When old technology must be rescued

Old meets the new - the damaged Outeniqua  Choo Tjoe railway line vanishes into the distance where the feather vapour trail of a modern jet remains. Should old technologies be so easily allowed to drown in the face of modern wonder?

Our technical department has been working on a complicated fax solution for two days now. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep old-generation technology superimposed on new technology that has already passed beyond the event horizon of advancement.

Just this morning I was thinking - "How much easier the world would run if we could just finally get rid of fax technology!" Let's face it. Faxes are expensive, hard on rain forests, difficult to archive, and awful to use. It deserves to be on the scrap heap of technology development by now.

But some old technologies are priceless. They should never be allowed to fall into disuse. Steam trains is one of those. We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. And until two years ago or so, we had been fortunate in having had one of the last remaining steam train services. The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe brought vast numbers of tourists to our region every week. And now it is gone. After catastrophic floods, the Transnet authorities deemed it too expensive to repair the damaged infrastructure. And so the biggest tourist attraction in our fragile economy was allowed to fall into sad disuse.

The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe passed through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. But it was derailed, not so much by natural disaster, as by miniaturized thinking.

Following this, various parties, including the Western Cape provincial government under inspiration of leaders such as Minister Alan Winde, have made a valiant effort to get the Choo Tjoe running again. But as with so many other projects, the will to achieve as lost in the miniature world of the bureaucratic brains which have to make decisions.

So what is it about old technology like steam trains which demands that it should continue to live while other technologies deserve to become extinct? After all, steam trains are hard on the environment, are expensive to run, and really have little place in the modern world's fast-paced transport infrastructure.

The answer is a spiritual one. New technology is often aimed at providing physical comforts that are useful and needed, but make no contribution to the human soul. Steam trains, on the other hand, are like poetry to the mind. It reminds of an era when people still have time to live - not just to exist. There is something about the old-fashioned scent of coal smoke, the hoarse whet whistle before departure, and the billowing white steam clouds, that stirs the imagination.

As devoted as we may be to the magic of all the iPhones and digital magic of the future, there are some technologies that will always fill our hearts long after iPhones are gone. One day when we are old, we will probably never pull and old yellowed device from a drawer of keepsakes and declare to a wide-eyed grandchild: "Look! This was still your grandpa's very first iPhone!" What we will want to do, however, is point to a yellowed picture against the wall and say, "Your grandfather rode on that old train when he was still a boy. And would you know it - that old girl is running still. All the way from George to Knysna - just like 60 years ago."

Steam trains last for decades. Digital magic has a half-life shorter than a childhood fantasy. Let's do what we can to get the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe running again.

My colleague, Justin Miles shot this video of the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe during the last of her glory days on the run from George to Mossel Bay. How can we make her heart beat again?