LIFE IS LIKE A FIRE...

Philosophically, Ben de Beer compared the different life spans of people to the different types of coal fires in the firebox of a steam locomotive. Some lasted for a short while, while others were burning longer. Some were not as hot as other while other were "colder" and could not make up enough steam. In practical terms it depended on an array of factors such as the kind of coal and the size of the coal bricks or the way the fireman stoked the fire. Such is life. It depends on multiple life skills how to survive. That is how quickly how you can burn yourself out or how slow you want to move through life. It depends on the rythem and your life styles. Your diet for example counts a lot. What you eat is what you are. And how fast you eat without appreciating the various tastes, also says a lot about your lifestyle. Even when my father made a small fire for a barbeque, he compared the smoke with the enjoyments of life. That is to relax next to the fireside with a beer, appreciating the fragrance of the meat while slowly cooking it. The same with the fire in the firebox of the steam locomotive. You build up enough steam for the next stretch or uphill. And then you relax when you go downhill. And so on and so on. There are rythems in different fires. Different fires give different meanings. Wooden fires are not the same as coal fires or charcoal bricks smelling like parafine. Blazing veld fires that were caused by steam engines' sparks evoked a lot of controversy among farmers. Sparks in the eyes of firemen and drivers also damaged their eyes while boiler makers were also aware of the dangers of steam. In this way life is also full of fiery experiences. Lightning also struck up many veld fires. Natural powers totally out of the hands of human beings. Socalled acts of God descibed by insurence brokers and assessors. When the old Portuguese sailors of the 14th and 15th centuries observed the African continent with its many fires, they named it Africa De Fuma. Continent of Smoke.

When the Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research Peacekeeping Operations Correspondence Instruction, Prof Harvey J Langholtz, visited South Africa with his family, his daughter, Dianne, took photo's of the uncontrolled veld fire in the Free State and asked the "why's" and the "how's". She could not understand the culture of South Africans to set the veld alight so that the greener pastures could spring up in summer when it rains. Such is Africa. The well known stories of the Phoenix that have to rise from the ashes. Life in Africa is like fires. Sometimes uncontrolled and driven by the wind in all directions. Disintegrating the the entire landscape. In a strange way facinating during the night. Especially in the mountains. However, in most instances controlled barbeque fires in our many game reserves are part and parcel of our tourism industry. Hard coal wood and Vaalbush are quite handy. When collecting wood, however, one has to be on the alert for the poisonous Tamboti twigs that can upset one's indigestion. Even the smoke can effect the cooking process.

A South African poet, Totius (1877-1953), wrote a poem under the title Repos Ailleurs which means the rest is somewhere else. The poet describes a man dining in the dining saloon of an enligthtened passenger train driving slowly through the veld during the evening dusk. The man looked through the window and saw a little tent with a window in the veld. Through the window he saw a little candle and fine ceramic sources with cutt glass drinking glasses on the table. A little girl was standing next to the tent and hypnotically observed the train with its joy full electric lights as well as the man enjoying his dinner. The man on the train guessed her thoughts that she were wishing that it was her dining on the train. Simultaneously, the man on the train was longing to be at the tent in the restfull landscape...The rest is always some where else...and only then I will be happy... ( Actually man always seems to be unhappy with the situation while the real and true rest is with God the Creator...)

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.