Garratts in Zimbabwe.

Hello. I am new to railway preservation.

I was in Zim in April on the Shongolo Express' Southern Cross Adventure which spent a night at Bulawayo. Luck would have it that one of the trains staffs dad worked at the steam depot. A few phone calls later and we were in.

16A 611 was in steam on the day of my visit. We were given a tour by a very helpful boiler fitter and booking clerk, which included the running shed, the maintenance shed/workshop and the coaling tower (including underground). We were invited on to the cab of 611 and the fitter then offered to take us for a spin around the shed which we did, I was also lucky enough to through a few shovels of coal on the fire.

We also had time to clamber over all of the dead engines and take litterally hundreds of photo's. The highlight of the trip however was when the driver invited me into the inspection pit and ran 611 over the top of me.

That morning I was bitten by a lion cub, who can say they have been bitten by a lion and run over by a train in a day and survived to tell the tale.

ps. The people of Zimbabwe are some of the friendliest I have ever met