Trackside at REDAN 090316
I went trackside between 10:00 and 12:00 after an absence of a number of weeks. Actually I was on my way to a hobbyshop when I saw a curious looking train standing in the station. SPOORNET has a habit of storing trains here over weekends and this was one (of two) of them; the other was a Southbound coal train heading for the local power station I assume.
The more I visit and explore this little spot, the more I am tempted to model it on a module. I should at the very least put a track diagram on my site of it so that you can all know what I'm talking about.
There has been work on the track in this area over the last few days and I caught a Ballast Tamper near Meyerton as well. Unfortunately I couldn't get closer for video or better shots. You will notice on some of the pics that there is a layer of new ballast on them. This is the result of their work. It also meant that one of the main lines was out of action and all the trains had to cross over to the eastern main south of Redan, between the staion and the road crossing, to avoid the work.
The train in question was powered by E1252 and had 1 X FZJ behind it and then the kicker: 5 new Suburban coaches, followed by two pulpwood cars on the end. Idiot that I was, I didn't go closer to look at the papers that were on the windows. I can only assume these were headed for the Rand. In any case, this would make a good train to model if you have extra suburban stock lying about.
I took some pics of the train, some of which are here, I went to the southern end of the yard to snap the head end of the coal train which had E1361/1359/1410 leading. There, I discovered that the train was actually waiting to depart and I hung around for a while. I was lucky to catch the arrival of a 3 unit Northbound sand train andas it rooled to a stop, the Blue train, behind two units, roared by in the background. I have a video of this and hope to put it on the web at some stage.
I left the yard and went about 2 km south to a grade crossing that I stumbled upon a few days previously. I took a number of pictures of this spot, including the instrument boxes for the crossing. The idea was to wait for E1361 to depart. This train left at 11:45 and I was able to video it as well. Minutes after it passed, a 3 unit light engine of 10Es came by and I caught them on video too. Unfortunately, I fluffed this recording and it is not suitable for uploading.
Below are thumbnails of some of the pictures I took.
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
