 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Page updated on: 14 June 2011 |
| Africa 2011 |
| 18 MAY TO 09 JUNE 2011 |
| Africa Steam 2011 Report Operating a tour to see, photograph and ride behind the last working steam locomotives in Africa will always be difficult. However carefully plans are made, and however willing the service suppliers are, circumstances will conspire against the perfect tour. The Africa 2011 season included three steam locomotives in Kenya, four in Zimbabwe and two in South Africa. In addition to these were the industrial operations in Hwange (Zimbabwe) with one working locomotive and Selebi Phikwe (Botswana) with two. That made eleven locomotives, five of them Garratts. All of them were seen and photographed in steam, but they did not all perform as we had hoped. The various service suppliers did their best to provide what had been requested, but the difficulties associated with running these locomotives meant that some were more successful than others. There were times when delays and a lack of good information frustrated, but in all cases the railway management apologised and agreed to work closely with us to resolve such issues. These are certainly not insoluble and I anticipate that in 2012 the NRZ will return to their normal level of efficiency, the boiler foaming problem being unprecedented and should not re-occur. Kenya will learn a lot from this tour and arrangements are being implemented to bring them up to speed with the needs of steam charter operations. Geoff's Trains has that knowledge, having run African tours since 1986. If you want to see African steam, do not delay. Right now things are looking good for a fine tour in 2012, but there can be no assurance that we will be able to offer such diverse programmes in the future. Thank you to everyone who participated, for your patience when it was needed and your enthusiasm as we nurtured fragile locomotives and service suppliers to what I hope you will agree was a successful conclusion. Long live African steam! |
| Find photographs By Geoff Cooke on Flickr by Georg Trub on Railpictures.net |