22 February 2023 – Steam In Africa

Presenter and Image Credit:  Guenter Oczko

The Branch was delighted to have Guenter Oczko back again, direct from Germany by Zoom, this time with his Steam in Africa show.

The first halve featured his visits to South Africa starting from 1980 onwards with a few earlier shots borrowed from his friend Bernhard Hasenseder who started his Africa visits in 1977 and thus was able to capture the 25 class condensers and some earlier Beyer-Garratt classes that had finished by the time of Guenter’s visits. The pictures were amazing with early sunrise and dusk pictures some in mountainous areas and some with a sea view backdrop, Glints galore and most with terrific exhausts from working hard.

After the break we enjoyed pictures from Bernhard again of his visits to Kenya and Tanzania just before steam finished on the EAR in the late 70s, with locomotive maintenance looking rather shabby, although the maroon liveries still showed through the coverage of dirt from lack of cleaning. Next came Guenter’s visits to Zimbabwe and here the locos looked well cared for as many had overhauls at Resco in the early 80s. Most of the pictures were taken on the Victoria Falls line to Zambia, but the Plumtree, Gwelo and the West Nicholson branches featured as well in this Beyer Garratt dominated country. We even had a few pictures taken of the Zambezi river bridge from a light aircraft. Finally came pictures taken in Eritrea in the noughties which was another highlight of the evening featuring the 950mm gauge line from Massawa on the coast to Asmara 7854 ft above sea level. The final 5 km was well covered at a photo location known as Devil’s Gate as the scenery was superb. Whilst there was only 3 Mallets 0-4-4-0T, and two 0-4-0 Breda built tanks and a Fiat built Railcar working, the quality more than made up for the lack of quantity. Practically every picture shown that night had a wow factor.

Highly Recommended show.