The Wizard's Apprentice

I mentioned meeting a fellow enthusiast, called Dave, on the overnight train from Jo'burg to Bloemfontein in May 1974. It turned out that Dave had arrived in South Africa a couple of months earlier after spending time looking for steam in South America. I had travelled around Argentina by train in April 1973, so we found common ground.

I was able to relate my tale of meeting, by sheer chance, the famed Argentinian loco engineer Senor Livio Dante Porta at the General Belgrano Railway workshops at Tafi Viejo near Tucuman.

Dave knew about Porta and was inspired by his work on improving steam loco efficiency. He had a similar goal on South African Railways, which was still a big user of steam. The oil crises troubling the world in 1973 and 1974 seemed to indicate that steam could have a particularly worthwhile future in a coal rich country like South Africa.

During our trip, I mentioned that I had received a letter from Senor Porta when back in the UK. I was able to pass Senor Porta's address in Buenos Aires onto Dave as he wanted to contact him. Dave did indeed correspond with Porta, who gave him enormous encouragement and advice during his work with SAR.

'Dave' was David Wardale who later became well known for his work on steam loco improvements not only in South Africa but also China. He wrote a very detailed book published in 1998 called 'The Red Devil And Other Tales From The Age of Steam' which is essential reading for anyone who is an enthusiast for modern steam locomotive power.

The following is quoted directly from David's book:

The Argentinian Connection

A few months after joining the SAR I had one of those chance encounters which may not be chance encounters. Going down to Bloemfontein on the overnight slow train one Friday, I shared a compartment with a railway enthusiast from England. The conversation got round to South America and my travelling companion told me that when he was there he met the Argentinian engineer L D Porta at the Belgrano Railway workshops at Tafi Viejo, north of Tucuman. That too was a chance meeting: the enthusiast wanted to visit the workshops and Porta, who happened to be there in connection with tests on C16 class 4-8-2 no.1802 was summoned by the workshop staff to act as interpreter. During the course of their conversation the Englishman obtained Porta's address. When we met he did not have it with him but promised to send it to me after he returned to England, which he duly did.

At that time Porta was a rather mysterious figure to me. I had seen his name mentioned a few times in articles on steam traction and I knew a little of his work on the Rio Turbio Railway at the southern tip of Argentina, the most southerly railway in the world (at that time). I had visited this line during my South American travels and had been suitably impressed by the sight and sound of its 2-10-2s purring along with immense sixty wagon coal trains on only 750mm gauge tracks. But Porta himself remained something of an enigma, someone I ought to get to know – but how? Now I had the opportunity. It is impossible to know if I would otherwise have contacted Porta, but what can be said for sure is that without the relationship that was established between us all the meaningful work I was eventually able to do on steam locomotives would not have been done.

Correspondence between the two started in August 1974 and carried on for many years, including whilst David was in South Africa working on improving the performances of class 19D 4-8-2 2644 and 25NC 3450,the latter named the Red Devil, with a lot of advice, support and encouragement coming from Porta's letters.

Hence the chapter in David's book devoted to this period is called 'The Wizard's Apprentice'.

I am happy to have played a small part in the proceedings. See 'Night At The Works' in the Latin America section.

Side view of Porta's testbed loco mentioned above,class C16 4-8-2 1802, on a run out of Tafi Viejo in April 1973 when

Porta was on the footplate. Note the chalk markings made by Porta - the 'Wizard' to David Wardale's 'Apprentice'.

There are numerous films on YouTube showing 3450 the Red Devil, this is one from 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzNVQsUmQo

As of early January 2019 3450 is awaiting repair at its Cape Town base.