24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
This locomotive was delivered in 1903 as one of three ordered by New Kleinfontein Co Ltd - the Gold Mines at Benoni. It was built by R & W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co Ltd as works no 2557 and was delivered with the name plates "BENONI" on both sides. Its nickname became "BEN".
24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
The locomotive has an unusual wheel configuration of 4-6-2T. The so-called "Benoni" design is 15" diameter cylinders x 22" stroke length.
24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
This photo is posted on sa-transport.
The locomotive used to be plinthed in the C.R. Swart Park, Van Rooyenstreet, Rynfield, Benoni. In 1995 it was restored by SANRASM and subsequently re-plinthed in front of the Benoni Museum at the corner of Elston Ave & Rothsay St.
24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
The main theme of the Benoni Museum centers around the strikes which ravaged the town and its gold-mining industry in the early years of this century. The 1922 strike, the first major strike ever experienced in this country, features prominently in the museum's displays. The cultural diversity of Benoni's people is a secondary theme of the museum, and one of the rarest and most valuable items on display is an enormous Tswana clay beer-pot, made at the beginning of this century. The interesting herb garden boasts more than 60 different herbs, many of which are still used in traditional African healing practices. Opened in 1994 on the comer of Elston Avenue and Rothsay Street, in the building that once housed the old municipal health clinic, this museum is an excellent example of modern display techniques and contemporary themes.
Location of the Benoni Museum
GPS -26 11.218, 28 19.023 position courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
The old locomotive in front of Benoni's museum was restored 1995 for the Benoni City Council by the Railway Preservation Group. It was built in 1903 by R & W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland. It worked at the New Kleinfontein Gold Mine, and its 4-6-2T wheel arrangement is believed to be unique to South Africa. It was one of three built for New Kleinfontein Mines, and No 3 was christened "Benoni".
24 May 2009 photo courtesy Peter and Beverly Moss
A Benoni resident, Ken McLuckie, who lived at no 2 shaft on Kleinfontein, remembers: "Although the mine had its own power station, its heavy machinery was worked on steam power, and Old Ben had to transport vast amounts of coal from the siding at Range View Station on the Witbank Line every day. To me and my mates nothing was more majestic than Old Ben, with its name on each side in big brass letters, pulling trucks up an incline, with steam blowing out of the joints at every stroke of the pistons, and smoke belching out of the smokestack. The airliner had not yet arrived, and all heavy transport in those days was done by locomotive, steam lorry or ox wagon. So all the engine drivers were our heroes, because little boys had nothing else to dream about then."
photo The Industrial Railway Record, Click on picture to enlarge.
Enquiries made by Geoffrey Horsman and confirmed by Les Chariton show that a locomotive named BENONI, was one of a batch of three ordered in May 1902 by the New Kleinfontein Co Ltd of Benoni, South Africa, to whom it was delivered in 1903 as Hawthorn Leslie 2557. The maker’s photograph reproduced here is the same as one which appeared in a Hawthorn Leslie catalogue. Some years later an identical photograph, but retouched for background and with the words OHAI RAILWAY BOARD" above the nameplate "BENONI", was in circulation in New Zealand. It seems possible that Hawthorn Leslie supplied the retouched photograph to the Ohai Railway Board when quoting, or when No.3663 was built. The give-away is the vacuum brake pipe (shown clearly an the photograph), for this type of brake has never been used in New Zealand. Source: BRIAN WHEBELL in THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY RECORD, No. 37: p86-91. JUNE 1971
Sources:
- Benoni is 100 Years Old in 2007
- Industrial Locomotives of South Africa 1991 - John Middleton & Huw Williams
Several years ago, my son and I visited the museum and whilst admiring "Ben" we noticed the brass number plates lying beneath the wheels. We informed the staff in the museum that they were very likely to be stolen for their brass content. I wonder whether or not they have been preserved or were left outside to be stolen? Quite frankly, I find the museum to be a bit of a yawn with little history recorded of the gold mining era prior to the establishment of Benoni town. The strike of 1922 is certainly not the only claim to fame that Benoni holds. What it needs is a keen historian as a curator to get things going.
ReplyDeleteA correction. It was the New Kleinfontein Gold Mining Company that commissioned Benoni, not Klipfontein.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kootwoot, my mistake!, now fixed, regards
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