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| Page updated on: 04 February 2012 |
| South Africa 2012 |
| 20 to 30 May 2012 |
| The following statement was received from Reefsteamers on Monday, 16 January 2012. Unfortunately Reefsteamers will not be able to run the Ficksburg section of your proposed photograph tour in May 2012 for the following reasons: During December all our equipment underwent a compulsory inspection of wheel flanges. The 25NC 3472 was found to have wheel flanges out of specification and has been suspended from the main line. To return the wheel flanges back to specification will require new tires as there is not enough material on the wheels for turning. Reefsteamers has no plans to return the 25NC 3472 back to service. The GMAM has the same problems with wheel flanges and 12AR 1535 will be undergoing her 3 year boiler certification during May so that will leave us with only one operational locomotive during May and we require two locomotives for the tour. ( We are going to turn the wheels on the GMAM to bring them into spec but we first have to rebuild our wheel lathe, which is in progress, before we can start so there is no planned date yet for returning the GMAM back to service) The problems with municipal water supply problems in Ficksburg have not been resolved as seen during the Cherry Festival trip last year. Due to the water usage during a photo tour we need a reliable source of water at Ficksburg, Reefsteamers is not prepared to take the risk of water problems at Ficksburg disrupting the tour and the resultant customer unhappiness. With such a large part of the tour now lost, it has regrettably been decided to cancel this tour. Botswana and Zimbabwe are not affected, and should run as planned. |
