Good morning - thank you for admitting me to this fascinating - TopicsExpress



          

Good morning - thank you for admitting me to this fascinating group. I do not know much about locomotives but have always been a fan of such and its great to find a site dedicated to these magnificent machines - unfortunately part of a by-gone era. I grew up in Glencoe in Northern Natal and it was a major railway junction so most of Glencoe was associated either with the railways or the nearby coal mines. Naturally many of my relatives were train drivers- some steam and some electric. I last visited Glencoe in the late 80s and attached is a photograph I took then. I had more than a casual association with locomotives. During my first University vacation as an engineering student I spent the Christmas holiday working in the Railway Workshops in Pietermaritzburg. There I discovered how to weld, operate a lathe, make sand castings etc and even managed to hitch a ride on a locomotive footplate being tested after repairs. The following years vacation was spent working in the loco sheds at Glencoe where I discovered just how much one could be covered in grease etc when working in the drop-pits and changing the white metal bearings on locomotive wheels .Glencoe was the junction for the railway line to Vryheid and these line was mainly used by large Garrets - very impressive! Whilst working in the loco sheds one of them was derailed as it entered the loco shed area and I was given the task by the resident engineer of plotting the details of the accident. Sadly (?) I never became an engineer - original idea was that I wanted to construct railways (tunnels,bridges etc) - and ended up a professional astronomer. Sadly Glencoe is no longer of any importance as far as the railways go - the very large shunting yards have been torn up, the railway station looks abandoned and Glencoe as such is virtually a ghost town and of course the loco sheds have long disappeared . Like the steam era it is best remembered in its prime. Anyway I am sure i will enjoy going through all the postings here! Thank you.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 09:36:02 +0000

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