A view from Braamfontein looking south over the Braamfontein North Passenger Yard in the foreground, the South Yard where the Metrorail EMU's are staged, and beyond that the district of Newtown in downtown Johannesburg. The North Yard in the immediate foreground is where PRASA (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) long distance passenger trains are made up and serviced. These days it looks more like a storage yard, with curtailed train services the order of the day, largely due to a fleet of equipment that has hardly seen any new additions in many years. The majority of the passenger coaches are in the "Shosholoza Meyl" livery, but some of the purple Premier Classe equipment can also be seen. A class 36 GE type SG10B diesel shunter in orange Spoornet livery is shunting a couple of passenger coaches on the nearest track. On the extreme right of the picture, another class 36 in the blue PRASA livery is visible, as well as some passenger coaches in the old MLPS (Mainline Passenger Services) blue & grey livery.
The long building with the green roof in the middle distance is the original Johannesburg Park Station building, which was intended to form part of a Railway Museum on this site, but sadly these plans have never come to fruition. The eTV building can be seen in the background, eTV being a free-to-air commercial TV station. The building was formerly the headquarters of the Standard Bank of South Africa. The tall building in the centre with the "20 years" wrapping is to celebrate 20 years of democracy in South Africa, since Nelson Mandela became President in 1994.
