Harvest time on the Sandstone Estates Farms means combining ahead of the clouds. Summer rains are still pouring down making harvesting complicated and sometimes frustrated. Combining started with 7 Combines and because of the rain it was needed to employ 11 Combines to catch up and to harvest at high speed in between the typical afternoon showers in the Eastern Free State to get the crop off the lands.

History:
We all know the fascinating history of the 2 foot narrow gauge railway that ran from Beira before the turn of the century and also how it came to its end and of the locomotives ending up were they are today. But what if, for some strange reason, some bloke decided to slip in another order of the Lawley locomotive design with some minor updates... Or what if during their lives on the South African Railways a locomotive was rebuilt with a more standard, modern style of valvegear. Well, this is what I think it would have looked like. This would have been SAR Class NG 6A.

Building a scale model locomotive from scratch in any scale is not a small job that can be finished in a few weekend's spare time. Building a larger scale model that has to be a working model takes a few hours more, every component has to do an actual job and function as on its larger sister. Choosing a prototype one has to be careful not to lets one's imagination get to enthusiastic, with pictures of 15F's, 25NC's and Garratt's racing through one's mind, although working models of these locomotives have been built and are still being built, they are very complicated, and require lot of time, experience and determination to make a working model of one of these prototypes.

Since 2005 the Pietermaritzburg Model Engineering Society has annually hosted the Wings, Wheels and Whistles hobby exhibition, and every year it has grown bigger and more popular than the year before, but this year there is a twist in the tale...

Steam engines in all forms are dependent on boilers to supply the steam at pressure to their cylinders to produce work, sooner or later the boiler water level will drop, which needs replenishing when a certain level is reached. Various types of mechanical pumps, connected to the steam engine crank shaft, have been used in the early days. Since the invention of the steam injector by a French engineer around 1860, mechanical pumps have fallen into disfavour.

I went to the annual Rand show in 1971 and found the Rand Society of Model Engineers inside the show grounds. I joined the Society immediately, a few hundred meters up the road there was the South African Railways pavilion.

I always wanted to build a GEA Garratt in 5" gauge but after seeing 2-foot gauge locomotives running on 7.25" inch gauge, I realised this was the answer to building chunky compact locomotives and more fun to drive. I then decided the GEA was a lot of work and two small in 5" gauge the 7.25" gauge being to big for practicality.

Rob Steiger owner of the Albert Falls miniature railway asked me to spread the word around that he will have an open weekend at his miniature railway from the 14th to the 15th November, the railway is almost a kilometre in length and caters for 5" and 7 1/4" gauge trains. All enthusiasts welcome with or without a engine, the station complex houses a bar and good braai facilities with plenty of camping space. Rob can be contacted at 082 343 9686.

Having visited the site myself previously, I can recommend a visit to Rob's place, see you there.

Attached a few pictures of previous events

Best regards
Hannes

The P. E. track is situated in the residential suburb of Sunridge Park and is part of a sports complex. The main line consists of 3 1/2" and 5" gauges of which the main line is approx. 602m. The outer loop is only about 240m. We generally do not use the shorter line as it traverses the main roadway into grounds and then we also feel obliged to give the passengers a double circuit for their moneys worth. Using the longer ride they only get one circuit.

There is a carriage storage tunnel near the club house that we have just extended by 4.2m. These contain twin lines that can now hold 6 carriages and the diesel on each line. Due to an increase in passengers we are having to construct two more 2m long passenger trucks to cope with the loads. The 4 bogies have just about been completed between Gunter and myself. Gunter doing most of the work. The attached are some photos to give you an idea of what the grounds look like on a typical running day. Station, clubhouse and general.

Brian Simpson

Station View