The fate of six irreplaceable steam engines is up in the air as owner Eskom scrabbles to find someone with deep pockets to take them off its hands.
The locomotives — three of which are more 100 years old — were spotted surrounded by scrap in a remote section of the utility’s Rosherville complex in Ekurhuleni by a railway historian who was researching a book.
“I have been flying around SA on Google Earth checking industrial sites,” said Dr John Middleton, a Washington DC-based author, “and I saw something interesting and disturbing.”
The locomotives once hauled wagons of coal to power the utility’s power stations before being retired in the 1980s.
One of the engines, nicknamed “Kitty” after its builder, the Kitson and Company in Leeds, UK, was built in 1879, making it one of the world’s oldest surviving steam locomotives.
“Kitty” was declared a national monument in 1983.
After retiring the engines in the 1980s, Eskom donated the iron horses to the Krugersdorp-based SA National Railway and Steam Museum (SANRASM) on condition that the museum would protect them.
“Kitty” and another engine called “Hunslet” after its UK builder spent some years hauling weekend excursion trains on a nearby private mine railway.
“They were pristine when they went to SANRASM,” said Middleton. “Both Kitson and Hunslet were steamed at open days during the 1990s.”
By the late 1990s, however, both had been retired for a second time as both needed repairs which the museum could not afford.
Meanwhile, scrap thieves had begun stealing copper pipes and brass off the museum’s other locomotives which were parked in a field in Krugersdorp’s Chamdor industrial district.
In 2010, after reports that its old engines might be targeted by thieves, Eskom sent trucks to retrieve its heritage assets and took them back to its Rosherville workshop facility.
“Eskom previously donated these highly valuable locomotives to SANRASM, where they were meant to be restored and put on display for the public to admire,” said spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha.
“The museum, however, ran into financial difficulties and closed down, unable to restore the engines.”
While most of the other locomotives kept at the SANRASM site were too damaged to be saved and were scrapped on site, it was believed that Eskom’s intervention meant the heritage engines would be restored.
“Kitty” was restored in 2016 and put on a plinth under a corrugated iron roof at Rosherville.
In 2017, inspectors from the SA Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) said the locomotive complied with general principles for heritage resources management and commended Eskom for maintaining the engine’s “natural and original state”, said Mantshantsha.
Due to its well-publicised financial difficulties, Eskom is not in a position to continue with the refurbishment.
— Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Eskom spokesperson
A lack of funds derailed plans to restore the other locomotives, however.
“Due to its well-publicised financial difficulties, Eskom is not in a position to continue with the refurbishment,” he said.
The utility said it was looking for partners who could restore and protect its heritage “treasures”.
“The locomotives served Eskom and the country diligently up to the mid-1980s, hauling coal to its older power stations, and therefore are in need of a dignified retirement,” said Mantshantsha.
Middleton said SA’s Heritage Resources Act automatically placed protection on anything more than 100 years old which would cover “Kitty”, “Hunslet” and a third engine named “Barclay”, also after its builder.
“Barclay”, the last surviving engine from the long-lost Jersey Railway in the Channel Islands, was built in 1907 and bought by Eskom forerunner, the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company in 1928.
“Barclay is incredibly important historically, but maybe not in SA terms,” said Middleton.
Finding willing partners to take over the locomotives would be vital to ensure their survival, he added.
“Of one thing I am certain, if left where they are, they will deteriorate until they are scrapped.”
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