Part 12 - The Midland Main Line (4): Cradock to De Aar ©

Please note: All photographs, maps and text in Soul of a Railway are protected by copyright and may not be copied or reproduced in any way for further use without prior permission in writing from the compilers of this series, Les Pivnic and Charlie Lewis.

Here follows the last of a four-part series about the main line from Port Elizabeth to De Aar:

So many have helped with its compilation that a name at the masthead can't be justified.  In alphabetical order, special mentions and thanks are due to Eric Conradie (historical facts monitor and photos); Andrew Deacon (formatting the website); Allen Duff (historical photos); Chris Jeffery (our language monitor); Bruno Martin (the incomparable maps); Yolanda Meyer (the THL librarian, especially her ever-patient and efficient location of historical data); Peter Micenko (civil engineering and track-data monitor); Harry Ostrofsky (our new partner-in-crime and signalling monitor); Leith Paxton (photos and the superb drawing accompanying photo 15); Les Pivnic (photos and historical facts monitor) and the Transnet Heritage Library, an absolute mine of information.

Please also spare a thought for Mike Squire, the well-known British enthusiast who has been to South Africa several times.  He is seriously ill in Warwick Hospital. 

1. This 120-year-old E H Short photo of Cradock station featured in the previous chapter.  No apology for using it again, it seems a fitting way to resume our journey to De Aar.  In case you have become disoriented, we are on the south side of the station (i.e. approaching it from PE), looking north, with the Fish River on our right, more or less parallel with the railway, and Cradock town on the east (left-hand) bank of the river - see photo 14.  The CGR only crossed the Fish River once, and it waited another 25 miles to do it (photos 18 & 19).

2. By swivelling his massive 10"X8" glass-plate camera 180 degrees on its tripod Short was able to record the CGR's masonry engine house together with what looks like the platelayer's office or possibly that of the loco foreman. The stone base of the water tank was a feature of every lineside tank on CGR lines and sadly, one that endured at very few locations.  At this time railwaymen's cottages at Cradock (and most, if not all, other up-country stations) were also constructed of stone.  Let us quote our observant reader and language monitor, Prof Jeffery: "I’d like to see a mention of the other two structures in this excellent photo. The sturdily handsome masonry supporting the water-tank....... is one; and the other is that lovely [office] showing the same skilful stonework along with neat brick corners.  There is no sign of either in pics 3 and 4, and that is further evidence of the SAR’s indifference to its heritage, which is one of your important themes.  The CGR clearly employed expert masons, probably Englishmen of the class of Joseph Newey and Robert Bullen".  (a bit of family pride showing here: Chris is a direct descendant of Robert Bullen!)

3. As at Beaufort West, some stonework of the original shed survived to be incorporated in the later structure which was erected during the 1930s when SAR had a wholesale cleanout of dead-end and roundhouse-type sheds.  A 15BR, 6A Belpaire and several 15Fs were enjoying some April sun in this view of the north end made in 1968. 

4. Early morning view of the south end of the shed in April 1968 with only 15Fs visible.  The run-down state of the structure indicates that it has not long to live - in fact it closed at the end of May 1969 when the last 15F was transferred away.  An awful lot of jobs were lost. 

5.  An unknown 15BR and 6A Belpaire 482 at rest in the washout bay. 

6. 15Fs being readied for the road.  The CGR's masonry walls are carrying 80 years of soot and grime.  Neither GE nor GM would allow their products anywhere near such places. 

7. Last minute adjustment to a clack valve.  As diesels started to take over the plum jobs Cradock's pride began to slip - only a year or two earlier they wouldn't have sent such a grimy-looking machine into traffic. 

8. Classes 6, 7 and 8 bore the brunt of the Midland Main Line's workload until the class 12Bs arrived in 1920, whereafter their road duties steadily declined.  By the end of the fifties only a handful of T&P, pick-up and local goods workings were being handled by these venerable machines; but the sixes were retained for station pilot duties at more important stations.  When Cradock was allocated one of the first S2's in 1952 it shared these duties turn and turn about with one class six, latterly Belpaire 6A 482 depicted here on standby in April 1968. 

9. On a fine morning in April 1968 we found this cowled 15F 3149 on the ready track waiting for its load to come up from the south. 

10.  The S2s were lively: to quote Dusty Durrant "they could complete a shunting manoeuvre in the time it took a diesel shunter to build up its revs".  I remember our neighbour, Chris Brand, who was a fireman, showing me the Krupp builders plate in the cab of the first S2 which had just been released from Salt River works to Paarden Eiland shed. There was also a cast brass plate which said in large letters: "Maximum speed not to exceed 25mph".  No 3737 was allocated to Cradock and was kept shiny until finally sent away in 1969.  The typical Hendrie balcony-ended day/sleeper saloon, with lavatories in the middle (i.e. not over the bogies!), has had its dado boards replaced with sheets of plywood, definitely not a visual improvement. 

In the far background are the later offices for the track staff, while the masonry-ended buildings with verandas on the right (possibly CGR) are book-off quarters for train crews; guards and porters separate from enginemen!  By the time the diesels came along the practice of booking off had just about fallen into disuse. 

11. Northwards out of Cradock it is quite steep.  This F was priming badly from the start but there's railway interest that perhaps made it worthwhile to include the photo.  On the left are Cradock's stock pens and a standard SAR loading gauge.  Behind that is the gable of the goods shed.  On the right is a row of typical CGR railway cottages (see next photo). 

12. Before we leave Cradock we'll look at one more image from E H Short's photographic tour of 1896, this time looking southwards from the north end.  Note that the cottages in the previous photo date to the last century and as such are quite historical.  It is not known whether they still exist and it would be greatly appreciated if someone could help us here. 

13. The chook* was oblivious of the chook-chook (OK, OK shoot me).  An Up goods battling up the hill out of Cradock in August 1968.

* Expurgandian for chicken.  

14. An Up motor-car train leaving Cradock in 1960 with another block load of motor cars waiting to follow. The Great Fish River was almost dry. In 1975 the Orange-Fish tunnel, 51 miles long with a diameter of 17.5 feet, was completed. It transformed the agricultural economy of the Eastern Cape, allowing thousands of formerly barren morgen to be brought under irrigation.  

15. From the almost-new 6H to the tail marker, here is an immaculate CGR corridor day/sleeper express photographed by driver Conchar c 1906.  We spent much time trying to identify where it was taken and have reached a shaky conclusion that the train was approaching Marlow siding, next station north of Cradock.  We are indebted to Leith for allowing us to use it and providing the following information regarding the rolling stock, as well as the detailed drawing (I had queried whether one of the vans might have been a TPO): 

"the CGR had a variety of vans, but they are difficult to tell apart. They had specie vans, TPO’s as well as lighting vans with horizontal ‘oil’ engines driving a generator for train lighting (that was from about 1897). The first two coaches after the locomotive I do recognize. They were CGR type L3 [later] SAR D-9 (1st and 2nd Class). They had two CGR emblems because there was a baggage door in the centre of the coach which opened into a communal luggage compartment. In SAR days the door was closed off and a normal passenger accommodation fitted where the luggage compartment was. The Clerestory stock on the CGR was initially called ‘Lantern Roof’." 

A phone conversation with Leith produced the following additional information: "CGR was the first in South Africa to introduce sleeping accommodation and lavatories on its long-distance carriages, in 1892 [they did not have clerestory roofs and many survived into the 1950s, by this time downgraded to third class].  Although the lavatories (separate for men and women) were at the ends [unlike the much later Hendrie saloons] there was a spacious crossover in the middle which was used for stowing luggage [note that in this train there are two of these early day/sleepers - the fourth and fifth vehicles - and one of them still has a baggage door in the centre].  According to Les Pivnic's definitive work on South African dining cars, the CGR introduced seven "kitchen cars" in 1896/7 in which meals were prepared for serving in compartments.  In 1903 two of these were converted into proper dining cars, however, given the liklihood that these were confined to the Cape Main Line it is probable the train depicted above had a kitchen car, which is possibly the third vehicle in the formation.

16.  Up and Down goods crossing at Marlow.  On the left are length ganger's cottages (these were the days before mechanisation of track maintenance) while on the right are the grounds of Marlow Agricultural College, a school founded in 1931 to support the Karoo wool and mohair industries.  At one time there was important livestock business for SAR to and from here as the school relies mostly on produce from its farm for funding.  Nowadays it all goes by road.  

17. A busy moment at Baroda beautifully captured by David's father.  The tablet is about to be scooped by the fireman of this Up goods, its square hoop showing that it is granting access only as far as Knutsford, an unmanned interloop three miles further on. It looks as if the man holding the hoop is a learner under the supervision of the station foreman behind him. The man on the right looks like the guard of the down goods while the man with hands in pockets is either a labourer attached to the station or an assistant to the transhipping porter in khaki uniform in the van.  It looks as if there is a rare white passenger in the compartment marked "whites"; which reminds me of a true story that could only be associated with SAR: 

The late John Baxter was a Clan Line skipper before he re-settled in Durban as a dredgermaster.  He was a life-long SAR enthusiast who spent time during the long voyages to and from the UK making exquisite models of locomotives, passenger coaches and goods wagons, including a guards van of the type shown here, upon which he had asked a lettering expert at the Poole Model Railway Club to paint the numbers and other information.  I had sent him a side-on photograph of the Afrikaans side which had "Blankes" and "Nie-Blankes" on the doors of the passenger compartments.  At the end of one of his voyages John collected his model. The Afrikaans lettering was fine but the English side said "Smoking" and "Non-smoking".  

There is a very sad ending to this tale.  John Baxter's models were accurately crafted in 3/16ths scale on OO-gauge, undoubtedly among the finest ever produced of SAR rolling stock. There were some 36 locomotives accurately detailed in a comprehensive range of classes, complete trains of steam suburban stock, main-line day/sleeper coaches, dining cars, baggage vans and well over 100 goods wagons.  Around 1990, with eyesight failing, he sold this irreplaceable collection to the Transnet museum.  Come the new management and the move of the museum and artifacts to George, these models mysteriously disappeared.  The rumour at the time was that one of the new managers had purloined them for his young son to play with.  

18.  As might be imagined, Fish River was the place where the CGR finally got around to crossing it.  It was also an important watering point for locomotives.  

19. Around the corner, hidden from view by the station buildings in the previous photo, was the loco water tank.  The CGR didn't skimp when it came to putting up substantial structures: note the solid stonework of the tank foundation with embrasures to allow the company's bowmen to defend it against attackers and/or would-be saboteurs.  

20. A down goods with 15BR approaching Conway in May 1969.  

21. A northbound goods about to go into the up loop at Rosmead, which usually indicated that it would be crossing and/or taking water.  Coming in from the right is the main line to Mossel Bay via Lootsberg Pass and Graaff-Reinet.  On the left is one of the staple machines for that line, 19B 1405 with a big dent in its dome.  Some rather ropey-looking steel sleepers have just been replaced with wooden ones.  

22.  The driver of the same train as in photo 20 (dankie Piet) had just been handed the tablet by the Station Foreman and the starter signal indicates that the road is set for him to take his down goods to Cradock (the top arm applies to the line to Stormberg).  The unattractive smokebox treatment was a feature of Noupoort engines at the time.   

23. Rosmead in March 1961 before diesels for the Midland and sealed-beam headlamps were thought of. In the centre background is the shed, to the right of it is the west yard shunt pilot, a class 11 (see next photo) and on the extreme right match-boarded clerestory stock in imperial-brown livery.  The line from Stormberg Junction can be seen curving in from the left while the 15F at the head of a southbound goods has got the road and the lower of the two starter signals indicates it is set for the main line (why an empty DZ should be travelling south is anybody's guess).  

24. The West Yard shunter 11th cl 928 assembling a freight for the Mossel Bay line in March 1961.  

25.  East yard pilot, Belpaire 6C 564, beautifully lit by Allen Jorgensen in May 1969. 

26.  In the introduction to "Soul of A Railway" we expressed our wish to show youse what an excellent railway was the SAR.  THIS photo illustrates the point.  

Start with the driver, clearly a man proud of his job, his spotless locomotive and himself.  He has been on duty for several hours (came on at Cookhouse) but is still neat in white shirt and tie.  I remember how newly-trained diesel drivers would strut around in similar kit when the boxes came flooding in in the 70s.  They tended to lord it over those who they considered to be their not-so-fortunate steam brothers.  If any of them should read this chapter, here is proof that steam crews were wearing collars and ties decades before.  In similar vein, 15B 1973 looks as if you could eat off the footplate floor. 

My colleague Les Pivnic feels strongly that the CSAR's vestibule stock as specified by P A Hyde was superior to Hendrie's balcony day/sleepers.  That may be so but it doesn't diminish the love felt for the SAR's balcony coaches by both my father and myself.  The pure clerestory roof line of 26-up's solid rake of Hendrie stock made up an archetypal train of the period that could be seen thousands of times all over the country.  Passengers took it all for granted.  Why get enthusiastic about something that's going to last forever?  

After all that it is hardly necessary to point out the tidiness of the station with its well-cared for Karoo garden and immaculate buildings................  

27. By the sixties the SAR our parents knew was disappearing - slowly at first then with increasing rapidity through the seventies.  

Compare this view taken in July 1962 with Bill Schutz's, photo 26 above, taken c 1935.  Already there is junk lying around all over the place, although in fairness those big concrete blocks are probably intended for the dreaded ashpits which had not yet been installed at Rosmead.  Photo 26 is looking towards the south while this one is looking north.  The water tank is still the same, as is the parachute tank.  The trains are a little different, however. Approaching in the middle is 1305-down, the Johannesburg - Mossel Bay Express, with a single not-so-clean 19B (it will pick up another in Rosmead).  On the right is 1300-up with 19BR + 19B that had brought it from Graaff-Reinet and on the left is a 15BR waiting to take 1300-up to Noupoort.  

28. In previous parts of the Midland Main Line chapter we have mentioned how traffic took off as the sixties progressed.  Increasingly severe congestion built up from one end to the other and it was common to see trains stacked up in stations waiting for the road ahead to clear.  Chris Butcher's fine study of this pair of 15Fs on their trains at Rosmead illustrates the point. Doubleheading became increasingly common, only limited by the fact that white crews were becoming harder - much harder - to muster and the government obdurately refused to contemplate opening this work to all races.  

29. Empty B-bogies being worked back to the mines of Sishen by Noupoort 15F 3031 in April 1968.  There is no double track here, that is Rosmead's very long north-side head shunt.  

30. Coming north out of Rosmead on a nice cool morning in June 1968.

31. Southbound manganese approaching Rosmead in mid 1968.  

32. At the same location, southbound domestic coal and general goods with 33 036 on loan from the Cape Eastern in January 1968. 

33. Like with many other railways, the thirties were probably SAR's heyday.  Towards the end of the decade an unknown photographer found this 15B+19BR combination leaving Bangor.  The 19BR is newly reboilered No 1410 which remained the solitary engine of its class.  

34. Apart from curve easements, the main line between Cradock and Bangor today is much as it was in CGR days.  However, all but the last three of the 20 miles from Bangor to Noupoort are on entirely new alignment completed in 1961 (notwithstanding Bruno's note on the map, Carlton tunnel itself was opened to traffic in May 1958).  

35. An expedition in Dusty Durrant's Mazda bakkie to the Midland Main Line in April 1968 produced this photo of a down export manganese ore working emerging from tunnel 15.  The two figures in the middle distance are AED and Allen Jorgensen and you can see the famous bakkie in the background.  This doughty vehicle took the Durrants overland to Australia (with the odd ferry here and there) via Africa, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.  By the time it got there it had done well over 500,000 miles and after having flanged wheels fitted it retired to a preserved line somewhere in Expurgandium.   

36. The East London - Cape Town mail, 6-up, coming out of the north side of tunnel 15.  That sheet of corrugated iron (painted white on the other side) is the warning board for Flonker, an unmanned interloop 600 yards ahead.  A glance at Bruno's map will show you how fearless SAR had become when it came to tunneling. The old route easily skirted the koppie pierced by tunnel 15 but the spec for the new alignment required 40-chain (= ½ mile) radius curves so through the koppie it went (see next photo).  

37. The only koppie for miles around but somehow it managed to get in the way of the new alignment.  The original formation is visible on the left, it disappears momentarily behind the 15F's smokebox and then appears again almost parallel to the new line.  You can follow this very nicely on Bruno's map.  

38. Coasting in for a crossing at Flonker (= Sparkle), 1300-up hauled by 15BR 1833 + 15F 3153 in April 1968.  

39. The same 1300-up restarting having crossed a down goods.  This is an unusually short formation for the Mossel Bay-Jo'burg express, especially as it was Easter 1968.  In the middle is one of W A J Day's elliptical-roofed twin diner sets which were used on this train for many years.  Note the abandoned CGR road bed in the foreground.

Normally Flonker would be an unmanned interloop but during busy times an operating clerk would be stationed here and given a caravan to sleep in.  He was also given an outside long-drop lavatory which couldn't have been fun in winter.  This was at the very end of an era when one was simply grateful to have a job (no pun intended).  

40. 15BR 1838 on a down Western Cape-Transkei Bombela, May 1967. This one 16-coach train would replace about 40 combi-taxis and save a lot of lives.  

41.  The Karoo around here is beautiful, silent until disturbed by hard-working 15Fs.  

42.  In pre-container days when break-bulk shipping was the norm, this block load of crated motor parts was heading for the Chrysler assembly plant at Silverton, Pretoria.  Considering that they were probably all for new Valiants, Chrysler had a lot to answer for.  

43. The same Up goods entering Sherborne and about to cross two Down goods.  This was a -12 Celsius July morning, as you can tell by the hard frost everywhere.  

44. The car-parts train has gone on through and the first of the two freights it crossed has set off with its 15F straining hard to get frozen journals rolling again.  

45. The same train depicted in #44 above.  It carried a strange mix of export manganese ore and general freight.  No's 42-45 were all taken in July 1968.  

46. Two up goods waiting to cross a down train.  

47. Resuming its slog up to the continental divide, this leaky F has just crossed a southbound train and will be followed by that Noupoort 15BR on a short up T&P. May 1968.  

48.  Macho image by Leith of an F about to tackle the final pitch to Carlton summit in May 1967.  This is the very engine exchanged by David Shepherd for a painting of the engine and now in the care of Reef Steamers at Germiston (thank you Mark).  She has been restored and I have been told that she worked a special to Magaliesburg on 18th June 2016 ( doubleheaded with their other 15F 3046).

49. A welcome splash of colour.  Northbound freight leaving Sherborne in May 1967.  

50. The East London-Cape Town mail, 6-up, hammering through Sherborne without stopping, April 1968.  

51. By July the Karoo had cooled down.  On icy rails 15F 3073 was struggling to get a heavy general goods under way.  As usual at this time, there is another freight on the second road waiting to follow.

52. Steam coming from the cab is from the stoker engine working hard; its exhaust was meant to be directed into the fire but the flexible hose between engine and tender usually leaked. Beneath the Sneeuberg, living up to its name after a light sprinkling of snow, the preceding train is getting under way from Ludlow.  

53.  The preceding train is now a little further up the hill, about 4 track miles and 2½ crow miles ahead of this freight which has just left Sherborne.  Note the mix of cargo: a few B bogies of scrap iron, followed by two RMS trailers in a DZ, two new Beetles and a Volkswagen Type 3 1500 notchback (thank you Ashley!), also in a DZ, two DZs loaded with new tractors and a tarpaulined ES truck with who knows what.  

54. "Down" doesn't necessarily mean downhill.  A much warmer day in April 1968 saw Cradock 15F 3149 with down goods on a brief uphill stretch between Ludlow and Sherborne.  

55. A selfie at Ludlow.  That's your narcissistic editor snapping himself with Noupoort 15F 3031 on up empties in April 1968.  

56. Later on the same day, 15F 3047 heading into the sunset at Ludlow.  

57. Circus trains were a periodic task right until the end of SAR in 1980.  This was Boswell-Wilkie heading for up-country in April 1972.    

58. By May 1969 steam's time on the Midland Main Line was running out.  We were fortunate to find this doubleheader approaching Ludlow to cross a Down export manganese ore with a pair of brand-new class 33s.  By the end of December steam was gone from here forever (except for railtours) and within another 18 months the ore trains were trebled in weight, hauled by six class 33's.  

59.  Only a year earlier the Midland Main Line was > 95% steam, exemplified by this crossing at Ludlow between 1300-up (the same train is in photos 38 & 39 above) and a down goods.  The fireman is holding the square-hooped tablet used for crossings at unmanned interloops.  

60. In spite of its remoteness, Ludlow was a busy siding.  North and southbound freights crossing here in July 1968. 

61. The southbound train (also in photo 60) was a curious mixture of loads and guards vans.  There are four of them taking up capacity that could have been used for revenue business.  

62. April 1972. What a difference four years made.  CTC in operation so no more manned rural stations or remote sidings; no more tablets and even class 33 diesels are getting scarcer as the new, heavier and much more powerful class 34s take over.  No more steam of course, the diesels used heat more efficiently so no more clouds of exhaust for photographers.  

63. For the time being let's go back to steam, enjoy it while we can and watch 15F 2956 bring this very heavy holiday 6-up through new Carlton in January 1968.  

64.  A Cradock 15F with a full load of empties on the 1-in-80 leading up to Carlton tunnel.  To the left of the engine and more than 100ft lower is the original alignment of the CGR's route to old Carlton station.  

65. Engine diagrams for 1300-up north of Rosmead were hard to fathom, seeming to bear no relation to load.  On some days it was doubleheaded while on others one engine was deemed sufficient, in this case Noupoort 15F 2946 plodding up the bank with 13 on. 

From the Carlton Heights you can trace more of the CGR's alignment in the left background.  On the right is new Carlton station (opened in 1961) and the PE-Jo'burg main road, the N9, passes over the main line at a cutting just this side of the station.  The badlands-type erosion in the left foreground was caused by overgrazing.  

66. Two Hendrie saloons followed by a Union Carriage tin box.  Somebody is standing on the first balcony, the first compartment has someone at an open window, and you can spot more passengers at open windows and balconies further back.  They are surely absorbing the sound of a hard-working locomotive enriched by condiments of steam and smoke.  1300-up is already high above the almost empty Karoo, only a sheep farm and faint trail of steam from a following train are visible.   

67. Rounding the high bluff a mile before the Carlton tunnel, 1300-up on another day, this time with two 15Fs.  I have no record of the load but don't remember it as being exceptional.  

68. The popular East London-Cape Town mail, 6-up, with no less than 16 coaches and 15F 3028 handling it all on its own.  The gent on the footplate with a camera slung around his neck is Queenslander John Egan, who was the first Australian enthusiast I encountered in South Africa.  John returned to Aus around 1975.  Does anyone know if he is still with us?  

69. Rosmead 19Bs regularly worked through to Noupoort from off the Graaff-Reinet line.  This was 19B 1404 on a northbound goods a mile before Carlton tunnel in July 1968.  

70. A block load of new motor cars assembled at the Port Elizabeth factories of Ford and Volkswagen approaching the southern portal of Carlton tunnel, barely 50 yards ahead of the 15F. 

The aforementioned bluff is the dark hill in the left middle distance.  From the left edge of the picture you can see the grade of the CGR's line rising at 1-in-40 along the side of the hill behind the train on its way up to old Carlton on top of a small plateau between two peaks of the Sneeuberg.  

That was still the main line on my first trip in January 1955.  We had a 15BR from Cradock and picked up another 15BR to bank us up the hill from Ludlow.  On a family holiday in July 1958 Dad and I came this way riding a balcony on 1300-up.  Where the old and new lines crossed we switched (unexpectedly) to the new line, so we had our first experience of breathing steam and coal smoke through a really long tunnel - it was a doubleheader too!  

71. The steepness of CGR's uncompensated 1-in-40 grade up to old Carlton is very obvious in W H Short's view of the southern approach to the station in 1896.  The tunnel mouth on the new line would be in front of the ganger's cottage but about 100 feet lower.  

72. In 1896 Carlton station must have been an awful place to be posted to, situated on a wind-swept plateau at an elevation of 5,187 feet above sea level and chronically frozen in winter.  

73. The best portrait I've seen of a favourite train - 1300-up.  It has surmounted the last of the four mountain ranges between Mossel Bay and Johannesburg and from now on its progress will be dictated not so much by terrain as by driving-wheel diameter.  The train engine is 15BR 1979 while the pilot is 15BR 1982, a regular engine for her crew.  "Fear no Foe" is the brave name they've chosen and the spotless condition of the engine indicates no idle boast.  Incidentally, some time later it seems the same crew had graduated to 15F 3028 (see photo 68).  

74. Its banker having cut off, this PE harbour-bound export manganese consignment was about to enter Carlton tunnel in October 1968.  It is uphill at 1-in-80 from Barredeel until the gradient eases to level at the farm dam in the background.  This meant that southbound trains needed a banker as the loads were made up for the 1-in-100 compensated that applied from Carlton down to the coast (except for 700 yards of momentum grade before Eagles Crag tunnel).  

75. Southbound general freight photographed from off the top of the northern portal of Carlton tunnel.  The banker is still pushing.  

76. A block load of power station coal destined for Port Elizabeth coming off the short stretch of single line between Midlandia marshalling yard and Barredeel.  The fireman of 15BR 1971 (piloting 15F 3101) has the tablet ready to hand over to Barredeel's station foreman.  This engine was going through on the load, a practice used when motive power needed balancing.

Note the rare four-post home signal on the main line from Noupoort.  It would disappear in the early seventies when CTC was introduced between Noupoort and Cradock.  

77.  This was more usual procedure out of Barredeel.  A southbound freight with 15F fore and 15BR aft setting out with the south-end four-post home signal just about visible.  

78. The same train as in the previous photo approaching Carlton tunnel.  Evidence of a recent snowfall is all around.  Snow in this part of the world would be more frequent were it not in a semi-desert region.  The greatcoat worn by the perway patrolman is not for show.  

79.  Banking out of Barredeel was simple.  Neither the coupler nor the vacuum pipe were connected so engines would cease pushing just before the tunnel and run back light, getting back before the down train had reached Carlton station.  Whether Health & Safety would allow such practices today is problematic, but knowing that this 1990s created bureaucracy has to justify its existence, I doubt it.  Existence of the H&SD doesn't seem to have had much effect: this week there's been a big pile-up on Sir Lowry's Pass.   

80. Judging by the gent in uniform in the foreground this is Naauwpoort c 1899/1900.  He is standing on the arrival and departure roads for Bloemfontein and behind him are the diamond crossings of the De Aar lines.  Did you spot the loco shed in the middle background?  The corrugated-iron shed with curved roof is probably a goods shed exported in kit form from the mother country.

81.  When Short visited Naauwpoort (its original spelling) in 1896 there was nothing to indicate that Cape Colony would be at war with Orange Free State and Transvaal in 3 years time.  

82. Close up of Naauwpoort loco in 1896.  The CGR favoured turntables rather than triangles but they were all too small in diameter for 20th century power so rapidly disappeared.  And there's that corrugated iron shed again. 

83.  A 15CB about to take 4-up to De Aar.  Bloemfontein engines did not work this section and Naauwpoort was unlikely to have an allocation of this class so I assume this was a De Aar engine which would date the photo as prior to WWII c 1936/7.  Although not so credited in the library it seems likely that it was taken by Bill Schutz, who took that marvellous photo No 26, possibly on the same trip. 

Observe again the general tidiness and in the left background the run-through shed with adjacent works that replaced the original CGR facility depicted in photos 80 & 82.  Behind the shed is a substantial concrete coal stage that remained in use until this shed was replaced in turn by the new one at Midlandia in 1965.  

84. During his annual round-the-country holiday my father usually used a box camera with somewhat erratic results.  In 1949 or '50 he borrowed his brother's folding Voigtlander which was much better.  As to what was happening here, thanks to Ashley Peter (a Transnet operating man) and Piet Nel (who worked the dining cars in his student days during university vacations) the picture is much clearer.  Dad would have come in on 1300-up, on the left, identifiable by its twin elliptical-roofed diner. Interestingly, it has a coach from the NGR's Corridor Express and yes Charles, the poles supporting the balcony roof have been noted.  That 19B looking as though it has just stepped out of a wedding cake is coupled to the single diner and some coaches of 6-up, the East London - Cape Town mail.  The diner will be parked off here until 22:30 when it will be coupled onto 5-down, the Cape mail's opposite number.  Note the mailbags being loaded at the far end of 6-up's train.

Note the parcels, mailbags and luggage strewn on the platform, the energetic-looking labourer perched on a bottomless drum and the two schoolboys in short pants admiring the engine. Although almost 20 years have passed since the previous photo the place still looks reasonably tidy.  

85. A late-running 4-up (Pretoria-Cape Town via Bloemfontein) departing Noupoort with 15BR in July 1958.  Note the practice of leaving the vans at the end of the train as it came in from Bloemfontein.  It would run like this, formation reversed, as far as De Aar where it would automatically revert to the traditional format for its onward journey to Cape Town.  

86. Both my father and Les seemed to score 16Es when they rode from Noupoort to Bloemfontein.  I was never so fortunate.  This was 16E 856 "Kroonstad" piloting a 15F in working togs about to take 436-up to Bloemfontein in December 1958.  

87. In Noupoort in November 1997 Les came across this old CGR/SAR building that was now premises for a fruit & veg shop in the dorp.  Note old SAR crest above the main entrance.  

88. For many years 15Fs were the usual power for 1300-up north of Noupoort.  This was in March 1960.

89. Taken by my father while on a family train trip around the country in July 1958, this is photographic evidence that Noupoort housed a few 12Rs.  Checking in Les's locomotive lists confirmed that Noupoort had an allocation of five 12Rs from 1952 until its first 15Fs arrived in December 1967.   

90. Having brought Les from Johannesburg in 3-down overnight, 16E 856 "Kroonstad" was resting outside the SAR shed at Noupoort in December 1958.  In the left background what looks like a 16DA is standing outside the western end.  

91. Obviously enjoying the cleanliness of the new shed at Midlandia, 15BR 1971 was basking in the autumn sunshine in May 1967. In the absence of reliable information about where the 15Bs were allocated when they arrived in 1918, an educated guess is that some went to Noupoort. That means these unbreakable engines were the primary power here for 50 years. Hard as it is to believe, according to Les's official lists 15Fs were only allocated to Noupoort in quantity from the end of 1967.  

92.  The new shed at Midlandia, two miles south of Noupoort, was opened in 1965, which makes it the last major steam shed to open on SAR.  Like Touws River, this was just in time for it to become redundant; new class 33 diesels began their final takeover of the Midland Main Line in September 1969.  When this photo was made in April 1968 the shed had recently adopted the rather ugly smokebox decoration - I suppose to compete with Cradock's much more dignified four stars.  As would be expected, the place was already starting to look untidy; the announcement that diesels would soon be taking over all their main jobs no doubt had a severely deleterious effect on morale.  

93. While the threat of diesels became reality a peculiar phenomenon was an improvement in the standard of cleanliness of the locomotives, as exemplified by these 15Fs and 23s.  

94. Somewhere in China (or was it Japan?) a blast furnace musta produced a billet of steel with a flaw in it, caused by somebody's shoe lying in the iron ore in the closest DZ.  This picture was made in January 1968 when the exporting of iron and manganese ore was booming and there were insufficient AZD bottom-dumping trucks to go around.  As Les has pointed out, the humble DZ was indeed a maid-of-all-work.  The 15F running light through the station was about to pilot to De Aar a 25NC on a heavy holiday-season 4-up, one carriage of which can just be seen across the platform (see next photo).  

95. On the same day, 6-up pulling away from Noupoort with a rare 15F+25NC combination while a 23 on a Bloemfontein-bound goods is also about to leave.  

96. February 1970 at Noupoort and by now the main line to PE is diesel but 23s from Bloemfontein will be calling for a few years yet.  This one is coming through Noupoort from Midlandia with up general goods for the Transvaal.  

Prominent in the background is the concrete coalstage of the locoshed that took over from the CGR's stables c 1930 when the run-through depot was built.  The coal-stage still stands, perhaps as a memorial to the countless steam engines that drew sustenance from it.  Unlike Touw's River's towering white elephant that was used for seven years and stood for twenty before being demolished, Noupoort's one was used for 35 years before being superseded by the new steel facility at Midlandia which was also used intensively for only seven years and thereafter only to feed Noupoort's small fleet of shunters.  Back to this picture: the vacant ground this side of the coal stage is the site of the engine shed depicted in photos 83 and 90. 

97. In the winter of 1970 a grimy 23 from Bloemfontein, No 3234, rolls into Noupoort's old reception yard while another 23 waits to take northbound coal empties back up the Orange Free State main line.  In the left background, newly transferred from Queenstown as a result of dieselisation of the Cape Eastern main line, is a 15AR on yard pilot duties.  The weird-looking sort of truncated porter's barrow in the left foreground is a home-made contraption for carrying cast-iron brakeblocks. They were replaced here in their tens of thousands in steam days, Noupoort being at the top of a 250-mile downhill run to the Bay.

During the 1970s composition brakeblocks using a similar material to that employed by trucks and motor cars were introduced and within a couple of years had replaced the traditional cast-iron blocks.  This saved a lot of money and, of course, the savings were compounded by the diesel's ability to use dynamic braking.  Iron foundries at the Mechanical Workshops were mostly closed down and all of a sudden track ballast took on a different hue, no longer stained by rusting iron filings.  

98. The yardmaster has just handed the crew the tablet for the section to Altever and those empties look as if they're heading for the moon rather than up the line to Bloemfontein. The dwarf starter signal in front of the engine applies to the track on its right; its own starter is hidden by steam on its left.  

99. We're at the west end of Noupoort with the Free State Main Line peeling off to the right and, in the middle background, the three-post home signal that applies to the De Aar line.  

100. 15BR + 15F on a westbound goods approaching Carolus siding in October 1968.  Work to reduce the eastbound gradient to 1-in-100 compensated continued through the 50s and 60s. One of the last deviations was this one through Caroluspoort just west of Noupoort which involved quite a deep cutting.  We were standing on the old formation which went over, rather than through, the neck in the left background.  

101.  The friendly crew allowed us to pass them and set up for this photo a little further on from No 99 above.  You can see the poort of Caroluspoort clearly in the left background and Carolus siding is less than half-a-mile ahead.  

102. On the eve of dieselisation, programs to increase the Midland Main Line's capacity which had been planned during the steam era were still being completed, as with this third loop at Wildfontein.  Soon train lengths would dictate longer, rather than more, loops.  

103. 4-up coming through Wildfontein in 1960.  

104. West of Wildfontein there's only mile after mile of dead-flat Karoo so we'll head straight for the big junction and show you a pair of 25NCs coming in from Noupoort with a long string of empty B-bogies, heading for Postmasburg.  Things got so desperate that from mid-1968 down loads for double-headed ore trains were increased to 3000 tons.  On the long 1-in-100 grades away from the Modder and Orange Rivers the sound was spectacular. I ought to know for I have a recording of one of these workings made at Kraankuil in December 1970 about three months before class 33 diesels took them over.  

105. A few years earlier Allen photographed this 15BR with trailing rods removed departing De Aar.  The fact that operating decided to send a partially crippled engine with about as much load as a 4-6-4 could handle is a further illustration of how desperate the situation had become.  

106. In October 1971 De Aar was still a very steamy place.  Only the line to Prieska and South West Africa had gone diesel and even the far end of the Midland Main Line still had steam turns, by now worked by De Aar shed as Noupoort's big power had been transferred away.  In the middle a heavy 3-down (Cape Town-Pretoria via Bloemfontein) is departing for Noupoort with a pair of 25NCs.  On the left is one of Shedmaster Alec Watson's pets, 12AR 2112 "Cindy", by now downgraded to the carriage shunt, while far right a pair of condensers are backing onto a southbound ("up" in Cape Western parlance) freight.  The condenser on the dead end is waiting to take an up Cape Town passenger working as far as Beaufort West.

107. Beautifully lit by the late afternoon sun, the same 3-down moments later.

108. An up motor-car train arriving at De Aar in June 1965.  The signal with a circle half-way up the main post indicates that it will be directed to the Up block-load yard.  Since it was coming this way one must assume this was a consignment of vehicles destined for Rhodesia.  

109.  An appropriate image with which to finish off this chapter.  We've achieved our goal by reaching El Dorado: De Aar in its heyday, the mid 1960s.  

This was an unusually long chapter, thanks for bearing with us.  For those who are still awake I'll sign off now with a promise to take you from PE to Graaff-Reinet and over the Lootsberg Pass to Rosmead next.