Photo from Gabor's Facebook page, I believe. November 2011.Nathan wrote:Recent sleeper theft on a corporate train day. 1st FOTR train since May and we cannot yet reach Cullinan successfully!!
The Curse of Cullinan!
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John Ashworth
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- Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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The Curse of Cullinan!
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- Atlantic Rail.jpg (19.75 KiB) Viewed 1882 times
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Gabor Kovacs
- Friends of The Rail
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- Location: FLORIDA PARK, JHB, RSA
Re: The Curse of Cullinan!
Above photo is in fact courtesy of Francois Lubbe, Henry Lazenby's partner, who psted on FB!
I will submit feedback report under "operations thread".
I will submit feedback report under "operations thread".
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Steve Appleton
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- Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Re: The Curse of Cullinan!
Two pics of the missing sleepers encontered about 2 km from Cullinan on Saturday's (26 November 2011) train. I counted about 86 missing steel sleepers that had become heat-stroked and simply walked off the job. Two sleepers remained snoozing upside-down between the displaced rails and three were spotted resting up like lions in the shade of a nearby tree.
The inceasant sleeper theft on the Cullinan branch has driven TFR to insert second-hand concrete sleepers in-between the steel ones for safety. This has been completed from Rayton to as far as about km 7 (just beyond the summit of the line). The concrete sleepers alongside the track were off-loaded just last week to complete the last 2 km or thereabouts of the job. It seems that a race between the criminals and TFR has ensued. In this instance the criminals won.
As one can see the rails beyond the break are still polished. That's how recently a train was last came through here.
photos: Steve Appleton, with Samsung Galaxy IIS phone.
The inceasant sleeper theft on the Cullinan branch has driven TFR to insert second-hand concrete sleepers in-between the steel ones for safety. This has been completed from Rayton to as far as about km 7 (just beyond the summit of the line). The concrete sleepers alongside the track were off-loaded just last week to complete the last 2 km or thereabouts of the job. It seems that a race between the criminals and TFR has ensued. In this instance the criminals won.
As one can see the rails beyond the break are still polished. That's how recently a train was last came through here.
photos: Steve Appleton, with Samsung Galaxy IIS phone.
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- Looking back at No 3664 shows just how close to possible disaster we came. Just 35 metres. Slow running and a very good look out by the driver and loco crew saved the day.
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- From the front buffer beam. No. 3664 looks out at the 80 metre gap in the rails, all that separates her from her destination, Cullinan diamond mine headgear seen in the distance.
- 3664_looks_out.jpg (633.68 KiB) Viewed 1864 times
"To train or not to train, that is the question"