2005

Based off a true story

Pride of Pretoria was a massive 15F who pulled passenger trains in South Africa. She was the pride of the line, often pulling the Blue Train across the continent. Built in Glasgow by the North British Locomotive Co. in the 50s, she and her siblings were shipped around the world to pull long-distance trains.

But now, steam was dead. Diesels now crossed the African deserts were the steam engines used to be heard for miles. Pretoria and her friends were in a scrapyard in Bloemfontein, once a massive railroad hub, waiting to be melted down. Pretoria's day was approaching soon, and to be honest, she was kind of relieved. The only thing worse than a near immediate death, is waiting decades for your death.

And that's when the people arrived. She didn't care at first, rail enthusiasts often came here to take pictures. But when they began to make phone calls and some of the men pulled out large cameras, she knew something was up.

"We're rail enthusiasts from your birthplace, Glasgow. We're here to rescue you."

Pretoria's boiler was bursting with excitement! She asked about the large cameras.

"We're from Monster Moves," said one of the men. "It's a television series where we film people moving large and delicate things, like lighthouses, churches, and you."

"I can live with that," said Pretoria. Then she looked around. "What about my friends," she worried.

"Don't worry about us, bring our souls home to Scotland too," said a good friend of Pretoria's, British Embassy. This reassured Pretoria, but the men felt sad that they were leaving the other engines to their deaths.

The next day, they started planning the journey.

"We have to get to the port in Durban in 7 days, so we can catch the ship to Hamburg. On the way, it'll stop at Tidmouth, which is where we'll get off. There, we'll arrange for the NWR to take us to Glasgow, where we'll place you in front of a museum for a while."

"Then what?" asked Pretoria.

"Who knows," said the leader, "you could stay there forever as a symbol of Glaswegian locomotives around the world, or you could be renovated and put into service on a heritage railway. Anyway, shall we start the inspection?"

The inspection revealed many things. Firstly, Pretoria hadn't been properly cleaned when she was put in her siding. Now dust, sand and grease had made a substance similar to peanut brittle in the axles. If Pretoria moved on her own wheels, lots and lots of grease would have to be placed into her axles several times during the journey. It was also found that her brake blocks were very loose, so in the high mountains between Bloemfontein and Durban, it would be easy to cause a runaway. The third, which wasn't a surprise to anyone, was that Pretoria was completely unfit to run under her own power. And final important thing they found was that termites had gotten to the floor in her cab. Since there would have to be people inside Pretoria monitoring everything during the journey, this was a big problem.

Meanwhile, the captain of the Diamond Land was receiving instructions from Durban for docking. As the dock manager double-checked the stops, the captain interrupted him.

"It's Lagos, Tanger, TIDMOUTH, Antwerpen and Hamburg."

"My notice from your company doesn't say Tidmouth, and we have no containers headed there."

"We have a contract to bring a steam locomotive there," cried the captain, clearly worried.

"Well, they can wait. The needs of that silly children's show doesn't override basic legal shipping documents. And your ship is not headed for Tidmouth."

"Grr!" cried the captain. And cut the transmission.

Back in Bloemfontein, the crew had decided that Pretoria was going to have to go by road.

"But even then, it's risky," explained Andrew, the leader, "Pretoria's too heavy for most trailers. We'd need a trailer with 6 axles to spread the weight of the locomotive, and who knows what'll happen if there's a tunnel, or worse, a weak bridge!"

When they got the trailer, they were building the ramp, when someone found a bad omen. The scrapyard gate was several centimeters too low. This meant the top had to be removed.

That's when it got worse.

A visit from the transport police ended the line for the road transport. The policeman insisted that the trailer wasn't sturdy enough. And the only sturdier one wasn't even on this side of the continent.

So Andrew, followed by the cameramen, wasted no time in going to the Spoornet offices to hire a diesel to shunt Pretoria to Durban Docks. But there was a hitch. Because of the gunk in the axles, and the overall bad condition of Pretoria, they would have to go very slowly on an express route, which was the fastest way to the sea. Spoornet agreed to have them take a rural track to Durban. However, this was also risky, as breaking down could mean being stranded for days. They also agreed to provide them with 10 flatbeds. Each flatbed had the braking power for 13 extra tons. In the mountains, that would be very useful. The final condition was that Andrew find an actual steam driver to take care of Pretoria. Andrew called around and found a willing driver from Johannesburg. Logistically, everything was ready.

When they arrived back at the scrapyard, the workmen were greasing every moving part of Pretoria.

"We can't trust any part of this locomotive to do it's job," explained one of the upper workmen to the cameramen. Had Pretoria been in steam she would have wheeshed him.

"It's all right," said British Embassy, "it's only for your own good."

The floor in the cab had been replaced, and Pretoria's brake pipes had been checked for leaks, when they got a call from Pete, the replacement driver. He'd missed his flight. They would have to leave the next morning. And now Spoornet was insisting that they run at night as well to make up for lost time.

At 6:00, they began coupling up the flatbeds and preparing for the journey. It was a very emotional moment, especially for the engines.

"Goodbye!" cried the engines to each other, and the workmen waved to Andrew and his team as they raced off to tame Africa's great plains.

"When they were loading these locomotives onto the ship, who would have guessed that one would come back. It would have been beyond anyone's imagination," said the other leader to the cameraman in her cab.

Saved from the torches of the breaker's yard,

30 years of service under African guard.

Restored and oiled for one last ride,

6000 miles to take in it's stride!

This is the train from Bloemfontein,

Mighty workhorse of the African plain.

This is the train from Bloemfontein,

Off in Scotland, home again!

It took a full hour to get to the next town, but Pete was worried about the gunk in the axles. Indeed, it was heading up rapidly, and something had to be done. They decided to place new grease sticks in the bearings. As the friction made from the gunk and the axles made heat, the sticks would melt and flush out the gunk. This however, would be have to done once every hour. So every hour they stopped to add more sticks. This was very time-consuming. During the trip it was also found that the brake blocks where being troublesome and may fall off, or get stuck. So they removed them all completely, which took another hour. Finally, they were into the mountains.

Into the valley of a thousand peaks,

Twisting and turning, the mountain class creaks.

Icy wind bites, but no blazing coal,

This arduous journey is taking it's toll!

This is the train from Bloemfontein,

Mighty workhorse of the African plain.

This is the train from Bloemfontein,

Off in Scotland, home again!

Finally, the cavalcade reached Durban, and everyone went to their hotel after Pretoria had been uncoupled. But they could never have imagined the 800 meter hell between them and the quay...

The next morning the small shunter that was supposed to shunt Pretoria had broken down. And the team and finally learned from the Diamond Land about the diversion.

"All I'm concerned about at the present," explained Andrew on his phone, "is to get the loco onto the ship. We don't care what happens afterwards; as long as we get into the Northern Hemisphere we'll sort it out from there but we don't want to go to Antwerp and we don't want to go to Hamburg."

"We're going to Hamburg," he told everyone.

Two hours later, the shunter finally arrived. But the rails were worn and rarely used. They groaned under the weight of Pretoria, and then the crew noticed something else. A bit farther ahead, the rails were placed in the cement. Over the years the rails were filled with rocks and dirt. They had to work hard to gut them out, but even then Pretoria and the shunter were moments away from rolling off the tracks.

And then things only got better.

A lazy truck had parked on the rails, and it's driver was nowhere to be seen.

At the dockyard building, the dock manager slammed the phone down. "I'm sick and tired of this locomotive! I'm not going to take care of this. You go!" He pointed at one of his best foremen.

"But sir-"

"Go! And when you come back I don't want to hear about this 16X anymore!"

The foreman, it turned out, was very friendly, and after failed attempts to hotwire the truck, he brought in a forklift!

"This never should have happened, I don't know who gave this truck permission to park here, but we'll take care of it in the future. And good luck on your mission!"

The truck said nothing, he was very embarrassed as the forklift put him down between some empty containers.

It's said that's he's still there today.

Finally, they reached the quay. Now they faced another problem. The ship's cranes were not large enough to lift Pretoria. Nor were the dock cranes. The only crane big enough for the job was a massive sea-mounted crane, who could pick up Pretoria, and place it in the Diamond Land's hold.

But even lifting the engine at all was a trial. To lift Pretoria, they would have to place loading bars under her. But there was only one flat, suitable place at the back. At the front, they'd have to attach the chains directly to Pretoria.

But the first time they tried to lift Pretoria, they found that the beam supporting the cradle was too long, and made the locomotive unbalanced. Instead they needed two shorter beams to make a triangle, compensating for the heavier backside. They loaded the tender first, then started the time consuming process of making a new cradle. The Diamond Land had to leave now, or the storms wouldn't let them leave the cape. The wind was acting up as Pretoria finally flew into the air, and made touchdown on the dock of the mobile crane.

Luckily, there were no more problems for the Diamond Land on it's way to Germany. Nor was there a problem getting it to Sodor. They had to charter a ship to Brendam instead, but the NWR's 9 and 10, Donald and Douglas were happy to attach her lowloader to their train to Scotland.

It's not really the truth to say she was built in Scotland. Her components were built at the North British Railroad Co, but she'd been assembled fresh off the ship in South Africa. She'd never known this much green, or this many engines, or even this daytime temperature. When she got to Glasgow at midnight, she was put in front of the museum.

And she remembered all her friends back home. They could now die happy that Pretoria had gone back to Scotland, where they were made, and that she could have a good life on a railway after this exhibit.