I feel like crying sometimes the collapse of NRZ is so sad nearly all my family worked of NRZ .Travelled a lot on these trains miss the old good days in Bulawayo .
Lots of people complaining about the black smoke, poor fireman skills etc... But I read somewhere that these Garratts were notorious for this, since only the front end cylinders exit through the smoke stack (and thus helping with draft). So they need to burn for two locos worth but only get draft for one.
Soot comes out the chimney, soot is carbon which is essential for life. It's no different from the annual bush fires which naturally fertilize the land with soot. "Carbon Footprint" is fake meme brainwashing.
Yes, early farmers used to clear land and burn the bush then return the ashes into the tilled soil to improve the quality. Steam locos also banned in dry conditions due to burning ash often blown into dry vegetation...big source of bushfires.
We were on a down 24-hauled train when it failed on leaving Talerddig (coolant loss). The driver shunted it back into the Up loop on batteries only. I imagine that would have wrecked the batteries as it was at least eight coaches to shove up grade. The loco's last job and due for withdrawal anyway? The 'clocks' sounded great idling but as the displaced steam I didn't like them.
Brilliant footage, the engine driver was Mr Herbie Loader, and his helper was his son Mr Nelson Loader, as I was taken on that peckett when I was about eight years old by my father, Malcolm Denning. The memories are still vivid even today.
Lived in Trowbridge at the time and bunked off school to see this, footplated this engine up to the incline, very nice driver let me take the regulator back to the colliery , very bumpy track..!! That was a real eduction and pleased I did it....
I often watched these amazing Garratts in the early nineteen-fifties as they passed through our town on their way south with endless columns of copper-laden trucks. More than half a century later, I still remember the sounds they made as they pulled out of the marshaling yard, and the smell of hot steam and coal that hung in the air afterwards. Many thanks for the movie.
I have a slide of a green tank at Mountain Ash in the late 1960s / early 1970s Also 9600 at Merthyr Vale colliery . When did these two mines shut please ? Stanley
Was this standard gauge? Nice knuckle couplers, strange that Africa has them ahead of GB. A large locomotive to hand fire especially since it was made so late in the steam age, don't the Brits know about stokers?
The other locomotive in the Mountain Ash sequence is NOT Sir Gomer. It is 'Sir John', maybe with the name plates from 'Gomer. I don't remember which builder 'Sir John' was from: It is either Avonside or Fox Walker who was the predecessor of Peckett. The lore around Mountain Ash was that Sir John had a collision at Deep Duffryn and lost it's original chimney. It was replaced by what looks like a length of steel gas main
"a length of steel gas main"😄Great times. I guess they would just fit whatever did the job. And they would have had a workshop where an old chap with glasses could fabricate and weld anything.
Yeah, boy. Proper working steam. Oh, to have seen that... I always think of the bloke who turns up to work every day, possibly complaining, about having to drive a 15A double-Hudson Garratt and get payed for it. Lucky sod!
Many thanks Buxton 4472 for the info.If Chinese working steam is now defunct, and from what I can glean from the net it is, are the Zimbabwe Garratts the world's last working steam locos? I often wonder if the last steamer on the planet will perform it's final duty and go without witness or ceremony.
Excellent film. I dare say these men were poorly paid but their work is/ was 100 times more interesting than my job. Was it the norm to have a crew of 3 on Garratts? I write this in June 2014, can anyone help, is there any working steam still left in Zimbabwe? Many thanks.........
On a long haul such as Bulawayo - Dete - TJ - Vic Falls,the third man was (I think the term is) coal trimmer.He pulled the coal forward from the tender to make it more available to the fireman to shovel it into the firebox. Also (as can be seen in the video) he would hose down the coal and the footplate to reduce dust. Most of the time he just stood around looking very cool puffing on a cigarette! There are still a few steam locos serviceable in Zimbabwe and they were until recently employed on the Bulawayo shunts and trip working but poor coal availability often meant these turns were diesel worked. Can't say for sure what the current situation is.
+tony wolton in the 50's I used to travel by train pulled by Garratt Locomotives from Mombasa to Kisumu it tool 2 nights and a few hours to children it gave a great excitement sadly these are replaced by Diesel and they trains are and not as frequent and reliable as they used to the Indian and Brits took great pride in their Locos all brass work was polished till they had shine I believe they were the most powerful Locomotives in the world probably after American , They were a beautiful sight when the whole train wason a long bridge over rivers or valley
Yes it was normal to have a third person on the footplate, especially on long hauls. As the tender started to empty this person would move the coal forward providing access to the Fireman on the footplate. Brings back memories of my 12 month stint as a Fireman around1976, between army call-up's.
Double acting simple....not compound. A compound uses the steam more than once. Wheel arrangement is 4-6-4+4-6-4 or double hudson. The gauge is 3ft6ins or 1076mm which is the same as South Africa, Tasmania, Western Australia,Queensland and Japan. There are quite a few others. The articulation at each end allows the loco to negotiate tight curves unlike the articulation of American locos. I've just checked Hwange Coal's web site and shows seven,yes thats 7 steamers still operating
No one should restrict a developing country's use of steam traction. They'll electrify long before the United States!! Make American Railroads Electrify!! Now that's a Religious Conversion!
@@dreamdiction Maybe. But China was building steam at its developing stage. I believe there are a couple of Chinese steam locos on a Class 2 US railroad they use for charters
Yes, loads of clag means overfiring, wastage and filth. Many here in the UK, the younger enthusiasts, seem to regard it as "great." There's no polite answer to that. It's interesting how the two halves of the loco get out of sync then back in again, showing the wheel tyres have worn at different rates or one set is newer than the other. Even on those small wheels the difference could easily be over 2 inches.
Yes however! How many steam locos are in daily use doing a 'proper' days work, like this old girl is doing hmmmm? Yet one says nought about dozens, nay, hundreds of mucky particulate spewing (unsilenced) diesels charging about China. Come to think of it there is an awful lot of 'China' in Africa at the moment. I’d love to know what’s doing the job now.
Hi Buxton, I'm sure Bulowayo was BLR but BYO rings a bell.Firing a good 15th class was indeed brilliant, when the went they flew. Some Garrets came up from South Africa. I think they were classified 16A, They were totally clapped out, expect that is why SA "helped" out with the "war effort". The train left BYO for Sawmills (about halfway to TJ. and met with a train bound for BYO from TJ or Wankie. Crews exchanged trains and then went home. Tell you more if you are interested. Cheers.
