The Maluti Military Fair will be held at Sandstone on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd November 2025. This independent event, presented by G5 Events, will turn the spotlight on to Sandstone’s remarkable military collection.
NGG13 49 stands at Umlaas Road in 1985
NGG13 number 49, built by Hanomag in 1928, has led a chequered career before arriving at its current home at the Sandstone Steam Railway. Originally allocated to the Port Shepstone to Harding line, it spent some time in South West Africa (Namibia today) on the Otavi Railway as part of an experiment to test Garratt locos there.
This massive tractor, designed in the early 20th century, is always a crowd puller at Sandstone. The tractor was originally designed for road use in the USA but saw most of its work on the prairie wheat fields of the USA and Canada.
The Sandstone Steam Railway Stock List has been updated.
Sandstone has just completed a restoration of the QF 3,7 (Quick Fire) Anti-Aircraft Gun in the military collection plus a repaint in the correct colour.
Sandstone has been the subject of many film and video productions over the years. Recently we were visited by Rogerio de Oliveira, a feature film producer from Cape Town. Rogerio is looking at Sandstone as one of the locations for a forthcoming production.
The Heritage Portal ( https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/) is South Africa’s leading history and heritage website with a weekly newsletter that one can subscribe to.
One of Ficksburg’s, and the eastern Free State’s greatest supporters is Gavin Boy , the owner of Victoria House, a wonderful guest house in Ficksburg. Gavin is on a serious mission to promote and uplift Ficksburg and his first post on Facebook was this wonderful, illustrated article on Sandstone. We are proud that Gavin chose Sandstone for his first article!