In 1975 the singer-songwriter, Chris De Burgh released his second album entitled “Spanish Train and other Stories”. The title track was immediately banned in South Africa on sacrilegious grounds, due to the mention of the Devil playing poker for souls of the dead with Jesus Christ and the album was re-titled and issued here as “Lonely Sky and other Stories”.
Forty years on we have another Spanish train which is likely to be banned, that being the AFRO 4000 Co-Co diesel locomotive built by Vossloh Espana 13, of a total order of 20, having already been delivered to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) through a leasing agreement with the company Swifambo. The ban would be as a result of the locomotives being too tall to safely travel under the wires of our electrified lines.
In essence the AFRO 4000 is the same as a EURO 4000, which is the most powerful diesel-electric locomotive available to European operators (therefore designed to fit within the loading gauge of Europe). The only difference between the two is that the bogies on which the locomotive sits and which power it to run along the rails are re-gauged on the AFRO 4000 to suit our gauge of 1065mm (instead of 1435mm).
The disgraced Mr. Daniel Mthimkhulu (he who posed as a Dr.) was the former Head of Engineering of PRASA and prior to his sacking (on the grounds that he had falsified his qualifications) was the one responsible for the drawing up...
