Garratt Steam Locomotives - Zimbabwe 1993

[robertgift]

What is the advantage of a Garratt locomotive?

[Cockroach2008]

I hear the good news that the people are now raiding these steam locomotive machines & hauling them off in parts to sell on the black market! That sounds very good to me!

Junk all the remaining steam locomotives! Cut them apart & melt them down!

[leeseisenbahnen]

Great steam trains

[001ttg]

Wow, It's like stepping back in time, I was born in what was Salisbury, Rhodesia

[gwaithwyr]

Great music. Name of group?

[edj66]

British Steam alive and well in what was Rhodesia!

[xr6lad]

Shows what happens when do gooders from the west put people in charge of a country when they could not govern a school camp - never mind a country. As long as you have tribes africa will amount to little which is a pity as its full of natural resources and people.

[trackdownunder]

What memories I got from watching this video. The comments made by Trainbum made me think that we were possibly neighbours as i too used to go to sleep and wake up to the sounds of these magnificent steam giants .Living adjacent to Bulawayo station in the 60's we used to walk along the tracks to school, very often alongside the locos taking in the sounds and smells as we walked through the steam and smoke eminating from these wonderful machines. Long live the memories of the steam era !!

[longordr]

That country is a huge tragedy I feel sorry for the people

[Cockroach2008]

This thing should have been cut apart & melted by now!

[Bignadim]

shame Mugabe wants to keep the cash and let the country fail and kill any one who opposes his regime!! that includes his family (the people of Zimbabwe of course) so sad

[SirGalahadGeek]

@Bignadim but that is the african way.

[megatwingo]

A very very nice video. Beautiful engines and the African music is fitting to the movie, too. Thumbs up from Germany! :)

[wgmandy]

why use expensive oil from the mid east, when Zim has coal. It's what the Rhodesians did as well to get by because of sanctions. Very good video, homesick.

[topshed34a]

Fantastic locos and what fantastic singing. I loved it

[Charaht]

It is sad to see Zimbabwe prosperity turned to crap due to its leadship.  Zimbabwe would have been great today if HATE was not the governance doctrine!

[trainbum]

Oh the memories this brings back. As a child i used to live right behind Bulawayo station. We would go to sleep to the overnight trains leaving the station and wake up to the steam loco's shunting the incomming trains in the morning. Many qwas the days when i would take my late father lunch in the yards. In the late 1050's we spent 10 days taveliin behind steam locomotives thoughout South Africa And the Rhodesia's

[steamboy51]

What is the classification of the 4-6-4+4-6-4 garratts?

[trainbum]

@steamboy51 .

Rhodesia Railways 16th and 20th class locomotives

 There were several other classes as well

[fg46]

@steamboy51: 2-8-2+2-8-2: class 16A, 4-6-4+4-6-4: class 15/15A, 4-8-2+2-8-4: class 20/20A.

[SIPHNEY]

been there, the place is now trash they dont take care of those beauties wat a shame

[Poohtwo2]

Uncanny, after a most enjoyable evening with friends on Vancouver Island, where we talked about,( believe it or not) Garratt Engines and African music, I found when I returned to my boat, your Your Tube Video.

The quality of the video that included both topics beats anything else I found on You Tube, hands down. Well done and thank you.

[StudioLegionXIIII]

Thank you. Awesome. Tears in my eyes.

[rcburket]

Rcburket;s previous comment stupidly had his fingers shifted; "chillbumps" was meant by the stupid non-word.

[rcburket]

This is an extraordinary scene. I got chillvumos watching it. When I encountered it I was dawdling about a chance to go to Zimbabwe this year to see the last four Garratts.. one trip through this video and, after some weeping, I picked up the phone..I'm going!

[lennyos]

are these engines still in service now or have they, like many others, been replaced?

[BreathDoctor]

Those are static, it seems. There is a running 0-6-0 in St Jacobs, outside of Kitchener , Ontario, Canada. My friend owns the Loco. Hes working on a smaller Teakettle of a thing, a Porter.

[granskare]

very interesting locos but I don't understand why they were built...off to google for me then :)

thanks for posting!

[dreambuilders48808]

The design was such that they could negotiate

sharper curves. Plus I think the weight was

dispersed over the drivers giving it much better

traction.

[granskare]

thanks and I did google...they even manufactured smaller models that I'd not seen before...

[zenzaleni]

Great video, thank you. Yes they were/ are predominantly Beyer Peacock manufactured locomotives...Altho I believe they had/ have some on loan from SAR , but reliability I can only guess is below par.

[TrevorHeath]

The video is representative of the scene in Bulawayo today (August 2009) where 2-3 Garratts shunt passenger and freight cars every day.

This in all reality is because of Mugabe and his policies which have caused foreign investment (and currency to by diesels and spares) to dry up. Additionally Zimbabwe has coal but no oil!

That coal mine at Wankie also uses Garratts to move their product to the main line.

TH

[mysteriouskazakh]

Yup, i recall that being the case. Railway Magazine ran an undercover report from another area recently,one running diesel, but it was fascinating nonetheless(the platform was apparently littered with Z$ and the staff insisted on receiving US$ for the service!)

[THERESALWAYSSOMEONE]

I wonder if MUGABE has retained the steam?

[ShaurntheSheep]

are they beyer garratts

[MrGrowser]

That's Beyer-Garratts.

[Happiness8000]

Very nice...thats where myfather worked.

[ADMIRALSCORNER]

Thanks for the chance to see that. I wonder what has happened to them since.

[bpbill]

Very evocative and atmospheric video