my dads still nostalgic a out his days as a driver in Sydenham. 90 yrs old now

This is such an excellent steam movie. With special interest, as my friend Jeff Hall who tells us of his love for steam, at 7.51
We both retired to George and live in view of Montague Pass.

I had the great fortune of growing up in Kimberley in the 1950s and 60s and my dad was a driver at that time on the 25nc steam locomotives. He was a driver on the 25nc locomotives since 1954 when they were still brand new. He worked the line from Kimberley to De Aar and the iron ore trains from Kimberley to Postmasburg and back with the 25 condensers. In the days before the bypass line was built to reroute the goods trains around Kimberley to bypass Kimberley station it was a steam lovers dream to be able to see all those trains passing through Kimberley station. The roster in those days were so busy and the goods yard in Beaconsfield so full that the trains stood stacked all the way from Beaconsfield to Kimberley station waiting to get into the yards. In the beginning of the 1970s during my school holidays I used to go to work on the railways as a shedman assistant at the Beaconsfield loco depot and boy did I enjoy those days. Our job was to coal all the locomotives that came in from the road at the coal stage and then to take them down to the triangle to turn them around and from there to the fire cleaning and then up to the shed to park them for the next shift. What glory days those were. Richard I am a keen follower of your steamdays in Kimberley as I can relate to those days. Hope to see many more of these videos and clips.

Many men moved to SA to work on steam, the American man summed up pretty well what working on steam means, as an ex volunteer fireman on a preserved railway I exactly had the same feeling of total personal involvement to make the engine working fine and to avoid disaster happening.
But sadly for both interviewed men steam would not last much longer.
As the man from Bristol said that steam ended 10 years ago in the UK, I think this must have been recorded in 1978.

In 1958 when my dad just had married my mom he was asked to move to SA and to work on the railways.
Sadly my mom declined to leave the Netherlands, and instead my dad kept on working in the colliery.
How different would have been my life to be in the middle of steam heaven, although I probably would never been working on steam myself or just for a short period as steam was just a few years from extinction in SA when I was old enough to start as an apprentice. But I surely would have worked on the railways.
But seeing how the railway system in SA is in ruins and being vandalised now I don't think I would have seen my retirement in SAR service.

gmam 4070 in her glory

I think William Stanier is on record as rating SAR 24 class as one of the best designs ever put on rails.  Who am I to argue with that?!

Great video, thank you.

My last "great" train ride was in 1986 - Johannesburg to Bulawayo, return.

Yep, my Dad was a loco driver on the Mafeking Bulawayo run, involved in an accident in 1958 outside Lobatsi in the then Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.

Great stuff. The American summed it up pretty well.

A 'calling'...

Thank you so much for sharing. It took me back to my childhood days.

Wish I could head off to South Africa and do this if steam were still around. @1:09

Thanks Richard  lovely to watch. Kind regards
Tim

It's a living monster.

Can't even get a paying job working on steam locomotives in my part of America

The one job I wanted to work for as long as I can remember hasn't been present for nearly a century

And I don't live anywhere close to the railroad companies that have an active steam program

Is there any videos of GMAM's working the Donnybrook area

2,30 too much black smoke. Naughty 😊!

A wonderful era for sure!

🚆🚂

Jobs worth doing.