South African Railways, December 1980. ( + 364/490 views of the low resolution version ). See also my pictures on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/52086447...
Fantastic shots of my old sheds. Not just seeing the engines I once knew and worked on but the people such as drivers etc. That balled headed chap who was in the cab of 12AR 1545 and later seen oiling her up is driver Flash van Vuuren. He was about the slowest driver on the railway and so got the nickname "Gone in a flash" He was a great man to work with. Sadly he is no longer with us. Thanks for posting
Michel Huhardeaux , OMG Michel, you are making me want to cry here!! Even the drivers and firemen in these shots are old guys I once use to work with. I really must show these shots to my old Driver John Gilberthorpe who was based in De Aar much longer before I appeared on the scene!! I actually grew up in Germiston shed and spent just about everyday of my childhood inside that shed or on those engines. Seeing old Driver Flash with his oil feeder is fantastic. Thank you so very much, Richard
One thing I always loved about South Africa's steam engines were how they had the simplistic lines of British locomotives, but the hulking size of North America's most iconic locomotives.
Invaluable footage! And also of high quality for the time being filmed with original sound, what could we ask more for? It contains images of classes which had already disappeared a few years later, like the 12A and 12AR classes, and many of the S1's. Some nice footage of class 15A 'Millie' doing something different then pushing coal wagons on the coaling bunkers. The class 14R locomotives with class 24 tenders are something new for me, despite my interest for SAR steam since 1987 I have never come onto these conversions before.
Thank you for posting this wonderful footage of the steam era. I was living in South Africa in 1984 and took a train to Gemiston and saw several steam locomotives on a siding. I also recently read that many were permanently damaged by scrap metal cutters. Such a pity. Are there many engines being preserved and restored in South Africa besides Roland Vos steam engines of the Pride of Africa trains. I also had the good fortune to have travelled on his amazingly luxurious train from Cape Town to De Aar for a day. And one more question, do you ever think it could be possible to reupload your videos in 1080p or 4K.
Hi Michael, historic film and nicely transferred to digital. Was it 8mm though it could be 16mm? How did you record the sound? Was it on a separate recorder or on the film stripe? I have some 8mm and 16mm steam railway films on my channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WY02czXEwJ8.html these were transferred at 2K and the sound added after. Thanks for putting this up.
Super 8 Sound films were made with 2 magnetic full coat strip on both side of the film that made it possible to record sound along with the image. My original scan is slightly better than the uploaded RU-vid copy.
It's very good sound considering it's coming off such a small stripe of magnetic material. Also the camera must have had a good mic. The best sync 8mm sound I've heard and nicely shot.
Seems not that long back. 1975 steam from De Aar to Upington was the normal traction en route to Windhoek & Walvis bay. Fast forward to 1982 visited De Aar specifically for the steam trains - nothing, all removed from service and apparently moved in their hundreds to somewhere in the Karoo where they were systematically vandalised and plundered - although the intention was to mothball for possible future use since SA was coal rich and steam traction was thus extremely energy effecient. Suppose the era of having excess Escom power generation capacity heralded electrification over steam. Fast forward again to 1994 really sorry we didn't retain the steam infrastructure which during it's heyday was the largest remaining collection of working steam in the World. Destroying an enormous tourist attraction drawcard to boot, since after Britain canned their own steam - British steam enthusiasts flooded here to experience what they had lost. .
