Friends of the Rail Forum

News article and photo-essay from East London's "Daily Dispatch" dated Wednesday October 1st, by Bazil Raubach on the present fate of the Queenstown steam locos:

"I question the wisdom of ignoring the historical value these trains represent. When I see the piles of tangled metal debris outside scrap metal merchants I can’t help but think that it’s a dirty profit. If we don’t attach some value to our collective past then maybe there will be no co-operative future."

Melancholic indeed.

The sight of rusty engines amongst tress might seem to be the stuff that whimsical paintings are made of, but the reality is that this heritage is being lost forever. There is a certain quality to the rust from being parked under tress though. Forgotten by those that care but judging by the hacksaw marks, not by those who are plundering the steel.

I have forwarded this document to the Sandstone \ SIA Web crowd.

Thanks Lee.l Nice to see you here!

Thanks for the welcome. (You too Chris.)

I was totally blindsided by the progress made with the FotR 15F 3117 and it occurred to me that if I had kept in touch on the forum, I would have known. I see the forum concept is working now. I was put off for quite a while with the multitude of topics and the need to login, but the 'latest posts' feature is useful!

Nice presention in the recent SIA newsletter!

Most of the RS guys are not into computers at all. I will try to keep in touch on the forum and kinda act as a lead person on behalf of RS. Maybe we can improve the communiciation between our two groups in public.

Lee, welcome to the forum. Your literary talents are excellent with your wonderfull newsletter reporting. Perhaps do a FOTR newsletter for us sometime?!

These Queenstown locos are beyond hope. Which one has the "For preservation SLPG Cape Town" on its tender? Last time I was there 15AR's 2012 and 2093 were still good but the rest were shot. 14CRB 1778, 16CR 809 and 4AR 1560 should be retained, but who will be interested?