Day One - On Friday, 2nd of June the Ceres Rail Company operated a special excursion train from Cape Town to Robertson providing a historical mode of transport to one of South Africa's most popular wine festivals.
With scheduled stops at many of the region's top wineries passenger could simply hop on and off without the need to negotiate the traffic, find parking or even worry about drinking and driving. All while enjoying the pleasant and unmatched experience that travelling by steam train can provide. The train operated between Worcester and Ashton for the duration of the festival. Returning to Cape Town on Sunday, 4th of June.
The Wacky Wine has been an annual wine festival held in Robertson and surrounds for the last 14 years. Event-goers can purchase a 'passport' at their first port of call which allows them access to any other participating winery during the festival.
For Bookings or enquiries http://www.ceresrail.co.za/
Further reading - South African Class 19D.
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| ISO 200, 1/500sec, f8 at 55mm |
17:21 and the sun only moments from setting sees the train approaching Ashton for turning. The littered and somewhat featureless foreground made for a terrible photograph so these have had their aspect ratio changed to 3:1,5.
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| ISO 200, 1/500sec, f8 at 55mm |
Jeandre Briendenhann and Nico Geldenhuis can be seen on the footplate with the locomotive in an almost perfect 'rods down' position.
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| ISO 200, 1/500sec, f8 at 55mm |
A typical SAR corrugated iron station marker can be seen adjacent to coach six. I believe this one belongs to Zandvliet where the train had just dropped passengers.
17:21 and the sun only moments from setting sees the train approaching Ashton for turning. The littered and somewhat featureless foreground made for a terrible photograph so these have had their aspect ratio changed to 3:1,5.
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 29mm |
The safety valves just starting to lift as maximum boiler pressure is reached and the fire once again extinguished. The train spent both nights in the now disused station at Robertson. CRC had the area cleaned in the days preceeding the event.
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 27mm |
With the fire once again lit, firelighter Nico Geldenhuis slowly brings the boiler pressure back up before it drops too low. Allowing the boiler to drop too low would prevent restart without the assistance of an external air compressor.
The train spent both nights in the now disused station at Robertson. CRC had the area cleaned in the days preceeding the event.
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 29mm |
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 29mm |
One of my 10W LED floodlights can be seen in the lower left corner.
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 27mm |
A roaring oil burner fire as well as some other undercab components such as the injector, speedometer, blowdown and even an obvious welding seem where extensive structural repairs to the cab had been done.
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| ISO 200, 30sec, f8 at 55mm |
The lower set of the two safety valves releasing a whiff of steam into the night sky. The blurred stars are due to the earths rotation.
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