Worcester to Heildelberg - 170 Km train chase

Описание: This clip covers the longest single train chase I've done to date.

I was going to Voorbaai to look at the steam locomotives currently under restoration there. Naturally I made sure to coincide my journey with the daily freight that also works that section.

Starting in Worcester and ending in Heildelberg (Cape) for a total distance of 170km. I intended to chase the train further as we both ultimately had the same destination but I was running out of time and had to get to Voorbaai.

The chase also serves as road knowledge for when the Ceres project steam locomotives get driven down to Ceres.

I setup near Nuy at 6:45am with the train finally turning up at 7:10. Stops included Mowers, Langvlei, Robertson, Klaas Voogdsrivier, Ashton, Bonnievale, Swellendam, Buffeljags Rivier, Karringmelk, Vleidam and Heildelberg. I also stopped at a few unnamed locations.

I arrived in Swellendam with plenty of time to spare only to have a local idiot throw a glass bottle at me. There were other shady characters as well so I left and setup at a level crossing on the outskirts of Swellendam.

The train soon arrived but then stopped just short of the station with smoke coming from the lead locomotives front bogie. I can only presume it was a brake issue of some kind...

Of course their technical difficulties gave me enough time to return to the station where I sat in my car monitoring the activity for a few minutes.

The coast seemed clear so I continued waiting in the car until the train appeared in the distance. Unfortunately I wasn't going to risk setting up the video camera as this does slow me down but I did get some photographs.

Sadly the weather didn't play along but I did manage to capture some pretty good sound.