Friends of the Rail Forum

This posted on SAR-L by Les Smith:

Transnet Freight Rail has refused to authorise Reefsteamer's
proposed weekend trip to Watervalboven over the weekend of the 7th
to 9th of December 2007.
The actual wording of the refusal is interesting, as it has now
changed from the "No steam on Core lines" to "No steam on Critical
main lines."
This does not bode well for the future of steam hauled passenger
trains.
It looks like the only answer will be for the clubs to purchase
their own main line diesel locomotives and operate them on the so
called "critical main lines" and only use steam on the "Non
critical" main and branch lines, wherever that me be.
I'm looking forward to the response this will bring from the steam
fraternity.
Regards,
Les Smith.

Dave Richardson wrote in response:
Hi all,
This is not surprising. The restriction on core lines has been in force for
some time but has been selectively applied in the past, eg the
FOTR/Reefsteamers Witbank Marathon train was allowed on part of the same
line recently. It is indicative of the future though. The new TFR access
agreements for operators are due in this week, that may also give up some
surprises on access in the future.
Kind Regards
Dave Richardson

I'm not sure that I agree with the original poster when he says, "This does not bode well for the future of steam hauled passenger trains."

I would rather say, "This does not bode well for the future of steam hauled passenger trains on certain routes."

True, some of the more interesting and exciting routes may be off limits, but at least from FOTR's point of view, I don't see any immediate threat to our core routes, which include Cullinan and trips round the Pretoria complex. This year we've also been allowed to run to Nylstroom several times, as well as our annual excursion to Witbank and Middelburg for the Rotary Club marathon.

We may need to curb our ambitions somewhat and concentrate on running steam trains on our regular routes rather than being over-ambitious. We can still try for new routes, but as long as FOTR can operate three steam trains a week (as we are doing during the last few months of 2007) and Rovos Rail can operate up to 28 steam trains a month, I don't feel steam is threatened.

Part of the current SIA/HRASA ambition is to put poloitical and other pressure on TFR to be more accommodating towards steam operations. We will point out the advantages for the country and explain that properly organized and planned excursions on the mainline are not a big problem to TFR. There is a lot of ignorance around and this needs to be addressed. In the meantime our current operations are pretty much safe, except possibly for Nylstroom.