My friend Russell Hicks, a volunteer at the Puffing Billy Railway in Victoria, Australia, informs me that PBR has purchased another South African Railways Beyer-Garratt locomotive. NGG-16 No. 127 will join sister engine No. 129 in Australia sometime around mid-year. It will be loaded into three shipping containers for the voyage. Puffing Billy will have to regauge both engines from 24-inch to 30-inch gauge, but they have decided to use these two "foreign" engines to spare wear and tear on the native NA class 2-6-2T engines they've been using for 60 years. Preliminary work has already begun on No. 129 at the PBR shops.
Russ says of the NGG engines available, No. 127 was in the best condition. Puffing Billy also purchased half the spare parts available. Parts will be loaded into the water tanks on No. 127, which will then be welded shut. Two other engines, No, 139 and No. 156, were both inspected, but both were in poor condition. No. 156 is the last Garratt ever built. Both engines will probably be scrapped, along with a few other Garratts, also in poor condition, at other locations in South Africa.
