GEA garratt no 4023 скачать в хорошем качестве

GEA garratt no 4023

In all my years on South African Railways one of my dreams was to fire a mighty GEA garratt over Montagu pass from Mossel Bay to Oudtshoorn. I had read many stories about this being one of the hardest jobs on all SAR. As these locos finished working this line way back in about 1973 or so there was simply no chance of me ever getting a go at doing this....or so I thought. While working as a fireman out of Voorbaai shed in Mossel Bay in 1996 a GEA was delivered to join the museum stock. It needed some work done and so i got started on it and soon with the help from the shed fitters and all we soon had her up and running and after a few test runs she was ready for passenger service. Before long i was soon behind the shovel and firing this great beast up and over the mountains. Having worked on the fast mainlines out of Kimberley for years I found this slow journey quite easy going. The engine might work very hard up these steep mountain grades but due to the slow piston speed the boiler can easily produce enough steam to keep the wheels turning. Up on the fast lines out of Kimberley was much harder work and all due to the fast speed of the pistons which in turn meant the boiler had to produce steam at a much faster rate