Following the Red Devil's restoration and my coverage of the process, the next step in this saga would naturally be a chase to capture the locomotive in service.
Knowing the prospective route reasonably well I calculated that four trips should generate the amount of footage I'd require to create a decent three-part video series. (Three Day)
Since its completion in 2018, the locomotive has been used on five occasions. Sadly, some of these excursions ended and started with a number of last-minute failures. The first ended prematurely on Saturday evening and the remaining three were non-starters which saw alternative locomotives being used. The German Locomotive Club tour was, however, a ranging success.
Unfortunately, not only did this deny me the opportunity to capture the footage I required. It also saddled me with a pile of footage captured over three trips featuring three different locomotives. After, going to all the effort of filing leave, travelling to Cape Town and many other arrangements there's no point in calling it off at the last minute and so I pressed on.
This three-part now to be four-part series will put some of this unplanned material to use. I have tried to alternate the footage and add footnotes to aid in identification.
25 май 2020
