Heritage Railways

Wednesday 27th March 1963 was no red letter day and will always be remembered with regret as the day that a watershed report was published, with the innocuous title “The Reshaping of British Railways”. The report’s author was Dr. Richard Beeching (Chairman of the British Railways Board) and he set out his plans to make British Railways (BR) a “going concern” by way of closing down one third of the network, which on the ground meant the closure of 2363 stations and 5000 route miles of railway line, added to which would be the loss of 67 000 jobs on the railway. To say it was a Bombshell, would be putting it mildly as the damage that was done to the system over the next five years (until 1968) would out do, many times over, that done by the German Luftwaffe during the “Blitz” of 1940/41.

The Beeching Report, as it is now commonly known, was a thorough analysis of the economic state of British Railways (nationalised since 1948) as at the time of publication, which was a time when railways were losing custom due to the competition both from road hauliers (for freight) and the rise in car ownership (for passengers); it was said that the train took you where it went but the car took you where you wanted to go.

In the brief period from 1963 to 1968 Beeching’s recommendations were carried out to the letter, and many branch lines to the seaside, which were well patronised...

I was Assistant and for extended periods, Acting Curator of the previous South African Railways Museum in Johannesburg from 1972 when it was still housed under Rissik Street Bridge at the station as it had been since 1956 and then from 1973, in South Station Building which housed the 1932 station concourse and the famous ‘Blue Room’ Restaurant - reached from the main entrance to the old Johannesburg Station off de Villiers Street – corner of Eloff St.

This is the Museum staff in 1973 photographed in the 1932 Station Concourse in front of the NZASM ‘Emil Kessler’ 14-Tonner locomotive. Left to right: Charles McLean, Museum Assistant, Dan Grib, Correspondence Clerk, Mr.Venter, Museum Carpenter, Johnny Orsmond, Museum Display Artist, Les Pivnic, Assistant Curator, Jan Coffee, Curator, Winnie Venter, Research Officer, Frank Cage, Museum Guide, Harold Rennie, Carpenter, Pietro Sabatelli, Workshop staff and Gordon Payne, Accessions Clerk.

Returning briefly to the Museum as it was under the Rissik Street Bridge, here are a few photos of the Museum in that period 1956 – 1972:

A small portion of...

Even with Covid-19 still raging, Sandstone Estates was able to host a spring event from 19-22 November 2020, attended by hundreds of rail and transport enthusiasts, all wearing facemasks and practicing social distancing. This was a smaller event than the Stars of Sandstone event held in 2019, and which attracted visitors and specialists from all over the world. The Sandstone Heritage Trust, based near Ficksburg, has a large collection of working railway heritage (engines and coaches from different eras), working heritage farming vehicles, stationary engines, military vehicles, ox wagons, classic cars, traction engines and other less familiar items. Click here for more on the history of the Sandstone Estates collection.

'Grunter' on loan at the Stars of Sandstone event in April 2019. From the ‘FS’ number plate, this big boy works the roads of the Free  State province, South Africa.

The romance of steam

Steam is the main attraction at the Sandstone festivals, and visitors come from as far afield as the UK and USA to look at, photograph or even drive the various exhibits. For some reason, steam trains have a stirring effect on people. To be honest, it is really exciting when a steam train gives a vigorous blast of steam and begins to exert massive force to turn those huge iron wheels, with...