If you're going to drive an SAR Railway loco, you need to have the right hat....................
Here's the man himself.....................
................ and here's his son in charge!
Ready for the off...............
They like to encourage the youngsters...............
On his way round................ The track layout is quite complex - there are 3 loops - Loop 1 goes OVER the bridge, Loop 2 goes UNDER the bridge on the RIGHT hand track, and Loop 3 goes through the tunnel, UNDER the bridge on the LEFT hand track and takes you back to where you started from (unless, of course, you operate the points which allow you to bypass the station altogether...............) THe whole is controlled from the signal box.
The dogs belonging to the local members are not averse to hitching a ride..............................
Towards the end of the afternoon I was invited to try my hand at driving. There's a lot more to it than waggling a few levers on an R/C transmitter....................... "Put the water on as you go over the bridge, use the vacuum brake to slow down coming off the bridge, THIS bit is the steepest bit on the line................" and of course the smaller boiler does mean you have to keep ypur wits about you, but I made a passable stab at it.
It transpires that Pretoria has never driven an R/C loco, so I'm going to give him a go next Saturday!
Sooooooooooo, who wants to see a photo of MDLR at play ? 
