Re: South Africa Steam Trains: Garratt Loco page updated

["steamfreak" <steamfreak711@yahoo.com>]

<Alastair@elmarie.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
96ue21$feo$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk">news:96ue21$feo$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> ...
> > > > I suspect the largest concentration of Garratt locomotives in the
> world
> > > > today is on the Alfred County Railway at Port Shepstone, Natal.
> Somewhere
> > > > in the region of 20 odd locomotives, mostly NGG16, although only a
> couple
> > > > are runners.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I think not. Unsure of exact figure, but Alfred County cannot have as
> many
> > > as 20 Garratts at Port Shepstone. I doubt it is more than 10. And none
> are
> > > in working order.
> > >
> > > Bulawayo must have greatest concentration of Garratts. Around eight
> still
> > > used each day on shunting duties around the city.
> >
> > I wouldn't count on it. According to the official Garratt Homepage the
ACR
> has
> > 16 Garratts on site, of which 5 are runners. The others are mostly
stored
> at
> > Paddock, a couple are stored at Port Shepstone.
> >
> > SANSRAM in Krugersdorp has 14 Garratts of which but 3 are
> non-oprerational, and
> > all of those are off site.
> >
> > So, the largest collection of Garratts would apear to be the ACR, but
the
> > largest collection of operational Garratts would be this SANSRAM place.
> >
> > For more details check out Gavin Hamilton's Garratt Page
> >
> > http://users.powernet.co.uk/hamilton/
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > John
> >
> I had included the ACR Garratts at Paddock in my guestimate.  The
Shepstone
> site cannot hold a huge number of locos and storing them on the coast with
> the salt air is not a good idea.
>
> Does the 16 Garratts include the ones they obtained from the old Ixopo
> branch a couple of years ago?  (I forget the name of the shed but recall
the
> locos sat for many years after closure of the line by SAR).

I would say so, they moved them all from the Ixopo line a couple of years
ago.  Some went to Shepstone and some to Paddock.  I went to have a look but
the storage area at Paddock is also an army camp now, and they weren't too
happy about me being in the area, let alone walking through their camp to
see the locos.

steamfreak