When a fundamental component of the economy transport is removed .....be prepared for carnage....such as that we have now......these guys who operate these huge machines so efficiently vastly contribute to economic growth of any nation......
Thank you for the comment, I'm pleased you enjoyed the film. I filmed in various areas of South Africa, the locations of each section of film are mentioned in the description comments under the picture frame. All of my cine film was copied on to DVD by a company based in High Wycombe here in the UK . A friend of mine who was in the film business did an edit for me. This is but a small portion of hours of film taken in South Africa between 1977 and 1985. Cheers
@@colinstone1406 thanks for the reply much appreciated. Anything left of steam today also needs to be archived as much as possible especially here in SA where steam preservation could very well be extinct soon if it wasnt for a few individuals and groups dedicated to the cause and purpose. Even modelling the old SAR railway in 16 and 12 mm gauge can be seen as an effort to preserve it. However due to declining interest( only held by males and some females older than 40, correct me if im wrong from the SA modellers) financial constraints and very limited availability of materials sar rolling stock and locomotives(all 3 traction types) makes it difficult to sustain yet we who are doing it keep continueing to push through. As for live steam, Ceres rail Cmpny and Umgeni steam is still active
Colin you might like to know the branch has been tidied up, and although the port end is still cut off from the far end, theres been a Westbury Tarmac train in Realtime trains for 4montha now-many of us waiting to see when they start back down here
Hi Jason. Thank you for that, however I wouldn't hold your breath for anything heading down the Hamworthy branch any time soon ! But that said, I hope I'm wrong. Cheers
Great to see - thanks for posting Colin. My first qualification after school was SAR&H Fireman, shunting in Durban 1974-76. Still remember the steam noise, heat and brasso (lots to clean) and keeping the fire blazing, filling the water tank. It paid for my varsity fees..with the Suez shutdown, Durban port was super-busy, we worked 30 days a month, 14 hours a day.
Hi Philippe .. Thank you for your comments ref' the film, it is good to hear it has stirred old memories. I note you worked on steam in Durban 1974-1976, 1974 was the first year I visited South Africa, arriving in Durban toward the end of the trip we were pleased to find the Class H2 4-8-2T loco's still working, seeing 5 of them at Greyville Depot. Unfortunately we never made it to the Harbour at Bluff or Wests to see the out stationed examples. Sadly no cine camera until 1977, so I never got to film them. I have fond memories of my first paddle in the Indian Ocean at Durban. With luck I hope to get more from the archive up on RU-vid soon.
Glad you saved the film and got it digital, there are some priceless images in here, and the sound quality is very good still. Especially where Coronation Colliery and Enyati Colliery engines are cooperating on the same train. (you mentioned the Natal Ammonium Colliery, this must be the Coronation Colliery). I have seen GEA 4031 during my visit to SA in 1994, but sadly steam operation on both collieries had ceased just weeks before. 5 diesels needed where 2x25NC could do the work! Very capable machines these were.
Thank you for your comments, and commiserations that you missed out on seeing steam at Enyati. Ref Natal Ammonium Colliery, this was one of two collieries served by the Enyati Railway. If you check the footage at 8 minutes into the film (at Nek sidings), the line to Ammonium is at the lower level immediately to the right of camera position, (I believe this line closed in 1982/83 ?). Having come up this line the GEA attached its train to the rear of a load from Natal Anthracite colliery headed by the GF. Anthracite colliery was 4 miles or so further on from the Nek in the direction the camera is looking at the start of that clip. Once combined, the two trains and locos left for the 8 mile trip to Boomlager as seen. The GEA was on hire to Enyati from Coronation Colliery. The Enyati Railway left Boomlager SAR yard at the southern end whilst the line to Coronation colliery left at the northern end. I have more "SA stuff" that was transferred to DVD, but I do need the assistance of a friend to edit it and upload it to RU-vid, this includes two NBL 4-8-4T at Coronation colliery, I will attempt to get this done soon ! ? Best Wishes
@@colinstone1406 Thanks for this explanation, for us living in the Netherlands it was not easy to find information about the railways in SA at that time, as you were dependant on what you could find in magazines, I think I came into SA railways after buying the book The Great Steam Trek at a show (which I still own and treat carefully) and I was struck by the sheer beauty of the landscapes and the elegance of many locomotive classes. But it were the Garrats which impressed me the most. Information came I think first time from the Continental Modeller magazine which I got from a club mate who regularly visited the UK and I got a subscription. There so now and then information about SA railways was listed, but this not always was up to date anymore, so we could just miss out on steam operations on Enyati and Vrijheid-Coronation.
To think I could have been down the road from Hamworthy in the base there around this time, its weird as a few short years earlier I used to talk with the Bournemouth train crews when I was lampsman up at Waterloo and now I live in Gillingham which back then the ESD trains were my duty to maintain and replenish lamps and stores and the 4SUB's still running in off the suburban lines had to have lamps as well. I thought I would live and die in my native south London and then I went to Hamworthy, then back to London and then in 92 moved back down to Bournemouth and pretty much been a Dorset chap ever since. My dad retired from BR and spent his last years as a signaller for Swanage Rly.
Fantastic. To think also, just 20 years previous the S&D trains used to pound along here. The sight & sound of a 7f 280 with 10mk1s was incredible. As is every shot on this video. 👌🏼
Thank you for you kind comments, back in steam days I went to school by the railway line visible in the background at 6.30. All the 7F's plus multiple other goodies passed by, "we" thought it would never end ! Cheers.
Thank you very much for this video I'm writing about the South African transport from 1964 until 1976. Is it possible to use your pictures. How can I contact you. Very interesting
Very poignant watching the freight train go past Hamworthy Middle School around the 2 45 mark - I might even have been absent-mindedly staring out of my classroom window at it at that very moment!
Thank you for the kind comments on the footage, that gate at Ashmore Avenue you refer to was awkward to open, it had got damaged in a gale some years earlier when it got blown back into a train. Cheers
I've only just discovered this video and I cannot thank you enough. My Dad used to work on the steam locomotives in Germiston. It was in his blood until the day he died. This brought back memories and tears to my eyes.
Thank you for your comment, Germiston depot was always on the list of sheds to visit when in SA. You must be proud of your dad for working as he did with those wonderful machines. Over the years railways, steam locomotives and the men that worked them were the unsung heroes of all counties that flourished due to their toil. I'm pleased my modest bit of film brought back memories of your dad, I hope they were tears of joy and not sadness whilst remembering him. Take care Cheers.
Wow, watching those S1s in Germiston yard brings back so many memories. I was a fireman there for years but finally moved to Kimberley where I worked the big 25NCs on the mainline. Thanks for posting this clip, I love it to bits
Thank you for your kind comments, the Germiston S1 shunt was the very first piece of cine film I shot in South Africa (SA), they were always "vocal" engines. Once we are through the covid pandemic I'm hoping to get even more of my miles of SA cine film onto RU-vid, but I need the assistance of a mate more tech savvy than me ! ! I must also thank you for the items you have placed on You Tube, stunning stuff, much better than my modest efforts with an old super 8 cine camera. Cheers
@@colinstone1406 strange but those S1s right there in that yard were the first steam locos i also ever got up close to. I was 8 years old and my family had just arrived in SA the previous day. That night I heard steam locos all night long from Germiston Hotel and so next morning I was up and away. I got invited onto the footplate by driver Piet Steenkamp who then became a lifetime friend. Then at the old age of 14 I got my first job as engine cleaner in the shed. That lasted less than 1 day when I was asked if I could fire a class S1 right there in the yard...of course I said yes!! From that day on I have been on the railways. Those S1s sure kept a fireman busy. Get the fire packed up and the water was down in the boiler. Get that filled and then it was time to pack the box again. If its at all possible i really would love a copy of that lot of S1s shunting in Germiston. If I could post it on my RU-vid site then that would be great. I just want to show folk how fast we use to shunt back in the good old days. Thanks again
@@Adventurescot Hi mate, Thank you for your interesting reply I have no objection to any of my film going on other folks sites, it gave me great enjoyment filming the loco's at the time and if it can be enjoyed by others, great. However I'm not "technical" and unsure how to go about it ! ? If you have the knowledge and wherewithal to "clip out" what you want, then feel free to do so. If you have another idea of how it can be done, then let me know and I'll see what can be achieved. Cheers.
If only I had a time machine to go back to these glorious times with all the Freight trains and slam door REPS and 4TCs and no Cross Country Voyagers. Last time I caught a loco hauled train from Poole was September 1997 the Sunday Princess Diana was killed. I was on the Sunday morning Poole to Glasgow Central.
Thank you so much for preserving and posting these very historic films. In 1982, I took a photo of a 19D at Harrismith, recently arrived from Warden. She was in spotless condition. The driver let my daughter go up on the footplate, and pull the whistle chain for the departure! The same year, I was on the Trans Karoo Express, got off at the Orange River service stop, walked along the cinders, and was warmly welcomed up on to the footplate of our 25NC. The regular crew had got off, and an ex SAR driver and fireman, who happened to be on the train, had also gone "up front", and were doing the watering and fire-raking for old-times sake. This was after dark, with the orange glow in the cab, the red-hot fire iron, the "snick-snick" of the steam operated rocking grate, and on top of the tender, in the shadows, someone tending the water crane. An experience which is forever imprinted in my memory.
Thank you for your positive comments, like you I have many fond memories of my visits to South Africa (SA). Sadly like most things steam in SA came to an end, I was lucky enough to see a lot of their locomotives in action and get to film some of them. Luckily new technology has enabled me to convert the old technology of cine film and post it on You Tube and share it. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to upload even more, in the meantime I'm glad my modest filming efforts has stirred happy memories for others. Cheers
Great bit of filming - great memories for me. I live in Derbyshire but my aunt lived at Parkstone. The times I've spent on Parkstone Station , at Poole Park, Poole Station and LCs in the 70s and 80s . Many happy family holidays which were spent between 'holiday' things and watching the 33's, 73's and 47's and the Channel Islands Boat Train going up the bank at 07.50 every morning! Wish I could bring it all back, mum, dad, aunts and uncles all now gone as well.....Thanks for memories of happy times!
Thank you for your kind comment. If the film does nothing else but provoke personal memories then it was worth putting it up on RU-vid, glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
Wonderful video of the South African steam locomotives working hard. Thank you for making the effort and expense to have them digitised for RU-vid. Greatly appreciated by many like the us. Hope there is more coming. Well done.
Thank you for your gracious comments, I'm pleased you enjoyed watching the film. In due course I hope to add more of my South African footage, but I need the assistance of a colleague with more technical "savvy" than me to edit and upload it. Sadly the Covid pandemic has precluded the opportunity to do so .... BUT watch this space. Thank you once again for your comment
it happened every day from Bournemouth to weymouth. Every service was practically like that . That must have stopped in the late 80s but it certainly was not rare
Great video. Used to work for Brittany Ferries. Great to see the old Truckline Coutances ferry at the beginning. Remember the freight trains coming in. Good old days.
Glad that you enjoyed watching the film, at the timing I was filming it all I never dreamt it would be seen by so many, the internet was way in the future ! Cheers
Oh wow. Brought back some fond memories. Everything I know and love. Used to sit in my aunties back garden on Stert road and watch them shunt the yard. Thank you Colin. From Colin of Parkstone Goods fame.
Thank you for these scenes. So much of it, even the diesels at the end, bring back memories. The quality of the pictures and the sound are very impressive. Thank you for saving this wonderful archive.
Thank you for your positive comment, in 1977 on deciding to take cine film, I paid extra for a sound camera. Sound striped super 8 cine film was new technology back then ! Getting miles of old film transferred to disc was an expensive gamble, luckily the company I chose, based here in the UK, did a fine job. Some colour quality has been lost due to the age of the film and in the transfer, but in the main I'm happy with the result. Cheers
Thank you for your kind comment, as well as filming on the main Kimberley - De Aar Iine I tried to "get in" as many routes as possible during my 10 visits to S.A. I managed a few such as Lootsberg summit, Breyten-Lothair, Sterkstroom-Maclear, plus the Tarkastad, Alexandria and Jamestown branches to name but a few, all provided many a happy "chase". Cheers
Thank you for your kind comment, it was placed on RU-vid as a bit of "a test" to see if it attracted any interest, especially in South Africa. If you enjoyed watching the film half as much as I did when filming, then the effort was worth it ? Just a small part of many happy memories of visiting your beautiful country all those years ago. Cheers.
Great memories Colin- it was always exciting to see a named 47 on the inter- regional- do you remember which one is seen departing Poole over the level crossing? Do you also remember seeing (if you were really lucky) a 74 struggling on diesel up Parkstone bank on the ‘02’ parcels- happy times in deed!
Hampton Court MRS are building a model of Hamworthy (Jct) - albeit a little bit later than this film, if anyone has any photos that show the area around the station, particularly the cement terminal just around the corner down the branch, I'd love to see them. The location may be familiar to preservationists as there was a re-repatriated WD 8F (ex Turkish railways IIRC) briefly stored at the cement terminal for stripping and shot blasting.
Hi Aidan. A reply better late than never ! Sadly I've only a few more bits and pieces taken in Poole, probably not worth showing ? Once the Covid pandemic is sorted out I'll see if my mate who does the "technical stuff" i.e. editing and uploading can sort it out and add it in with a bit of nationwide archive cine film. Cheers
