During the motive-power shortages of the late 1950s, the Rosmead-based engines and their crews were required to exert an almost super-human effort on the Mossel Bay-Johannesburg express on the section from Klipplaat to Noupoort and back to base at Rosmead in one day, hand-firing an inefficient engine more than a mile vertically over the Lootsberg and Carlton Heights mountain passes during the course of a 215 miles , 12-hour shift.