS and Natal as well as other places to see and photograph trains – it soon became our main form of activity. In the meantime, we had started a family and we often called upon Grandma and Grandpa Pivnic to look after our children while we set off chasing trains! A few photos selected randomly are shown below to represent this period in our lives.
GF Garratt no.2423 takes water at Umkomaas on the Natal South Coast in January 1964.
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A 15F heading south trundles through Hamilton Station near Bloemfontein in the early 1960s.
Esperanza near Kelso on the Natal South Coast. A NG Garratt no.131 passes the station en route to Highflats and Ixopo on 27.1.65. In 1968, a railway enthusiast’s tour group from England visited South Africa. This group included several distinguished British rail enthusiasts among which were, Mr. Ossie Nock – a well-known author of books on railways and Dr. P. Ransome-Wallis – another well-known author of books who, as a Royal Navy Surgeon, had visited South Africa during WW2. I was invited by the SAR to act as their official guide on a visit to the Capital Park Loco Depot north of Pretoria. We had a very successful visit thanks to the assistance of the Acting Loco Foreman, Mr. Cinnamon. He had arranged for a class 15F no.3150 to be specially polished for the visiting tour group. In the group photo below, Mr Cinnamon is on the extreme left while Dr.Ransome-Wallis is on the 15F on the right, next to the smoke deflector and Mr.Ossie Nock is in the main group – dead centre of the party wearing a tie and jacket. 28
David Sheperd
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Since the above item was written, David decided to leave his 15F No.3052 in the care of Sandstone because in South Africa, it can still work hauling special trains. In fact, it will soon be on loan to the FOTR Group in Pretoria and will be used to work trains to Cullinan.
Historic Transport Association A year later in 1969, Carol and I attended a meeting of another group in Johannesburg known as the Historic Transport Association. This group partially over-lapped the RSSA in that they also had an interest in railways and their committee headed up by Jimmy Hall – a well-known Johannesburg Councillor and collector of vintage road vehicles, decided to run a special trip to Cape Town and return, using exclusively, steam locomotives. Naturally, this involved discussions with very senior Railway officials. After some haggling, the Deputy General Manager, Mr. Reg Tarpey, instructed his staff to arrange for the trip using specially selected engines for the historic run. John Silver who I had known at Parktown Boy’s High School in Johannesburg, was asked to specify what engines he would like on the train during the course of its journey to the Cape. John, having a particular liking of the class 23, selected the following engines to work the train – classes 16E (brought up especially from Bloemfontein); 23, 25NC, 25 and the last leg – another 23. He totally ignored the 15F which was a disappointment in view of the fact that in their day, 15Fs worked the first and last legs of the normal journey of the Blue Train to the Cape. However, in spite of my misgivings about his selection of engines, Carol and I had to be part of this historic trip. The cost for the entire return trip per person was only something like R89-00 – all meals on the train and one night’s accommodation in a good hotel in Cape Town included!!! The trip proved to be a wonderful experience – probably the finest rail tour that I have ever been on! The following photos are just a small sample of what we enjoyed.
16E no.855 The 16E no.855 worked the train from Johannesburg to Klerksdorp and I had a footplate permit to ride with driver Cooper from Potchefstroom to Klerksdorp. She was beautifully cleaned at Krugersdorp Loco for the special trip. 30
A sister engine no. 859 was also sent up from Bloemfontein as a back-up if needed but this was not necessary – 855 did all that was asked of her, including climbing Hamberg Bank with a very heavy load – our Blue Train had 13 saloons on, instead of the normal 12. We had the lounge cars from both Blue sets – one on either side of the dining car. All the engines performed very well throughout the return trip. Our train stopped at De Doorns on the way to Cape Town – the coaches looking as beautiful as ever! Those were still the days when we had Railway Police looking after our safety and welfare!
Class 25 No 3496 31
A prize was awarded for the best-prepared engine on the entire trip and class 25 no. 3496 won the top award. She was truly magnificent!
South African Transport – road – rail – sea – air In 1969, I did a series on SAR steam locomotives for my good friends – Bill & Grace Bolton. They had started a magazine named “South African Transport – road – rail – sea – air”. This magazine mainly covered the heavy truck industry but with Bill being a rail enthusiast, he asked Grace who was putting it all together, to include a monthly feature on railways and they approached me to do something on our steam engines. I duly presented a monthly article dealing with SAR engines – one class per month.
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There was also a regular feature called – “Memory Lane” and I provided photographs – either my own or those from the SAR Photographic Section to illustrate whatever topic was being portrayed. In the example shown below, I used a classic SAR photo showing one of the last departures from Durban, of the Johannesburg Mail, hauled by a steam engine – a class 12A. Electric traction was introduced shortly after the photo was taken. Note the lower-quadrant semaphore signals in use at Durban at that time - 1937.
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The year 1969 was a busy year for us, we visited Durban to ride on another special train – the RSSA in Durban had arranged for a vintage train to run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg hauled by class 1 locomotives. This provided yet another enjoyable trip on rail – totally different in character from the Blue Train special but in its own right – very enjoyable too!
The new year 1970 also had a number of highlights but they came later in the year. In September, I got word from Alec Watson, the Loco Foreman, De Aar, that he was arranging to name one of his 25NCs after Carol and would we care to come down over a weekend to celebrate this occasion. We immediately booked seats on a train to De Aar and had a very nice trip down on train 12Up. In railway parlance – trains ran “Up” to Cape Town and “Down” to Johannesburg. This was a left-over from the Cape Colonial days where all trains ran “Up” to the “Mother City”. The SAR just continued this practice after Union in 1910. We arrived in De Aar and soon found our way to the Loco Depot where a newly outshopped 25NC no.3414 was waiting to be named after my dear wife. The collage hereunder shows Carol on “her” engine with Alec Watson and his Assistant Loco Foreman. This was a very proud day for us all!
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Jubilee Special If that was not enough excitement for the year, the following month we were on another HTA trip – this time on the “Jubilee Special” from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth and Mossel Bay via Bloemfontein. Charlie McLean and I went down to Bloem to arrange for special engines to haul our train while crossing the OFS. The other Systems also arranged for very clean engines to haul the Special. Here are the two magnificently-prepared 19Ds that worked our train from Klipplaat to Oudtshoorn. You could wipe your finger underneath the running boards and there would be no sign of dirt or grime! This tour to celebrate the Jubilee of the SAR, was planned to emulate the pre-war “Round in Fourteen” rail tours that were regularly run by the SAR in earlier times.
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The dining car crew headed by Catering Inspector Boshoff did us proud – the food on the tour was superb! The coach attendants also ensured that our saloons were kept spotless.
Camaraderie: Jubilee Special On the return leg of this trip between Norvals Pont and Springfontein, I had the opportunity (with my late friend Ginger Miller) to ride on the footplate of the 16E no.858, hauling our train. After our stint on the engine, Ginger and I were back in the lounge car enjoying the camaraderie of our fellow passengers. The grey-haired man looking up at us, was Geoff Wilkinson, an SAR Inspecting Engineer Civil.
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I also had the opportunity to enjoy some time with my Sporie friend – Oom Charlie McLean. Charlie loved railways, like I did. Those were wonderful times spent with friends who shared a common interest!
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As a result of Jimmy Hall talking to Reg Tarpey back on that Blue Train Special to Cape Town in 1969, it was brought to the attention of the Administration that Les Pivnic was very keen to join the Railways – especially the SA Railway Museum that was housed under the Rissik Street Bridge at Johannesburg Station. I received a letter from Mr. Le Fras-Strydom, Manager, Publicity & Travel Department, that I was being considered for a new post of Assistant Curator but that it was official policy to first advertise the post within the Railway Service. Internal applicants would be given preference but no internal applicants had the level of knowledge that I had accumulated over years of private study. It took something like 2 ½ years of being patient but then it happened! I got a call from Mr. Le Fras-Strydom to say that I had been appointed to the new post of Assistant Curator and that I could commence duty by calling in at the Museum under Rissik Street Bridge on the 31st of July 1972. I can’t explain my feelings of elation at receiving this news! I had to hurriedly resign from Jacoby & Co, after working there for 15 years. I reported to Mr.Jan Coffee, the Curator on the 31st with much trepidation – here was a young man starting a new life in the environment that he had longed for, for nigh on twenty years! I was now a professional railwayman working for one of the best railway organisations in the world. It took a while to settle down – my use of Afrikaans had to be jacked up – I was coming from the commercial world where we only spoke English. I met all my new colleagues who included another person who was born in England and now worked in casual employment in the Museum as the Accessions Clerk – Gordon Payne. Not long after I started work in the Museum we got word that the Museum would move to the old station concourse in South Station Building. This resulted in a lot of work for me to arrange the new showcases and place exhibits in the adjoining halls leading off the main concourse. Having previously trained as a display artist, this was no problem. The actual move went off pretty easily and soon we were established in the old concourse near the famous Blue Room Restaurant run by the SAR Catering Department. This called for a Museum staff photo shown below: Left to right: C.H. McLean: Casual Museum Guide; Dan Grib: Correspondence Clerk; Mr Venter: Carpenter; Johnny Orsmond: Museum Display Artist; Les Pivnic: Assistant Curator; Jan Coffee: Curator; Winnie Venter: Research Officer; Frank Cage: Museum Guide; Harold Rennie: Carpenter; Pietro Sabatelli: Carpenter; Gordon Payne: Accessions Clerk.
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I had hardly found my feet in the Museum when Minister Ben Schoeman announced in Parliament, that the Administration will be starting a National Collection of historically important steam locomotives. This news soon came through Management channels to us in the Museum. Jan Coffee, indicated that I would headup an ad hoc committee to select locomotives for the National Collection. I need to hastily add that there were already plans in place for establishing a large railway museum alongside the Railway College at Esselen Park. In fact, a 103-acre site had already been set aside for that purpose. The saga of these plans for a large museum based on similar institutions overseas is a very long story that can’t be dealt with here. Suffice to say that initially, Esselen Park was our intended new home for the collection that was going to emerge as a result of the Minister’s statement. The Collection was started by putting aside a class 8 that had just been retired from active service. The engine was cosmetically restored by Alec Watson in De Aar and would find a temporary home on the station there. To celebrate the start of the National Collection, a photo of those involved with the process, was taken in the Museum office in Johannesburg. Unfortunately, Alec Watson wasn’t available to join us in the Museum at that time. In the photo below, we have Les Pivnic, Assistant Curator; Jan Coffee, Curator; George Barclay, GM’s Motive Power Office; Charlie McLean, casual clerk at the Museum.
From now on, a process was started whereby George Barclay would liaise with me and forward internal letters referring to the withdrawal of individual engines as and when they occurred. We would then decide on whether a particular engine would be saved for the National Collection or released for scrapping. In this way we slowly but surely started to build up the National Collection. Charles McLean retired from his casual employment with us but he continued to visit regularly as a friend of the Museum. 39
The engines set aside for the Museum soon started to accumulate in the various Mechanical Depots and I received a call from the CME’s Office to say that we would need to find alternative accommodation for these engines. Bearing Alec Watson’s enthusiasm in mind, I approached his System Manager in Kimberley with the suggestion that we store our locomotives at De Aar – Alec having confirmed that he had a fair amount of spare track to stable them. This was agreed to and the engines were sent off to De Aar with new additions going there as and when they became available. Alec out of his own enthusiasm, cosmetically cleaned and painted many of them with the result that he had created what looked like his own private locomotive museum. In the photo below, we see just a small selection of the engines earmarked for the National Collection that Alec had cosmetically restored. They are the famous Cape Greyhound, class 5R no.781 and behind her, class 19A no.685.
Photo: Late Alice Pivnic The collection of coaches was added to my task and in this regard, I had regular contact with the GM’s Rolling Stock Office – based on similar lines to that for the engines. Here again, the coaches needed a temporary home and I approached the CCE’s Bridge Engineer in Tippet Building to ask if we could stage our coaches in his Bridge Yard at De Aar. He agreed, making the stipulation that they would need to be movable in his Yard in case he needed to bring in or pick up his own material. This was agreed to and the coaches also went off to De Aar. Unfortunately, vandalism raised its ugly head and many priceless future exhibits were seriously damaged to the point where restoration would cost millions of Rand. The unique Hulse double-deck suburban coach was a case in point. Even though we moved it to Salvokop at a later date, it was so badly damaged that it was beyond repair! This coach built at Salt River Shops in 1927 had a basic layout design that would be used at a later date, world-wide, for similar double-deck coaches. For this
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reason alone, it was criminal to witness it being destroyed by brainless vandals. Unfortunately, at that time, we in the Museum, had no financial allocation to ensure the safety of such items.
Inspections by motor trolley My duties also involved visiting other Systems to earmark museum-worthy items for our collection in Johannesburg. I would undertake trips by train which proved impractical because the time stopped at stations didn’t allow me enough time to carry out an inspection. So I then arranged with the CCE’s Office to travel with System Civil Engineers during their inspections by motor trolley. This was a wonderful way of checking each and every station on a given section, looking for museum-worthy items. One of my first trolley trips was undertaken on the Cape Midlands System with the System Civil Engineer – Mr Crombie. In the photo below, you can see how happy I was, working for the South African Railways!
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After several more trolley trips on the Cape Eastern and Natal Systems, I eventually realised that even the motor trolley was not the ideal way of doing an inspection. Too much time was lost while waiting for a tablet at wayside stations – motor trolleys were not given priority on single line sections. So I eventually decided to use pooled railway cars for my work. One of these trips by car took me to the far Northern Cape where I was covering the Calvinia Branch line. When I left Sakrivier for Williston, the road stretched for miles without any sign of life. I stopped the car and left the motor running while I took a photo to show the desolation of this area – there was no way that I was going to switch off the engine – I was literally totally alone in that wilderness! My trusty little Toyota Corolla brought me safely back to civilisation at Williston!
One day I got a call from our head office to say that I was needed to accompany a Japanese TV unit that was visiting South Africa for the purpose of making a documentary film on the South African Railways. A member of the tourist division would accompany us on the tour to visit several places where we could show off our railways. We met the group at an hotel near Jan Smuts Airport and we set off on this extensive tour that took us to Bloemfontein, Kimberley, the Western Cape and the Cape Midlands as well as Natal. I showed them several highlights during the tour including Toorwaterpoort, the Cape main line south of Kimberley, the train in the main street at Fauresmith as seen below and many more.
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Fauresmith
On another occasion, a similar call from my head office instructed me to accompany some people who wanted to make sound recordings of SAR steam engines at work. I met this group which consisted of Cecil Graham, Derek and Dee Worman and took them with Charlie McLean to Germiston Loco so that they could make their recordings. This contact resulted in many more trips further afield to record trains at speed on the open lines. Typical of these sorties was a visit to Bosrand Station just south of Kroonstad where Derek was able to record trains thrashing up the bank at speed, past the little platteland station. I also took Derek to the Cape Midlands where he recorded Garratts on the Montague Pass and to many more places to record trains. Here he is recording a steam engine on one of our excursions – the photo was taken by his wife Dee – a professional photographer in her own right. All these trips resulted in several long-playing records being produced under the banner of “Steamsound”.
Steamsound Recording
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Union Express & SA Vaal In 1976, my Curator – Jan Coffee – retired and Mr Pieter Crafford came over to us from P&T to take over as Curator. Pieter was a very genial man who had a passion for cars. He was, like his predecessor, easy to work with and I got on well with him. In 1977, when the RSSA decided to run a special train to Cape Town to see off the SA Vaal – the final mail ship – on her last journey home to England, we made arrangements in the Museum with Charlie McLean’s assistance, to have a special headboard made that would be an identical copy of the original head-board carried by the engines in the days when the Union Limited used to drop off passengers right alongside the Union Castle Mailship in Cape Town. In the photo below – L to R – Pieter Crafford, Les Pivnic, the Artisan who made the board (name lost) and Charlie McLean offering a vote of thanks on behalf of the Museum to the artisan. 44
Railway Museum The concept of a major railway museum was still very much on the cards but by this time, we had been forced to abandon the 103-acre site at Kaalfontein because of dolomite sink-hole problems. We then found the perfect place to establish our big museum – the old Pretoria Mechanical Workshops! The old buildings were standing empty after the Depot had moved to Koedoespoort and they were ready to be transformed into a world-class railway museum. With this in mind, I was sent on two overseas study-tours in 1981 and 1983 to the UK and Europe to get first-hand knowledge of how they were doing things over there. My trips were timed to coincide with the conferences of the International Association of Transport Museums (IATM) and I represented the SAR at those gatherings. After the conferences were over, I visited a number of the major railway museums to gain knowledge of how they operated. It was a very rewarding experience which resulted in me writing comprehensive reports on the trips which I submitted to Management. The following photos have been randomly selected to illustrate some aspects of my trips overseas.
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In 1981, IATM met in Bremerhaven in Germany at the local shipping museum. This is a photo of our group taken in the lecture hall at the museum.
After this Conference I visited the German State Railways Museum in Nṻrnberg and to my delight, I found the original pre-War “Flying Hamburger” diesel train in the main trains hall. After that I moved on to Switzerland, France and Holland to visit their railway museums – all very enlightening! I then crossed the Channel to visit the National Railway Museum in York and I had the opportunity to see several famous British steam locomotives, including “Mallard” – the world’s fastest steam engine.
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Union of South Africa I also found Mallard’s sister A4 Pacific – “Union of South Africa” stored in a shed north of Edinburgh in Scotland. A helpful caretaker at the shed kindly uncovered the nameplate on the engine for me to photograph.
I also had the opportunity to view the famous bridge over the Fourth Estuary north of Edinburgh.
In 1983, I attended the IATM Conference – this time at the Science Museum in London. It was fascinating to see their collection as well – the original “Deltic” main line diesel locomotive which was very impressive as was the whole of this Museum. I could have spent several days there and only scratched the surface!
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I also visited the London Transport Museum – another mind-boggling collection!
When I returned from the second visit overseas, the IATM people asked me to write an illustrated article for their Journal – this I did with great pleasure! This is the cover of the brochure which contained my article on SATS Museum – by this time, the Administration had adopted the new name of SA Transport Services. The brochure carried a full description of our Museum in the old Concourse complete with illustrations. It was published in the IATM publication – “Transport Museums”. Back in my office in South Station Building, I would occasionally get calls from people who wanted to donate an item to our collection. One such call was from the widow of a very senior officer who had retired on pension and had passed away. I went to her home in Florida to officially take possession of the item – a magnificent ships wheel. 48
This old wheel had been saved from an old vessel that had been employed by the Harbour Division of the SAR & H.
I was quite chuffed when I received the certificate below in appreciation for assisting the Railway Police with historical information and photographs which they needed for the “S.A.Railway Police Festival� in 1984.
1984: SAR Police Award
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Railway Dining Cars in South Africa Another highlight for me, that was already in progress at this time, was the research that I was doing on the history of catering vehicles on the pre-Union Colonial railways and the SAR. I always had a fascination for dining cars and this resulted in me deciding to really research the subject in depth and write a manuscript which could be published as a book. After 5 years of research, my book was published by SA Transport Services in 1985.
I was very pleased with this achievement. An official handing-over of copies to the General Manager, Dr. E.L. GrovÊ, AGM Helmut Hagen and other Senior Management, took place in the GM’s Office in Paul Kruger Building.
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It even made news in the local papers.
It was good to be a professional railwayman and I might add, after 10 years’ service, I was appointed to the permanent staff back in 1982!
1985: Museum In 1985, the Museum was placed under the control of the GM’s Parliamentary Section. Eric Conradie was transferred over from the Reference Library where he had previously been employed. He was appointed our new Curator and we carried on with our respective duties. Then, unbeknown to me at that time, the Administration took a decision to curtail any further non-essential expenditure. This was bad news for us in the Museum – it got worse – we lost the expected move to the Pretoria Mechanical Workshops for our major Museum! We were offered a portion of the Loco Depot at Krugersdorp instead. We then settled on that alternative site although it was a great disappointment to me personally. Dr Moolman, the new GM, paid us a visit at Krugersdorp so that we could explain what we had in mind for the large museum. My dreams of a museum like the big railway museums in the UK and Europe were shattered. The National Collection of locomotives and coaches and other sundry material was transferred to Krugersdorp from De Aar and I was provided with a small portable office in the Loco Depot – the white building in the photo.
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A kraal was erected to house the relics that formed our National Collection. Unfortunately, the kraal was too small to house everything and a fairly large number of our future exhibits had to be staged outside the kraal. Striking railworkers took delight in setting fire to some of the relics (coaches) while others thought that they would make a good target for further vandalism!
The photo above reflects what was happening at Krugersdorp. The National Collection was deteriorating right in front of my eyes and there was nothing that I could do to prevent it happening! This sad turn of events was further exacerbated by the fact that valuable artefacts that we had stored in another museum storeroom at Kaalfontein, were also dumped in the kraal and in no time they were damaged and stolen by persons’ unknown.
My dream of a world class railway museum just a few years previously was in tatters! A departmental truck off-loading crates of museum material into the engine kraal. 52
The indiscriminate dumping carried on for several hours. My objections to this action were ignored.
Classic station canopy pillars left in the dust!
The remains of the old Bluff lighthouse from Durban. The lenses were smashed and stolen over the following several months.
The damage soon became evident as seen in the photo below that shows priceless Cape Town – Wellington “pot sleepers” left broken in the kraal.
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I was also broken – all my senses rejected this carnage of priceless historical rail items!
The final blow was, on a personal note, much worse – in 1988, my lovely elder daughter Alice, died as a result of a motor accident. With pressures in the Museum and personal tragedy, I was wrecked and boarded on pension in 1989 – after 17 years of service with the SAR. Here is a photo of me in happier times in my museum office in South Station Building, Johannesburg – in spite of the unhappy ending to my railway career, I look back on those years – the earlier ones - with pride!
My official railway service was at an end – but not my love affair with railways!
Rohan Vos Carol and I were invited to join Rohan Vos on one of his early trips with his private train to Graskop. It was wonderful to travel on a luxury private train and to be treated to a mini safari from Graskop to the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve. This was followed by another invitation to join the Rovos train known as “The Pride of Africa”, on an exploratory trip from Pretoria to Cape Town – returning via the Garden Route and Bloemfontein. We had the Rovos-owned 19D 2702 as our sole motive power on this trip and the poor quality of coal provided, especially in the Cape, proved to be disastrous! We had to call for diesel and electric assistance on the 54
return leg of this momentous occasion and it was no fault of our poor steam engine. Give her bad food and she won’t perform! She valiantly managed to take us up the major part of the Lootsberg Pass and I caught a beautiful shot of her from the train on the Pass.
We then had diesel assistance for a while and continued on to Bloemfontein where Rohan asked me to arrange for electric haulage back home to Pretoria. Bianca simply couldn’t cope any longer. In the photo below, we see the electric locomotives setting back onto Bianca at Bloemfontein for the run home.
Rohan took advantage of my experience with railways and decided to employ me as his “Operations Manager” based in Pretoria at The Victoria Hotel. 55
As a SATS pensioner, I was still legally able to take on other work to add to my pension. This grand title sounded good but the work would soon prove to be very frustrating because it involved being the Rovos link with the Railway Administration. I had to deal with the Operating Department of the Eastern Transvaal System because our train, in those days, operated mainly down the eastern main line to Nelspruit from where we took the branch to Graskop. The train was also available for charter on other sections of line. For all trips, I had to get the train road-worthy and I had to make arrangements with the staff at Capital Park to have “Bianca” lit up and ready for departure around 12pm on days that we were starting a tour. This was not as easy as it sounds – there were always hiccups along the line (no pun intended!) On one occasion, on the day of departure “Bianca” was not lit up at all and I had to make emergency arrangements for a stand-in engine to be used on that day. I remained with Rovos for 9 months but I then decided that it was just too strenuous, travelling back and forth to Pretoria, five days-a-week. So I resigned and that was my last official contact with the rail industry. But, my love affair with railways was still, by no means over!
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South African Railways & Harbours: Photo Journal I decided to publish a magazine that would showcase the South African Railways and Harbours through the medium of black & white photographs – initially using my own material but later expanding to make extensive use of official SAR photographs and other material. The magazine was published on a monthly basis and ran for just two years. I arranged for a few retail shops to sell my Journal and I had a small subscription base as well, but too many of my subscribers passed the magazine onto their friends with the result that I could not grow the subscription base sufficiently to entice advertisers to use my Journal. The printing costs were also pretty steep with the result that I was just breaking even. After the second year of publication the printers advised me that the cost to me would be going up. That put paid to this venture because I was not prepared to subsidise the Journal out of my back pocket – so it was terminated.
During the two years of publication, I also prepared a special stand-alone issue that dealt exclusively with the 1947 Royal Tour. When this was printed, I sent copies to the Royal Family via the British Embassy in Pretoria. I was really pleased by the individual responses that I received in due course. Her Majesty, The Queen and her sister Princess Margaret as well as the Queen Mother, all sent me personalised letters of appreciation – expressing how they all had fond memories of their visit to South Africa in 1947.
Regarding the regular magazine, I was sorry to see it close because I still had a lot of photo material to publish but unfortunately, I had no alternative as I was not prepared to compromise on quality. In 1989, the Electric Running Shed at Braamfontein had a senior chap in charge who had earlier, worked on the 25NCs. He arranged to have a 25NC stabled at his Depot which would be used on a Friday to work the Trans Karoo as far as Klerksdorp. A little later, this arrangement was extended to include the return 57
working on the Saturday morning with the north-bound Trans Karoo. I started to photograph this unique return to steam traction on an electrified line and in due course, the Germiston men got permission to run the Amatola between their Home Depot and Kroonstad as well. So I had a choice of photographing two main line passenger trains behind steam! The following photographs have been randomly selected to illustrate some of these steam workings.
The Trans Karoo
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The Amatola
The above photographs represented something of a milestone in my life associated with trains. After these workings came to an end in early 1997, there was very little left to get excited about. 59
In fact, the glorious railway that we had in South Africa started to deteriorate – first slowly and then it gained impetus until there was nothing left as far as I was concerned. So with the demise of the old SAR & H, my previous intense interest and love for our railways seemed to die in unison with the railways themselves. However, I still enjoy living in the past and to this end, I joined my friend Charlie Lewis in producing a photographic series entitled “Soul of a Railway” on the Internet which highlights the glory days of the old SAR. When I left South Africa in 2011, I was sad to leave the Country of my birth but the old SAR & H was no more and that lightened the burden of going away for good! Totsiens, my liewe spoorweë! Les Pivnic 25.7.16
Atlantic Rail: Stefan Andrzejewski
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The next issue of “SAS-SAR” will be Vol. 7 No. 6 and will be published, DV, sometime during September/October 2016. Send in your comments, anecdotes and photographs please. Take care! Help met bewaring van ons spoorweë, stuur solank u stories en herinneringe aan heymanshb@gmail.com met ‘n afskrif aan uloliwe@gmail.com en heg u eie foto’s in jpg-formaat aan. Hennie Heymans – Pretoria, ZA © 2016
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