6.34am Sun 1st April 1983:
Lootsberg Pass, South Africa

Background:  we are aboard the RSSA special train "The Mountaineer".   On the previous evening, the train had stabled at Rosmead.    As the train was going to Noupoort and back over the Pass, the refrigerator car at the rear of the train was to be detached and reattached at the end of the next day.  However, this was not done and the train left Rosmead in the early hours of Sunday over the load for the two locomotives.

This soundtrack: Two 24 class on the point of "The Mountaineer" attempt to climb Lootsberg Pass.  On the first attempt, they stall.   I'm in the shower in the adjacent Pommie-filled carriage (where there's always plenty of hot water <g!>) as the train rolls back down the hill.
I scramble out of the shower, covered in shampoo and soap and run back to the compartment and hurriedly set up the tape and microphone as the train glides to a halt at the bottom of the Pass.  Wet and near naked, windows wide open in the freezing dawn on Lootsberg,  I hold the microphone to record the next dramatic 4 min 44 sec: recorded on CrO2 tape (TDK SA), using a Walkman Professional D6 with Dolby "B" noise reduction.  The 31MB .wav file has been compressed to "only" 6.8MB and the download will take about 30 mins using a 56k modem (so go get a big mug of coffee <g!>).  The sound rises and falls as the stack talk of the 24s bounce off the walls and rocky outcrops of the Jagpoort Gorge.

Enjoy.

By great coincidence the leading 24 was 3620 now in Australia and the second engine was 3667 (still stored at Queenstown shed in 2001).  3620 had the name "Mountaineer" painted on the cabside above its numberplate for many years and still had this faded lettering when it left South Africa !

The sequence in Jagpoort Gorge with the two 24's whilst being undeniably spectacular led to shunting of the highest order of "Oh Mr Porter" farce - did SAR traincrews never have model railways with which to learn how to shunt ???

I have looked up the timings of that tour, we departed from Rosmead at 0455 and the locos did fairly well until they got into Jagpoort gorge, the train stalled once and although the locos managed to get it moving after setting back they stalled again and the crew had to split the train. The locos took half the train up to Jagpoort siding, set off the dining and kitchen cars and then went back for the rest. By the time we left Jagpoort we were nearly two hours late. The two 24's then made it to Lootsberg summit with the shortened train.

We did in the end get some classic shots on the way up to the summit and down to Bethesda Road where the two 24's were turned for the return journey. This would have been one of the last times the Bethesda Road triangle was used before it was lifted - Oh for that triangle today to turn locos on our specials.

On the way back, at Jagpoort, everyone was royally entertained as the train crew tried to put the train back together again in its original order and another hour was lost.

On the subject of SAR's shunting expertise (or not - as the case may be), the Mountaineer tour also featured that old classic "how to pass two trains on a single line when both are longer than the available loop", this was on the Maclear line, but that's another story !!