South African steam train derailment

Not book-related but definitely railway-related: our steam train, carrying over 600 passengers, was derailed on Sunday 22 June. More than 50 wooden sleepers (ties) were missing, apparently stolen, from the track on the lightly-used branch line to Cullinan, about 50 km from Pretoria, derailing our class 15F 4-8-2 locomotive no 3117 as she rounded a curve in a cutting. The water tank and the first coach also derailed. Fortunately the train was travelling slowly and there were no injuries to passengers or crew. I was guard on this train, travelling in the caboose at the rear.

There are loads of photos here

There was also a minor derailment on Tuesday on a "fan trip" being operated from Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was a so-called "Susquehenna Limited" operated as one of the excursions done by the National Railway Historical Society during their annual (2010) convention. I'm not sure that it was significant enough to be newsworthy.

Of course, there has just been a bad derailment (47? dead) in the Congo.

Yes, the Congo one was horrific. It seems the train came off on the edge of a ravine and some of the coaches fell down the ravine.

#1

Did they determine if the rails broke because of the derailment or were they damaged before the train passed through the area? I'm curious as it will factor into a story I'm writing regarding a steam train.

>4 gilroy: There's no official report yet, but we're pretty certain that they broke when the train passed over them. They were very fresh fractures, with no rust on them.