FOTR appears in "Railways Africa"

[John Ashworth]

FRIENDS OF THE RAIL (FOTR), PRETORIA

Railways Africa on May 16, 2011 in South Africa

FoTR’s 17 March train to Cullinan arrived there almost four hours late, due to operating shortcomings on the main-line. Passengers enjoyed little time in the diamond town (normally there is a four-hour layover), a planned TV shoot has to be abandoned and lunch bookings were turned upside down. The resultant poor publicity was the last thing the club needed in terms of marketing its operations during the rest of 2011.

Over the last weekend in February, FoTR’s class 19D no 2650 fetched one of two GMAM Garratts dumped at Reefsteamers’ Germiston depot, for safe-keeping at Hermanstad. In blue and black REGM livery, no 4135 belongs to Ian Welch of the Mainline Steam Trust in New Zealand. FoTR has removed and stored all brass fittings. In the course of the return run from Germiston, the opportunity was taken to bring back a replacement cab and smoke-deflector plates for class 15F no 3117, damaged in the derailment near Cullinan on 30 June 2010, following sleeper theft.

The second class GMAM, no 4148, previously reported in this column as set for relocating, has since been cut up.