Travelling Tim

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May 29, 2007

Footplating Beyer-Garrats

This page contains some photos I have taken during my whilst visiting the Steam Yard at Bulawayo railway station, Zimbabwe. I thought that they might be of interest to other steam-railway and railroading fans. You can click on any of the photos to get the full-sized image in a new browser-window.

If you wish to place one or two (!not all!) images on your own non-commercial site, please download and save them on your server. DO NOT hot-link to them. The condition of use is that you include a link back to this page, and that they are not used commercially. For any other use, please contact me for permission and prices.

A bit of background info to the pictures: I visited the excellent Railway Museum in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and found out that there were still working Beyer-Garrat steam locomotives in use around the yards. They are still maintainable by the skilled staff there, and Zimbabwe has plenty of coal, so why not use them?! I went to the main railway station at Bulawayo, and on asking about the locos, was directed to the Steam Shed, which is about ten minutes walk from the station, along the tracks and following the curve to the south. Click here to show the location of the Steam Shed in Google Maps. (Note: That link will open a new browser. For best results, you should maximise the browser, and then click Refresh.)

I had few expectations, but hoped that I would be able to at least see one of them in the shed. Imagine my surprise when I got there to find that not only were there a lot of them in the shed, but that there were a couple in steam, even though it was a Sunday morning.

I had a chat with one of the engineers working there, and he suggested that I might be able to have a ride on one as well, if I asked the driver. Wow this was getting better and better! The chance of doing such a thing anywhere else in the world is nil. Would I be any luckier here?

I had a chat with the driver, and he invited me for a ride around the yards. They were just taking no.416 to be coaled, and were pulling no.525 with them. I mentioned that it was my birthday on the next day, and what a wonderful treat it was to be able to ride on one of the most famous locomotives in the world. He was very pleased that he could help, and make a dream come true.

We drove to the coaling point, and first coaled no.525, and then no.416, which I was in. The engine is inched forward until the tender is right under the hopper, then the signal is given to the operator who dumps a load of coal into the tender. This is quite exciting, as some of it shoots through the open tender access point and onto the footplate, too!

We had to go for water too, which goes into the front water-tender. The Beyer-Garrat loco is quite self sufficient, for a while at least. Unfortunately I could only stay a couple of hours here, as the Dragoman truck was waiting to leave. I got a lift on no.424 back towards the station, as the loco was 'steaming-down' at a suitable place on the way - quite a spectacular operation.

Whilst I was at the Steam Shed, I used my digital camera to take a couple of small movies, which are available for you to download and watch if you wish. They are in colour, and have sound. It was the first time I had ever used the camera to take movies, but they came out quite well - in retrospect I wish that I had taken a few more!

The first one, which you can get HERE is 14582KB in size, and shows a bit of what it is like on the footplate of a moving Beyer-Garrat locomotive.

The second one, which you can get HERE is 5750KB in size, and shows first loco no.525 in the Steam Shed, before panning around to show loco no.424.

Neither file has been edited at all, so I make no claims for technical excellence, but at the least they are a nice reminder of a GREAT day out!

Posted by travellingtim at May 29, 2007 02:32 PM