More Free State news

Hi all.

Here is some more news from our area.

Yesterday we caught Spoornet maroon 34 067 heading from Friedesheim to Welkom with a load of empty timber trucks. Later that afternoon we just missed an air braked load of mielies going past Kaalvlei behind 2x 34's.

Today we headed out towards Senekal. Looks like a train might have passed over some of the level crossings ? The cosmos flowers look beautiful all along the line.

Our first stop was at Biddulph, the first stop out of Senekal heading towards Arlington. Just a triangular nameboards left. Loop line next to the goods shed has been lifted and the points removed. Goods platform very overgrown. A concrete slab is all that is left of what once was a halt.

Next stop was at Bobbert, the stop just before Arlington. Same story here as at Biddulph. We noticed a date on the line near a Thermit weld written in chalk. 2007/**** This might have been when the loops were removed as this was near where the points were and new concrete sleepers have replaced the steel ones.

On past Arlington towards Brandberg, this is between Arlington and Lindley. Again exactly the same as the two previous halts.

We noticed new speed and whistle boards all along the line.

Back to Arlington, no trains on the mainline. From here we headed to Komspruit. The station building still stands but is badly vandalised. The roof is going AWOL as have the window frames. It still looks better than some of the stations we have visited. The lever frame is gone, only some mangled signal wire and pulleys remain under the water drenched floor. We received the station diagram from here a long time ago when the station closed. The grass is about a meter high on the platform. Komspruit has a high, long new platform. Nameboards are at both ends of the station, altitude 1612 m.The goods shed still stands. Some track has been uplifted.

One "bad" thing about wandering around all these old station areas is the time taken afterwards removing the Khakiebos blackjacks from our clothes !

Then we headed for Kroonstad. At Oosthuizen we got the "Bobaan" replacing catenary, probably theft. They had occupation of the line, thus no trains on the way to Kroonstad were noticed.

At Kroonstad we saw 2x Bethlehem bound 6E1's on a train of containers and petrol tankers, waiting for the occupation to end.

On to Whites. Just before Hennenman we caught up with orange 34 058 on a load of empty mielie trucks heading for the Sandveld. At Whites we noticed she stopped in the station on the Welkom side of the platform. We headed down the line to view the route indicator. At the road over rail bridge near Whites West we caught the yellow Plasserail ballast tamping machine heading into Whites station to be staged for the day.

A quick glance at the signals confirmed our suspicions, there was another train heading to whites from Welkom, hence the waiting load of empties.

We decided to travel to Mooiveld along the service road, which has become almost non-existent in some places. Between Whites West and Mooiveld we met up with blue 34 409 struggling upgrade with 34 loaded grain trucks. A while later at Mooiveld 34 058 headed through at quite a speed and plenty of hooting on an empty load of 40 mielie trucks. Waiting for this train we noticed the rails that used to indicate the height restriction for the Catenary are 1906 C.G.R.

In one of our local papers a front page article and photo caught our attention. A new shopping trolley loaded with three, long sawn off lengths of railway line. With five persons pushing & hauling this heavy load. On being asked where did they get these rails. "In die veld" they just carried on pushing. On hearing that the police were called they fled. The call went through 12h45 the police only arriving at 14h15. Sorry no transport available. According to businessmen in Jan Hofmeyer road, the traffic in "Scrap" metal, pipes & other items is a daily occurrence, all taking place in broad daylight & local scrap yards buying these items. Welkom
station has a security presence & often two bakkies are parked there but nobody seen. The platform is presently full of old steel sleepers & Friedesheim's, goods shed ventilators.

Greetings.
John & Jacque.