21st October 2019 · ‘South African Steam in the 1980s’

Presenter: Roger Whitehead

On Monday 21st. October a rather limited audience were fascinated by Roger Whitehead’s presentation entitled “South African Steam in the 1980s.

The programme consisted of a large number of overhead photographic slides of a variety of large and powerful 3’6” gauge locomotives, both passenger and freight, owned by South African Railways and a number of private mining companies. Not only were the railways and locomotives outstanding but the scenery was beyond imagination.

The majority of the locomotives had 8 or 10 driving wheels, such as the 12 Class 4-8-2 s and also there was a significant number of Bayer-Peacock articulated freight locomotives. Most of the locomotives were built by The North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow or Bayer-Peacock in Gorton, Manchester.

There are virtually no steam locomotives operating in South Africa currently except for ‘The Pride of Africa’ used as a show piece by privately owned Rovos Rail to head the remaining few miles of the Cape Town to Pretoria luxury journey from Centurian to Capitol Park terminus.

There is a selection of preserved South African steam locomotives at the Outeniqua Transport Museum in the township of George, Western Cape.