2 - Excursions, and a visit to a large steam shed

Apart from looking at the SAR, we had time to spare in Cape Town for other excursions, and I still have Neptune's certificate for visiting the Cape of Good Hope. I also travelled by cable car up Table Mountain which offers excellent walking and an incomparable view of the area around Cape Town. On the eastern horizon one could see endless mountain ranges like a barrier across the land: the domain of the Garratt locomotive.

The Paardeneiland shed

I made friends with Johan Mostert during the week we were in Cape Town, and as we stayed a weekend I offered to show him the ship, which in turn resulted in an invitation to come and see the Paardeneiland running shed and adjoining Salt River Works. This was the first big steam shed I had been in, and both rigid frame and Garratt locos were standing inside. A great variety of engines were there, GEA class Garratts, class 24 2-8-4 branchline locos, the ubiquitous 19Cs and 14CRs and one or two 15Fs which were described as 'een baie vinnige enjin' (a very fast loco). I was shown the operation of a mechanical stoker on a 15F: the stoker mechanism produces a heap of coal just below the fire door, which is then blown over the grate with a steam jet.

From the steam shed we went into the boiler shop at the nearby Salt River works, where a row of boilers were being overhauled. The Salt River works were equipped for every kind of repair and construction work, and the tour through the complex proceeded in a blur. I managed to take one or two photos which are represented here. There was a great traverser between the buildings, used to transport locomotives with, and in one place a locomotive's boiler was subjected to a hydraulic test.

In the works stood a cold class 25 4-8-4, a huge loco with an even bigger condensing tender, which had recently been overhauled here. According to Johan this was one of the last 25s to be overhauled here as they were, at the time, all being converted to noncondensing operation as class 25NC, in which guise they became later popular to sightseers along the Kimberley-De Aar line. As we walked back along the track a 14CR went to fetch the 25 from its place in the works.

Farewell to Cape Town

We left Cape Town on a Sunday morning, and as we were closing hatches and making ready for sea, a solitary S2 appeared on the quay to collect the goods stock standing there. The loco was dwarfed by the big modern cargo cranes standing there, and as I went ashore for a last photo the cold morning sunlight glinted on the exhaust steam rising into the still winter air.

After returning home I sent Johan Mostert some photos. The next time I came into Cape Town was in November 1976, but then I had my job as a watch officer on board the mv Schielloyd, being able to spare time only for a brief filming session at the entry to the marshalling yard so I didn't see him. Some time afterwards however a colleague visited me at home with a gift to me from a locomotive driver called Mostert he had met at Cape Town! If Johan ever reads this, he should know I still remember my first visit to Cape Town with much pleasure.

When I revisited Cape Town in 1976, my movie camera worked all right, and with the longer evening light I was able to shoot some footage of the steam operations in the Table Bay yard. November is a windy time at Cape Town with the wicked Southeast wind funnelling around Table Mountain. They call Chicago the Windy City, but I think Cape Town has an edge. The film footage is decidedly shaky because of the blustery wind: it was impossible to keep the camera steady.

Thus ends an account of what must have been one of the last great steam railway operations in the world, in an age when South Africa had not yet been discovered by a multitude of railway enthusiasts. Perhaps the views do not match what has been produced during the 1980s, but in those days attention was focused on the spectacular Kimberley-De Aar line and the Mossel Bay Garratts. The harbour operations were dieselized by then, and as far as I know, never appeared in any publication.