The branch from West Nicholson to Heany Junction, 17 miles east of Bulawayo, was a good place to find Class 16A Garratts at work in the 1980s. The line had been opened in 1905 to provide access to gold mines in the Gwanda area but for most of its life the principal traffic was much more mundane. Most trains conveyed limestone from a quarry at Colleen Bawn to the cement works at Cement, between Heany Junction and Bulawayo.
16A 2-8-2+2-8-2 Garratt No. 611 was photographed south of Mbalabala with train 318, the 06:30 Colleen Bawn to Mpopoma freight, on 27 June 1987. Mpopoma is Bulawayo's marshalling yard.