Full steam ahead for South Africa's clinic-on-rails

Pienaarsrivier, South Africa

South Africa's Phelophepa train draws a crowd wherever it goes. The sound of the lumbering 19-car clinic-on-rails signals the arrival of badly needed free healthcare for thousands of South Africans as it tours the country.

"When you arrive, people are always ready, there will be kids performing," said train manager Anna Mokwena, a nurse. At a stop this week in Pienaarsrivier, a town in South Africa's impoverished Limpopo province, dozens of elderly patients alongside women clutching children flocked to take advantage of the service.