Please click on the images to see a larger image and a brief description.

 

Introduction:

Warrenton on is on the Johannesburg-Cape main line and it is located just south (a few km's) of the junction where the line to Mafikeng breaks off from the Cape main line.

I drove down the N12 road from Johannesburg and the Warrenton station, being visible from the main road, was easy to reach.

So I decided to budget about 1 hour for a very brief visit.

As this day, 2001-April-01, was a South African holiday, the railway was very still. None of the goods trains or shunts were active during my brief visit. Therefore, the majority of my images are not of rolling stock, but rather of the scenes of the area.

I visited the station office and was able to get verbal permission to enter the yard. There is also a signal cabin located to at the north side of the station. But due to my time constraints, trying to reach Beaconsfield by sundown, I did not investigate. I suspect however, that the signal cabin at this location has been made remote and operated from a centralized traffic control office.

Of course, I arrived around 14:00 and the shadows were getting long and the lighting favored a northbound move. Just my luck, in strolls a southbound diesel powered passenger train.

Let us begin our very brief visit to the Warrenton facility.

This diesel train most likely came in from Mafikeng. I have not gone back to a year 2001 Main Line Passenger Services timetables to verify this. I will do such in due time. In the meantime, please find this rather shadowed image informative.

With the two GE class 34s on the southbound passenger train gargling away, I decided to up onto the well kept and clean pedestrian footbridge and take a few snaps. So here is my attempt at a panoramic view of the railway facilities at Warrenton. Notice in the lower row of images the lines of dumped 25NC steam locomotives. More on that later.

Walking across the pedestrian footbridge from the station leads too the former loco shed area. In the past, during the 1980's, I traveled by train through Warrenton, but I never actually stopped and visited the facility. Therefore, I have no knowledge of the multitude of structures that existed. For example, I have no idea where the coal stage was located. There are no structural steel remains of any coaling stage. These images show the remains of the shed lead tracks and one image of the remains of a shed pit track.

Strange finding these two locos on the shed trackage. It almost seems as if this is where the locos ended their service life and then the locals just stripped them clean.

I then walked straight out toward the main line. Once I cleared all the ground debris, I took one more image of the shed north end and then I turned around and took a snap of the two steam locos.

Here is a brief visit to the dumped steam loco area. As I was crunched for time, I did not walk the lines of locos to take individual numbers or images. I was not going to include these images in the website as they are rather depressing. However, I have included the following images of the dumped locos so as they may serve as a location and lighting guide to any future visitor.

Here are a few images to show where the dumped locos are located in relation to the turning trackage. Again, as mentioned above, I have included these otherwise depressing and poorly lit images to serve as a guide for any future visitors.

These images show the area near the location where the shed tracks join the yard trackage.

These images show the same area but just a little further southward.

These are the only subjects on hand for in-service locomotives at Warrenton this day. Three 6E1 3000 V DC units and one stray GE U26C. Notice how clean the windows are for all these locos.

These images were taken from a location in the yard, adjacent to the signal cabin, looking northward. Notice that the track work and the overhead catenary are in a good condition.

I took these images as a record so I can return during a morning day light timeframe. Notice the signal cabin is located on the north end of the station platform.

On the way out, I decided to take a few images of the station front, as viewed from the parking lot. The area is grown in, thus I could not step back and get a single straight-on image to show the entire building.