Photographing steam in the Karoo

I'm not sure if this non-UK thread is allowed- but there is at least a Harz steam thread around somewhere. So I'll bash on with this for now.

The Karoo semi desert region in South Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoo is top of my list of the best places I've ever been to in my steam travels. Even though I was too late getting there to enjoy the 25 class 4-8-4 condensing locos working the section south of De Aar. But the De Aar to Kimblerley section kept me happy for 11 visits between 1979 and 1991. With the vast majority of my still photography in the section from Oranjerivier down to De Aar - that went through wonderfully wild and desolate semi-desert. So I plan to post some of my favourite photos there - from well before dawn to some time after sunset. Mostly in/close to winter when sharp overnight frosts and daytime temps to 20 C or less were the norm. And maybe others here have their own Karoo photos to add - doubleheaded condensing locos blasting up the grades south of De Aar very welcome!

I spent some time last night just looking at this photo. Taken early to show part of the Karoo region with a steam loco in action. It's a 25 NC 4-8-4 hauling a train of coal empties to a summit just north of Poupan. Taken in late winter 1989.

Bryan

 

Great!
I remember those telegraph poles, filled with weaver birds nests

 

Yes indeed, amazing sights.

And eagles perched on them from time to time. All of whom knew, almost to the centimetre, how close you had to get with a 200 mm lens to get a decent photograph - which meant at that distance plus 5 cms they flew off leaving you with a blurred tail shot!

Bryan

 

Spent some time on the line in 1980 and stayed at a wayside station at Kraankuil [nicknamed Kronjeville after the station hotel owner]. Impressed when he sent out his servant with breakfast tea for 4 enthusiasts enjoying linesiding in the sun.

 

It doesn't seem long ago, but my visits to Kimberley - e Aar were in 1977 and 1979. It doesn't feel that long ago.....
Yes I remember the telegraph poles but also the SAR cattle proof barbed wire fences which sometimes limited lineside access.
The spells waiting were often enlivened by the plovers darting in and out of the scrub in search of food. Possibly Crowned Plovers standing very erect but too far away even with a 200mm lense.

Cheers, Neil

 

I had a room in a b&b right by the line in 1988. From about 4 am I would wake up to the beat of 25 NC's rattling past. I need to find my photos.
Happy days!

 

As I got to know Salmon who ran the Witput hotel I always got room 5. It had a bath and a door that opened directly to the outside that was a few paces to the track side.

And as steam operations reduced, Peter Odell, a De Aar driver until that shut to steam and then a Beaconsfield driver, when on the early morning turn off De Aar he would write down the days scheduled steam workings. Then wrap it round a lump of coal and chuck if off the loco in my direction as I waited in the pre dawn cold by the line. When that was on one of the trips my lovely wife and my two daughters were with me, I shared room 5 with my wife of course. And she was never too keen about two blasts of frosty air coming into the room as I went out and then came back with my lump of coal and letter.

Before finding Witput hotel I stayed at the Kraankuil 'hotel', great for the line south to De Aar but not so good for the pre dawn waits at Oranjerivier. And at Witput I could go out pre dawn for a quite decent grice and come back around 10.00 and Salmon would cook a great big SA breakfast. Even before dawn he would have got up, lit a lantern in the foyer and put a flask of coffee, cups and some rusks out for anyone going out into the frost before dawn.

Now a photo at Kraankuil. 19 July 1991, 3467 on the Southbound Oranje Express. A frame grab from a just digitised Hi-8 camera tape I shot on a Sony 3 CCD Pro camera. Not up to still camera quality but to me quite acceptable at this size.

19 coaches so approaching 800 tons loaded. I have a photo/video of a 25NC at the head of 21 coaches on that train. Full zoom on the camera does show the grade change, of which there were plenty on that line as there weren't a great deal of embankments or cuttings. Mostly the line followed the undulations - so plenty of grade changes, some as steep as 1/80.

Bryan