This tunnel farmer has gone loco

Western Cape farmer swears by old, converted, coal-burning locomotives A for heating tunnels, and they cost less than conventional units.

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A conventional coal-burning unit for heating tunnels costs about RS.120 000, which is a large capital outlay in anybody's book, specially in a vegetable-production, under-plastic system where profit margins are relatively low.

Deon Rossouw, of Kilprug near Paarl, found a cheaper alternative when he decided to modify a locomotive for heating his tunnels. That was four years ago. Now he has four such units, heating tunnels with a total floor area of 4ha. He says his "locomotives" run more efficiently than the coal-burning heaters available on the market and cost less than a third of their price.

Rossouw bought his first Class 14 Garrett locomotive in Mossel Bay for R3 000 in 1984 and has subsequently installed another three smaller Class 24s at his English cucumber and cherry tomato production tunnels. These were bought at De Aar, also for Rs.3000 each.

All the excess steel was cut off the locos, so only the boilers and fireboxes remained before they were transported to Paarl by lowbed trucks. Transport costs to Paarl were R3 000 each for the 28-t Class 14 and the 22-t Class 24 machines and the cost of the crane for unloading and positioning them was R1 500 for each unit.

CONVERSION