Contributions for this section should be sent to the Editorial Office, with the following exceptions:
• Southern Africa – John Middleton, c/o Editorial Office.
Email: johnmiddleton3401@gmail.com
• South America – Lionel Price, 9, Liverpool Road West, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1PE. Email: jldprice@btinternet.com
• Spain & Portugal – Joan Carles Salmerón, c/o Editorial Office. Email: cet@terminus.cat
Contributions which are primarily photographic in nature should all be sent to the Editorial Office to give the best choice of material for covers etc. Similarly historical articles and features should be sent to the Editor. The Editor’s contact details are inside the front cover.
AFRICA
BOTSWANA
The state owned nickel mine BCL at Selebi Phikwe which has lain moribund since its abrupt closure in 2016 has been put up for sale by liquidators appointed by the Government of Botswana. The sale notice is asking for bids from companies to take on parts of the mine as a going concern but while this might seem unlikely, nickel prices have risen about four-fold from where they were in 2016 which may make it an attractive proposition. It would seem unlikely that a new owner would use the steam locomotives especially as the sale notice includes four of them although it is thought that five survived in 2016 (LO 804 (ex RR 328) and LO 805/07/12/13 (ex SAR 19D 2765, 3341, 2689 and 2626). Of these LO805 had been stripped so the sale notice may relate to the other four. LO 806 (19D 3350) is plinthed in a small open air mining museum in Selebi Phikwe town along with an ore hopper.
ESWATINI (formerly SWAZILAND)
Eswatini Railways Steam operation ended in 1992 and most of the steam fleet of former SAR class 15AR 4-8-2s was scrapped soon afterwards. However, one, 15AR 2098 (Maffei 5643 of 1925) was retained for preservation inside the old steam shed at Sidvokodvo. The country is rarely visited by enthusiasts and so this locomotive has remained out of sight but has survived. The old shed is now a wagon repair works and the locomotive has been moved outside where it is exposed to the elements but apparently complete. The Eswatini Railways CEO would like to see it go to a museum and some efforts in that regard are being made by local enthusiasts. Eswatini Railways current fleet consists of four Grindrod 3000 HP Co-CoDE Nos SR 001-004 built in 2014 and one former TFR class 37 No. SR-005 (ex 37.018) which are based at Mpaka diesel depot. Through trains on the main north-south line which links into the South African network at each end are operated by TFR using mainly class 43 and 44 locomotives.
MOZAMBIQUE
Moatize – Beira / Moatize – Nampula (Vale) Very quietly, Brazilian mining giant Vale announced in late December that it was selling its interests in the Moatize Coal mine and associated rail links to India’s Jindal Group for US $ 270 million. Such a sum can be considered proverbial peanuts given the billions that Vale has invested over the past 15 years including construction of the Nacala rail link which on its own cost around US $ 1.1 billion. At over US $ 300 million for the 85 General Electric type BB40-9WM locomotives, Jindal won the whole show for less than the cost of the locomotives. The reasons are of course the growing climate change lobby against coal mining and resulting pressure being put on global companies such as Vale to exit the coal industry.
SOUTH AFRICA
During the week of
