Chapter 6 Nick and the loco

Standing on the loop at Ingezi station, train 320 was also busy changing crews. 

Usually the diesel loco was shut down if it was going to stand for more than 10 minutes but this was not done and it was idling. Nick was the new driver and while standing in the door of the loco the other driver, Gert, shouted from the door of the caboose.

Nick could not hear him and shouted back.

“What did you say?”

“Mumble mumble “ Gert shouted

“What are you saying?’ Nick shouted again.

Gert shouted again, but still Nic did not hear him.

“Wait, I’ll shut down the engine so I can hear you” Nick said.

“Don’t shut down the engine” Gert said as silence fell, “It won’t start again”

There they sat and waited for 3 hours until a loco electrician came and fixed the problem.

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Chapter 7 Jimmy and the caboose

Train crews that travelled together for long periods were very innovative in order to pass the time. Many times on still periods trains were late during the night.

Whilst stationed at Rutenga during the building of the rail link to Beit Bridge I contacted the train by radio asking them where they were.

“We are having a bit of loco trouble but should be there in about half an hour” said Jimmy.

Half an hour passed and I heard the whistle and let the train into the station.

“Want some Kudu meat? Jimmy shouted as they came past me.

“Thanks” I replied.
The train had stopped and with a point 22 rifle they shot a Kudu next to the track.

The whole crew being 2 drivers, 2 firemen, 2 guards and 2 cooks got out, pulled the Kudu to the door of the caboose and hooked the legs with a winch and winched it into the dining room of the caboose.

The winch clipped onto the door frame of the caboose and the cable was attached to the winch with a hook on the front, this was reeled in with a pulley and a ratchet.

They had stopped, shot, loaded, gutted the Kudu and cut it up and also cleaned the caboose within 20 minutes. That is what I call ingenuity.

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Chapter 8 The leopard and I

The first siding north of Bannockburn was Oreti where there was a quarry that produced the ballast stone for the tracks.

I was stationed there while ballast was loaded onto the trucks for relaying of the Somabula Rutenga line.

The station and house were temporary buildings made from board and corrugated iron covered with tarpaulin.

When trains had to cross or pass each other I had to cycle to the points and let the train into the loop, cycle back to the office, complete the paper orders for the approaching train, cycle to the opposite points, hand the orders up to the driver and guard, open the points, give orders to the train in the loop, close the points after the train had left and cycle back to the office all within about 8 minutes, whew!

One night the chain of the bicycle broke so I had to walk all the way to the points and back.

Going outside the office one night, I noticed something strange about 30 yards from me in the moonlight. I went and collected the torch from the office and shone it at the strange object. Was I surprised to see a leopard crouching and looking straight at me, when I switched the torch off it stood up again and crouched down as I shone the light.

No trains were going to cross at my station that night and I confirmed that with the control office in Bulawayo.

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Chapter 9 The tumble

On the Bulawayo Mafeking line, steam trains were used until a few years ago.

These trains could go only so far with the water they carried in the tender so there were water points along the way at certain stations.

One such station was Seruli where I was stationed early in my career on the railways.

Water for Seruli also had to be transported from another station by rail tanker.

In order to have the tankers filled a train could carry the 3 water tankers overweight.

The train was stopped at the points, the engine cut off and diverted onto the loop and past the tankers, and them push the tanks back onto the load.

I stopped the train at the points and informed the driver to pick up the tanks, cut the engine off and jumped onto the steps of the engine as it came past me.

The train was going to go onto the loop, as it was to cross the mail train at my station.

As I put my foot on the step of the engine it slipped off and I took a tumble.

Fortunately I kept my arms next to my body as I fell and the engine missed me by inches, but I was covered from head to foot in the muck that falls off the train next to the line.

“OK” shouted the driver, “We will carry on and pull into the loop ourselves”.

I rushed to my room and scrubbed myself, got dressed in clean uniform and was in time to hand orders to the driver and guard of the mail train.

Close call!

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Chapter 10 The Irish

During the 60’s, the railways imported a lot of Irishmen to employ as guards and they were stationed at various centres in the country. One such place was a little railway town called Dett situated right next to the Wankie game reserve.

Most of the streets were dirt road with only one tar road running into the town up to the railway club.

Early one morning, at approximately 2 o’clock, one of the drivers awoke from a commotion in the street outside his house. Getting up he decided to investigate and what he saw was terrifying.

The Irishman was standing in the street and throwing stones at the “dogs” fighting in the road from about 5 yards away.

“What are you doing?” he shouted at him.

“I’m trying to chase these dogs away that are disturbing my sleep” was the reply.

“These dogs, as you call them, are lions!”

The Irishman jumped over the fence to the house backwards!

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Chapter 11 Sleeping in the car

One evening coming back from a shopping trip to Bulawayo, Fred and his family pulled into the yard of their house in Dett and were just going to get out the car when little Fred said, “Dad, I think we should stay in the car”

“Why?” asked Fred.

“Because there is a Lion smelling the wheels of the car on my side”

Sitting in the car thinking it would move away, they waited in vain for this lion to move, they sat and sat but it did not move away but made itself comfortable next to the vehicle and there they spent the night, sleeping in the car.

Fortunately when the sun rose in the east, the lion wandered off into the sunrise.

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Chapter 12 The “cows” in the road

While sitting on the veranda of the single quarters one evening, I saw an astonishing sight. I must explain that Dett was a one-horse town but it did have a club and a hotel.

The hotel was situated on the “other” side of the railway line and the tar road led from the main road to Bulawayo and Wankie past the hotel, over the level crossing into the town of Dett.

The distance from the town to the hotel was approximately 100 yards and the road led past the single quarters.
In the moonlight we could see one of the Irishmen staggering back from the hotel after having had a few too many.

The problem was that he was walking through a herd of buffalo and swatting them on the rump to get out of the way. Astonishingly the buffalo were very calm and did not bother him.

As he came past us we asked him what he was doing and the reply was “Trying to get these cattle to move out of the way so I can get home!”

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