Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Granny Smith


There are very few narrow guage steam trains still in operation around the world. One of them is the Apple Express, which runs from PE to Thornhill and back over weekends. It is a great trip giving one a leisurely view of the surroundling countryside, from a perspective you don't usually see.
One of the highlights is the opportunity to walk across the railway bridge over the van Standens River Gorge
This picture of Granny Smith was taken at Loerie, during the Great Train Race several years back. It was a real fun event, where up to 600 teams of relay runners, raced the train to Loerie. Unfortunately the race fell foul of internal politics with Athletics South Africa and was subsequently derailed.

7 comments:

  1. Most interesting story and nice photograph of the old train engine. I love steam engines as they used to wake me up during World War II.

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  2. Nice shot of the train. My grandson loves trains. I would love to take a trip on a slow riding train through the backwoods so I can capture all the beauty of nature that cannot be seen from the road.

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  3. trust the politicians to stick their ugly heads in

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  4. What a sweet train, I love old trains and this one looks nice and old...too bad about the train race...

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  5. jenty, it's fun hey?? were your boys with you? They would LOVE it. For Ian's fourth birthday we went on the train, he adored it.

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  6. Such a beautiful train. I've seen many trains like this in India too. Brought back memories of home.

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