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Published: 2019-04-21 21:01:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 677; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 0
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Part of the scrap lines at Bulawayo shed on May 8, 1997.The scrap roads contained Garratt locomotives of the 14A, 15A, 16A and 20A class, along with a couple of 15th class, which differed from the 15As only by the boiler, which in any case was interchangeable at overhauls. The nearest Garratt appears to be 15th class No. 410. A sad sight, but behind me was a fully operational steam motive power depot, providing all the Garratts for the Bulawayo station shunts and for the tourist trains to Victoria Falls. See my 'African Railways' folder.....
I don't know if there is any steam left at Bulawayo in 2019. I saw a television programme the other day in which the TV presenter Chris Tarrant took a trip by rail from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, starting with the Blue Train in South Africa, with diesel haulage through Botswana and Zimbabwe. I saw no sign of any steam at all during the whole programme. Looking on the internet has not made me any the wiser about the situation, some 22 years after I was out there, but I guess it doesn't look good.
I am hoping that someone out there can tell me whether or not there is any steam left in Zimbabwe or if it is all gone.
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Comments: 5
I remember seeing a commercial in the early-to-mid 2000s and in a few books at my elementary school about a Zimbabwe garrat locomotive but that was ten years ago. If I had to just make a guess, Andy, yes there's still steam locomotives there but they're very rarely used in excursion service.
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That's certainly the impression I got from my look on the Internet but I couldn't confirm it. I suspect there's a few retained for railtour trains but, clearly from the TV programme, there are no Bulawayo shunts any more. It was wall-to-wall Garratts when I was there.
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