Country Train

[John Ashworth]

What could be finer than sitting up high in the cab of a big 15F locomotive.
The open countryside. Steam, the luscious vegetation and soft forms of
surrounding hills in the distance. The wonderful life of open line working.

Pity there is only about 10Km of such tranquility on the branch from Rayton
to Cullinan. This section is on the descent towards the tar crossing near
the Zonderwater prison. In the early days, at the bottom of this gradient,
the line swung out to the right to form a balloon for train operations, but
was lifted not long after the second world war.

Step back and imagine the troop trains rolling down towards Zonderwater
where they would then start their overland journey northwards into Africa
with huge convoys of military might.