RIDING THE RAILS
South Africa’s steamy love affair with trains
Though South Africans enjoy riding trains, vandalism and high costs are making this leisure activity difficult to maintain
South Africans have a steamy love affair with trains. Day trips on some of the country’s remaining active steam trains are so popular that they are often booked up weeks in advance. Durban has the Umgeni Steam Railway, which departs from the Kloof station on the last Sunday of every month. Port Elizabeth will be running its Apple Express again from December. The train will depart from Humerail Station and make its way to Loerie Station, about two and a half hours away. During the trip, the steam locomotive will make a temporary stop on Van Stadens, the highest narrow-gauge bridge in the world. Pretoria has Friends of the Rail (FOTR), which offers day trips to the quaint and cultural town of Cullinan. But destination options have been significantly reduced because of difficulties in providing en-route servicing facilities on steam locomotives, as well as the demotion of steam because of freight traffic, says Appleton. "Day trips to Cullinan form the backbone of our [FOTR’s] services....
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