For the love of steam

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Mossel Bay family is making steam locomotive history - again. Train enthusiasts Sean, Graeme and Kevin Ekström have a passion for this historic means of transport and for business, so they negotiated for many years with Transnet and other stakeholders to get a steam train trip up and running in the Southern Cape.

This week Sean announced that a restored locomotive, Jenny, will be doing three return trips each day from Hartenbos to Great Brak, on Saturday and Sunday, 23 and 24 September.

Coaches

Sean is delighted to add: "We will be bringing Jenny and five coaches from Cape Town to Mossel Bay on Wednesday, 30 August, arriving in Mossel Bay on Friday, 1 September." Jenny was designed by Dr MM Loubscher, who was the chief mechanical engineer of South African Railways, and was built by the North British Locomotive company in Glasgow.

"My father started our family's steam train interests in 1989. We used to offer many trips between Mossel Bay and Camfer, which is on top of the Montagu Pass, on the way to Oudtshoorn. We also did trips from Mossel Bay to Knysna.

The train was called the Montagu Pass Express. We ran these trips from 1989 until 2000," Sean notes.

Errol

His father, Errol, passed away in 1991. The family's business, Errol's Gas & Gear, in Bland Street, is named after him. The Ekströms also own TopUp fuel service stations in Mossel Bay and the Western Cape. Three of them are owned wholly by the family and the rest are franchises.

Jenny is a "beautiful Class 24 steam locomotive built in 1948", Sean says.

"A private steam enthusiast bought the locomotive from Spoornet many years ago and gave her a makeover and kept her in good condition. She has been in storage in Cape Town.

"We managed to secure five wooden coaches, built in the 1940s. We're having them refurbished."

Jenny will be pulling these coaches.

Heritage Trips

"These Heritage Trips on 23 and 24 September will be the first we will be running after 23 years," Sean says excitedly.

"After those, our plan is to run train trips every school holiday and offer the train for private functions, product launches, weddings, birthdays and year-end functions."

For more information, contact Sean (info@scrail.co.za) or see Facebook: SouthernCapeRailway or www.scrail.co.za.

Graeme, Kevin and Sean Ekström in front of a locomotive, Bailey, which they are hoping to bring from Ceres to Mossel Bay.