Keeping passion on the tracks
Enthusiast driven by ‘anything rail’
GETTING relics of the steam era to function in the age of cellphones keeps Marc Bouchier and his fellow steam rail enthusiast volunteers on their toes.
“It’s not like it was in the days of steam when people could wait. Today, if you run a steam service, the train has to arrive on time,” he said at the Umgeni Steam Railway’s Inchanga base where he spends 30% of his week – in between work and home – tinkering on old locomotives and coaches as well as tracks.
“I’m a gofer, really,” he joked.
One of Bouchier’s projects was a locomotive that, once complete, would be the oldest steam train running on any track in the country, he said.
Named Maureen and built the same year as the Titanic – 1912 – it arrived in the shed at Inchanga “to be ready for Christmas”.
“There were some small problems and we thought ‘let’s fix them quickly’,” he recalled.
One problem after the next postponed its ready date, but Maureen should be on tracks next year.
Known as a “mountain train”, it was built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, and came to Natal to tackle the climb from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Its small wheels and short boiler make it ideal for the terrain.
Once it’s ready, the Umgeni Steam Railway will use it on the stretch where it runs pleasure rides between Kloof and Inchanga.
The biggest concentration of train journeys happens over Christmas to fund the upkeep of other locomotives, including another steam engine, called Wesley, their carriages and all the infrastructure including Inchanga Station.
There will even be a “carol service” train.
Bouchier spends much of his “railway time” looking for parts, or people to make parts.
“Fortunately, guys here make lots of the stuff and I work at an engineering company where we happen to make bits and pieces.”
He is driven by his passion for “anything rail” and heritage.
“I grew up in a home across the road from the train tracks in Bulawayo where my father was a Rhodesian Railways coach co-ordinator. I’ve lived with steam all my life.”
The Umgeni Steam Railway moved its operation to Inchanga from Pinetown some years ago and volunteers have carried on with their labour of love, carrying out maintenance and repairs.
An important feature of the new base is a huge shed steam enthusiasts sourced from Colenso. The structure houses a workshop and protects locomotives and carriages from the elements.
“The weather destroys coaches and locos,” Bouchier explained.
“With coaches, it’s more the sun than the rain. It dries out and all the natural oils in the wood dry, and once that happens wood rot sets in.”
The South African Institute of Civil Engineers has declared the old main railway line, from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, a national historic civil engineering landmark and placed a plaque to this effect at Inchanga Station.
Criteria for the award must be that it is a work of civil engineering, at least 50 years old, still recognisable, still in working order or capable of being restored and a significant project in the history of civil engineering in South Africa, explained Professor Chris Roth of the Civil Engineering Faculty at Pretoria University, who was on the selection panel.
At the plaque unveiling ceremony last week, Hardy Wilson of the Railway History Society, spoke of how, between Botha’s Hill and Wallacetown, the line had to cross numerous streams and gorges, pass under the road to Pietermaritzburg via a granite-lined tunnel and cross the magnificent Inchanga Gorge.
“There were nine masonry bridges and 22 culverts between Mileposts 35 and 42,” he said.
Then there was the infamous Inchanga Viaduct.
“Without solid foundations the structure was anything but stable and required trains to cross extremely slowly.
“Various schemes were implemented to ensure it was operated safely… Buckets of water were hung across the bridge, which swayed in any kind of wind or whenever the driver exceeded the speed limit.”
It reached the provincial, then the colony’s capital, in 1880.