Travel Photographers Network

Adventures in pursuit of steam

Text and images by Ian Lawrence - All rights reserved.

I joined the party at London Heathrow for a two week tour of eastern Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. The first week would be spent sleeping on board our own hotel train. The second week we'd use buses to travel between hotels and the railway lines. The sole aim of the tour would be railway photography. No sightseeing, no late morning laying in bed, no late night entertainment. We planned to be in position for every sunrise and sunset, weather permitting.

The tour was unforgettable due to the various adventures arranged for us by our old friend Mr. Murphy (the guy that runs the “Murphy’s Law” franchise), like...

... no heating ...

After landing at Johannesburg airport, a half day coach ride took us to our hotel train. The "Reefsteamer" hotel train had a comfortable bar coach, a restaurant coach, 6 sleeper coaches and various staff and utility coachesú. The sleeper coaches were pretty basic; two-person compartments with two beds and a small washbasin. There was also one shower provided per coach.

There was no heating, and we soon found out that nights in autumn/winter in eastern Free State can be pretty chilly... say cold. During most of the night the train remained stationary at a station. Early in the morning it would start heading for the sunrise shot location, and the temperature in the coaches would plummet instantly. Any clothes we had were laid on top of the pile of blankets provided, which just about made it bearable!

The hotel train was hauled by three different steam engines, often double headed, ensuring we were always in the right location at the right time and had a suitable steam hauled train to shoot. A second steam hauled supply train followed us around to coal and water the engines, doubling as a freight train to give us even more photo opportunities.

... generator coach problems ...

One morning we woke up and there was no light or water. As we needed to be ready for the early morning shots, flashlights were used to get dressed, find breakfast, and grab the cameras. The restaurant coach luckily cooked with gas and had its own generator. It was nothing short of a miracle that the staff managed to provide a full English breakfast by candle light.

Imagine you're on a holiday tour and it's cold and dark, there is no power or water (because there's no power for the pumps), and the only thing people are talking about is ... getting the sunrise glint shot! We duly got our shots.

The power problems continued. The bearings in the main generator had to be replaced. The parts had to come from Johannesburg, and it would take a few day before the problem would finally be solved. The main concern however was not lack of light and water, but battery and laptop recharging! Fortunately, we managed to borrow a large mobile generator from a neighbouring farmer, which provided some power for a few hours in the evening to keep our cameras running, and maybe even enabling some of us to get the occasional warm(?) shower.

... a minor derailment of a steam engine ...

Like so often around noon, the engines had to be re-coaled and watered. During one of the shunts an engine was derailed with three axles on a derailer. Well that's what derailers are for after all. Neither the engineer nor the fireman had noticed it. It looked as if this engine wouldn't be hauling our train or any other train for some time. Using a second steam engine for extra traction and various re-railing tools somehow all wheels made it back onto the track, and the engine reappeared in action the next day. Apparently no serious damage had been sustained.

... unfireable coal ...

We don't like high grade coal because that makes getting good "clag", the so sought after thick black exhaust, difficult. With lower grade coal this is a lot easier to achieve. Low grade coal however also requires the fire to be cleaned more often (because the fire gets clinkered up, preventing steam to be made) delaying the train. On one day an engine was provided with extremely low grade coal more resembling soil than anything burnable. We'd taken buses to the other side of the valley to shoot the train from across the river. The train came with some delay and passed without any visible exhaust only just about making it past the photographers. After a lot of fire cleaning the train managed to make enough steam to set back for another run. One of the photographers who fires on a preserved line in Germany did his best SAS commando impression and climbed down to the river, waded across and scampered up the other bank to board the train and assist with the fire. After a long, very long wait the train passed again with only barely visible exhaust. Light was going fast, so we gave up. The train didn't manage to get back to the station of origin until early the next morning.

... the famous Paton Country Narrow Gauge runaway train experience ...

The morning started quite uneventfully, with some shots taken during the shunting at Allwoodburn station. The aim was to recreate a traditional mixed train (a train which consists of both freight wagons and passenger coaches), and some of our large party had to travel in two open freight wagons sitting between the logs, since even providing two small 2 foot gauge passenger coaches was pushing reality to the limit. The train proved to be a challenge for the small NGG11 class Garratt engine. More than once we stalled on a steep incline and had to set back for a second attempt.

When the train started to gather a bit of speed on a downhill section, we at first simply thought the engineer was trying to make it up the next gradient. Then the whistle was blown repeatedly, and the ride became increasingly bumpy. Suddenly I was thrown from the log I was sitting on. We'd passed a junction at a far too high speed. We then roared through a small deserted station. When I looked back I discovered that the guys who were sitting in the rear of my wagon were no longer there. They were standing some way back along the track side and had apparently jumped off the moving train. Looking back towards the engine I discovered the engineer was hanging onto the outside of the engine seemingly preparing to jump too. Well if everyone was getting off I didn't want to be left behind. I had one leg over the side of the wagon wondering about the best way and place to jump, when the train seemed to start slowing down. Instead of jumping, the engineer shouted down the train to apply the hand breaks on the wagons. I pulled my leg back on board and tried to turn the break wheel on my wagon but it wouldn't budge. One of the other remaining passengers in my wagon stepped over to the next wagon and managed to turn that brake wheel. We were however already coming to a stop. We quickly abandoned the freight wagons. We shouted for the people in the passenger coaches to get out too. Many were happily unaware of the problems, being better insulated from the occurrences.

We walked back to the station declining the offer of the engineer to takes us back by train. You don't tend to re-board a runaway train. At the station the tour guide, with unanimous approval, decided to cancel the rest of the day's programme and head back by bus. In was nothing short of a miracle that no serious injuries were sustained by the people who had jumped off.

... can't find the airport, but that's no problem as the plane's been cancelled anyway ...

We were extremely lucky with the weather. Despite all the adventures and general fatigue, we all headed for the airport in more or less good health and with hard drives, memory cards and film (yes some still use film) full of extremely good images. Somehow one of the buses managed to get lost on it's way to the airport, and when it finally got there some people found their flights had been re-scheduled to an earlier time, which made it challenging to board on time. I'm sure everyone made it home in the end, and if not? Well nobody's going to starve at Johannesburg airport!

About the Author

Ian Lawrence lives in the Netherlands and works as a civil engineer (piping and pipelining). He spends his spare time photographing trains in their surroundings, always looking for the perfect shot in the best light. As the Netherlands don’t have many locations where he can get the type of shots he likes, he travels abroad whenever he can.

More of his work can be seen on his homepage at www.railway-photography.net 

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