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 boiler section of number 49 has now arrived in Johannesburg at Reefsteamers where it was offloaded by the Reefsteamers crane. This was originally a steam crane but is operated now by compressed air directly to its cylinders. Number 49 was offloaded from the Sandstone lowbed together with the new boiler tubes and placed on a DZ truck for movement into their main workshop. Here it will be lifted by the workshop gantry crane from the DZ and placed on blocks for the retubing to begin shortly.

Our pictures from Reefsteamers show 12AR 1535 hauling the crane into position and the lifting process from the lowbed to the DZ.

The latest steam report from the Steam Team at Sandstone - Click here to view

Sandstone Heritage Trust via its museum status is a member of the South African Museum Association (SAMA). May 18^th is International Museum Day and SAMA has produced the attached document on this event. It makes for interesting reading with the history of the event and what museums can do to celebrate the day.
Click on the link to view.