We drove down to Simonstown on Saturday afternoon (15th June),
in the pouring rain... Saw a Pennsy T1 and a Union Pacific
Challenger down there, plus a stack of other locos. Very impressive.
After we left the Toy Museum, we also saw a real live 16D at the
station! A rake of 4 side-door suburban coaches formed the train.
Soon after, the passengers arrived and descended upon the loco in
the continuing rain.
Shortly before the train was due to depart, the sun came out and a
rainbow shone in the sky over the bay. Of course when 860 whistled
out of the station, a sudden downpour wiped out any possibility of a
shot! Around the corner at Glencairn the passengers were waiting for
a runpast, as was a well-known Gricemobile from JHB (containing
Messrs. Benn, Dulez, Falconer and Master Benn) but the weather again
refused to cooperate so most of the gricers had their cameras washed
quite well. 860 sounded magnificent belting past though! We chased
the train to Muizenberg and took a couple of shots as weather
permitted! We allowed the train the carry on unaided towards
Bellville, we went home to warm up in front of the fire!All pictures Copyright © 2002 Trevor Staats |
