DE BEER ENGINE DRIVERS

Two De Beer ex-engine drivers attended my father's funeral service. They told me about another De Beer, Doppies, who use to drive the explosives goods train. Doppies was his nick name in Afrikaans which refered to the cartridges for the explosives that were used in the gold mines. They use to be four De Beer drivers. When one enlarges the uploaded photographs, one can identify the fifteen class engines. Unfortunately I am not up to date with the specific classes that they drove, however, knew that some of the locomotives were designed and built in England. During one of my research visits to Birmingham, I went to their scientific museum where they actually let a huge locomotive on display move forwards and backwards. Many tourists also visited the loco in Bloemfontein to take photographs. Also when the huge black steel engines were speeding over the open veld and when the drivers had to let out black or white smoke. Amateur steam train enthusiasts anually participate in displays at Medunso Park in Bloemfontein and simultaneously visit the loco where only a few locomotives are still in use for short trips for tourists. Electric units as well as diesel units replaced the steam engines. At Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State, adjacent to Lesotho, a small variety of steam locomotives are used to entertain tourists on round trips to Fouriesburg and back during their annual cherry festivals. Ocasionally there are also steam train trips to the Anglo Boer War batllefields, such as Paardeberg in the Western Free State. The little station serves as a small museum where one can see a photograph of the very first air baloon used for recconosance by the British artilerists. Also during the annual agricultural shows in Bloemfontein, steam train trips are organised for sundowners. Always a treat for children as well. The hissing of steam and the exploding puffings of smoke through the funnel seem to hypnotise many onlookers.

Steam train drivers also share wonderful stories and adventures. One that I can recall was when my father had to cross the Orange River in full flood at Bethulie into the Eastern Cape on route to Naaupoort with a passenger train. It was during the night and he had to evaluate the situation very carefully. The bridge was rumbling while the water swept against the pillars of the bridge. Fortunately he drove safely to the other side. Today, a new bridge, the longest train bridge in the Free State, crosses the upper slopes of the huge Xhariep dam. Due to the regular storm water damage that my father observed on railway tracks, especially when the quarry bedding between sleepers got washed away, the railway track itself was hanging in the air with no support underneath it. When the train wheels rolled over these parts, it got derailed and then literally cut and snapped the rest of the wooden sleepers which caused the whole train to capsize. When the wooden sleepers were replaced by concrete sleepers, my father designed a ladder like system that can be bolted together. In this way the railwayline stays intact when the ground washes out. My mother's brother, uncle Frik Pelser, a carpenter by trade, drew and built a miniture railway track for the patent office. My father spent considerable money and time in trying to register his patent. Eventually he gave up the registration process due to the uncertainty how much money he still had to spent on legal advisors as well as the patent office. During an international expo, organised by the Swiss government for patents, I submitted it as an example and got a cerificate of acknowledgement, however, no further interest. The miniture "ladder type" railway model is stored in the Technopark of our Central University of Technology, Free State. My father's comment was that at least it could be preserved for future research.