[Esprit]

I have recently become involved with "The Friends of the Choo Tjoe". As the name implies it is to do with steam trains with a 70 kilometre line from Knysna to George in the Garden Route of the Southern Cape. It is known as the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe but 5 years ago part of the line was washed away and Transnet, the company that ran the line, is no longer interested in resurrecting the line of the steam engines. This is a great pity as the line attracted many tourists to the area and in many Steam Railway books there is a photograph of one of our steam trains crossing over a bridge on the Kaaimans River Pass.

My background is a love of steam and many a Saturday was spent on Kings Cross station in the 1950s with my Observers book of British Engines, ticking off the numbers and names. Halcyon Days.