John Deere celebrates 100 years in 2018 and one of the earliest examples of a John Deere tractor in South Africa is Sandstone’s 1924 Model N, Waterloo Boy. This has been loaned to John Deere for the duration of the largest agricultural show in South Africa and is on display at their stand at NAMPO 2018 in Bothaville in the Free State.
Sandstone is a major user of John Deere equipment and wishes John Deere another successful 100 years.
The Sandstone stock list has been updated to correct some changes in the location of some items - Click here to read
A new book on the Port Elizabeth to Avontuur 2ft narrow gauge line will be published in October. The book is the first to be taken from the material published on the excellent Soul Of A Railway website hosted by Charlie Lewis and Les Pivnic. The book is co-authored by the late David Payling who visited Sandstone many times over the last few years.
Welcome to our first Heritage News for 2020.
The Covid 19 Pandemic has changed the way we work and we have extended our report from the pure Steam Report to include all heritage activities at Sandstone.
Enjoy the first edition! - Click here to Read
After the return of the boiler from Wonder Steam in Pretoria the locomotive has been re assembled with the boiler unit placed on to the modified engine units, originally from NGG16A number 141. Work has begun on the boiler cladding and making up patterns for the numerous pipes and fitting required for the locomotive. Our pictures show the initial cladding in place as well as the backhead of the boiler and the steam generator.
Garratt Bucher and his father, Robert, are good friends of Sandstone sharing a South African 2ft narrow gauge interest with NGG13 number 50 based at the Hempstead and Northern railroad in Texas along with NG15 number 18. Recently the front tank has been replaced on number 50 which brought to life a number of parts from other numbers in the NGG13/16 family. It is common knowledge that South African Railways swapped parts between locos but we did not expect Garratt to discover a piece of our own number 49 in the USA! Our picture shows this part which is from the sanding system as well a large axle nut from our NGG16 number 113. The part marked TC10 is from Tsumeb Corporation NGG16 number 10 which became SAR 141. Now modified to NGG16A configuration, number 141 is stored at Sandstone for a private collector.
Our pictures show the wandering parts as well as number 50 resplendent with her new front tank.
An update on this exciting partnership - Click here to Read
Lockdown Gallery - 16 June - Click here to view
