Red Devil - Inaugural Run - Part One

On July 13th 2018 after much anticipation and planning the day we all had been waiting for finally arrived. South African Class 26, number 3450 commonly known as the Red Devil would leave Cape Town on its inaugural run to Robertson. The three-day excursion would depart Cape Town on Friday afternoon and return on Sunday morning. With the train doing multiple runs between Robertson and Ashton during the course of Saturday.
Day one of filming was an absolute disaster and still remains one of the most frustrating chases I've done to date. Apart from the rain following the train around as if it was attached somehow. We also missed multiple planned locations mostly owing to Friday afternoon traffic but also delays caused by the poor weather. At Kraaifontein after waiting at our chosen location for well over an hour during multiple downpours we returned to cars that were parked quite a distance away.
Honestly, it is still unclear to me how the train managed to sneak past three parked vehicles with six people keeping their eyes peeled. It was during the rain and all I can think is that the haze and sound of rain on the car's roof somehow muted our senses.
We frantically jumped into action when the radio crackled to life and we heard someone say that they were pulling into the station at Paarl! The train was now ahead of us ... We managed to catch them again during the departure from Wellington. My shot at the location is out of focus due to water droplets drying on the lens. I would also later forget to press record at Chavonnes.
The list of blunders goes on and on. I will say that Day Two was far more successful!
No 3450 originally started life as a standard class 25 Non-condenser built by Henschel in 1953, works number 28769.
The class initially suffered a number of teething problems with their connecting rod bearings and valve gear. This led to a redesign of the cross-heads and the fitment of larger bearings from other manufacturers.
The NCs soon went on to prove themselves as some of South Africa's most capable and reliable mainline steam locomotives with many seeing service well into the early 1990s. They are still considered one of the largest non-articulated narrow gauge steam locomotives ever built.
Political motivations, strategic locomotive reserve or the looming oil crisis are a discussion for another time and place. I believe it worth mentioning that the Red Devil existence can almost exclusively be attributed to David Wardale, Livio Porta and the many workshop and footplate personnel that took interest in the project and not necessarily the SAR.
Wardale's work was met with a fair amount of resistance from the SAR hierarchy with many believing the project to be a waste of time and money on traction that they already considered obsolete. Many also believed that steam had reached its full potential and weren't keen to accept that their own work could be improved upon. If it wasn't for Wardales's rather ask for forgiveness than permission approach the project most likely would have seen untimely demise.
With that being said the Red Devil wasn't perfect, prototypes seldom are, but it proved the principles were sound and the hope was that it would lead to the development of an entirely new class designed from the ground up deploying those principles.
Despite the time and effort invested in its creation, the Red Devil was simply too complicated and soon fell out of favour with maintenance and footplate crews. Many of them simply refused to learn how to operate it correctly and this quickly lead to a false perception that the locomotive was a poor performer and no better than a standard 25NC.
With Wardale leaving the SAR and nobody to look after it, crews took it upon themselves to remove many of the modifications some of which were specially manufactured. There are however a number of structural modifications that could not be removed and these are still visible on the locomotive today.
Wardale's book is a must-read for any serious enthusiast, if not for the story, read it for the truth. The improvements done during its conversion ultimately lead to 28% coal saving, 30% water saving and a 43% increase in drawbar power. During its peak, the Red Devil had a maximum power output of 5030 hp at 100km/h.
3450 has been in storage for nearly two decades but has now been leased by Ceres Rail Company that have moved the locomotive to Worcester for restoration. Western Cape, South Africa.
Further Reading: Red Devil -en.wikipedia.o...