What better day to describe the goings on at Rovos Rail than a Wednesday in summer as it is busier than any other. If you have been on one of our site tours, you will know that our private station is about 60 acres in extent and we have nearly 10 different departments that all stoke the fires of each departure and arrival.
For a train to leave there need to be passengers, of course, and we wouldn’t have any without the determination of our sales team or the meticulous strategic planning of our design and digital management team. We also value the support of many agents and operators who loyally send us their clients each year. Our competent reservations department ensures that enquiries receive a friendly reply and that each confirmed booking is carefully completed so that guests feel welcome and safe. Then we have our fierce financial ladies who diligently manage the continuous ebb and flow of the debit and credit columns, which is a tough job.
Where the pulse can be felt the strongest is in our stores, operations, workshops and the laundry, all of which are situated on site at our station – we’re an independent bunch so like to keep as much as we can in-house. This is where the truly beautiful chaos resides.
On a Wednesday, we typically have two trains arriving back from Cape Town and Durban or Victoria Falls, and sometimes another train departing for Cape Town. This means that two train sets full of laundry from sheets to napkins plus cutlery, crockery, cooking utensils, urns, glassware, amenities, food, beverages, fire extinguishers, and so much more, have to be removed from the train and counted back into stock – and it all has to be counted out for the afternoon’s departing train, cleaned, pressed and in working order. All of this is executed with military precision by management and their teams. To hear the odd shouting match is not unheard of – especially on those really hot Pretoria days when temperatures can soar to 35°C – so to see young rooming girls scurrying away as a result makes all of the long-standing staff, who are now safely ensconced in office roles, smile at the memories.
Having vintage coaches travelling thousands of kilometres each year requires a dedicated crew of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, welders, air-con specialists and general handymen to keep them in good, working order. The same can be said for our specialised loco team maintaining a challenging mix of rolling stock from diesel and electric to steam. To ensure their hard work is sustained, our energetic maintenance crew join the trips and see to any rattle, leak or wobble that might occur.
Finally, we have our frontline staff on board, the young women and men who serve with friendly discretion and seem to do so with natural aplomb. They are the ones that carry all that has been prepped on site to the trains and methodically prepare each coach. The rooming staff scrub suites until they sparkle and tend to guests’ personal needs; the laundry ladies wash and press all that is used and care for every pair of slacks or dress sent in by guests; the dining car staff polish the silverware and check that everything is loaded for silver service; the bar staff, probably the most popular folk aboard, see that every bottle is safely tucked away for those relaxing afternoons in the observation car or the long, decadent dinners in the dining car; and our train managers and deputies keep a cool-headed eye over everything and ensure our guests reach their destination.
The chefs prepare as much as they can in our on-site kitchens then load it all up to continue their chopping on board. The planning around meals on the train is fastidious, especially with ever-growing dietaries. Space is limited and temperatures can radically fluctuate according to the journey and the time of year. There are many discussions and test days in the kitchens to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
It has taken many years for us to find a rhythm that works. We still have our dramas but hindsight is an exact science so most of the difficulties we experience aren’t of our making but created by things we have no control over – ash clouds, airline strikes, closed railway lines and the like. We are reliant on the railway services provided by the countries through which we travel so our hands are regrettably tied when these services fail (signals, overhead power-cable damage and/or theft, vandalism, electricity outages, railway tracks, issues with drivers and so on). The delays of our trains mostly occur in South Africa but, once we cross the border, we mostly haul our trains with our own locos, drivers and engineers.
Transnet (our national railway authority) recently requested we haul our trains to Cape Town with our new hybrid diesel-electric locos and crew, which has been successful as we can switch over from electric to diesel as required. We are looking at purchasing more of these locos to give us coverage across the country. We also built in more time on all our journeys travelling in South Africa and kept the pricing the same for our clients. These developments come with a cost and regrettably our prices in 2026 will reflect a considerable increase.
There are certain challenges in South Africa that are far beyond our control so we focus on what we can influence: our product, the excursions, our food, our service, our team and their training – along with the aforementioned steps. There are a few occasions each year where we down the tools and get together for a bit of a song and dance. We swap stories and toast to the fact that we enjoy what we do, thoroughly, and that working for the most luxurious train in the world is one hell of a ride.
Written by Brenda Vos-Fitchet • Edited by Bianca Vos-Lynch
