The recent Cherry Steam Festival was an outstanding success with a great effort made by all the Sandstone staff. The railway ran faultlessly thanks to the planning by Gert Jubileus, our Railway Manager, and the dedication and efforts of our volunteer crews who travelled from Johannesburg, and the Eastern and Western Cape to keep the railway moving.
The volunteer railway crew, from left to right, Mark Ruddy, Gary Ruddy, Shawn Spaan, Ryan Fincham and Andries Keyser.
As a warm up to the Cherry Festival we are running a train for the Kindi Pre-primary School in Ficksburg for 180 children. NGG 16A locomotive number 155 will haul the train.
Its Cherry Festival time! An added attraction at Sandstone will be the Classic Flying collection team with two Tiger Moth aircraft and two Chipmunk aircraft in action. Flips may be available but this is subject to weather conditions.
Thanks to the efforts of Danie Pretorius and his team, our Stationary Engine collection at Sandstone has its own museum. If you search for “Stationary Engine Museum” on the Sandstone website your first document listed will be the stock list. https://www.sandstone-estates.com/index.php/stationary-engines-62/43-stationary-engines/3512-the-stationary-engine-collection
Sandstone played host to the International Police Association (IPA)-Free State National Council meeting recently. The IPA has been in existence for over 60 years and has a membership of 420,000 members worldwide. In South Africa the IPA branch was started 37 years ago but the National Council meeting was being held in the Free State for the first time. Although attending a four day meeting event, the IPA is a non-profit organisation with a goal of outreach to charitable organisations as well as visiting some places of interest. At Sandstone our Team hosted the 46 strong IPA group as well as 16 children from David’s Place in Ficksburg. David’s Place is a children’s home and NGO that relies on donations for its good work. The children and the IPA guests were treated to a train ride plus an Ox wagon ride. At the close of the visit the IPA presented each of the children from David’s Place with a gift hamper, which included clothing. A most welcome donation for the children. All in all, a wonderful day out for the IPA and the children from David’s Place, Sandstone salutes the International Police Association South Africa for their good work!
Our gallery shows a selection of the day’s activities.