STOLEN NUMBERPLATE RECOVERED
Posted on 21 February 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Richard Niven, based in Edinburgh, drives high-speed express trains in Scotland. Some twenty years ago, he worked as a steam locomotive fireman in Kimberley, and one of the locomotives he remembers was class 25NC no 3411. Early in January, Richard came across an intriguing advert on the internet: http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/c-Stuff-for-Sale-antiques-jewellery-collectibles-calling-all-railway-collectors. The advertiser was offering two loco numberplates off 3411 for sale at a price of several thousand Rand.
After withdrawal from service in the early nineteen-nineties, 3411 had been mounted as an exhibit on Kimberley’s platform 1. Shortly afterwards, her numberplates disappeared.
When the internet advert was brought to the attention of the Transnet Foundation for Heritage Preservation (TFHP), the police were notified. A bogus offer to purchase established that the plates were at a factory in Bellville, Cape Town. When the “purchaser” called to inspect the items and confirmed that they were genuine, a waiting police team (we are told it comprised seven detectives in three vehicles) raided the premises. They subsequently searched the seller’s home where a plate off an electric loco was found.
[ It is understood that the person involved, who is currently assisting the police with their enquiries, was not the thief who stole the plates in the first place. – editor
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- TFR: THERE AND BACK
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- SHORT NOTICE TRANSNET AUCTION
- UK TRAINS ON TWITTER
