Beyer Garratt loco footplate ride in Zimbabwe
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2009
- A series of excerpts from an hour's footplate ride from Gwaai to Kennedy siding (within Hwange National Park) on the Bulawayo - Dete - Victoria Falls main line in Zimbabwe. Filmed in June 1998 during a memorable trip on Geoff Cooke's steam-hauled 'Train de Luxe' to Victoria Falls, the opportunity to ride the footplate of NRZ (ex Rhodesian Railways) Class 15A No. 406 was too good to miss. The line runs dead straight for scores of miles throughout the section featured, unfortunately almost directly into the sun at the time which was not good for filming forward down the length of the boiler. The track was well maintained but trying to hold a video camera steady at speeds of up to 60 mph on a steam loco footplate was not easy, so apologies for the frequent jumpy footage. The Garratt loco was built at Beyer-Peacock's Gorton Works, Manchester in 1950, so was almost 50 years old when this footage was taken.
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![NSWGR 6029 Beyer Peacock Garratt steam locomotive [AH016]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mrorjrk8qcE/mqdefault.jpg)
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Magnificent. A steam cab ride with Wildebeasts, Zebras and a spectacular sunset.
I feel like crying sometimes the collapse of NRZ is so sad nearly all my family worked of NRZ .Travelled a lot on these trains miss the old good days in Bulawayo .
I often watched these amazing Garratts in the early nineteen-fifties as they passed through our town on their way south with endless columns of copper-laden trucks. More than half a century later, I still remember the sounds they made as they pulled out of the marshaling yard, and the smell of hot steam and coal that hung in the air afterwards. Many thanks for the movie.
Love these locos..... I see the cow catcher has done it's job! 0:09
Hi Buxton, I'm sure Bulowayo was BLR but BYO rings a bell.Firing a good 15th class was indeed brilliant, when the went they flew. Some Garrets came up from South Africa. I think they were classified 16A, They were totally clapped out, expect that is why SA "helped" out with the "war effort". The train left BYO for Sawmills (about halfway to TJ. and met with a train bound for BYO from TJ or Wankie. Crews exchanged trains and then went home. Tell you more if you are interested. Cheers.
Excellent footage, glad to say I've been there and done it also with Geoff Cooke, 2010 and RTC 2007. My footage is on here as well.
Very enjoyable video. Thank you.
9:12, RR on the window glass, brings back memories!
When i was a kid i went Cape Town to Broken Hill ,,,
Your vid bought it all back! I "graduated" out of Bulowayo as an Engineman 4th Class around November 1972. I totally pissed off my first driver when I asked him to pronounce his yarpy surname when I got on the footplate for my first trip out of BLR as a trainee".
What did he expect from a cocky 17 yo kid from Brighton? LOL. Got posted to Gatooma later. So good there, no night shift working.
Good Times, and we got to stay at the single quarters near the Bulawayo.
my favorite loco,s
YOUZA!! Someone must have ice water flowing through their veins! Not sure I could do that for so long.
there is nothing like a African sunset
Theres something about waking up in the morning and watching the sun rise from a window of a train in Africa ,,,
Many thanks Buxton 4472 for the info.If Chinese working steam is now defunct, and from what I can glean from the net it is, are the Zimbabwe Garratts the world's last working steam locos? I often wonder if the last steamer on the planet will perform it's final duty and go without witness or ceremony.
Thank you for your comments and recalling your days on RR. It must have been an incredible experience at that age to be firing a 15th Class out of BLR to TJ, Gwelo, West Nicholson, wherever... Gatooma is now presumably Kadoma. Were you working there as a fireman? If so, was it a signing-on point?
Was this standard gauge? Nice knuckle couplers, strange that Africa has them ahead of GB. A large locomotive to hand fire especially since it was made so late in the steam age, don't the Brits know about stokers?
i lived in Wankie...
one minute the sun is up the next its gone
Excellent film. I dare say these men were poorly paid but their work is/ was 100
times more interesting than my job. Was it the norm to have a crew of 3 on
Garratts? I write this in June 2014, can anyone help, is there any working steam still left in Zimbabwe? Many thanks.........
On a long haul such as Bulawayo - Dete - TJ - Vic Falls,the third man was (I think the term is) coal trimmer.He pulled the coal forward from the tender to make it more available to the fireman to shovel it into the firebox. Also (as can be seen in the video) he would hose down the coal and the footplate to reduce dust. Most of the time he just stood around looking very cool puffing on a cigarette! There are still a few steam locos serviceable in Zimbabwe and they were until recently employed on the Bulawayo shunts and trip working but poor coal availability often meant these turns were diesel worked. Can't say for sure what the current situation is.
+tony wolton in the 50's I used to travel by train pulled by Garratt Locomotives from Mombasa to Kisumu it tool 2 nights and a few hours to children it gave a great excitement sadly these are replaced by Diesel and they trains are and not as frequent and reliable as they used to the Indian and Brits took great pride in their Locos all brass work was polished till they had shine I believe they were the most powerful Locomotives in the world probably after American , They were a beautiful sight when the whole train wason a long bridge over rivers or valley
Yes it was normal to have a third person on the footplate, especially on long hauls. As the tender started to empty this person would move the coal forward providing access to the Fireman on the footplate.
Brings back memories of my 12 month stint as a Fireman around1976, between army call-up's.