This is the South African Blue Train pulling out of Matjiesfontein, 174 miles north of Cape Town to cross the Karoo on the way to Johannesburg in January 1992. It takes 24 hours. We took the train a few days later. It stops at Matjiesfontein for an hour to let the passengers get drunk, prior to their on-train dinner, at the splendid bar of the Lord Milner Hotel, virtually the only building in Matjiesfontein. We stayed there the night and had a 9 course colonial style dinner served by waiters in white gloves!! Pate, soup, fish, eggs mornay, roast Karoo lamb with vegies, choice of sweets from the trolley, cheese platter, tea and coffee and candied peel! We took a very short trip around the village in an old London double decker bus! The Blue Train is 17 carriages long and carries only 92 paying passengers. The suites, which cost $1,260 back in 1992 have a living room, bedroom and bathroom complete with a bath! I have always fancied the idea of having a bath on a moving train. Unfortunately we could not afford a suite!!!

These are Hitachi built Co-Co Electrics. The railway system is surpirisingly modern with concrete sleepers and modern Belgian stock.