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1. Heading into a murky future? The Patensie branch was a vital component of the Port Elizabeth narrow-gauge network. From the start its main function was to bring fresh fruit and vegetables from the Gamtoos valley to the markets of Algoa bay but by the 1930s lorries were taking over this business. However, new markets for fruit were being developed in Europe, especially Britain, and these were still dependent on the railway to get to the harbour where an underground pre-cooling facility had been completed in 1934.
The importance of the branch to the overall well-being of the narrow gauge was this: deciduous fruit from the Langkloof began in late January and tailed off in May while citrus from the Gamtoos valley began in May and continued through to late September with a naloop of ripe Valencias for the local market trickling on into October, thus extending the high-rated fruit-traffic season to almost nine months. This helped to keep a reasonably constant level of personnel on the narrow gauge although extra operational staff were brought in from the broad gauge during peak season and ensured a good level of usage of locomotives and wagons.
2. Although the junction was at Gamtoos, the Patensie branch was operated out of Loerie (its locomotives and train crews were stationed there) with the Gamtoos sidings used as holding tracks for much of the time due to lack of space in Loerie.
3. Class NG10 No 62 waiting for its next assignment at Loerie in January 1959. At this time these Baldwin Pacifics of 1915 were still being used on banking turns and the Patensie branch. I never had the wit to go out and see them in action on the branch and when I next came by, early in 1962, they had been withdrawn in favour of NG15s released by the gauge-widening in South West Africa. If anyone has a photo of one of these Disney-like machines in action we certainly would appreciate your sharing it with our readers.
4. From 1985 the daily (except Sundays) T&P workings were put forward from the previous 06:01 to a 07:30 departure from Loerie. The trains had also been renumbered, from 619/620 to 911/910. Bruce Brinkman arranged for a coach to accommodate RSSA members in July 1985, the later hour being rather more comfortable than the 05:43 scheduled departure of his trip in July 1973, a graphic account of which follows in full (I have quoted passages from it quite liberally where they are relevant to the photos):
LOERIE – PATENSIE: 25 AUGUST 1973
"05:30 am and the village of Loerie sleeps peacefully, save for the dim glow in the window of the station foreman’s office. An enormous pale moon hovers over the hills to the east in the star-studded sky, showing a faint trace of pink against the horizon. Having parked our car we walked onto the platform, carrying our food pack with us. Ahead a headlamp pierced the darkness and, gently, with a hiss of steam and faint clanking of rods, class NGG 13 No 83 rumbled past with some wagons whilst making up her train. We dumped our gear on the platform and introduced ourselves to the only person around, a Mr MJ Barnard, who turned out to be our guard. He was packing the mailbags and other parcels onto the platform ready for loading.
Almost silently, with only a faint hum from its turbo-generator, No 83 re-appeared, this time on the centre track and, having slipped past us, slowed down and coupled onto a queue of guards vans. Our engine then drew forward again and, after crossing over, shoved the now made up train into the platform road. All this shunting was completed as if in a dream with hardly a sound to disturb the dawn. A first-class composite van No 100 had been allocated to the train for us, as normally only third-class accommodation was provided. Having checked that all was in order we put our gear on board and then proceeded to help load the parcels, by this time another guard (who was to act as conductor - it turned out that they always carried two guards on a Saturday to manage the third-class passengers) and the tranship porter had eventually also reported for duty and the remaining parcels were swiftly loaded.
At 05:50 (seven minutes behind schedule) we finally departed Loerie with four third-class patrons already on board. Most of the passenger traffic is from beyond Gamtoos Junction whence they travel to Hankey and then again there are those that travel to Patensie.
The line from Loerie to Melon winds along the side of the valley of the Loeriespruit and it is fascinating to watch the headlight beam of the locomotive picking out the rocks in the cuttings and the trees as she swings into the curves, first to the left and then to the right, while at the same time listening to the roar of the exhaust as she begins to pull heavily. It was still dark; there was little sign of life about and even though No 83 whistled perfunctorily at each road crossing, no traffic was seen.
Soon we crossed the bridge over the Loeriespruit and entered Melon siding where we stopped to change the tablet. This done we were on our way within a few minutes, having left a parcel of newspapers in the goods shed. We made our way across the flood plain of the Gamtoos valley towards Gamtoos station – the junction for the branch to Patensie. At Gamtoos we crossed train No 1681, a special from Assegaaibos to PE, hauled by double-headed NG15s.
The sky was lightening fast, with the whole of the eastern skyline trimmed in orange, however the sun had not yet risen and it was still fairly nippy. The magnificent cliffs on the far side of the Gamtoos River were not yet visible and were only seen on the return journey.
The locomotive uncoupled from the train and the two guards, assisted by the station porter, hand shunted a wagon out of a facing siding so as to save the locomotive having to run around the train. Once the manoeuvre was completed the locomotive shunted the wagon across to the goods shed and coupled onto an open wagon that was awaiting despatch. All this shunting was carried out by the fireman as the driver was in the station office chatting to the station foreman.
Leaving the junction the line turns north up the Gamtoos valley and takes on a very different character, this is a real branch line, the track is lighter and the formation not as robust or as neat at the mainline to the Langkloof. The sleepers are unevenly spaced – the track has not changed much since it was last upgraded in the 1930’s. Soon the line meets the Gamtoos River and there begins the most spectacular part of the trip, with the trackbed carved into vertical cliffs of Enon conglomerate - we were running along a shelf not much wider than the formation, about 40ft above the river. Along this section we arrived first at Togo and shortly thereafter at Bodker. In each case we halted alongside the station name board to pick up a few third-class passengers. At Bodker a parcel of newspapers to be collected by the local farmer was left lying against the post of the name board - trusting people around here! The halts along the river are just name boards in the middle of nowhere – where all the local passengers came from or went to is a mystery. The train continued to wind its way along the edge of the cliff with the river close below. After we left Bodker the line began to leave the river and make its way through farmlands.
The next stop was Wagon Drift. Here we stopped in the middle of the largest cabbage field I have ever seen (cabbages as far as the eye could see) – just a lonely sign board in the midst of a sea of cabbages. Having stopped we waited for the approaching throng of local passengers, about a dozen each of very old and very young, to sort themselves out and decide who was going to board the train. The guard and the conductor had their hands full sorting out tickets for everyone and making sure that they had counted them all – I still think that a few escaped and managed to have a free ride. Finally we were on our way again with the third-class coach full to overflowing with merry passengers – to cap it all the sliding door to the balcony was stuck half open.
The next stop was Duplex and the whole performance was repeated with more local passengers waiting to board the train for the short trip to Hankey.
Eventually we pulled into Hankey for the engine to quench its thirst and have its fire cleaned. Fire cleaning was done by the fireman while the driver inspected and lubricated the motion. Most of the local passengers left the train here to go to the shops in town – they would re-join us on our return journey. When the servicing was completed we continued on the second half of our run, crossing the road and the river before commencing the climb towards Centerton where the line diverges from its original route which used to head north-west along the river bank until near Gonnakop. The deviation turns east on a 1-in-40 compensated gradient and heads towards the summit of the line, some 590 feet above sea level near the 13/1 milepost.
After a quick stop to again pick up local passengers we started the climb away from Centerton crossing the road to the Phillip tunnel and later the Patensie main road, wending our way upwards before turning west and descending through a series of horse-shoe bends towards the prison and crossing the Patensie road again. The views over the Gamtoos valley on this section are spectacular with the valley stretching out far below. The line re-joins the original alignment just before reaching Gonnakop which is also just a name board set in the farmlands and as usual there was a cheerful group of locals waiting to board for the final leg to Patensie, where we arrived at 08:40 and discharged our passengers. Driver Ben Vosloo climbed down from his cab, strolled around to the front of the front tank of the Garratt to fetch a wicker basket from the locker then stopped by the cab again to tell the fireman to carry on, and headed off to town to do his shopping.
Our trusty fireman Steyn then commenced shunting operations to place the trucks that we had brought from Loerie and Gamtoos. When this was done he proceeded to pick up a DZ wagon and shunt it onto the front of our train ready for the return trip. With shunting completed No 83 was then moved to the loco area near the turntable where station staff assisted with fire cleaning, topping up the water and trimming the coal in the bunker. The fireman also did an inspection and lubricated the motion before retiring to the cab for a mug of tea and a draw on his pipe. After everything had been done, Steyn eased the Garratt forward and ran past the made up train before reversing into the platform road and coupling up to await departure time.
Shortly before 10:00 Ben Vosloo arrived back from his shopping in town with a basket full of fresh vegetables and groceries and stowed them in the locker at the front of the locomotive. Having ascertained from his fireman that the locomotive was ready the driver went into the station building for a chat with the station foreman and guard before ambling back and climbing into the cab. Meanwhile the locals, having completed their shopping in town, had arrived back at the station and boarded the train, complete with all their bags. Mr Barnard, the conductor, confirmed that all the passengers were on board and that they were ready for departure. Finally at 10:05, with a short “toot” of the whistle No. 83 eased out of Patensie, across the road, and headed back towards Loerie.
Fifteen minutes later we ground to a halt at Gonnakop to allow the locals to disembark, complete with their shopping bags. In a minute we were on our way again and soon swung to the left to begin the climb towards the road and prison. Once past the prison the real climbing began and we wound our way in and out of the folds of the hills as we climbed towards the summit of the line before heading back down towards Centerton and Hankey. Once over the summit it was downhill all the way with the locomotive drifting quietly in light steam. At Centerton we stopped on the mainline and the fireman climbed down to uncouple the locomotive from the train. The driver eased No 83 forward while the fireman walked alongside until he reached the points which he changed once the engine was clear. The engine reversed into the loop and coupled onto a rake of eight loaded OZ trucks which were then shunted onto the train. While this was happening some satisfied local passengers disembarked with their purchases and headed off into the village.
As soon as the load was coupled the Fireman climbed aboard and with a quick whistle we were moving again. Having negotiated our way around the hill and across the river we entered Hankey. This time the stop was brief and there were flurries of activity, as the remaining passengers from Patensie climbed off and were replaced by the Hankey shoppers boarding again. After barely a minute we were on our way – no fire cleaning or taking water this time. Ten minutes later we stopped at Duplex to drop off shoppers. As soon as all were safely off we proceeded onwards to Wagon Drift where a huge crowd got off with all their newly acquired goods. After Wagon Drift we re-joined the river and wound our way along the river’s edge with short stops at Bodker and Togo to drop off the last of our local passengers. After Togo the line again leaves the river and passes through farm lands before reaching Gamtoos Junction where our engine was uncoupled to shunt the OZ trucks from Centerton into the loop so that they could be picked up by the next through working from Assegaaibos.
With the engine having rejoined our carriages we were soon away along the edge of the floodplain to Melon. The stop at Melon was brief, only long enough to change the token, and we were off again on what we assumed would be a non-stop run on the last leg to Loerie. But no! Shortly after crossing the Loerie-Gamtoos road our train suddenly stopped on a farm road crossing and we saw a small boy come running towards the engine. Ben Vosloo climbed down from the cab and walked to the front tank of the Garratt, removed the basket and groceries from the locker and handed them to the boy. This exchange completed, the driver climbed back into the cab, the locomotive gave a cheery hoot and we resumed our final run to Loerie (later we discovered that the boy was Ben Vosloo’s son and they lived in a farm house a few metres from where we had stopped). At 12:05 we drew into Loerie station. After allowing us to disembark and uncoupling the van, No 83 pulled the train forward and shunted the coaches into a siding before parking the locomotive on the ash pit for servicing.
We said our farewells to the train crew and left Loerie to slumber in peace over the weekend until the working week started again early on Monday morning".
Bruce Brinkman
5. "We then made our way across the flood plain of the Gamtoos valley towards Gamtoos Junction station – the junction for the Branch to Patensie". Train No 620-up T&P approaching Gamtoos Junction in July 1983. Unusually it had brought its full consist from Loerie on this day, normally the crew would have picked up the fruit vans at the junction where they would have been deposited by diesels working through from PE.
6. Post-dieselisation of the main line this was the more normal way of working the branch. The engine of the Patensie T&P would have brought the guards van and passenger carriage down from Loerie and paused to pick up the rest of its load at Gamtoos. In this scene the NG15 had just uncoupled from the coach and van and moved forward to the siding points to pick up its wagons for the branch (on the left). Although this photo depicts an NG15, not a Garratt, it is worth quoting Bruce again as it is applicable to the T&P's pre-departure activities at Gamtoos: "The locomotive uncoupled from the train and the two guards, assisted by the station porter, hand shunted a wagon out of a facing siding so as to save the locomotive having to run around the train. Once the manoeuvre was completed the locomotive shunted the wagon across to the goods shed and coupled onto an open wagon that was awaiting despatch. All this shunting was carried out by the fireman as the driver was in the station office chatting to the station foreman".
7. Running a railway was thirsty work. Gamtoos, being quite an important manned station in those days, would be well served by the parcels van on the T&Ps. The tranship porter has collected the mailbag, a new vacuum hose and some refreshment (for the foreman?).
8. Our engine on the occasion of the 1985 RSSA trip was No 132. By this time nearly all of the low-roofed OZs had been retired, as can be seen from this solid consist of the high-roofed variety. The new insulated vans were actually taller than a NG15s cab roof so they only looked in proportion when coupled behind a class 91. This was the first year without the deciduous fruit traffic but thanks mainly to limestone and the Patensie Co-op the railway was still pretty busy as can be seen from the crammed sidings.
9. A month earlier No 145 from the final batch of Henschels was taking the Patensie road out of Gamtoos with a more usual formation for 910 T&P - its roofline disturbed by a few loaded DZ wagons and the regular coach No 50 and type V5/V15 guards van. In the foreground is the main line to the Langkloof - no longer as busy as it once had been.
10. The same train about to take the junction - right to Patensie, left to Avontuur - both curves marked with sexagonal-shaped speed boards displaying the recommended 10kmh.
11. By 1982 the new high-rise OZs were coming in but there were still plenty of the low ones around. In May, district engineer Hennie Schoeman (who supervised the narrow-gauge relaying and strengthening project), track engineer Chris Müller, trolley driver Lachie van Loggerenberg and I were on our arduous bi-annual, three-day trolley inspection of the narrow gauge, waiting in Gamtoos for a doubleheaded citrus special to come in off the branch before we could proceed to Patensie. The engines were No's 18+145 cls NG15 - the latter fitted with one of the charmless new stove-pipe chimneys that some steam-hater in CME's office had devised.
12. There always was a turning triangle at Patensie but when the NG10 Pacifics were retired it was thought that NG15s would not be able to get around its tight curves (in fact they would have had no difficulty) so the economical, minimum-maintenance little Baldwin's branch-line duties were taken over by the Garratts. Towards the end of the NGG13's tenure, in October 1973 this one, number unknown, was chased by Leith Paxton up to Patensie on a Saturday morning. The train was 620-up T&P, driven by Ben "Bitterboela" Vosloo, the regular Patensie-branch driver for more than 20 years. Note the sporty two-tone Cortina on the flat truck.
13. About to demolish a fine specimen of aloe africana is 123 class NG15 working its way northwards with 1612-up goods in July 1977
14. "In each case we halted alongside the station name board to pick up a few third-class passengers. At Bodker a parcel of newspapers to be collected by the local farmer was left lying against the post of the name board - trusting people around here! The halts along the river are just name boards in the middle of nowhere – where all the local passengers came from or went to is a mystery". On our July 1985 trip we paused at Bodker to load several more passengers into an already crowded guards van. The 3rd-class section of coach 50 with a nominal capacity for 12 passengers was crammed with about 40 souls. Head office might not have acknowledged it but passengers were also good business on the Patensie branch, especially on a Saturday. And they hadn't even wasted money on a platform (not that much had been spent on the nameboard either). The halt was named after the first champion of the narrow gauge, District Engineer Bodker, tragically killed in an inspection trolley accident in 1904.
15. "Soon the line meets the Gamtoos River from where begins the most spectacular part of the trip, with the trackbed carved into vertical cliffs of Enon conglomerate - we were running along a shelf not much wider than the formation, about 40ft above the river". In April 1979 the Apple Express ventured up the Gamtoos valley as part of the Sunset Limited railtour. The engine was No 124, full of ornaments and dummy smoke deflectors but, small mercy, still in black - much the preferred livery of this writer, at least.
16. NG15 No 135 on 620-up T&P crossing the short bridge between Wagon Drift and Duplex in April 1986. The lower Gamtoos flood plain was devoted mainly to vegetable farming - that is a fine cabbage-patch in the background.
17. By the eighties Hankey had already lost all its local goods traffic as well as its stationmaster. In July 1983 this NG15 on 620-up T&P had paused for loco and a bit of shunting. With no resident operating staff any more, a temporary foreman was stationed here during peak season - that's his caravan on the right.
18. Past banks of wild plumbago and tangled stands of aloe, the line tracks the meandering Gamtoos beneath vermilion cliffs of enon conglomerate. On this occasion 620 T&P had just shed half its empty OZs in Hankey and resumed its journey up the line.
19. The Sunset Limited excursion seen in photo 15 has just crossed the Kleinrivier, an aptly named very minor tributary of the Gamtoos. In the background is Hankey station with its overhead loco water tank prominent.
20. To arrange a bit of smoke and get into position in time for 620's departure from Hankey at 07:34 one needed to be out of PE long before dawn on a winter's morning. The engines were 136+146 class NG15 some time in July 1985.
21. That is Hankey's sleeping dorp in the background. While its citizens were snug in bed on frigid winter mornings one of the spectacles of the narrow-gauge world was playing out on their doorstep. How many of them were aware of it?
22. A furlong east of Centerton, six AYs of ballast in the consist of 620-up makes an extremely heavy load for No's 147+122 on 5th July 1978. That SAR elected to use the T&P as a ballast train just shows its cavalier attitude to passengers, as they would have had to sit quietly and patiently while the AYs were offloaded somewhere down the line. When the decision was made to strengthen the whole PE narrow gauge for diesels some time in the late sixties work soon commenced on relaying the Patensie branch. However, after only two miles were completed it was decided to concentrate efforts on the Langkloof section so the branch-line strengthening was put on a back burner. It was destined never to be completed even though in the event it would have been better to have done the Patensie branch before heading off to Avontuur. Meanwhile, ballasting proceeded apace and this job at least was almost finished before head office lost interest. Just look at that inch-perfect track.
23. Just after Centerton the line does a right-angle to the east. How this came about makes an interesting story well-illustrated by Bruno's map. In the winter of 1937 the Gamtoos came down in flood, scouring away the track and formation under the cliff that hugs the left bank of the river's huge meander between Gonnakop and Centerton. The map shows the deviation started in 1938 and finished in 1942 over a 500ft high ridge sloping down from the east that terminates abruptly at the aforementioned cliff. The engineers decided the only way to get the railway clear of the river was to go over this ridge, thus creating a twisting four-mile climb out of Centerton during which the railway overcomes a 470ft difference in altitude at an average gradient of 1-in-45 to the 40ft deep summit cutting in the wilderness west of Hankey. Apart from a few short lengths on other lines this 7.5 mile deviation was the last major narrow-gauge track built by SAR.
24. "The deviation turns east on a 1/40 compensated gradient and heads towards the summit of the line, some 590 feet above sea level near milepost 13". The towering cliffs of Enon conglomerate in the background are directly across the river from Centerton, on its right bank. No 620-up has just entered the deviation for which the construction contract was awarded to an Italian contractor, Guiseppe Rubbi, late in 1937. What is clear from the file correspondence is that he was an extremely competent man and had the work well under way by 1938. Early in 1939 the first signs of problems appear in the file when work was being severely hampered by the summit excavation. The Enon conglomorate through which the cutting was being built is a concrete-like fusion of quartzitic pebbles, cobbles and boulders in a hard matrix almost impossible to penetrate with a rock drill. Having made little progress by mechanical means, Rubbi decided to do the excavation by hand, literally chipping away at the rock, for which he had to hire large numbers of local labourers. That was when his troubles really began, for to attract the labour he offered 2/6 per day, whereas the going rate in the Gamtoos valley was 1/6 (!). There were several increasingly acrimonious letters on the file, mostly emanating from the Farmer's Association, which by the start of the Citrus season in May were becoming nasty with threats of legal action against SAR - those were days when farmers carried considerable political punch. But the System Engineer was none other than the redoubtable TV More (later he became Cape Midland System Manager), whose father JR had been the first superintendent of the Port Elizabeth narrow gauge. It was clear from the files that TV was expert at pouring oil on the troubled waters of the Gamtoos valley. He managed to convince the farmers that if they continued to harass the contractor they would have no railway to get their export crops to the harbour and, for the time being peace prevailed. However, no one, including TV More, had reckoned on the summit cutting becoming such a big hindrance to progress and as the months went by it was realised that work would not be completed in time for the 1940 season - the third in a row that the farmers had had to struggle to get their export fruit onto rail at Hankey. At that time the only road access to Patensie was a dirt one on the valley floor which had several drifts that were impassable for long periods when the river came down.
By May 1940 most of the formation was complete and even the summit cutting was almost ready. It seemed that this would be the last season without rail access for the upper Gamtoos. Then fate stepped in again. On 10th June Mussolini declared war on Britain and, by extension, the Commonwealth. One evening in September Guiseppe heard a knock on his site office door. It was the SAP sergeant from Hankey. Somewhat apologetically he explained that he had been instructed to take the Italian into custody for internment. The last document on the contract file was a letter to TV More from Guiseppe Rubbi - the policeman had stood over him as he wrote it. You could almost see the tears on the page. In it he listed his "monuments" of service to his adopted country, South Africa, since 1911 when he established his Civil Engineering Contracting business here. He was quite unambiguous in conveying his opinion of the Italian dictator as well as the local farmers who, he felt, were paying him back for "overpaying" his labour. But all this was to no avail, despite the efforts of the System Engineer, who after all was only interested in re-opening the railway. Rubbi saw out the war in an internment camp (afterwards he became one of our country's leading civil engineering contractors).
By the time new contract documents for the completion of the deviation had been drawn up and advertised, and a new contractor appointed, it was already too late for the 1941 season. Thus, a disaster that had begun with a washaway in 1937 took five years to fix. It should be mentioned that the 1937 flood was by no means the biggest but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Two years after the line was opened in 1914 came the great flood of 1916 that wiped out most of the farms and many families along one of the main feeders of the Gamtoos - the Groot River in Baviaanskloof (PH Nortje wrote a rivetting description of this flood - easily the biggest in the history of the valley - in "Die Wildedruif Val ") as well as the entire railway on its shelf between Gonnakop and Centerton. After it was rebuilt there were several occasions when this section came under threat again before the next major flood in December 1931 when the river (which has the 3rd largest catchment of all the Cape rivers) rose 70 feet, sweeping away the shelf section yet again.
25. "crossing the road to the Phillip tunnel". The rise of 470 feet in four miles to the summit cutting was slightly less than from Nantmor to Pitts Head on the Welsh Highland railway but its scenery is every bit comparable and of course the Cockscomb can give a couple of thousand feet to Snowdon. Nowadays these NG15s would be heading into lion country - the stretch beyond the summit features a succession of horseshoe curves as it sweeps downhill at 1-in-40 through Shumba game park.
26. Onwards, upwards steeply towards the buttresses of the Great Winterhoek range beyond Centerton.
27. "The views over the Gamtoos valley on this section are spectacular with the valley stretching out far below". Approaching the Hankey-Patensie main road in July 1978, No 145 already has 1620-up goods high above the mist clinging to the valley floor.
28. From 1974 the departure of 620-up T&P was put back to 06:00 off Loerie, still long before sunrise in winter. This made for good photos on the mountain section between Centerton and Gonnakop, exemplified by No 132 forging its way into the hills in July 1978. The importance attached to passenger traffic in the Gamtoos valley so late in the day for narrow-gauge steam-hauled mixed trains is apparent from the ex-works 1st/3rd class carriage with toilet tucked in ahead of the guards van.
29. Following an hour behind 620-up T&P in season, 1620-up goods was frequently doubleheaded, in this case with Nos 147 and 132 recorded so elegantly by Geoff Hall as they approached the Patensie road level crossing in July 1978. The end of the seventies also marked the end of the era of the low-roofed OZ fruit wagon. I call them "low-roofed" but of course they were the norm so they looked right and unlike the high-roofed wagons that took over, they fitted in aesthetically. However, as we have seen, the high-roofed wagons were necessary to allow mechanised handling and the new palletised loading configurations.
30. No 132 on 620-up T&P crossing the Patensie road half way up to the summit in July 1978.
31. During the second last season of steam on the citrus traffic, this pair of NG15s was working their way loudly up the 1-in-40 towards the level crossing over the Patensie road with a string of modified high-rize OZ wagons, hardly recognisable from the originals. Bruce managed to be there when the Aloes were at their spectacular best in June 1988. Our resident aloe authority, Org de Bruin, tells us that three different species are visible in this photo, from the left: aloe ferox, aloe arborescens (left in foreground) and aloe africana.
We have already described how Frank Eckley, the senior engineering technician at Port Elizabeth, devised several innovations to extend the economic life of the narrow gauge. One of these was to convert the high-rise OZ vans, which were a bit of a white elephant, into wide-bed (and high-rise!) opensided wagons that could accommodate two rows of pallets side by side thus increasing the payload to tare ratio from 1:1 to almost 4:1, mainly by removing the insulated but heavy side panels. Aesthetically they were even less pleasing than a high-rise OZ, as can be seen in this photo and the next one but they did prolong the life of the export citrus contracts into the 21st century.
32. Talking about aesthetics, it is sad that something that is pleasing is so seldom as efficient as something that is not! Compare Bruce's photo with 29 above. They are both striking, taken at the same location (approaching the Patensie road level crossing) but somehow the tarpaulined old OZ vans are more in keeping with one's idea of what a narrow-gauge goods train ought to look like - perhaps "quainter" is the word. Unfortunately quaint seldom brought in the bucks.
33. 1620-up goods on the last mile to the summit in July 1981
34. We're still climbing, and as you can see, Dick was there when the ferox was in full bloom, July 1981.
35. The same train as in photo 22 now coasting from the summit of the deviation through the lion park downhill towards the county jail. Somehow there seems to be a kind of harmonious association between a prison and a lion park.
36. A few weeks before the end of steam, Paul found No 119 bringing 620-up into Patensie. Note the mini-containers on the second wagon. For a while, until road transport snaffled the business, these quarter-sized boxes brought in good revenue as they were popular with the customers.
37. The same 620-up T&P featured in photo 12 has taken a long time to get here, but at least the owner of the Cortina can come and collect his wheels unharmed except for a few cinders (hope he didn't leave a window open).
38. Hot on its heels but a decade later, here is No 145 arriving in Patensie with 1620-up goods. Note No 81 class NGG13, plinthed on the left.
39. The building to the right of No 119 class NG15 on the turntable was the export packing shed when Bruce made this photograph early in June 1990. Note the conveyor bridge above the engine crossing over from the washing and sorting shed out of view on the left. Steam did not see out the full season thus came the end of 75 years of faithful service to the Gamtoos valley and the end of all steam working on the PE narrow gauge with the notable exception of the Apple Express. The last goods workings were with NGG16 No 131 which had been overhauled for use on the Apple Express, and No 119. Recent reports have it that both engines are staged intact at Humewood diesel depot and are potentially serviceable.
40. No 132 on the armstrong turntable which still exists at Patensie. Even though the NG15s with their eight-coupled wheels were more flexible than either a Garratt or one of the little Baldwin Pacifics (thanks to the Krauss-Helmholz articulation of the pony wheels and the first driving axle), no one thought to try the engine out on the triangle at Patensie, so a turntable was built there specially to accommodate the 2-8-2s. Another interesting fact: the triangle at Humewood had a radius of 38 metres, sharper than the one at Patensie!
41. Google's satellite view of Patensie's dorp almost completely surrounded by orange orchards warrants inspection. The main Loerie-Hankey-Patensie road can be traced from the bottom right-hand corner up to the top left where the old sorting and packing sheds can be seen. The numbers refer to the photos of the activity surrounding the old sheds in the 1983 season. The two huge sheds at the bottom right are the Co-ops new washing, sorting and packing sheds (the blue roofed one came first) that Bientjie du Preez, CEO of the Patensie Co-op referred to during the meeting to determine the future of the narrow gauge at Humansdorp in October 1985 (see Part 4). If you look closely you will see that both sheds are served by rail - those kilometre long siding extensions were entirely due to the drive and initiative of my old PE colleague Chris Müller in collaboration with Bientjie du Preez. Both were enthusiastic supporters of the narrow gauge, so much so that not long after ACR was kicked out of PE, Chris was appointed narrow-gauge manager. Head Office knew that this was a step in the right direction, but they could not bring themselves to allow the one step that would have ensured lasting success: ie allow Chris to market, negotiate and settle competitive haulage rates with his customers. In 2001 Chris had an affirmative appointment made over him and things went rapidly downhill from there.
42. Shunting the local-market sidings.
43. An illustration of the unprecedented growth in the citrus production in the upper Gamtoos valley as described by Bientjie du Preez, CEO of the Co-op in his address to the Kouga Regional Development Association meeting at Humansdorp in September 1985 and quoted in chapter three of this narrative. In this scene recorded in peak season 1983 there are no fewer than 14 tractors with trailers full of freshly-picked oranges in the queue awaiting offloading at the main sorting and packing shed. An equal number are out of sight to the right (see next picture). Behind the trailers is an articulated lorry with 24 tons of fruit from outlying farms up the valley, also waiting to be offloaded at the sorting and packing shed. The sidings behind the lorry were used for local (ie Bay area and internal RSA) markets. As non-export traffic was still hand loaded at this time the sidings would normally have been occupied by older, non insulated lower-roofed wagons but by 1983 low-roofed OZs were getting scarce so new high-roofed, insulated wagons were used instead.
44. At the front of the queue seen in the previous photo the oranges have got noticeably riper! In the background, under the open roof, is the washing and sorting area. From there, export oranges went by conveyor to a packing shed across the tracks and local market fruit was diverted into the building on the left with the pale-green gable (that was where we corrupt railwaymen would collect our pockets of scrumptious navels when on trolley inspections).
45. Giant navels being loaded directly off the conveyor from the local-market packing shed in June 1973. Even today most local-market oranges are sold in these open-mesh pockets which can only be hand loaded. It is highly unlikely that any still go by rail.
46. Driver Ben "Bitterboela" Vosloo about to take NGG13 No 83 back to Loerie with 619-down T&P on Bruce's 1973 trip.
47. "The fireman also did an inspection and lubricated the motion before retiring to the cab for a mug of tea and a draw on his pipe". This is fireman P Steyn having a quiet smoke before heading back down the line.
48. Soon after leaving Patensie there is a dead level stretch for about a mile-and-a-half before engines have to be wound up for the short sharp 1-in-40 into Gonnakop as the line leaves the flood plain of the Gamtoos. Behind the engines an orange orchard is dotted with ripening fruit.
49. After that unusually long stretch of level there is a sharpish quarter mile at 1-in-40 into Gonnakop where the 1942 deviation starts and a continuous climb on the same grade up through the game park to the summit cutting that caused Guiseppe Rubbi so much grief.
50. A few years later at the same location as the previous photo, only in late afternoon rather than the morning. Towards the end of an era, in July 1990 Alan photographed one of the last steam workings, with No 124 (painted green and named Granny Smith) piloting NGG16 No 131.
51. A rare doubleheaded 619 T&P approaching the Patensie road level crossing just before Vinkiesvlei prison in July 1982.
52. An RSSA excursion to Patensie with No 124 in charge has just passed the jail and is winding up for the series of 3-chain (60m radius) horseshoe curves leading to the summit of the deviation. The grade was compensated for curvature so on a 3-chain curve the grade was eased from 1-in-40 to 1-in-52. Note the two farm roads in the left background. The lower (and further away) of the two is on the original railway formation between Gonnakop and Centerton. Out of sight on the left is the enormous vertical cliff that meets the Gamtoos on its eastward meander at this point. This farm road used to be negotiable right through to Centerton but it too succumbed in the great flood of 1971 (the same one that buried Gamtoos junction under three metres of mud).
53. Writing history is fraught with pitfalls. I originally wrote that this was the last train to Patensie which could not have been more wrong! Thanks to David Payling, Bruce Brinkman, Alan Buttrum and Peter Rogers I can give you the up-to-date and correct information. Alan's photo shows the second-last passenger train to visit Patensie - Sandstone's "Avontuur Adventurer" in November 2005, seen here on the deviation. We have not yet found out the date of the last citrus train (it may have been in 2010) but I'm told by David Payling that on the outward journey of the Avontuur Adventurer they were followed by a train of empty OZ wagons and that there were plenty more OZs standing in Patensie yard. I will continue to try and find out the actual dates and will provide the information as soon as we have it, probably in the epilogue.
Peter Roger's comments are worth quoting:
"You mentioned that the last tour up the line was the Avontuur Adventurer in 2005. I'm happy to say you are incorrect! English tour operator Geoff Cooke ran 2 tours subsequent to that in 2009 and 2010
In the first photo NG119 performs a photo runpast (with obligatory locals in the foreground) at Hankey on Sunday 10 May 2009. The train had come up from PE that morning and was to overnight at Patensie with passengers staying at local Bed & Breakfasts in the area.
The next morning (Monday 11th May) the train was being made up at Patensie station for the return leg. The local school is located right next to the station and the noise of this operation could obviously be heard by all in the classrooms. Full marks (pun intended!) to one of the teachers or school principal who came to investigate and then arranged with Geoff for the children to come down and have a look. The second photo shows how the entire school was passed class by class through the footplate under the watchful eye of driver Donkey Nel in ten minutes! This was surely for most kids, their first and last introduction to steam and the narrow gauge. Sadly this has probably been forgotten by most already, except as an interesting diversion from the morning's lessons...
This was, as far as I know, definitely the last passenger train to Patensie.
Geoff's 2010 tour up the branch did not fare as well as the previous year's - he could only progress as far as Hankey as track had been stolen at Centerton [my emphasis]. This they did, with the train returning to Gamtoos tender first.
This was, as far as I know, definitely the last passenger train to operate on the branch ".
Thank you Peter. Those who were hoping to see the photos he referred to will have to wait for the Epilogue, I'm afraid!
54. No 147 on 619-down mixed flat out on the last horseshoe below the summit in May 1978. This is right in the middle of what is today the lion park.
55. The summit cutting is only 200 yards ahead of this pair of NG15 blasting uphill with export oranges in July 1982.
56. In photo 32 we saw what the Eckley-modified OZs looked like empty. This is how they looked when loaded with two rows of export cartons on pallets and the sides have been sheeted (for the return journey the tarpaulins are simply rolled up and tied under the gutter strip). These wagons were extremely easy to load and offload, in fact much more so than a lorry. Note the fine stand of Aloes, the same ones seen in photos 31 and 32. The Gamtoos valley has four species of this spectacular plant that are endemic to the Eastern Cape.
57. In June 1978 Nos 147+122 were bringing a heavy 619-down T&P across the Klein river into Hankey.
58. A double-headed harbour-bound consignment of export oranges trundling through Hankey in July 1986 - even as late as this one could still be deluded that it would carry on forever. Note that at Hankey the Gamtoos flood plain is still devoted to vegetables, the orange orchards really only begin closer to Patensie, and then usually on higher ground - it takes much longer to grow an orange tree than a cabbage.
59. No 132 on 619-down T&P paused for parcels, briefly blocking the road. What a nice tidy little station Hankey had. You should see it today.
60. Late on the same day as photo 50 and perhaps the penultimate photo of a steam-hauled goods train on the Patensie branch.
61. In May 1978 No 147, the second-last Henschel NG15, was bringing 619-down T&P over the same bridge with rows of healthy-looking cabbages forming the backdrop.
62. "[At] Wagon Drift...... we stopped in the middle of the largest cabbage field I have ever seen (cabbages as far as the eye could see) – just a lonely sign board in the midst of a sea of cabbages". One of the last steam-worked orange specials to come down from Patensie, working through the vegetable lands approaching Wagon Drift in July 1990. This is the same train featured in photos 50 and 60. The actual last steam workings were on Friday 13th July 1990 with No's 117 and 148. Alan tells me that after he took this picture, 131 blew a cylinder cover at Gamtoos and was staged there until the fitters could come out and do some running repairs. A few days later she worked a service train up Loerie bank - this was the last steam freight between Loerie and Port Elizabeth. A fine photo taken by Alan of this train will be featured in the Epilogue.
63. "Wagon Drift where a huge crowd got off with all their newly acquired goods". Like most of the other halts, this one was nothing more than a nameboard. Nevertheless, it was a compulsory stop for 619-down if there were passengers to pick up or set down. On a Saturday in July 1983 these folk with their purchases had just alighted from a crammed coach 50.
64. On the return journey of Bruce's 1973 trip, 619 stopped at Bodker to offload a few sacks of mieliemeal. The guard was Mr Barnard and the young lad was a relation of Bruce's. The roughly-hewn 4X4 track on the hillside had only recently been made, before that the only transport available to the local population was the train.
65 Ten years later, also at Bodker. Two got off and four got on (how they squeezed in is not known). Hope they hadn't forgotten that suitcase.
66. Just one of many glorious views along the lower Gamtoos, with passengers almost falling out of the windows in their efforts to take photographs. It is one of the tragedies of the Eastern Cape that few, if any, of its officials have the vision to realise that such things are highly marketable, especially overseas, and are capable of bringing hard currency into the region.
67. No's 147+117 with a block consignment of export citrus in Eckley OZs, negotiating the cliffs between Bodker and Togo on a sunny evening in July 1989.
68. A doubleheaded 619 T&P just arrived at Gamtoos junction from Patensie. The front engine has already uncoupled and is turning on the triangle (see Bruce's aerial photo 12 in Part 4). The train engine will draw the load forward into the holding sidings behind the photographer on his left, from where the passengers will disembark. While this is happening the other engine will back onto the empty vans, as well as the mini-container, on the right and combine them into a single train. Then the train engine will also turn and couple and rejoin its mate before heading back up the line to Patensie.
69. No David, those are not participants in the Cape Mountaineer railtour lining up for a photo runpast. They had just disembarked from 619 T&P ex Patensie (see previous picture) to join 631, the 11:07 Humansdorp - Humewood Road T&P, due off Gamtoos at 12:54. The change of train would normally take place at Loerie but in the season, 619’s locos would freguently double back from Gamtoos to fetch another load. On winter Saturdays this could be really exhilarating when crews were anxious to get back to PE for a Currie-cup match at the Boet Erasmus stadium.
70. Speak of the devil. Here comes 631-down T&P fresh in from Humansdorp with a pair of class 91s. She will overtake 619 T&P from Patensie and probably even pick up some of its loads, which by now will have been parked off in the Gamtoos Junction sidings. This was the more normal pattern of events at Gamtoos when 619's engines and crews didn't have to go back to Patensie to fetch another load.
71. The second load from Patensie has just been parked off at Gamtoos, engine 147 has coupled onto the van and coach (which are now empty, its passengers having changed to 631-down from Humansdorp earlier in the day and after obligingly posing for a few photos in exquisite evening light the crew will head back to Loerie and home. Clearly no rugby this day.
72. The remnant of 619 mixed has just made its last stop before Loerie at Melon and is about to cross the Loeriespruit at the end of a long day in July 1981.
73. Between Melon and Loerie, just after the level crossing on the Gamtoos road, the line runs almost on the front doorstep of Ben Vosloo's house.
74. The arrival at Loerie in June 1962 of NGG13 No 77 on 361-down (for that was its number then) completes our chapters dealing with the active Port Elizabeth narrow gauge. There is to be an epilogue to show our readers what has become of the legendary railway that was first brought to the attention of the outside world by Sydney Moir.
That concludes this historical update of "24 Inches Apart". We would like to dedicate it to the memory of its author, Sydney Moir the man who sparked a world-wide interest in the comings and goings of the Port Elizabeth narrow gauge.
With much appreciation for contributions by so many - especially David Payling, Bruce Brinkman, Chris Jeffery, Dick Manton, John Carter, Leith Paxton, Alan Buttrum, Allen Duff, Geoff Hall, Ian Sampson, Margaret Harradine of the Port Elizabeth Public Library, Chris Müller, George van Niekerk, Dalene Hösch of the library of Parliament (Cape Town), John Middleton, Org de Bruin, Andrew Deacon (our resident IT man) and, the most important one last but definitely not least, thank you Syd! - Charlie Lewis
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