Military solution to the Exna mystery
MICHAEL Throssell’s letter in issue 288 about the name of National Railways of Zimbabwe Class 20 No. 717 interested me since I worked in Southern Africa and visited Rhodesia/Zimbabwe several times before and after independence.
After dieselisation of the lines around Salisbury/Harare, all the steam power migrated to Bulawayo motive power depot in Matabeleland. When the Garratts were rebuilt by Zeco in Bulawayo, many were given names of Matabele significance. The 15As were named after animals and birds, like Indhlovu, which means elephant. The 20s, including No. 717, were given the names of Matabele regiments, and the 20As were named after rivers in Matabeleland.
Research on the internet also discovered a reference to Mzilikazi’s Exna regiment, he being the 19th century military leader who founded the kingdom later known as Matabeleland. Incidentally, if anyone wants to try to pronounce Exna, the ‘x’ is one of the clicks, more often associated with Zulu.
The source of the information about the Garratt names was ‘Dusty’ Durrant’s excellent book, Garratt Locomotives of the World, and there is information about Mzilikazi on Wikipedia.
Colin Smith, Rawdon, Leeds.