Braamfontein from above

[Derek Walker]

Last year I went on a helipcopter flip and managed to sneak this shot of Braamfontein looking towards Park Station at the top. Unfortunately there were some reflections from the canopy, but overall the pic shows thee xdtent of Braamfontein yards. Just imagine, in the era of steam the smoke would have obscured a lot of this (Not that it looked like this in the old days anyway).

[John Ashworth]

I had certainly never realised it was so large. Thanks, Derek.

[Dylan Knott]

I wonder if there are any historic or redundant coaches stored here?

[Derek Walker]

When I worked there in the early 80's the long shed used to contain portions of the white train as well as the Drakensburg. The Metroblitz also lived there briefly. On the far right of the pic were dead lines and lots of unused stuff ended up there, at one point there was a train of about 6 3E's that stood there for over a year as well as a line of slam door suburbans. If unused coaches did exist it would be there, but I believe they now use the shed for EMU's instead of a storage area.
The bottom left part of the pic is Braamfontein station.

[Derek Walker]

This pic is of Johannesburgs old railway station (Park Station), built in 1897, it was imported from Holland and used until it was replaced in 1932 by a new station that in turn was replaced by the existing Park Station. This structure was dismantled and served as part of the signalling school at Koedoespoort if my memory serves me correctly. Eventually it was dismantled again and re-erected at its current location (Newtown) where I believe it was going to be incorporated into the railway museum. Instead it is now used as an informal driver training area and parking/concert venue/squatter camp.

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[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

I was told (do not know if it was true) that in the 80's it was the largest yard of its type (whatever type that was) in the world!

Does anyone know what I am talking about - cause I do not know the info here!!!!

[Jez Smith]

I guess they are Metro sets in the middle of the pic?

[Dylan Knott]

Could someone pls check if there are any staged coaches here? Require numbers and photos. But difficult for me to do so as am 1500km away!

[Jerome West]

Braamfontein From Below

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[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Excellent photos. Nice to see the Metro sheds looking so clean. In the last photo with the Diesel what is that little office on stilts for?

[Jerome West]

It is the control room for the Trainwash Facility.

[Craig Duckham]

Great Pictures Jerome. I am a great fan of real working pictures that show our railways. Pretty pictures in the veld are fine but do not capture the real railway feel for me.

[John Ashworth]

I agree with Craig. Great pictures of a clean and modern train-care facility. Thanks, Jerome.

[Derek Walker]

Excellent pics... I am shocked, considering what it used to look like.

In Img0047 you can see the Vapour Depot in the top right hand corner.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

I saw an advert on TV tonight using that old Park Station building. It looked quite good. I think the ad was for the World Cup Soccer.