David Charles Rodgers: an appreciation from the editors and compilers of Soul of A Railway

Most of you will know that one of SoAR's main correspondents is no longer with us. Only now that we have lost him will we realise how much Dave's contributions have meant to its success.

But it goes beyond that. Via the medium of our once-magnificent railway David generated hard currency for South Africa for an extended period beginning in the 1970s until the system was no longer functional. He brought hundreds of visitors to participate in his meticulously planned railtours that rolled through the finest scenery in our country, invariably steam hauled. In their thousands, photographs taken during Rodgers' railtours grace the pages of Facebook and numerous other websites. To say Dave will be missed is gross understatement.

By way of tribute to this great Englishman we are reproducing below some of his work that has appeared on SoAR as well as elsewhere. It is a magnificent memorial.

1. We've not published this one before! That's Dave aged ten in the middle and here is what he tells us: "This was summer 1960 and we had travelled from Huddersfield to Manchester on the lunchtime express from Newcastle to Liverpool which was always double headed generally with 2 Rebuilt Scots, a Scot and a Rebuilt Patriot or Jubilee. On this occasion the pilot loco was a Rebuilt Scot. The train engine is Rebuilt Patriot No. 45531 Sir Frederick Harrison - an almost daily sight in Huddersfield - based at Edge Hill shed, Liverpool. The photo was taken by my dad with a friend on some cheap camera and it is scanned from a VERY small and scratched print. It's at the long closed Manchester Exchange station and the train's stock is still in carmine and cream livery before maroon was universal. The service was dieselised in January 1961."

2. Nymphs and Shepherds come away........ Had to include this beautiful one of Julie to show that Dave was a lucky guy in every way and to remind our wives that we weren't the only ones that camped out on honeymoon (by the lineside? Of course). In a note to us Julie said "he always just wanted to do everything as well as possible".

We trust the following pages will make that clear:

3. Dave was one of the first to insist upon and get the staid old operating department to allow photographic runpasts. A magnificent example of such planning is 15F 3084 blasting away from the Berg River at Moravia with Dave's 2002 tour to Namaqualand and back. He had enlisted the support of locals (in this case Peter Rogers) to point out the best locations and the ideal time for the train to be there.

4. Also climbing away from the Berg River but a bit closer to De Hoek is this tour train that originally was inadvertently given the same label as the 2002 tour. The giveaway of course is that there is no caboose behind the engine and this F has a 23-class tender.

5. A heavy slog for 15F 3084 getting away from the Olifants River at Klawer on the 2002 railtour. Well, that's the impression given by this runpast! Next morning the passengers were treated to an even better one - see photo 3.

6. Almost every year from 1990 until 2003 Dave ran an excursion around South Africa. Towards the end it got increasingly frustrating dealing with the powers that pretend to run our railways; one suspects having lasting effects on his health. The end came not on one of Dave's trips but on a "Steam and Safaris" tour that ended at Ashton where the passengers were ignominiously dumped on the station platform. If you know Ashton you will realise this is not a town where one wants to be ignominiously dumped.

During the eighties and early 90s the Mechanical Department continued to maintain the excursion engines, including Hendrie's stylish class 15A 1970 'Milly', seen here leaving Malmesbury in territory it never visited prior to retirement. Using the museum engines in this way made the Rodgers railtours especially attractive.

7. Dave rode the 'Kei Explorer' of March 1989, seen here at Franschhoek, terminus of a branch from Paarl in the heart of Cape wine country. There were few opportunities for passengers to get photos of this train, a frustrating experience for our hero. Henceforth he ran his own tours, beginning with the 'Cape Mountaineer' of 1990 which had many more runpasts but still not nearly as many as the later excursions.

8. A miracle: later that day a runpast for the Kei Explorer, further down the Berg River valley where the line climbs away from the bridge. The engine is GMA 4072.

9. By the nineties traditional general freight trains had vanished from the rails. Henceforth the idea was to charter fake goods trains, hence this one being hauled by 19D 3321 in Michell's Pass in June 2002. The passengers were accommodated in the tri-compo brake van. Today #3321 is part of the fleet owned by Ceres Rail, one of the last glimmers of hope for railway excursions in South Africa.

10. Dave's train ran through to Prince Alfred Hamlet, terminus of the 16-mile branch from Wolseley.

11. And here approaching the main line at Wolseley after an exhausting day clambering up and down mountains.

Dave and Julie made their first trip to South Africa in July 1975, by which time draught steam was getting harder to find. But there was still plenty of it if one knew where to go and they wasted little time finding out. On SoAR we have posted many photos by the Rodgers of real steam at work; here follows a selection:

12. On an exploratory trip along the NCCR without maps or working timetables, just west of Swellendam they were surprised by 560-up the daily westbound mixed on its way to Worcester (it should be mentioned that this was Dave's July 1978 trip when Julie stayed behind - presumably to look after the newborns).

13. With no maps they managed to find the Skilpadhoogte where the line climbs 700ft to get over a meander of the Breede River (a tunnel would have eliminated it but the NCCR had no money), and SAR considered the volume of traffic did not warrant it. The engine was GMA 4135.

14. GMA 4135 approaching the 1226ft summit of the NCCR at Mowers, via a series of sweeping reverse curves. The Langeberg in the background hovers between 4,000 and 6,000 feet all the way to Mossel Bay.

15. Class 14CRB 1881 bringing 561-down, the 13:17 SaO Worcester-Riversdale into Vink River. At this point we should give you Dave's entertaining account of why, on their 1978 trip, they were heading this way:

"In June/July 1978 a group of us decided to make another tour of South Africa.

A month or so before departure I wrote (in the days before e-mail or fax) to SAR requesting that they consider rostering a Class 14CRB 4-8-2 on the 13.15 Worcester-Riversdale SaO passenger train, normally a Class GMAM Garratt at this time and for good measure to also operate the Johannesburg - Mossel Bay express from Rosmead to Graaff Reinet over the Lootsberg Pass with a double-headed pair of Class 19D 4-8-2s, again at the time, another GMAM Garratt turn.

Needless to say I was not surprised to get no response from SAR to my request!

The tour was beset with car problems which required some 'down time' whilst parts were delivered. It was during a couple of days of being forced to stay in the rail-less remote village of Uniondale in the Little Karoo and in the absence of anything else to do I decided to phone home to check all was OK. Julie duly advised that a response had been received from SAR and that I was to contact Operating (one was the Cape Western system and the other the Cape Midland system) to agree details for both special arrangements!

The following day we travelled to the Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat line at Barandas station, which at this time was still staffed, and I was able to use the railway phone. It was agreed with Operating that the 13.15 Worcester - Riversdale would indeed be hauled by a Class 14CRB in three days time on the following Saturday!

It should be stated at the outset that none of us had ever visited the Riversdale line in the Western Cape (although I had travelled by train through the night) and worse, as it was never to have been in our itinerary, we had no maps - not even the most basic of road maps. The request had been made because Worcester shed still used the 14CRBs for shunting although the steam-era in the Western Cape was rapidly coming to an end. In earlier years the 13.15 had been a regular 14CRB turn to get a locomotive to Riversdale for a week's shunting but by the time of our visit the train was invariably a Garratt.

After overnighting in Swellendam and, with a free morning, we decided to photograph some of the regular traffic on the route. There was reputedly a 03.00 Mixed train from Riversdale to Worcester but with no maps and no staffed stations it was a struggle to find the line and then having the courage to wait for a possibly non-existent train in the middle of nowhere. Eventually a distant rumble could be heard on a perfectly still morning and some minutes later GMAM Garratt 4135 came into view. Expecting the usual single suburban coach tacked onto the rear of a freight we were somewhat surprised to see a substantial train of 6 loaded bogie freight wagons and 5 modern steel bogie passenger coaches. We did our best to chase this throughout to Worcester but en-route were distracted when sister Class GMAM No. 4125 was seen climbing Bonnievale Bank [Skilpadhoogte] on an eastbound goods.

On arrival at Worcester we immediately drove to the steam shed to find if there was indeed a 14CRB booked on the 13.15 train, and there the biggest surprise awaited us. Class 14CRB No. 1881 had not only been cleaned for us but had been completely repainted and looked really superb! Another 14CRB (No. 1898) was also present and was being used as the coal stage pilot. Apart from three Class 24 2-8-4s all other locos on shed were Class GMAM Garratts.

The driver of No. 1881 seemed friendly but the fireman was less than happy having booked on duty expecting a normal stoker-fired Garratt and who now was faced with shoveling around 10 tons of coal on a 10-hour shift with a 8-coach (340 ton) train on a severely graded route (maximum of 1 in 40)! [Dave has overstated the load (it would have been about 300 tons), and understated the gradients: the 1-in-40 stretches are uncompensated for curvature. This is equivalent to 1-in-33 on a 5-chain curve]

Unfortunately the best scenery was east of Ashton and not knowing the line nor having any maps meant that it was hard work getting good photographs but at least we did our best with what was probably one of the final mainline workings for this class. Our last photo was the train arriving at Jubilee at around 17.30 with the sun having been set for some time but fortunately there was sufficient reflected light and colour in the sky to make a reasonable picture.

If only we had been able to drive to a nearby hotel but we had an 'appointment' early next morning to photograph the East London - Cape Town mail departing Schoombee soon after 07.00....meaning that from Jubilee we had to drive for no less than 440 miles through the night. After a fuel-scare in Graaff Reinet - at the time fuel was not available (except for emergency services and tourists) at weekends following sanctions again the Apartheid Government) we finally arrived at our hotel in Middelburg at 02.15 on Sunday....and left again at 06.15 having seen no-one and taken the keys from the desk.

Sunday 2nd July saw considerable Class 15AR activity on the Rosmead - Stormberg line before the second 'arrangement' when the Johannesburg - Mossel Bay express was specially rostered for 2 x 19Ds instead of a Garratt....but that is another story."

16. Robertson, 30 miles east of Worcester, was an important passenger stop for this train which frequently caused delays. Crews invariably took the opportunity to top up their tenders.

17. The next important stop for eastbound trains was Ashton at the foot of the afore-mentioned Skilpadhoogte (= Tortoise heights), incorrectly known by enthusiasts as Bonnievale bank.

A point that we like to highlight here is that ALL the windows of the front coach of this coal-fired, steam-hauled train are open. That can only be because its regular passengers are enjoying the music of 14CRB 1881 working flat out up the 1/40 uncompensated gradient to the summit.

18. 561-down heading into the hills of the Skilpadhoogte. That 14CRB is talking.

19. Another thing that David appreciated was the neatness and tidiness of the SAR. This was the lever frame at Buffeljagsrivier (=Buffalo hunts river) but along the railway everything was invariably orderly and clean, no matter whether it was the stations, the track or the trains.

20. To avoid doubling back we'll slip in a few more of Dave's tour train photos here. This was GMA 4072 performing a runpast near Jubilee with the eastbound Kei Explorer of March 1989.

21. The Kei Explorer again, a couple of miles closer to Jubilee siding.

22. That grand lady Milly, far far from her home territory; leaving Swellendam with a charter freight. Exquisite photo.

23. Back in the draught days again a GMA with 8-up, the PE-Cape Town mails, accelerating away from Lodewyk tank on the climb out of the Gouritz River valley. The date on this image as received from Dave says July 1975.

24. GEA 4023 with a George-Mossel Bay excursion crossing the Maalgaten river. The tannin-coloured water is stained by the root of the Palmiet reed (which you can see clumps of).

25. Arrival at George of an eastbound freight in July 1975. Ahead lies Montagu Pass.

26. Up and down GMA-hauled freights crossing at George in July 1975. For the up train the Outeniquas in the background look supremely menacing.

27. As steam continued to decline the railway Administration decided that one line should remain steam-worked, mainly to assist the tourist industry. The line selected was the branch from George to Knysna. Maybe for this reason Dave seemed to put this line on the back burner, and this is one of only a few images that he sent to SoAR of a train on this route.

28. A beautiful and well-known image by Dave of lunch in progress in the single diner of 9-down. This took place while the Garratt was toiling away up the pass and the experience of having a three-course lunch accompanied by wine, coalsmoke and splendid scenery was not easily forgotten.

29. A regular combination from the 1920s perfectly re-staged some 70 years later. Classes 7A 1007+7B 1056 with a Rodgers charter freight emerging from tunnel 5 in June 1996.

30. Our notes for this one have gone astray but we can tell you that it is a Rodgers' excursion and the locomotives are a class 24 piloting a GMA. Date unknown but if anyone can assist we will insert the correct information.

31. A GMA with 8-up (7-down), the Port Elizabeth-Cape Town mail, approaching Oupad on the north slope of Montagu Pass, August 1975.

32. GMA 4126 with northbound goods near Camfer, August 1975.

33. GO 2575 climbing out of Kandelaars with the Cape Mountaineer in July 1990.

34. Classes 14CRB 1882 + GEA 4023 with a Steam & Safaris charter coming through the Kliprivier gorge on the approach to Blossoms. June 1997.

35. Class GO 2575 departing from Zebra with the Cape Mountaineer. July 1990. On this spanking morning the Swartberg range several miles behind Oudtshoorn could be seen clear across the horizon, seemingly only a few miles away.

36. How lovely was this train rounding the S-curve out of Blossoms.

37. GEA 4023 with Dave's "Cape Explorer III" railtour between Holgate and Camfer, May 1997.

38. GEA 4023 with a charter freight coming out of Camfer. We don't have the date.

39. Oudtshoorn. Arrival of 9-down (10-up) in June 1978.

40. Oudtshoorn. GMA leaving southbound with 1305-down, the Johannesburg-Mossel Bay express, June 1975.

41. The Cape Town bound mails (8-up or 7-dn), between Friesland and Kandelaars, June 1975.

42. Classes 19D and 24 on shed at Oudtshoorn, June 1978.

43. Oudtshoorn, coming off shed, June 1978.

44. Classes 14CRB 1882+GEA 4023 doing a runpast with a charter freight at Oudtshoorn, date unknown.

45. Class 19D 3340 heading the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth mail (9-down) out of Oudtshoorn in August 1976.

46. The Johannesburg-Mossel Bay express on the outskirts of Oudtshoorn, June 1975.

47. The particulars for this striking photograph of a train approaching Vanwykskraal in the early morning are somewhere in the bowels of this computer, which doesn't help much, I know but in the interest of getting this tribute to Julie in time I'll send it out now and put in the details later.

48. Delport, 19D 3334 with 8-up (7-dn) emerging from the tunnel, June 1978.

49. Le Roux. 19D 3333 with eastbound goods, June 1978.

50. Le Roux. 19D 3324 with the eastbound T&P, 322-up, June 1978.

51. Marevlakte, 19C 2439 performing a runpast for the passengers of the Cape Mountaineer. July 1990. Soon after, the engine failed, a situation designed to test the ingenuity of tour operators.

52. 19D 3333 with an eastbound goods approaching Stompdrif siding, June 1978.

53. Stompdrif. 19D 3324 with 322-up T&P, June 1978.

54. The eastbound T&P's opposite number, westbound 327-down with 19D 3323 in charge, pulling away from the water stop at Snyberg, June 1978.

55. David described this as "3333 making a gentle start out of Snyberg" with an Up freight in June 1978.

56. And this is 3324 also making a gentle start, this time with 322-up T&P. June 1978.

57. Easily the most dramatic photo this writer has seen (out of 100s) at the Red Wall shows 14CRB 1882 performing a run-past with 'Cape Explorer V', a Rodgers excursion, in June 1999.

58. 19D 3324 with 322-up T&P approaching Barandas in June 1978 - the mighty Swartberg looming behind.

59. Toorwaterpoort. Alongside the Traka river, 19D 3323 rolls towards the station with 327-down T&P. Who would have thought that such an innocent looking stream (dry most of the year) could carve such a massive gash through the mountains.

60. Toorwaterpoort, 19D 3324 with 322-up T&P, June 1978

61. The same train as in photo 60 looking the other way.

62. Toorwaterpoort, 14CRB 1882 doing a runpast with the Cape Explorer V, a Roger's excursion, in June 1999.

63. At the bridge over the swirling waters of the Traka, passengers of the Cape Mountaineer had a superb run-past provided by the two 24s (and their crews!), No's 3683 & 3684.

64. On the Cape Mountaineer a very popular braai was prepared by the catering staff on the station platform at Vondeling, which by 1990 had already been closed for several years. That looks like Doug Capewell with his back to the camera in the foreground?

65. Hopefully this second view of the passengers will enable most of them to be accounted for. Is that perhaps John Middleton on the left far side doing a Boris with the megaphone?

66. The sun almost always shone for David. Kranspoort was one of the critical photo shoots for the Cape Mountaineer and blow-me-down if the best spot wasn't perfectly illuminated. Good on yer Dave.

67. Beneath the kranses of the Grootrivierberge, approximately half-way between Willowmore and Klipplaat, lies the tiny hamlet of Fullarton, in its day an important crossing place for east and west-bound traffic. If you wanted peace and quiet, disturbed only by the occasional train, this was the place to be. You can almost sense it in Dave's photo.

68. Nervous crews would usually sneak a top-up at Uitenhage, even though it was only 21 miles from Port Elizabeth. June 1975.

69. The same pair of 15ARs working hard up the steep bank out of Uitenhage. This was the last year that double-headed power featured regularly on the mails out of Port Elizabeth.

70. Everywhere they went, Dave and his party seemed to get there just in time..... These were the final few months of service for the Hendrie Pacifics at Port Elizabeth.

71. Another Hendrie Pacific accelerates a heavy Uitenhage-Port Elizabeth commuter train out of Sydenham.

72. The Cape Venturer in Pretoriuskloof with 19D 2714 and 12R 1505 performing a run-past. May 1986.

73. Having thrown so much coal into the firebox for the runpasts, 19D 2714 & 12R 1505 were seriously in need of a fireclean, which was done here at Pretoriuskloof siding - took half-an-hour. The water here was hard, hence all the softening apparatii on the left.

73. The next, and more important servicing stop for most trains, was Koloniesplaas, farm of the Kingwill family, who by agreement with SAR were responsible for supplying it with water.

Old Jafta, the fire-cleaning man at Koloniesplaas for decades, is raking a fortune in kilojoules into the ashpit. When 1300-up has moved on he will laboriously cart several dozen wheelbarrow-loads of hot coals to the District Engineer's washaway-repair stockpile.

74. Taken on Dave's first trip to Lootsberg Pass, in August 1975 when he found 19Ds 2643 and 2704 blasting their way around the curve known as 'Swartvark' (= Black Pig) on their way to the summit triangle nestling in a saddle in the Sneeuberg, altitude 5727 feet, and still about 3 miles ahead.

75. The last, and best, photo of the Cape Venturer on what was a memorable day with more than the usual number of run-pasts. May 1986.

76. The Kei Explorer leaving Fort Beaufort with two 15ARs and a 24 (the latter lent by Cookhouse shed) in March 1989.

The following winter scenes on the Maclear line are typical of Dave's determination to succeed no matter the setback. When they checked in at their hotel in Dordrecht on the previous evening the weather was blowing a gale and it was freezing. Next morning the town was white with the sky clear and wind still. But their hire-car radiator had frozen and it started to boil before they reached the outskirts of town. Nothing daunted, Dave turned around, drove the steaming vehicle back to the hotel and arranged to borrow a car......

Posterity is fortunate he succeeded:

77. 226-up the daily Sterkstroom-Maclear passenger approaching appropriately named Withoogte (=White Heights), in July 1994

78. The same train photographed by swivelling around at the same vantage point. The summit at Withoogte is a few hundred yards ahead, around the corner.

79. 227-down goods on the 1/40 grade out of Dordrecht on its way to the summit at Withoogte. It is worth mentioning that immediately before Withoogte there was a short momentum grade of 1/26.

Out of thousands we selected some 150 of Dave's photos but with extreme reluctance we have to cut this tribute short in order to get it away to Julie in time. Those living outside RSA should know that the country's electricity utility (Eskom) has lost the ability to provide its citizens with reliable power. Charlie started compiling this collection of magnificent photos last week but has been completely done in by power cuts costing 18 hours between Thursday and today.

We close with a few photographs that hopefully will bring happier memories, both for the Rodgers family and for our readers.

80. Four fat contributors to Soul of A Railway: from the right: John Hunt, Dick Manton, Dave Rodgers, Charlie Lewis.

81. A bevy of bosses. On the left is Julie but we don't know the others and would be grateful for their names so we can put them in.

82. David was seldom far from a railway. This one was barely 5 yards from the Rodgers' back door.

83. His memory lives on. Bertie's proud grandda', October 2015. This is the only photo in this appreciation that we have credited to Julie but I have an idea that some of the pictures above are hers as well. If so, please forgive us Julie and let us know so that we can correct them.

We would like to close with this message from Org de Bruin, a frequent traveller on Rodgers' excursions:

"I joined Dave on several tours in SA and abroad (USA and South America ) and his tours were the best ever. I will remember his attention to detail and the effort he made to make the trips enjoyable. Dave enriched my life with all the knowledge that he passed onto me unselfishly. I will also remember the times with the Rodgers family with us in Johannesburg and the times Yvonne and I enjoyed his and Julie's hospitality in England. We will surely miss a very good friend".

Org and Yvonne de Bruin

Linden, Johannesburg.