Botswana - Henschel 19Ds on real freight, 2005

The mining company BCL owns a processing plant at Selebi-Phikwe in Botswana (not Zimbabwe as the titling states!!) and operates a small fleet of 19D class 4-8-2s built by Henschel in the early 1950s. The locomotives work well, being well maintained and with, obviously, working sanding gear ! They seem to be fitted with "home made" tenders converted from tank wagons, giving them a huge water capacity. Here we see two locos being prepared and then later, operating on very heavy trains loaded with ore. The locos don't appear to carry numbers but can be identified by the facts that one has BCL on the tender and the other has a set of cow horns on the front ! Filmed by Tony Hollins in August 2005.