Part 3 of the "Return of the 25NC" tour with FarRail (2023) contained a full day and a morning at the Sandstone Farm. It was my first visit to the place, and I was mesmerised by the richness of this living museum and by the beauty of the scenery that sorrounds it.
On the first day (July 2nd, 2023), NG/G13 49 (Hanomag 10598/1928) treated us with a countless number of runpasts from before sunrise until almost noon. A vintage tractor, a bus, and an ox span were added for enhanced viewing pleasure. I deleted one or two runpasts but I ask you to bear with me for keeping all the others. For the afternoon trains, NGG16A 155 (Hunslet Taylor 3900/1968, ex ACR) took over, but after a couple of runpasts she had to be towed back after an issue with one of the cylinders occured. Even though it was nobody's fault really, it felt to me as if we broke this beautiful locomotive. I really hope they were able to fix it soon.
The second day (July 3rd, 2023) was only half a day because we had to return to Johannesburg for our flights back home. Sandstone decided to offer us the "Kalahari" NG15 17 (Henschel 21905/1930) as a compensation for the failure of the NGG16A the day before, which was really really really very nice. Last but not least, NGG/G16 113 (Beyer 6923/1937) took a beautiful mixed train to a great finish at the Vailima branch. And then off to the bus...
I am uploading this video exactly one year after the events, and less than two weeks before departing for the next tour. Thanks to everybody at Sandstone, I‘m looking forward to return!