Does the Blue Train live up to its luxurious reputation?

Paul Ash heads southwards on one of the world's most famously glamorous trains - and recounts its history along the way

"One time, there were two farmers who snuck onto the train at Hoedspruit, and began enjoying themselves at the bar..."

Herbert Prinsloo takes a sip of coffee and looks out the window. The Karoo glows pink in the early morning light. We have just shot through Leeu Gamka in a flash of blue and white steel, raising dust-devils on the forgotten platform. Those few people on the streets at this hour would have heard the Blue Train pass in a roar of locomotive cooling fans and the thunder of wheels.

Prinsloo and I, however, can hear nothing but a muted rumble. The train is sealed so that 55 decibels - "somewhere between the sound of soft rainfall and normal conversation", says the brochure - is as loud as it gets inside a Blue Train rail car. Prinsloo quietly continues his story.

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"So the train leaves Hoedspruit for Kaapmuiden, and these two guys are still aboard," he says, "and no one seems to know them. So I go to them and say 'Excuse me, gentlemen, which suite are you in?' And the one guy says 'Suite?' and the other looks at me for a bit, swaying with the train's movement, then puts his hands on his hips and starts to sing: 'Sweeeeeet Caroliiiine, bah-bah-baaah ...'"

He laughs. "That was an expensive drink. It cost them R3 000 to travel with us to Kaapmuiden."

Prinsloo, who has worked on the Blue Train since 1989, must have lots of fine stories to tell, and I have spent most of my breakfast in the dining car trying to wheedle them out of him. But Prinsloo, like the concierge of a London hotel, is implacable and discreet, exactly the sort of qualities you want in a concierge or, in this case, the manager of one of the world's most famous trains.

So I wander into the galley where cherubic-faced chef Sihle Ngcobo, formerly of the Michaelangelo Hotel, is making breakfast. He is a busy man and deflects my questions with easy smiles, except to remark that it gets hot - real hot - in the galley on a Karoo summer's day when there are 140 covers to prepare.

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"I cook from scratch," he says. "The Karoo inspires me," he adds helpfully as a classic flat-topped koppie drifts past the sliver of window.

Ngcobo has fed us well. Dinner was caramelised foie gras with amadumbe, followed by a tuna, noodle and pak choi soup. The main event was peppercorn-encrusted springbok fillet, coupled with a pistachio-coated lamb cutlet - or pan-fired mackerel and shemiji mushrooms - rounded off with a lemon tartlet and coffee parfait. We sighed happily and loosened our buttons as stations named Modderrivier, Graspan, Belmont and Witput flashed by in the velvet darkness.

My journey had started at 6am the day before with a Gautrain ride to Pretoria. It felt correct to stroll out of the modern Gautrain edifice and up the red carpet into the Blue Train departure lounge in Pretoria's glorious Herbert Baker-designed railway station.

By 8.30am we were gliding southwards, outpacing the yellow commuter trains on the line to Germiston and Vereeniging. We turned west to Kimberley and by noon our blue-and-white dream was hustling through the North West. The countryside was the vivid green of late summer, all vast swathes of tall-standing maize, looming grain silos and thunderhead clouds.

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With the other passengers - a mix of Americans, Britons and a smattering of South Africans - apparently sleeping off the lavish tea which had preceded a fine lunch, for a long while I had a deep armchair at the end of the observation car to myself. In between the welcome attentions of steward Lawrence Themba ("Your drink looks warm, may I ...?"), I had time to ponder the stories that had brought me there.

Famous trains are like threads strung with memory and fable. The Blue, which has run the same rail route as its 1920s ancestors - the Union Limited and Union Express "boat trains", whose purpose was to deliver people to and from the Union Castle ocean liners calling at Cape Town - is no exception.

By 1939, passengers on the Union expresses enjoyed such luxuries as smooth-riding articulated saloons and electric bells to summon the stewards. The lounge cars, writes railway historian Les Pivnic, had "card tables, easy-chairs with ashtrays and glass-holders, ceiling fans and amber-coloured cornice lights. The cars were divided into three sections by two glass-panelled arches, each section being finished ... in blue, gold or green". For the passengers, the contrast between this and the vast, dun emptiness of the Karoo must have been breathtaking.

In 1936, the trains' livery had given way from "imperial brown" to blue and cream, and they had their own locomotives, six of which had been designed precisely for fast passenger service.

Those six class 16E Pacific-type engines had six-foot driving wheels and a massive boiler whose pressure was maintained by the muscles and balletic skill of a lone stoker. With the right crew on the footplate, they were faster than speeding bullets and their crews called them "greyhounds". They came from the German locomotive builders Henschel und Sohn and their story is also my story: my grandfather, Syd Ash - Henschel's South African agent - was on hand when they were craned ashore in Cape Town in 1935.

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In April 1969, the steam locomotive business a rapidly fading memory, Syd and my father, Kim, had a chance to reacquaint themselves with one of the greyhounds when they boarded a special steam-hauled return trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town to celebrate the Blue Train's 30th anniversary.

People thronged Platform 13 at Park station to see the train off. The transport minister made a speech. Bands played. Retired engine drivers came to see their lost loves, and passenger Mavis Hall wrote an epic poem, one verse of which goes: "Great excitement as the engine steamed in/The old engine drivers were there with a grin/Reliving their memories and thinking of kin/And wishing Irvin Cooper the concourse to win". (Cooper did not win - the prize for the best turned-out engine went to the Touws River men and their brightly polished giant).

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The carriages of that train, which railway engineer Charlie Lewis once wrote was "as close to perfection as ever rolled on SAR rails", are long gone. Now there are two new trains with gold-tinted windows to cut the glare and airconditioning to keep out the Karoo heat and cold. There is Wi-Fi and TV and radio, and a gift shop selling cufflinks, diamonds and necklaces set with tanzanite stones the colour of the train itself.

There are Cuban cigars, butlers and a laundry service, and every compartment has an en-suite bathroom. The temperature is maintained at an even 21°C and no more do passengers have to brush engine soot and platteland dust out of their hair.

There is a writing desk and Blue Train stationery for those long, musing letters home, and the butler will iron your jacket before dinner.

And that's a good thing because this is one of the most beautiful trains ever, and while the world may have shifted on its axis and gone mad, and greyhound steam locomotives and men like Driver Cooper long gone to the great enginehouse in the sky, it is important - as your train rolls into the night, lightning flashing on the veld - to dress for dinner. - Ash was a guest of the Blue Train

sub_head_start QUICK FACTS sub_head_end

IF YOU GO: The Blue Train runs about four times a month in each direction between Pretoria and Cape Town. The train departs at 8.30am and journey time is 27 hours. Northbound trains stop at the historic village of Matjiesfontein for a two-hour excursion while southbound trains stop at Kimberley, giving passengers time to visit the excellent open-mine museum.

RATES: Fares start at R17 030 (low season R13 795) per person sharing a twin-bed deluxe suite, rising to R19 245 per person sharing in a luxury suite (low season R15 465). The fare includes all excursions, a 24-hour butler service, breakfast, lunch, dinner and high tea and all drinks except French champagne. To book, phone 012-334-8459 or see bluetrain.co.za.