Part 7 - Avontuur to Assegaaibos

Please note: All photographs, maps and text in Soul of a Railway are protected by copyright and may not be copied or reproduced in any way for further use without prior permission in writing from the authors.

A big thank you to the contributors of photographs and information for this section: Messrs Bagshawe, Brinkman, Duff, Fleming, Hall, Jeffery, Manton and Stewart.

As you will see for yourselves, without their generosity both in material and time, this exercise would hardly be worthwhile.

1. David P Morgan put it best: "In deepest twilight of an unforgettable era....". With only three seasons to go, the Langkloof's dependency on steam to get its produce to market was approaching an all too permanent end when engine No 136 left Misgund on 20th April 1980 with another consignment of export apples.

2. Bruce's photo, made almost exactly 100 years after the railway was opened to Avontuur. The westernmost end of the line, 177 miles from Port Elizabeth, is visible on the right. Also clear is the triangle, looking overgrown, and the galvanised-roofed sheds with siding access on the left - they belong to the Co-op. Just to the right of the private sheds is the SAR goods office and shed and behind that, at an angle, is the fruit-loading shed. There are several fruit vans in this view which were recently cut up where they stood. How long can it be before the rails and sleepers follow? Making a confident slash through the picture is the R61 - Port Elizabeth left, Cape Town right. The road to Uniondale takes off diagonally towards the bottom right from its T-junction with the R61. Diagonally across the top right corner, straight through a crossroad with the original Langkloof road (now tarred) is the road to Prince Alfred's pass and Knysna.

Moir reminds us that at various times between 1904 and 1925 there were proposals to extend the narrow-gauge network from Avontuur to Knysna, Camfer and Uniondale. The one westwards to Camfer (on the line between Oudtshoorn and George), for which a survey was completed, came closest to fruition.

3. Once again thanks to Bruno for preparing these beautiful maps and diagrams.

4. Photos of trains departing from Avontuur are rare, mainly because 633 left before sunrise and the fruit specials were so unpredictable. So we'll just amble around the station for a few photos before heading back to Assegaaibos. This one shows the immaculate state in which the station was kept: just look at those roses. Powerful for staff morale and good for public relations, plants and shrubs for the station gardens were provided by the various SAR nurseries - every system had one and at least one (at Inchanga in Natal) was sufficiently large to have its own narrow-gauge railway. These lasted until management decided that they could pay themselves more by abandoning the nurseries (and a host of other essential things) in the late eighties.

4A. This is what the station looked like when Dick passed through in February 2013. Not much that a bit of weedkiller, some paint, a stationmaster and a few trains couldn't sort out.

5. For more than 60 years crews booked off at Avontuur, lodging here after working through from Humansdorp and returning the next day. The building on the extreme left with the verandah around it dates back to the opening of the railway (see photo 7 below). It was the old crew quarters; where I stayed on my January 1959 trip.

Wandering around the Avontuur yard, Bruce found the Operating Inspector's caboose in October 1973. George van Niekerk relates how this fine old vehicle (Sachsische Waggonfabrik, Werdau, 29584/1926, SAR coach 109) was used for caboose working during fruit seasons in the 1950s. In his first full season as fireman for Donald Brown in 1957, two crews would leave Port Elizabeth on a Sunday evening with NGG13 No 79 and caboose 109, returning a fortnight later for the engine's washout and service. The driver of the other crew was Ben Fourie but the name of the fireman is forgotten. The shifts were supposed to be eight hours on and eight off but by agreement they actually worked twelve hours on and twelve off while shuttling back and forth between Humansdorp and the 'Kloof. During the whole of the 14 days the only stops were for operating and loco purposes. Their longest trip was to Misgund as Humansdorp crews worked the Avontuur run. Over the years George was employed on several of these caboose workings until they were discontinued with the arrival of the NG15s in 1961.

Caboose 109 was converted at the Uitenhage shops into a full carriage for use on the Apple Express, c 1980, renumbered 888 and, after a brief stay on the Crown Mines museum railway, in 1993 was transferred to Port Shepstone for ACR's Banana Express where it reverted to its original number.

6. NGG16 No 128 does some shunting at the end of its 13-hour trek from Humansdorp with 634-up T&P. I've just found an alarming endorsement to the notes for this train in the Working Time Books (WTBs) "Trains Nos 634/633........may convey trucks containing full or empty petrol or other inflammable liquid drums and explosives trucks". Just as well I only found this out after we got to Avontuur. Also visible is the tidy old loco with its shed, coal stage and water column. The fruit truck with the double roof is what they used until somebody hit on the idea of using insulation.

7. "Pretty as a picture" seems an appropriate cliché for this old print, courtesy of railway historian Allen Duff. As usual, the tiny but exquisite Bagnall dominates the scene, which, judging by the bell tent in the left background, must have been recorded soon after the line was opened. In the right background are the same crew barracks that I slept in more than 50 years later (see also picture 4) while the triangle can be seen curving off to the left. The forerunner of 633-down T&P looks about to leave with a goodly complement of passengers. For the really hardy (as most folk were in those days), it was possible to do the whole 177-mile journey in one shot from Avontuur to the Bay in 15 hours and 50 minutes.

8. The fruit-season fireworks really began at Misgund. For reasons mentioned above we don't have any decent photos of eastbound trains between Avontuur and Misgund but if anyone cares to send some for inclusion we would appreciate it. By the time Bruce flew over Misgund the fruit-loading shelter and concrete hardstanding area in the station hadn't been used for several years having been replaced by Lanko ("Langkloof Co-op")'s new road-served packing sheds halfway between the R61 and the station. On one leg of the triangle is a string of idle OZ wagons that would soon be cut up where they stood. Check how the place is practically surrounded by orchards. Time to move back to happier days.........

9. We'll start by showing you the way things used to be done: straight from the farmer's own packing shed to the sidings. The roadway, still composed of cinders and ash, was frequently full of potholes and puddles.

10. And this is how they were loaded. Hand-loading a low-roofed OZ (as they all were until the late seventies) was a back-breaking job but it has to be said, the old way provided plenty of employment. As testimony to the effectiveness of DFB marketing, in the midst of Apartheid sanctions the striking Cape apple logo could be seen in markets and fruit stores across the Northern Hemisphere from Chicago to Covent Garden.

11. A standard uninsulated, unventilated OZ truck, no frills and mainstay of the fruit traffic for over 50 years. On either side are the new hi-roofed OZ trucks of which more anon. The old cinder-and-ash loading area has now been paved with thick reinforced concrete slabs to take the weight of farm lorries and fork-lifts.

12. From 1979 onwards large numbers of the new high-roofed insulated OZ trucks started to arrive, culminating in the final order for 220 in 1981, the delivery of which was only completed after head office decided to put the fruit on road. Raising the roofs was necessary because the new international-standard pallets were loaded six cartons high. Many of these wagons never turned a wheel in revenue service.

13. The brand-new concrete hardstanding in Misgund's fruit-loading area in April 1982. In no time the forklift has hoisted a pallet with another consignment of export apples just in direct from the farm, and is about to load it into the new, insulated, high-roofed OZ truck. The width of the hardstanding and general spaciousness allowed much quicker handling - with forklifts a new OZ could be fully loaded, signed and sealed in little more than 5 minutes as opposed to 35 minutes for hand loading one of the older, low-roofed OZs.

16. When Bruce made this picture at Misgund in April 1982, the concrete loading area had not yet been completed (it was ready for the 1983 season and then only used twice before being abandoned for the next 12 years). He has shown another little-remarked aspect of the fruit business for SAR i.e. the inland transportation of the collapsed new cartons. Naturally they were brought in by the same wagons that took the fruit out.

17. A typical truck card used for export apples - in red to indicate that the consignment must be expedited. The writing is unclear so here is what it says: from: Misgund to Algoa Bay; Contents: apples; a squiggle which only the checker could interpret; Consignee: DFB (Deciduous Fruit Board); truck number; date; gross weight, tare weight and net weight (of the load). The interesting thing here is how competition improves things. Only seven tons of fruit went into a van in the old days. To win the business back from lorries it was necessary to increase the payload and reduce the tare of the standard OZ fruit van. Frank Eckley, the senior mechanical technician at PE proved that this could be done in two ways: either by stripping the entire superstructure and fitting the bare chassis with twistlocks for containers, or by replacing the sidewalls with tarpaulins and widening the floor to accommodate two rows of pallets side by side. In the event, the former was to prove admirably suitable for the deciduous fruit while the latter was pretty good for the citrus traffic: the payload was increased to 14 tons, the tare weight reduced to four tons and the gross weight increased to 18 tons. This gave a payload/tare ratio of 3.5 as opposed to 1.0 previously!

Containers on the narrow gauge came too late to be used for the soft fruit in steam days. For the record, a single class NG15 was rated at 340 tons from Joubertina to Assegaaibos which is about 170 payload tons or seven articulated truck loads at standards then prevailing. I'll tell you about the diesel loads and the use of containers for conveying pre-cooled fruit a little further along when we discuss Alfred County Railway (ACR)'s involvement in the Langkloof.

18. Misgund in full swing in peak season with another full block load about to leave for the coast and two more to follow. Let Dick tell you: "A few more statistics from our April 1980 week: we saw 15 different locos, 12 of which saw service - 11 in line service plus one on the shunt at Assegaaibos, 7 sets of additional crews were brought in for the apple traffic in addition to the 3 regular crews."

HOW could anyone just throw this business away immediately after spending so much money on infrastructure and rolling stock, you would be justified in asking? The man who did it at the stroke of a pen, Dr G J S Coetzee, was either too lazy to come down from head office and see for himself, or he was in league with the road hauliers, or he was not a businessman, or he was just plain stupid. I favour the last speculation but perhaps it was a combination of all of them.

19. Dick was shooting turkeys at Misgund in 1980. From the Starkings and Golden Delicious in late February until early June when the last of the Granny Smiths left the valley, the cavalcade hardly stopped.

20. Pat Worman wrote with the suggestion that we stick with colour because the Langkloof is so colourful. Keeping this in mind Pat, if you check Part Six again you'll see that we have exchanged a dowdy b/w for a striking colour photo by Dick Manton (No 13). However, it becomes a problem when one tries to show the older way they did things. This April 1971 photo shows NGG16 No 129 on an evening export fruit block leaving Misgund - just around the corner to the right. It may not look like it but this was only one van short of a full load for a Garratt out of Misgund. Between here and Louterwater there are several short sharp sections at 1-in-40. It was the practice to top up with another six loads at Louterwater and make up to 24 and van at Joubertina (the WTBs said 20 and van but as I have observed, and several enginemen and station staff told me, if the weather was fine they would add extra wagons to clear the traffic). By end 1973 the Garratts had been retired or transferred to Natal after 45 years of service in the Langkloof. Revenue-earning traffic east of Assegaaibos was taken over by the new class 91 diesels and everything west of there was hauled by the NG15s.

22. NG15 on a full load of export fruit sending its coal smoke high on the 1-in-40 out of Misgund. April 1977.

23. A sturdy real horse greets the iron horse that took over its traction duties. The end of the stiff climb out of Misgund is barely half a mile ahead; after that there is a long downhill section before the brief 1-in-40 into Louterwater. From there on it is pretty much plain sailing right through to Assegaaibos.

24. The last serious bit of upgrade before Louterwater in April 1977.

25. Soon the NG15 and her fireman will be able to take a breather. Louterwater, its water gantry, ashpits and DFB headquarters, are only a few hundred yards ahead.

26. We have arrived at Louterwater, hub of the Langkloof fruit industry, headquarters of the Langkloof Co-op (Lanko) and the Eastern Cape branch office of Unifruco (DFB at the time of the crisis induced by Dr Coetzee). It is time to resume the narrow-gauge story. When we last spoke the fruit traffic had just been handed over to the Road Motor Transport (RMT) division of SA Transport Services (the successor to SAR). That was in 1985. But state-run lorries were always going to find it hard to compete with privately-owned trucks: within a few years the RMT had lost most of its business and with the change in the corporate structure of SATS it had metamorphosed into an outfit called Autonet that proved even less able to compete with the private hauliers. By that time I had left SATS to join Allen Jorgensen and the Alfred County farmers who were intent on privately operating the narrow-gauge from Port Shepstone to Harding. Meanwhile, at PE Chris Müller took over as regional engineer. For head office Chris turned out to be an even bigger thorn in the flesh because he was preoccupied with making the huge investment in the narrow gauge pay and with some of the outstanding technical and marketing staff in Port Elizabeth he set about improving its business prospects. One of the first things he did was to surreptitiously lay a long siding to the new citrus packing shed at Patensie; we'll talk about that some more when we cover the Patensie branch (by "surreptitious" I mean without the knowledge of head office, who certainly would have vetoed it).

Soon after I left PE, the meek and mild regional manager George Engelbrecht retired. After a couple of temporary replacements his place was taken by a firebrand, Andre Freemantle, whose main fault was that he took the "Service" part of SATS's name literally. He had the quaint idea that the railway, its branches and its private sidings were there to serve the customer and should be kept as busy as possible. I need hardly tell you that in this, both he and Chris Müller were frustrated by head office at every turn. Even so, they successfully managed to hold on to the limestone, the grain and the citrus. The citrus especially turned out to be a growing prospect just as Bientjie du Preez (CEO of the Patensie Citrus Co-op) had promised at the famous meeting in Humansdorp.

For several years after the dramatic events of 1984/5, traffic was on the rise thanks to concerted efforts by the Cape Midland regional office. However, all their attempts to put the apples back on rail went unrewarded. Meanwhile, SATS had become "Transnet" and its railway division "Spoornet" (As with "SATS" these name changes did nothing to retard the stampede of customers away from rail). Even worse, ten years after SATS lorries had taken over the deciduous fruit, Autonet (new name of Transnet's motor transport division) was on the brink of losing this business to private road hauliers. The main reason was all tariffs were set by head office. We have described how the limestone rate was calculated, which because of PPC's inside knowledge could not be tampered with; while railage of grain was subsidised by the Nat government in its determination to hang onto rural votes. Even though its rates were not overly competitive the citrus remained on rail mainly because the Patensie road was so treacherous. But by 1993 the Region's problems with head office on the one hand and private road competition on the other had become untenable. The narrow gauge simply was not generating enough revenue to cover the salaries of greedy head-office bureaucrats. As the region wasn't allowed to set rates, those imposed from above began to rise to levels unacceptable to the customers. For Chris Müller it was deja vu. Sure enough, early in 1993 the order came to start running down the narrow gauge with a view to shutting it down entirely. It was made clear to me in private that this time there were to be no half measures, even big customers like PPC and the Citrus Co-op would be abandoned to fend for themselves.

But Freemantle was made of sterner stuff. He had heard that ACR was making a go of it in Natal and decided to come and see for himself. When he got back to Port Elizabeth he suggested to the new CEO, Braam le Roux that instead of closing the Avontuur line it should be privatised like the Harding branch. Le Roux agreed and soon a public notice in the Government Gazette and national dailies called for proposals for private operation of the Avontuur line. ACR was one of four companies that submitted marketing, operating and business plans. Presumably because of its six years of operating experience and the suitability of its plan, towards the end of 1993 ACR was advised that it was the successful bidder. After intensive discussions with head office and the unions it was decided that ACR should take over the Apple Express immediately and the private freight service would commence on 1st February 1994.

A month before the official freight start-up date all our ducks were in battle formation. Finance was in place, staff had been selected, agreements with the unions had been reached (that was the hardest part), tariffs agreed with all the important customers excepting Lanko and Unifruco (successors to the old DFB) who were yet to make up their minds, and we had the Apple Express swinging like a pendulum. With dedicated volunteer input from the Apple Express Society, passenger numbers reached an all-time record 10,000 over the December holidays. The future of the Port Elizabeth narrow gauge looked rosier than at any time since Dr Coetzee had opened Pandora's box in 1984. So what could go wrong, go wrong, go wrong..? The answer, of course, was: plenty!

One week before private operations were due to commence, a letter arrived requesting that we postpone start-up to 1st May 1994. Naively we agreed to this - at the back of our minds had been the idea of preserving good relations with Spoornet. What we overlooked was that the most crucial election in the history of South Africa was to take place on 26/27th April, and that the ANC was sure to win it. Even after they won we went confidently ahead getting ready for the new start-up date. Except that now another letter arrived postponing start up to 1st September. This time we were given no choice in the matter. Suddenly the skittish unions did a volte-face. Always sceptical, they now became obdurately opposed to the idea of rail privatisation, and the way it was being botched in the UK did not help one bit. After 18 months of negotiations, the agreements and intricate planning began to unravel before our eyes. We requested and were granted a meeting with the new minister of public enterprises, Ms Stella Sigcau. She was sympathetic and wouldn't oppose the deal but made a crucial prerequisite: "You must take the unions with you". In the event this proved impossible and by mid 1995 it was clear that private operation of our railway system was not on the government's agenda at that time and probably never would be.

However, even after the second letter of postponement we continued to negotiate with potential and existing customers as if there was no doubt that we would be running the railway before long. We were positive that our business plan, which was based upon offering competitive rates, then reducing costs by innovation and cutting down on extravagances, showed the way ahead. It was imperative that we garner as much tonnage as possible so an obvious target, in spite of the ten-year hiatus, was the soft fruit, which by this time had grown to more than 50,000 tons/yr. There were several hurdles that had not existed before: the new packing facilities and loading areas at Louterwater, being designed for articulated trucks, were much further from the station (see the photo), the new method of exporting the apples involved precooling them in the Langkloof rather than at the Harbour, either in Lanko's own warehouses or in some of the bigger farmer's refrigerating facilities, and most farmers had disposed of the small lorries they had used to use to bring their produce to the stations. Chris Müller (who had already indicated that he would join us) and I went out to Louterwater and looked at the implications of building a lengthy siding into the pallet-loading shelter. It required a 1-in-20 gradient and a 40m-radius horseshoe to double the line back through 180 degrees into the huge covered truck-loading shed. Having decided this could be done, in August 1994 we had discussions with Lanko and Unifruco brass, who said that they weren't averse to the idea of resuming rail haulage providing the "cold chain" could be maintained i.e. the temperature rise between packing shed and ship's hold had to be kept below 2 degrees. It should be mentioned that there had been quite a few mishaps with big trucks on the steep and twisty R61 as well as bruising of the fruit.

There was the usual wrangling over pricing so it took a few months before some positive news arrived:

27. Thus was the stage set for some momentous experiments that could and should have secured the future of the PE narrow gauge well into the 21st century.

The first trial with a fully-opening 7.6m Bimod (side-loading bi-modal) container, a 6.0m ditto and a canvas-sided Eckley wide-bed truck as used for citrus (which was not as temperature-sensitive as soft fruit), commenced at 15:30 on 13 March 1995 after flood-damage between Assegaaibos and Kompanjiesdrif had been repaired at a cost of R150,000. The tests generated considerable interest; farmers and the curious came from up and down the 'Kloof to observe proceedings. The private road hauliers sat all hunched up in a row, high up on a branch of a nearby yellowwood tree. They could be heard speculating loudly whether the temperature rise would be five or ten degrees.......... As Lanko no longer had a siding at Louterwater the loading process was somewhat laborious but all concerned entered into the spirit of the occasion and by 19:45 the three-wagon test train was ready to roll. Between Louterwater and Loerie more wagons were picked up so the running time of 10hrs 30mins was longer than would be expected with a through block load, but in spite of this the temperature of the Starkings in the 7.6m Bimod rose between 0.2 and 1.0 degree (depending upon how close to the sides the cartons were) while the cartons loaded in the Eckley truck had risen by 3.0 to 5.0 degrees which was too high. There were further tests and discussions of course, but in the end, to our joy, Unifruco agreed to enter into a railage contract using Bimod containers - the beauty with them was that the cartons could be loaded in Louterwater and not manhandled again until they arrived at Covent Garden. Chris Müller wasted no time building the new private siding and early in 1996 railage of deciduous fruit began after an interval of 12 years!

As far as Alfred County Railway was concerned this was our swansong in the valley. For no sooner had we secured this business than Transnet head office decided they wanted it all for themselves. We were paid a considerable sum for breach of contract but this did not alleviate the bitterness.

28. I have just remembered an amazing fact. Did you know that there are more miles of narrow-gauge railway in South Africa than 3ft-6ins? When this photo was made early in 1982, there were 17,500 miles of 2ft (with some 2ft-6ins and 3ft)-gauge of which 17,000 were underground (there are less today due to closure of mines but it is still substantial)! This is hard to believe but true: while SAR/SATS was still doing things the old way on the narrow gauge, the mines were state-of-the-art with diesel and electric locos, tread-steering bogies, mechanically tamped track (double in places), long-welded rail, concrete sleepers, Pandrol fastenings and colour-light signalling! And the unions still tried to tell us that a state-run outfit was better than private enterprise.

At least the old way provided plenty of employment. Relaying and strengthening of the Avontuur line provided work for 15 years for 60 labourers plus supervisors, divided into two gangs of 30 each: one for platelaying and the other for fettling. Here the fettling gang is tidying up the work done by the platelayers, who are about a mile ahead. The rails are new Iscor 30kg/metre fastened to new steel sleepers with T-bolts and gauge clips and the ballast profile is 1200 cubic metres/km (this photo was taken on my first inspection trip, soon afterwards the profile was reduced from 1200 to 800 cubic metres/km). Just look at the beautiful work, that running top looks good enough for an HST. No wonder the NG15s used to make 40mph+ on favourable stretches - especially east of Van Stadens when coming home!

29. As lovely a black and white photograph of a narrow-gauge train as it is possible to imagine. On 27th April at the height of the 1978 season, Mount Formosa benignly looks down on NG15 No 18 with a down fruit special taking a reverse curve 4 miles west of Joubertina.

32. Peak season at Joubertia. A triple crossing of an up empty stock and caboose hop with a down load destined for Port Elizabeth harbour. Take a good look, gentlefolk of Joubertina. When you pass this weed-grown site today perhaps you could reflect on the times when visitors from all over the world came to this station to watch the little trains doing their work. They spent money, lots of it, in your town too. Bruce recorded a busy moment in April 1976 - the engine on the right is NG15 No 146.

33. In April 1980 when Dick covered the fruit season, things were busy again. An immaculate No 133 drawing into the station alongside NGG 13 No 80 and caboose plinthed in the beautiful station garden. Nowadays it seems a miracle that everything looked so tidy and organised, back then it was ho-hum. Just look at that perfect track.

34. 22 years later No 80 and its van are already looking sadder, the garden has gone and order is inexorably being replaced by chaos. As greed takes hold the idea of doing things for the public good recedes further into the past.

35. So let's get back to more civilised times. In July 1976, 148 cl NG15 taking loco with 633-down eastbound T&P.

36. Lunch time at Joubertina. Easily the best way to poach your eggs was to place them in the blow-down baffler and open the blow-down cock a fraction.

Note a rarity on 2ft gauge - the speedometer drive. They were also fitted to the Garratts but really only the NG15s needed them. The official speed limit on the narrow gauge was 25mph but Langkloof enginemen took pride in slicing a few minutes off the point-to-point times, especially on the Humewood Road-Assegaaibos run where round trips of 200 miles in one shift were common in the season. This called for fast work (by narrow-gauge standards) on favourable stretches - there have been many tales of 40mph and better running between Van Stadens and Humewood Road - the home straight.....

37. We have spoken before about the purity of the Langkloof water. Here is visual proof! I never heard of anyone getting sick from it (there was no water treatment).

38. Crisp clear days and Kodachrome - all seem to have gone now (all right, perhaps we still get crisp, clear days - once in a while). Definitely gone (to the UK in fact) is NG15 No 133 and hopefully one day she'll shine like this again. Driver T W Jordaan and fireman W J Ferreira, along with engine 133 which they maintained in this beautiful state (that's Willem Ferreira busy polishing; he later became a stalwart in the all-too-brief revival of the railway during the latter half of the nineties), were posted to the Langkloof for the apple season. Later they would move to Loerie for the citrus season before returning to their home base at Sydenham. Several crews in the Langkloof, notably Andre Steyn, George van Niekerk, Naas du Preez, Donkie Nel and their respective firemen also had regular engines which invariably were kept immaculate.

39. And so we leave Joubertina for the last time on this trip. A lovely friendly town with the best hotel in the 'Kloof (for me one of the best anywhere) - is it still there I wonder? The engine was #148 and the train 633-down T&P.

40. More of a "spruit" than a "rivier" nevertheless, Ken's Garratt is crossing the bridge over the Tweeriviere of Tweeriviere with a down fruit run c 1969 (Ken, please say if the date is correct).

41. Curving away from the above-mentioned bridge over the Tweeriviere in July 1973 was No 135 cl NG15 on 633-down T&P.

42. Apples on their way to be washed, sorted and packed before being dispatched to the PE Harbour pre-cooling sheds on their way to market. This was in the days before cooling was done on the farms or at the Co-op.

43. Harvesting in full swing on Aandrus, Tweeriviere while another load of export apples heads for the docks.

44. The changeover to the new high-roofed OZs began during the 1981 season. This was NG15 No 120 with a block load of export fruit consisting of standard old low-roofed OZs under tarpaulins (because they had longitudinally planked wooden roofs) and new high-roofed wagons with metal roofs, heading for the Bay in early June. That's Tweeriviere dorp in the background - hardly any thatched cottages were left by then.

45. In 1979 the narrow gauge still had a dedicated marketing officer - that is dedicated in both senses of the word. Unfortunately I don't have his name but it was at his instigation that this trial consignment of apple juice was dispatched from Louterwater in July 1979. The train consisted of 9 NGDZs loaded with drums of apple juice and a van. The 200-litre drums were plastic in a sort of royal blue colour and I remember thinking at the time that the juice wouldn't exactly enjoy being swilled around with the motion of the train while their containers were being heated by the sun. For whatever reason the experiment seems to have been unsuccessful as I never saw such a train again. One thing that should be mentioned is that this photo was originally a beautiful large-format Agfa transparency. But the years on the Natal South Coast took their toll and the colours have faded beyond recovery.

46. Trains grace the landscape, they really do. If you were in doubt just imagine this painting, sorry, photo with lorries substituted for the train. 633-down approaching Heights, April 1976.

47. The same train as in photo 43 commences its cautious descent of the 1-in-40 from Heights in June 1981.

48. Geoff chased NG15 No 18 all the way from Joubertina to here, making it with a few seconds to spare (not really!). About a mile before Kompaniesdrif - 27th April 1978.

49. At mp 119 the new 30kg/metre rails have been laid out pending arrival of the steel sleepers, while NG15 No 133 brings its block load into Kompaniesdrif in April 1980. This is the same train as in photos 33 and 37.

50. No 133 again just pulling away from the token stop at Kompaniesdrif. Progress with the relaying and strengthening of the Avontuur line was quite slow. By April 1980 the relaying gang was barely at Kompanjiesdrif - only another 60-odd miles to go!

52. Having completed < 3 years of service, NGG16 No 142 with 633-down T&P, was standing at the facing points, awaiting admission to Assegaaibos by the station foreman, in June 1962.

53. We're back in the idyllic surroundings of old Assegaaibos before progress decreed it should have a new loco depot with all the trimmings, not to mention a horrid new facebrick station building.

54. On No 2 road in the far distance is a made up block load ready to roll while this NG15 was making up the next train of export fruit for the two class 91s in the background (they were allowed 400 tons on 120 axles - or 30 wagons - between Assegaaibos and Humewood Road). Contrast this picture made by Bruce in April 1974 with the previous one taken a dozen years earlier. What a transformation. No doubt the old station was picturesque but the new Assegaaibos was a state-of-the-art facility that ought to have seen half-a-century or more of use.

55. Peter Bagshawe found no fewer than eleven engines parked off dead on a Sunday afternoon early in the 1980 season. Had it been peak season there is no doubt that most of these engines would have been working, even on a Sunday.

56. And here they all are. Thanks to Peter's meticulous records we can tell you what their numbers were: 18/19/118/120/123/135/136/144/145/146/148

57. A quieter moment at Assegaaibos on a weekday in April 1971, almost uncanny really, only two engines on shed at the height of the season.

58. This was more like it. Ken Stewart found three NG15s ready to work westbound block loads and a Garratt being prepared for another trip into the 'Kloof in the 1969 season (Ken: please check date!). Since these NG15s are all heading back to Humewood Road it is appropriate to remind you at this point that during the fruit season these remarkable engines would cover the 200-mile round trips in one shift as a matter of course.

This was meant to be the penultimate edition of SoAR's post 1960 story of the Port Elizabeth narrow gauge. The last chapter would have been our coverage of the very scenic branch from Gamtoos to Patensie (for which you should not have long to wait). However, I suddenly had the thought that it wouldn't be realistic to end with pretty pictures of the Patensie branch, so we will have an epilogue telling it like it is today - no point in deluding ourselves.