old STEAM LOCOMOTIVES in South Africa

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX of towns covered - BLOG edition 53

2011-08-23T12:12:00.003+02:00

N E W S
Latest updates

2011.02.26: new: Potchefstroom station forecourt, Class 8A no 1097
2011.04.17: new: Voorbaai Loco Shed (Hartenbos): February 2011 Images
2011.04.17: updated: Ashton Municipality - Class 14CRB No2010
2011.04.17: updated: Riversdale, Town Center Class 7 No970
2011.04.17: updated: Entrance to George OTM MUSEUM, SAR Class 7A No 1009
2011.04.24: updated with photos: Paarden Eiland Steam running Shed (defunct)
2011.04.24: updated with info about 'ROOS' NZASM loco - OUTENIQUA TRANSPORT MUSEUM 4/4
2011.04.24: updated with photos: Graaff Reinet, Kollege Road (N9) - Class 6 No429
2011.04.24: updated with photos: Grahamstown, Railway Station, SAR Class GDA No 2257 (Garratt)
2011.04.24: updated with photos: Hartenbos Station, SAR Class 8 no 1070 (scrapped)
2011.04.24: updated with photos: Matjiesfontein Village - Class 7 No 987
2011.04.24: new with photos: Bloemfontein - old Steam Locomotive Depot (many locomotives)
2011.05.01: New: Cape Town - Monument Station: Atlantic Rail's operation of SAR 24 #3655 (in steam)
2011.05.01: Olifantsfontein: New: Brikor Limited, 1 Premier Rd: ex SAR A Class #176
2011.07.21: new: Allanridge: (old) Mine Club House - ex-Loraine Gold Mine No 1 - 4-8-2T NBL "Pauline"
2011.08.23: new: Middelburg MP, Municipality, Class 8A No 1127

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX
OF PLACE NAMES

1. SOUTH AFRICA

Aliwal North, Station Approach, SAR Class 7 No 982
Allanridge: (old) Mine Club House - ex-Loraine Gold Mine No 1 - 4-8-2T NBL "Pauline"
Ashton Municipality - Class 14CRB No2010
Avontuur, Town Centre, SAR Class NG15 No NG147
Barberton Caravan Park - Class 6B No536
Barkly East, Town Centre, Class 19D no 2510
Benoni Museum, 4-6-2T Hawthorn Leslie No 2557
Bethlehem Museum - Class 6C No 544 before moved to Sandstone.

Bloemfontein

Anglo-Boer War Museum, SAR Class 7 No 975
Transwerk Workshop, SAR Class 16DA No 878
old Steam Locomotive Depot (many locomotives)

Boksburg - Bokkie Park, North British Locomotive works #24520 4-8-2T industrial locomotive
Breyten - Main Street, Class 19 no 1369
Calvinia - Museum - Class 24 No3608

Cape Town

Claremont: Children's Playground, Belvedere Road: Brooks 2725 1896
Epping, "PUG", Bagnall no 3056 built in 1953
Intaka Island, Century City: 2 locomotives on display
Newlands: SAB Ohlssons Brewery: Peckett Locomotive # 1029 built in 1904
Paarden Eiland Steam running Shed (defunct)
Railway Station concourse, "BLACKIE" Hawthorns & Co Leith Engine Works No. 162
Salt River Railway Workshops, SAR Class 8D No 1200
Table Mountain, Waterworks Museum: Constructor loco built by Andrew Barclay
Monument Station: Atlantic Rail's operation of SAR 24 #3655 (in steam)

Colenso - Municipal Offices

"ESCOM" Bagnall 2571/1937
"TUGELA" Hawthorne Leslie 3858/1935

Coligny, Town Centre, SAR Class 19D No 3328

De Aar

part 1, "Loco Shed", SAR Class 8F No 1236
part 2a, Locomotive Graveyard: SAR Class 24 No 3652
part 2b, Locomotive Graveyard: SAR Class 12A No 2123
part 2c, Locomotive Graveyard: SAR Class GO No 2586
part 3, Station Scenes in May 2009
part 4, Excelsior Park: Railway Recreation Club, preserved Cab of Class 25NC No 3434 "CORRY"

Dundee, Talana Museum, Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal
Durban - Railway Station, "NATAL", 1st loco to haul a public train in SA
Ermelo, in town on R29 road, Class 8A No 1106
Estcourt station platform, H2 No 314 (later unplinthed to KZN Railway Museum)
Fauresmith, Municipality, SAR Class 8BW No.1153

George

Entrance to Transport MUSEUM, SAR Class 7A No 1009
OUTENIQUA TRANSPORT MUSEUM 1/4
OUTENIQUA TRANSPORT MUSEUM 2/4
OUTENIQUA TRANSPORT MUSEUM 3/3
OUTENIQUA TRANSPORT MUSEUM 4/4

Germiston

loco shed (derelict), SAR Class 12R No 1947 "Rosie" (before moved to Reefsteamers)
Reefsteamers Germiston Depot, "PATRYS" SAR Class A No 130

Graaff Reinet, Kollege Road (N9) - Class 6 No429
Grahamstown, Railway Station, SAR Class GDA No 2257 (Garratt)
Hartenbos Station, SAR Class 8 no 1070 (scrapped)
Hartenbos (Voorbaai) Loco Shed: February 2011 Images
Heidelberg Station Museum (previously Heidelberg Transport Museum)

Johannesburg City Power

Municipal Depot, 0-4-0ST "George" RSHN 7398/1948
Reuven Head Office, 0-6-0ST "Elizabeth" RSHN 7805/1954

Johannesburg, Gold Reef City

part 1, SAR Class 19D No 3345
part 2, SAR Class NG/G16 No NG111 (Garratt)
part 3, WG Bagnall 0-4-2T works # 2870 built 1948
part 4, Hudswell, Clarke Co Ltd. 0-6-0T works # 1578 built 1926
part 5, Manning, Wardle & Co Ltd. 0-4-0T works # 1583 built 1902

Johannesburg, James Hall Transport Museum

part 1, R & W Hawthorn works # 3838 built 1934
part 2, Maschinen Fabrik Esslingen works # 2877 built 1897
part 3, John Fowler & Co (Leeds) Ltd works # 16129 built 1924.
part 4, 0-6-0F (fireless) Andrew Barclay works # 2059 built 1938

Johannesburg, Station forecourt - 1972, SAR Class 16B No 805

Joubertina Railway Station

NG80 part 1
NG80 part 2

Kaalfontein - Esselen Park College, SAR Class 15CA no's 2802 & 2804

Kimberley

"Big Hole" Mine Museum - "BEACONSFIELD" Steam Tram Loco
"Big Hole" Mine Museum - "OLIVE"
Railway Station, SAR Class 25NC No 3411

Klerksdorp

North West Transport Museum
Railway Station Platform, Class 7 #980

Klipplaat, Railway junction, SAR Class 15AR No 1840
Kroonstad, Station forecourt, SAR Class 10BR No. 756

Krugersdorp: SANRASM's Chamdor site (Just a memory!)
Krugersdorp: SANRASM

Lichtenburg NW Agricultural Museum

part 1, SAR Class 19D no 2711
part 2, ex-SAR Class 11 no 946

Louis Trichardt station, SAR Class 8 no 1090
Lydenburg, Station platform, Class 7A no 1029

Mafikeng Museum - SAR Class 6H No627
Matjiesfontein Village - Class 7 No 987
Middelburg MP, Municipality, Class 8A No 1127
Modimolle (Nylstroom), locomotive "Nylstroom"
Mookgophong (Naboomspruit), Municipal Offices, SAR Class 19D No 2534

Nababeep - Mine Museum:

"CLARA" built by Kitson & Co in 1891
The Namaqualand Copper Mine Railway - a brief history
Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Railway
"The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall
Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand
Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

Nigel

Main Street: Hudswell, Clarke Co Ltd. 0-6-0T works # 11486 built 1924
Union Carriage & Waggon Works Main Gate : SAR Class 6 No 432

Olifantsfontein: New: Brikor Limited, 1 Premier Rd: ex SAR A Class #176

Paddock - KZN, Locomotive Graveyard (former ACR engines)

Patensie, Station, NG81 SAR Class NGG13 Han 10633/1928
Pietermaritzburg (Hilton Station), KZN Railway Museum (possibly defunct?)
Polokwane (Pietersburg), locomotive "Pietersburg"
Port Alfred: The Sad History of the "AID" - Fox Walker 352/1877

Port Elizabeth

EPRFU Stadium, SAR Class 15AR No 1842
Humewood Road - Locomotive Graveyard

Potchefstroom station forecourt, Class 8A no 1097
Potgietersrus, Town, SAR Class 19D No2541

Pretoria

Fort Klapperkop Military Museum, SAR Class 6B No 498
Koedoespoort Workshops, SAR Class 6A No 482
Station Platform 4, SAR Class B No 47 (NZASM No 242)

Prieska, Station, SAR Class 7C No 1062

Queenstown

Queens Casino, Class 15AR no 2016
Station, Locomotive Graveyard

Riebeeckstad - Railway Museum (privately run)

Riversdale, Town Center Class 7 No970

Roodepoort

Florida Junction shopping centre - North British Locomotive works #24386 4-8-2T industrial locomotive
Railway Station - plinthed class 10BR no. 750

Rustenburg, Railway Station, Class 15CA no. 2055
Schweizer-Reneke, Town Centre, SAR Class 19D No 2682
Secunda, Sasol Synfuels East, ex-SAR Class 19B No 1413
Skukuza, Selati Train Restaurant, SAR Class 24 No 3638

Somerset West

AECI Firegrove Works: Borsig 7364 1909 Fireless Locomotive
Happy Days Pre-Primary School, Reservoir Road: Borsig 11796 1924 Fireless Locomotive

Sterkstroom, Municipality - SAR Class 19A No692
Strand: Children's Playground, Du Toit Street: Borsig 8370 1912 Fireless Locomotive
Theunissen, Town, SAR Class 16DA N0. 850

Touws River

Municipality - Class 23 No 2556
Touws River - Ladismith branch line (Makadas train) [1925-1981]
Ladismith line - more 1979/1980 historical photos by David Perl

Uitenhage, Old Railway Station Museum, SAR Classes 6B and 10BR locomotives
Upington, Railway Station - Class 7 No950 "Grietjie"
Vink siding, near Robertson (Gospel Express), SAR Class 15CA No 2828
Volksrust, Town Centre (Voortrekker Park), Class 19D no 2696
Vryburg, Town Centre, Class 19D No 3356
Wakkerstroom, Town, SAR Class 19D N0 2690
Warrenton, Town, SAR Class 19D No 2688

Witbank

Railway Station, SAR Class 11 No 942
Tiny Tots Nursery School, Avonside 1858/1...

Worcester Museum - old Loco Shed

Plinthed loco's ex Canefield Tramways:

Darnall, Sugar Mill, Avonside 1740/1916 "MR BUSS"
Durban, Sugar Terminal - Maydon Warf: Avonside 1422/1900
Gledhow, Sugar Mill, Hunslet 2647/1942
Mtubatuba, Umfolozi Village, ?Hunslet 1032/1914 relic
Umzinto, Indian Koran School, Hunslet 3385/1946
Witbank, Tiny Tots Nursery School, Avonside 1858/1...
SEZELA Sugar Mill: Sezela No 1 - Avonside 1719/1915
RENISHAW Sugar Estate: Renishaw No 2 - Avonside 1986/1926
The Kearsney-Stanger Light Railway (1901-c.1944)

Special Items:

Commemorative stamp issue - 150th anniversary of South African Railways

2. NAMIBIA

Keetmanshoop

Railway Station - Class 7A No1011
Railway Shed - SAR Class 24 no's 3611 & 3612
Railway Yard - Craven Brothers breakdown steam crane SAR no 45

Otjiwarongo, Railway Station
Rehoboth Museum, relics of Rehoboth Town Railway from 1913
Tsumeb, Museum
Usakos, Railway Station
Walvis Bay, HOPE

Windhoek

Alte Feste Museum
Windhoek, Railway Station

Some "Names" used for Steam Locomotive Classes and some none steam types.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

upcoming entries:

Vereeniging
White River
Nelspruit

Namaqualand gallery 5

2011-08-23T12:10:00.001+02:00

Under Construction

Namaqualand gallery 4

2011-08-23T12:09:00.000+02:00

Under Construction

Namaqualand gallery 3

2011-08-23T12:08:00.001+02:00

Under construction

Namaqualand gallery 2

2011-08-23T12:07:00.003+02:00

Under Construction

Annenous Station and Nonahams

Annenous was the historic steam train station for the transport of copper and Nonahams the watering point where the original fountain and dam still exist.The Meel road, also known as the postal road, meanders up the mountain from Annenous to Nonahams and continues to Steinkopf and was built in the 1860s. Today the road is only accessible to 4x4s.

Nonahams, situated at the top of the Namakwaland escarpment has ABW block houses and the start of the “meel pad” pass down the escarpment. Nonahams also supplied water to Anenous for the railway. This dam still stands today.
Annenous station and town lies at the bottom of the Namaqualand escarpment and supplied water for the steam trains travelling up the notorious Klipfontein pass. The Spektakel copper mule train also stopped here with its cargo of copper for export from Port Nolloth.

Annenous Station and Nonahams
Annenous was the historic steam train station for the transport of copper and Nonahams the watering point where the original fountain and dam still exist.The Meel road, also known as the postal road, meanders up the mountain from Annenous to Nonahams and continues to Steinkopf and was built in the 1860s. Today the road is only accessible to 4x4s.

• Klipfontein Hotel Ruins as well as two Water Tanks for the Kitson type locomotives lies next to the R382 where the world famous Namaqualand mule train overnighted on its way to and from Port Nolloth.

• Klipfontein Graves from the Anglo-Boer War skirmishes between the relieving British forces and the Boer Commandos at the end of the war.

• Nonahams Dam , situated at the top of the Namaqualand escarpment has Anglo-Boer War Blockhouses and the start of the "meel pad" pass down the escarpment. Nonahams also supplied water to Annenous for the railway. This dam still stands today.

• Annenous Station and town lies at the bottom of the Namaqualand escarpment and supplied water for the steam trains travelling up the notorious Annenous pass. The Spektakel copper mule train also stopped here with its cargo of copper for export from Port Nolloth.

• Annenous Pass has the ruins of South African War blockhouses as well as the remains of the foundations of the old railway viaducts that were built of wood. These can be seen from the old gravel road pass as well as one of the blockhouses.

Namaqualand gallery 1

2011-08-23T12:06:00.011+02:00

A little bit (April 1902) of Anglo-Boer War history and images relating to the Copper Railway.

Departing Port Nolloth station, a troop train on way to end the 4 April-4 May 1902 Siege of Okiep by Boers - 12 April 1902 - Springbok Lodge & Restaurant Collection

Col. Harry Cooper, with a substantial relief force, had been dispatched from Cape Town to Port Nolloth, arriving there on the 12th April 1902. They set off immediately by train and travelled as far as they could go.

The Barkly Viaduct in the Anenous Pass in 1902 or later. This picture can be dated in two ways. It shows the viaduct made of timber after being strengthened by extra pillars to carry the weight of the Kitson mountain locomotives. These engines were first introduced in 1890. However, on the right of the picture, an Anglo Boer War blockhouse is visible - this picture therefore was probably taken after the end of hostilities on 31 May 1902. The photo shows a "Special" for passengers, which in this case, was driven by gravity down the Anenous Pass. (original copy provided by HR Moffatt)

The Barkly Viaduct in 1902 or later. Slightly different view and image quality compared to the previous picture. - Nababeep Museum Collection.

BARKLY VIADUCT: Here seemingly a troop train with a Kitson mountain locomotive in charge, going down the Anenous Pass - the Anglo Boer War blockhouse, built of stone, is just visible in the right bottom corner. This picture may have been taken around April/May 1902. - Springbok Lodge & Restaurant Collection

Although the tracks had been torn up in places, the bridges and viaducts that had been guarded by blockhouses were still intact.

Klipfontein - April 1902 - Col Harry Cooper's column on their way to relieve the Boer siege of Okiep - The train is passing in front of the Klipfontein Hotel on left of big tree (compare tree in next picture) - Springbok Lodge & Restaurant Collection

They first encountered the enemy at a place called Klipfontein which was about 45 miles out of Okiep, but the Boers had withdrawn to some higher ground that commanded the railway line.

April 1902 showing English mounted soldiers at the Klipfontein station and hotel. From an account in Deneys Reitz's COMMANDO, it can be inferred that General Smuts, on his way from Okiep to the Peace Conference via port Nolloth, had a "grand luncheon" with the English officers stationed at Klipfontein. Malcolm Dyer Collection (original copy provided by HR Moffatt)

On the 14th, Col. Cooper managed to clear the Boers out of the area by the use of a shrapnel bombardment that caused heavy casualties. At that stage he signalled to Shelton by means of heliograph that he would be in Okiep within two days, but it was not to be. His relief force was again held up at Steinkopf, and it was not until the end of April that the Boers pulled out and retreated towards Okiep.

Back in Okiep, the Boers had captured the Shelton Blockhouse after its garrison had run out of ammunition and a dynamite bomb had collapsed its roof. However, Fort Shelton managed to hold out. Further attacks continued on the 13th, but were repelled by concentrated artillery fire. Bitter fighting continued unceasingly, but the defence held.

Then on the 25th April, General Smuts had to leave the Siege and make his way by special pass through the British lines, as he was required to attend the Peace Conference at Vereeniging. Some mention of his trip on the railway line from Okiep to Port Nolloth is made in Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War by Deneys Reitz - first published in 1929:

OKIEP SIEGE April1902: Showing the derailed 'PIONEER' 0-4-2 loco and overturned dynamite truck after a failed attempt by the Boer forces to run an unmanned loco with dynamite into Okiep via the Concordia branch line. Malcolm Dyer Collection (original copy provided by HR Moffatt)

Maritz, who had taken over from Smuts, tried to send a rail wagon packed with dynamite and driven by an unmanned steam locomotive along the railway line into Okiep. Fortunately for the defenders the locomotive was derailed by the barbed-wire entanglements and the dynamite truck overturned.

This 0-4-2 loco named 'PIONEER' - was run unmanned by Boer forces with dynamite load into Okiep - the loco was derailed by barbed-wire and no harm was done - presumably this picture was taken after the incident when the engine had been recovered - Nababeep Museum Collection

The relief column finally arrived in Okiep at noon on 4th May when Col. Cooper, who was the senior officer, took over from Col. Shelton. Shortly afterwards, the dispirited Boer commandos withdrew from Springbokfontein and Nababeep and by the 5th May the area was cleared.
Ten days later the Peace Conference started in Vereeniging culminating in peace being signed on 31st May 1902.

Sources:

Early railways at the Cape - Jose Burman - Human & Rousseau (1984)
The Men who would not March - The Surrender of Concordia, Namaqualand, 4 April 1902 by David Thomas published 2011 - Introduction.
S.A.MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY - Durban Branch November 1998 News Sheet No.285

Middelburg MP, Information Centre in Walter Sisulu Str: Class 8A #1127

2011-08-23T11:57:00.020+02:00

Earliest photo of this locomotive as taken by Richard Niven in 1995.

SAR Class 8A no 1127 Sharp, Steward and Co worksno 4863 built 1902 - photo taken at Middelburg municipality by Werna Maritz

Photo by Werna Maritz

By August 2011 I was not sure if the locomotive, donated by the Transnet Heritage Foundation to Middelburg municipality, was still plinthed at the municipal offices - even though the picture above appeared on their main webpage slideshow - Google Earth seemed to have no record of the engine, and I feared that it was likely to have been relocated or even scrapped?

Fortunately Gert Beetge came to my rescue with good news: The locomotive had been relocated a short distance away to a more visible position along Walter Sisulu Street, and plans are underway to restore the locomotive cosmetically - hopefully around November 2011 - if sponsors can be found soon enough.

Unless indicated otherwise, all the following photos were kindly taken and provided by Gert Beetge:

Still plinthed at the Middelburg Civic Centre - 14 Nov 2009 photo: Gert Beetge.

14 Nov 2009 photo: Gert Beetge.

14 Nov 2009 photo: Gert Beetge.

14 Nov 2009 photo: Gert Beetge.

This Google Earth capture shows the old location of the plinth at the Municipality and also the new plinth at the Middelburg Information Centre along Walter Sisulu Street.

Plinth at Middelburg Information Centre along Walter Sisulu Street. GPS coordinates: S 25 46 38.59 E 29 26 57.11

This article (in Afrikaans) printed in the MIDDELBURG OBSERVER, tells how Gert Beetge, while doing an early morning jog, was instrumental in the arrest of a scrap metal thieve who was caught red-handed collecting copper pipe off the old locomotive. His excuse? "It's just an old Train!" This happened in November 2010.

Latest status as reported in the MIDDELBURG OBSERVER dated 27 Sept 2011.

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

25 Sept 2011 photo: Gert Beetge

The locomotive dates from 1902, however the boiler plate shows that this boiler had been in use since 1929, and that the last boiler certificate expired on 8 June 1973.

A sister engine #1097 is plinthed at Potchefstroom station.

SAR Class 8 4-8-0 "Cape 8th"

The Cape Government Railways (CGR) 8th class was conceived as a mixed-traffic locomotive equally suitable for goods or passenger work. They were designed by H.M. Beatty and had larger driving wheels than the 7th class. The 4-8-0 examples were actually based on a pair of 2-8-0 engines imported by the CGR in 1901 from the American Locomotive Co, which later became the SAR Class 8X. While they retained the bar frames of these engines, Beatty added a bogie to improve the ride. The first order from the CGR consisted of 23 locomotives delivered by Neilson, Reid and Co in 1902 and 1903 and were placed in service throughout the colony. They became SAR class 8.

In 1902, 40 engines of the CGR 8th-class design were ordered by the Imperial Military Railway from Neilson, Reid and Co, and Sharp, Stewart and Co. These became the 8L-1 on the CSAR and later Class 8A on the SAR.

Under AG Watson, chief mechanical engineer of the SAR during 1929-35, many of the front ends of the 8th classes were redesigned, using piston instead of slide valves, and the engines were superheated.

The 8th class had fine engines, and saw service on every system of the SAR, becoming the mainstay of motive power on many branch lines in the 1920s. They ended their days on shunting service until 1972 when all were withdrawn.

This photo of SAR Class 8 no 1088 showing the locomotive in the form which the class 8 was originally built. The Class 8A would appear identical. Of note is the Stephenson slide valve gear visible in the photo. In the years 1929-36 when AG Watson was chief mechanical engineer of the SAR, many of the class 8 locomotives were upgraded with piston valve gear, such as is visible on the locomotive plinthed at Potchefstroom station. (The original photo above was taken by SH Carter and appears in DF Holland's Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways.)

ex-CSAR No's 401 - 440.

Builders and Year........: Neilson, Reid & Co. & Sharp Stewart and Co. (1902)
Numbering................: 1092 - 1131
Wheel Arrangement........: 4-8-0
Driving Wheel Diameter...: 4 ft. 0 in.
Cylinders................: 2 x 18½ in. x 24 in.
Valve Gear...............: Stephenson's Link Motion
. . . . N O T E: Many were later converted to Piston Valve Gear
Boiler Pressure..........: 180 lbs per square in.
Grate Size...............: 21.3 square ft.
Tractive Force...........: 23,100 lbs
Length...................: 54 ft. 5 in.
Weight...................: 58 tons 1,300 lbs
Axle Load................: 11 tons 1,600 lbs
Tender Weight............: 43 tons 100 lbs
Coal Capacity............: 10 tons
Water Capacity...........: 3,000 gallons
Tender Types.............: XC, XC1, XD, XE, XE1, XF, XF1, XF2, XJ, XM, XM1, XM2 & XM3

Sources:

Railways of Southern Africa - Locomotive Guide 1994 by John Middleton
SAR Steam 3ft 6in SAR Class 8A Tender

Allanridge: (old) Mine Club House - ex-Loraine Gold Mine No 1 - 4-8-2T NBL "Pauline"

2011-07-21T10:26:00.008+02:00

In July 2011 Rick Turner sent me a photo with these comments: Saw your web site and thought that I'd contribute this - a tank loco that we used to use on Loraine Gold Mine in Allanridge (north of Odendaalsrus) in the Vrystaat during the 1980's for hauling ore cars on the surface from the #3 shaft to the plant at #1 shaft, where this picture was taken.

It dates from 1983 some time - looking at the clear blue sky and light it would seem to be winter, so around the middle of that year. I don't have any more info on the loco unfortunately, nor do I know where it now is.

This 4-8-2T locomotive, supplied new to Loraine Gold Mine as No 1, was built in 1951 as works no 27090 according to the standard NBL 20" x 24" design. Somewhere during its history it also picked up plates from NBL 27404, which served as No 2 at the mine. By 1991 No 1 was plinthed outside the mine offices.

During its working life, it would have hauled reef over a distance of 8km between 3 shaft and 1 shaft at Allanridge, where the offices, workshops, loco shed and reduction plant were located. At 3km there was a 4km branch which lead to an exchange siding with the SAR.

The Loraine Gold Mine was popular with photographers as a dirt road along the mine's railway provided many vantage points. Also the locomotives were kept in immaculate condition!

17 Jan 2002:
Donald Bell reported on the web on 17/1/2002 he visited: Loraine Mine Allanridge (Target Gold) has closed and the railway lifted. The loco shed was well locked and in a compound, with track lifted. The preserved 4-8-2T Loraine 1 (two smokebox plates NB 27090/51 and one cabside 27404/54) has been moved 50 metres and through 45 degrees since my last visit.

21 July 2011:
I consulted with Jacque Wepener, who is the specialist on things railways in the Free State, and he in no time provided me with photos and information about the whereabouts of this locomotive: Currently it is plinthed at the old Mine Club House at Allanridge, and had been there for more than 10 years - it was moved there when access roads were re-built.

The following four photos, which were all taken on 10 January 2008, are courtesy of Jacque Wepener.

This builder's plate appears on the locomotive's cab, and actually belongs to the original Loraine Gold Mine No 2 NB locomotive built 3 years later in 1954.

11-08-2003 Google Earth view of the old mine's club including the golf course, the town on the right, at the bottom of the image the workshops and offices of the old mine can be seen.

Sources:

Industrial Locomotives of South Africa - 1991 - John Middleton / Huw Williams

Cape Town - Monument Station: Atlantic Rail's operation of SAR 24 #3655 (in steam)

2011-04-28T20:59:00.083+02:00

A Celebration of Images

My special thanks to each of the photographers, who without hesitation, gave permission for their images to be shown in this blog entry.

Usually this blog concerns itself with raising awareness about old cold and forgotten steam locomotives - hoping that, maybe, this will lead to more active preservation of some of these fascinating relics of the industrial revolution.

However, when Shane Swartz inquired whether I would be interested in posting photos of Atlantic Rail's SAR 24 #3655 operation, I felt that, yes, we can take the liberty on the blog of celebrating at least one locomotive with a valid boiler certificate as a show case of the ultimate restoration result - and in the Cape Peninsula we have such a magnificent background against which to do so!!!

As this entry stands now, it represents the successful endeavours of several photographers to catch most pleasing images of #3655 as she goes about her task of working the Atlantic Rail train. I have tried to comment and credit each photo correctly - please contact me if something is out of line ...

Brief Background

The following information comes from Atlantic Rail's facebook page:

"Steam haulage officially ended on South African Railways in 1991. Since that time enthusiasts have been working to keep steam heritage alive. Two such enthusiasts are Ian Pretorius and Greg Smith of Cape Town who recently formed Atlantic Rail. For many years there have been no heritage trains operating in the Cape Town area and Atlantic Rail aims to shortly rectify this situation by running weekend steam hauled day trips between Cape Town and Simonstown."

"At present Atlantic Rail operates a 130 ton ex SAR class 24 2-8-4 steam locomotive built in 1948 and historic coaches which were saved by enthusiasts of the Cape Western Railway Society who were unfortunately unable to operate them on the national rail network. It has taken nearly two years of hard work by Atlantic Rail to bring the rolling stock up to a standard suitable for public use and obtain the necessary agreements to run with the Rail Safety Regulator, Transnet and Metrorail."

"In addition to the operational train, Atlantic Rail is the guardian of three other locomotives which are part of the Transnet National Collection. It is hoped that eventually they too can be restored to running condition. One of this trio is the ‘Red Devil’ which was converted in 1981 from an earlier type into one of the worlds most powerful, modern and efficient steam locomotives."

"Both Ian and Greg are passionate about steam and heritage transport in general. Being lifelong enthusiasts they have great experience in the preservation and operation of both trains and heritage road transport. Ian started his rail career in SANRASM, a rail preservation group from Johannesburg and later ran the successful Union Limited steam railtour operation for the Transnet Heritage Foundation. Greg is an English enthusiast who started a couple of succesful preservation schemes in the UK and also preserved many historic road vehicles, he came to live in South Africa in 2002 since when he has become involved in the heritage transport revival in Cape Town. Greg and Ian are assisted in their endeavours by the recently formed ‘Friends of Atlantic Rail’ a group of volunteers who give their time and labour free of charge and they feel that this is an important step as the specialist knowledge of running and maintaining steam locomotives needs to be taken up by a younger generation to provide for the nations transport heritage in the future."

Class 24 No 3655 belongs to the Cape Western Railway Museum Trust, and the locomotive and coaches are on lease to Atlantic Rail, this used to be the consist that operated the Epping Market Choo Choo.

Atlantic Rail Open Day: 8 Aug 2010

On Saturday 28 June 2008, class 24 2-8-4 no 3655 hauled the first steam trip for Atlantic Rail ending a 16 month steam drought in the Western Cape.

12:48 8 Aug 2010 - Atlantic Rail Open Day: This 5 second time exposure shows the coaches behind #3655 being filled with passengers, before departing for another run. Image courtesy of Fanie Kleynhans - this photo first published on RailPictures.

This photo courtesy of Brett Bradloff. SAR Class 24 #3655 has her own Wikipedia page here.

The locomotive in use at Atlantic Rail is No. 3655 (Builder's Number: NBL 26367) and was originally used in the then South West Africa (now Namibia). After being withdrawn from service there, she was used at the Paarden Eiland / Belville. Later, 3655 was moved to Touws River in the Karoo for use on the Ladismith branch line until that was shut down. 3655 was then left idle and unused in Touws River until she was donated to Cape Western Vintage Railways who restored her. FoAR member Kenny Campbell was on the footplate when 3655 was fetched from Touws River.

3655 is now leased by Atlantic Rail from Cape Western Vintage Railways and Atlantic Rail has taken over responsibility for maintaining her.

In mid 2010 Atlantic Rail was a new operator planning to return steam to the Cape Town area. They planned to run trains along the ultra-scenic commuter rail line to Simonstown. An open day was held on Sunday 8th August 2010. Here we see the train start from the old parcels platform at Cape Town station. The other star of the day was stored Class 26 No. 3450 "The Red Devil" which had been cleaned up by AR volunteers and put on display. Maybe, just maybe, one day we'll see her in steam on the front of an AR train! These comments were made by the photographer Peter Rogers. The image was first uploaded to RailPictures.

Getting Atlantic Rail off the ground was with many difficulties, but these were finally cracked with a lot of personal financial sacrifice; also a lot of help from many different sources. It shows that there are still some really good souls out there who actually care about keeping steam on rail – no tons of coal donated here! By the way in 2008 a ton of coal in Cape Town cost in excess of R1 000 and so did a boiler flue tube for a class 24.

Monument Station

8 August 2010. #3655 leaves Monument station and looks diminutive against the almost alive Red Devil, which shines after gathering dust for a couple of years. The Red Devil is the sole member (#3450) of SAR Class 26 - more information here on Wikipedia. Photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

12 December 2010. #3655 on her way. Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

8 August 2010. 3655 heading the Atlantic Rail train at Monument. This photo was first published to RRPictureArchives.NET by the photographer Col André Kritzinger.

Class 24 No 3655 belongs to the Cape Western Railway Museum Trust and the locomotive and coaches are on lease to Atlantic Rail - this used to be the consist that operated the Epping Market Choo Choo.

8 August 2010. 3655 heading the Atlantic Rail train at Monument. This photo was first published to Wikimedia by the photographer Col André Kritzinger.

On 24 September 2008 (Heritage Day), Ian Pretorius’ new Atlantic Rail venture ran another well-supported steam-hauled trip to Simon’s Town behind class 24 no 3655. Passengers – who braved a cold, wet day (maximum temperature 15 degrees) – enjoyed a bonus along the False Bay coast, where some 15 whales were spotted. The Simon’s Town Fire Department provided water for the locomotive and Rikki’s Taxis ran passengers to and from the town centre.

Shane's title here "Model Train" - 27 February 2011 - photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

The train leaves Cape Town and travels between the famous Newlands rugby and cricket grounds to Muizenburg. Traveling on to False Bay where the view of the ocean is spectacular. The railway line skirts the rocks as it travels through the quaint village of Kalk Bay, then snakes through Fish Hoek and Glencairn, finally coming to an end in Simonstown with a view of the naval dockyard.

Muizenberg

Muizenberg station - 27 February - photo courtesy Shane Swartz

Near St James station - Muizenberg in background. photo courtesy Shane Swartz

Kalk Bay to Simon's Town

Kalk Bay Viaduct - December 2010 - photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

Kalk Bay Viaduct - April 2011 - photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

Atlantic Rail's locomotive "City of Cape Town", Class 24, No 3655 on it's way through St. James (Fish Hoek). St. James tidal pool in foreground, 12.12.2010 - Photo kind courtesy of Beat H Schweizer. This image was first posted here on www.bahnbilder.de.

In the Clovelly bend just before Fish Hoek; 12.12.2010 - Photo kind courtesy of Beat H Schweizer. This image was first posted here on www.bahnbilder.de.

In the Clovelly bend just before Fish Hoek; 12.12.2010 - Photo kind courtesy of Beat H Schweizer. This image was first posted here on www.bahnbilder.de.

Nearing Sunny Cove Station: 15 February 2011 Photo courtesy Shane Swartz.

Nearing Sunny Cove station with Fish Hoek in the background. Shane commented: There's a foot bridge just before Sunny Cove station - I was standing on the stairs to get this angle for the previous two photos. 15 February 2011 Photo courtesy Shane Swartz.

12 December 2011 - Steam Train & Sea Water ... Along the edge of False Bay - Photo courtesy Brett Radloff.

12 December 2011 - Nearing Glencairn Station - Photo courtesy Brett Radloff.

Simon's Town

Nearing Glencairn Station - Photo courtesy Shane Swartz.

Glencairn Station - Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

By 2011, the Atlantic Rail company was running successful steam train trips from Cape Town to Simon’s Town behind class 24 2-8-4 no 3655 on Sunday 27 February, and repeating the excursion on Sunday 6 March. The train made one intermediate stop at Kalk Bay (2km before Fish Hoek) and returned after a break of three hours at Simon’s Town. The adult return fare was R220, children 3-12, R110. At a lesser figure the 72km operation (there and back) would not be viable because of the heavy costs involved – like R10,000 for the six tons of coal consumed on every trip.

12:14 12 December 2010. Photo courtesy of Mel Andrzejewski.

12:21 12 December 2010. The train has been bogged down by windblown sand. The last section of the track to Simon's Town had been in disuse for months after damage by the sea to the track foundation. When the Atlantic Rail train got permission to go through to Simon's Town the line had not been reopened officially yet. Only one man works here, because only the fireman's shovel was available. Eventually the solution was to gently let the locomotive roll the sand out of the way. Photo courtesy of Mel Andrzejewski.

27 March 2011 - The Atlantic Rail train has arrived in Simon's Town and the passengers have free time to spend as they like before the train departs again. Photo courtesy of Allan Roy.

27 March 2011 - The Atlantic Rail train in Simon's Town - 3655 being inspected by a AR staff menber. Photo courtesy of Allan Roy.

Simon's Town Siding - 27 February 2011 - photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

Simon's Town Siding - 27 February 2011 - photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

Simon's Town Siding - 27 February 2011 - photo courtesy of Shane Swartz.

Atlantic Rail ready for departure from Simons Town's platform 1, with Class 24 No. 3655 running backwards to Monument Station at Cape Town. 27 March 2011 photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

27 March 2011: Atlantic Rail's Class 24 No. 3655 is equally at home running tender-first for the return journey from Simonstown. This image courtesy of Peter Rogers - it was first published on RailPictures.

The train is coming back from Simon's Town - as there are no facilities to turn the locomotive, it is now heading the train backward. Photo courtesy Shane Swartz.

With a cowcatcher on both ends of the engine, the Class 24 #3655 is at ease doing the job in any direction. Photo courtesy Shane Swartz.

13 February 2011 - On the way back to Cape Town, the Atlantic Rail train spends some time at Sunny Cove station. Photo courtesy Allan Roy.

13 February 2011 - At Sunny Cove station - Fish Hoek town visible in the background. Photo courtesy Allan Roy.

13 February 2011 - Sunny Cove station - 3655 lets off some excess steam. Photo courtesy Allan Roy.

13 February 2011 - Atlantic Rail train departing Sunny Cove station. Photo courtesy Allan Roy.

Some home base images

8 August 2010 - Early hours of the morning 1 - Photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

8 August 2010 - Early hours of the morning 2 - Photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

April 2011 - "The night shift" - A super shiny 3655 stands at Monument's platform 29 in the early hours of the morning. Photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

April 2011 - "The night shift" - A super shiny 3655 stands at Monument's platform 29 in the early hours of the morning. Photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

This photo taken Sunday evening 24 April 2011: Peter commented: "Spent an interesting weekend with the guys from Atlantic Rail. They ran two 'Easter Bunny' trains on Easter Monday 2011 from Cape Town via Langa, Bonteheuwel, Belville and return. Last night I joined them for the lighting up of the loco. The photo shows a bit of a haze around the loco as the fire starts drawing. This image was first published in the FOTR forum and is courtesy of Peter Rogers.

12:22 25 April 2011. Here #3655 is all ready for duty. On the right are the former SPIER coaches. Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

25 April 2011 - A shot by Pat with Kenny oiling under the engine

25 April 2011: #3655 on her way to take on water. Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

1 May 2011 taking on water - Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

"Other" Images

Atlantic Rail Santa Special 18 December 2010 - #3655 rounds the bend at Parow Golf club on the afternoon Santa Special - Photo courtesy of Stefan Andrzejewski.

Ndabeni - 3655 was crawling up the bank here, and sounded wonderful! Bit of wheel slip too near the top! 1 May 2011 - photo courtesy of Brett Radloff

25 April 2011 Easter Monday - Atlantic Rail ran two 'Easter Bunny' trains from Cape Town via Langa, Bonteheuwel, Belville and return. This image shows the morning run near Epping - Old Mutual HQ in Pinelands in the background - This photo is courtesy of Peter Rogers and was first published on the FOTR forum and also in RailPictures.

16:48 28 June 2008: Milnerton - The Atlantic Rail train rolling along the Table Bay sunset route towards the harbour in the back where the loco (#3655) will run around, and the train will come back this way. Image courtesy of Fanie Kleynhans. First uploaded to RailPictures.

This trip was along the Table Bay Sunset route, which meanders around the Atlantis line - underneath the Ysterplaat underpass - running along Table Bay to Unity Yard, and returning via the same route. Departure was at 15:00, due back by 18:00.

18:01 28 June 2008: Milnerton: Here she (#3655) comes back .... Image courtesy of Fanie Kleynhans. First uploaded to RailPictures.

18:02 28 June 2008: Milnerton: A brilliant photo! Image courtesy of Fanie Kleynhans. First uploaded to RailPictures.

Earlier Era Images

11 March 2005 - Milnerton - The Spier sunset cocktail train piloted by #3655, riding at sunset along beautiful Table Bay. This image courtesy Fanie Kleynhans was found on RailPictures.

9 May 2006: 3655 for Roadworthy at Culemborg Yard - photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

11 May 2006 #3655 at Monument Station - photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

24 May 2006 - 3655, spending the day at Culemborg for servicing - photo courtesy of Brett Radloff.

Galleries

Danie van der Merwe: 2011 Valentines Day Steam Train to Fish Hoek on flickr. This also shows the insides of the vintage coaches.

Luca Lategan's: Some photos from Atlantic Rail's first steaming weekend, 10-12 Dec 2010.

Luca Lategan's: General photos about Atlantic Rail.

Videos

Youtube Video: Atlantic Rail's SAR 24 3655 in action.
Length: 00:01:55, Date: 9 August 2010.
Author: Transkaroo
Detail: Cape Town's first sighting of steam for a couple of years. Here Class 24 3655 goes through her paces delighting thousands of fans young and old alike. Although the trip was just in and out of Monument Station everyone alighted with broad smiles on their Faces. Long live steam in Cape Town

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Youtube Video: Atlantic Rail's SAR 24 3655 in action.
Length: 00:00:49, Date: February 2011.
Author: Allan Roy
Detail: Atlantic Rail leaving Sunnycove station for Fish Hoek

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Youtube Video: Atlantic Rail's SAR 24 3655 in action.
Length: 00:01:40, Date: 09 January 2011.
Author: Chairmansa
Detail: 1948 Class 24 steam locomotive hauling 1930's carriages operating in the Western Cape,South Africa under Atlantic Rail.Photoshoot drive past Glencairn Sunday 09 January 2011.

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Youtube Video: Atlantic Rail's SAR 24 3655 in action.
Length: 00:02:02, Date: 30 Janruary 2011.
Author: Chairmansa
Detail: Steam train Atlantic Rail through Heathfield Station Sunday January 30 2011

Facebook video uploaded by Andre Kritzinger: taken on 1 May 2011 at Monument Station, Cape Town.

Additional Information

Atlantic Rail has it own webpage, where one may find schedules for steam day trips and other information including a comprehensive gallery of photos.

Atlantic Rail is also here on facebook.

Brikor Limited, 1 Premier Rd, Olifantsfontein: ex SAR A Class #176

2011-04-28T20:54:00.015+02:00

All the photos shown in this entry are by kind courtesy of the photographer - Hennie Heymans and all were taken on 13 December 2010.

4-8-2T ex SAR A class #176 - Dübs works nr 3823 built in 1900.

The locomotive is plinthed at Brikor Limited, at 1 Premier Street, Olifantsfontein.

Formerly the Brikor site here was known as Cullinan Refractories Ltd. The Refractory brickworks was just west of the SAR Germiston-Pretoria line - north of the Olifantsfontein station, but the brickworks was served by a 2km line from the north end of the station yards. The tank engine is preserved just inside of the main gate of the Brikor works.

Hennie specially draws attention to the unusual cowcatcher.

This locomotive represents the so-called "Tank Engine" type. The majority of steam locomotives in existence around 1900, the year when this engine was built by Dübs & Co in Glasgow, Scotland, were of this type.

Willie, the manager at Brikor. The locomotive is inside Brikor's premises, so if you want to see the locomotive, the best time would be during business hours.

Paxton & Bourne offer the following notes on the SAR Class A:

"In 1887 William Milne, the locomotive superintendent of the Natal Government Railways, designed the first locomotive of a 4-8-2 wheel arrangement in use anywhere in the world. During 1888 and 1889, 100 of these tank locomotives were built by Dübs & Co. They were classified "Dübs A" on the NGR."

Class A as originally built

Frank Holland remarks:

Their performance in service was gradually improved by various modifications. New boilers were fitted as the original wore out, having a working pressure 160lb as against 140lb, thus increasing their tractive force from 16,340lb to 18,670lb at 75% boiler pressure. The coal bunker capacity was increased, and the connecting rod big-ends were changed to the marine type to give greater ground clearance.

After some years of service, #176 was fitted with a Bellpaire Firebox - this necessitated moving the tanks outwards - more detail below.

A big improvement was made in 1905 after D.A. Hendrie took over from Reid. He fitted them with Belpaire Fireboxes with a wider grate, and to accomplish this he raised the boiler centre line by 4,5 inches and cut away the frames under the firebox.

Possibly the conversion to a Belpaire Firebox was done in 1924 after the locomotive had been in service for some 14 years.

To accommodate the wider firebox, the tanks had to be moved out, and the opportunity was taken to improve the cab, thus affording the engine crew better protection. In this form they known as the "Improved Dübs A", and very successful in operation.

We continue with Paxton & Bourne:

"After being displaced from the Natal main line, they were used on the Dundee-Hlobane branch, the Harrismith-Ladysmith section and the north coast line."

"On the SAR these engines became Class A, numbers 97-196. In 1915, during the acute motive power shortage resulting from the war, a further two Class A locomotives, No 332 and 333, were constructed wholly from spares in the Durban workshops. They were all fitted with plate frames and Stephenson's link motion."

"In later years, 21 of these locomotives were converted by the removal of the coal bunker and rear pony truck to become Class 17 tender-tank locomotives"

As these engines became redundant in later years on the SAR, many of them were sold to mines and industrial concerns where they have continued give good service - The last of the Class A were withdrawn from SAR service in 1962.

This diagram provided by Hennie Heymans.

Google Earth Map showing the location of the "Cullinan".

Google Earth Map showing the location of the "Cullinan".

A Dübs tank SAR class A sister engine is plinthed at Reefsteamers Germiston Depot, "PATRYS" SAR Class A No 130.

Sources:

Locomotives of the South African Railways - Leith Paxton & David Bourne - Struik - 1985
Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways - Vol 1: 1859-1910 - DF Holland - Purnell 1971
Industrial Locomotives of South Africa by John Middleton and Huw Williams - Beyer-Garrat Publications - 1991.

VOORBAAI Loco Shed (Hartenbos): February 2011 Images

2011-04-16T19:56:00.015+02:00

On Sunday 20 February 2011, from about 16h40 to 18h00, we made a quick photographic tour of the Voorbaai Locomotive shed and yard near Hartenbos. We were aware that there would be no activities at all. The area has 24h security, to whom we duly reported. The area is accessible to interested persons on all week days at all hours. We noted that foot patrols were done by security staff carrying walkie-talkies, which gave the impression that the locomotives at the site were safe from metal scavengers.

As our time was limited, and we could not collect all information, like boiler numbers, to help identify unmarked locomotives, therefore I am not able to identify all locomotives in my image collection.

Some locomotives are paint-marked with a "S", presumably meaning "Scrap"(bad) or "Store"(better!).

Please CLICK on any of the images to get an larger view.

SAR 19D #2749 in the Shed at Voorbaai.

Looking out of the shed, a glimpse of SAR 19D #3324

SAR 19D #3324

SAR 19D #3324

SAR 19D #3324

Unidentified

SAR GMAM #4122

SAR GMAM #4122

SAR GMAM carrying name plate "KRUGERSDORP"

SAR GMAM carrying name plate "KRUGERSDORP"

SAR GMAM carrying name plate "KRUGERSDORP"

4-8-2 SAR Class 19D 3322 built in 1949. She had been converted to an oil burner; Builder's number 26042 (North British).

Group of 3 loco's - loco on left is 2-8-4 Class 24 No 3635 built 1949; Builder's number 26347 (North British)

Closer showing two - the engine on the right is 2-8-4 Class 24 No 3606, which went into service in 1949; Builder's number 26318 (North British)

Closer, showing only one.

4-8-2 SAR Class 19B 1412 built around 1930; Builder's number 9838 (Berliner).

2-8-4 Class 24 No 3635 built 1949; Builder's number 26347 (North British)

SAR 24 #3632 and SAR 24 3693, both marked "S"

SAR 19D #3334 (converted to oil burner)

SAR 24 #3632 marked "S"

Ex RR/NRZ (Zimbabwe) Class 14A #508

Ex RR/NRZ (Zimbabwe) Class 14A #508 & Class 16A #615

far left: Ex RR/NRZ (Zimbabwe) Class 14A #508 & Class 16A #615

SAR 19D #2683

Some Union Limited Coaches.

Entrances to the coaches are bared with steel plates.

Some general scenes follow

On the left the Union Limited, on the right SAR 24 3693 marked "S"

on the right SAR 24 3693 marked "S"

SAR 19D #2683

SAR GMAM #4122 is in the middle of the image

Source:

Identification Aid - RR Pictures taken in Voorbaai, Mosselbaai, WC (Andre Kritzinger)

Potchefstroom Station Forecourt, SAR Class 8A no 1097

2011-02-26T10:37:00.012+02:00

In February 2011, Ian Hardie emailed me with this note:

"I don’t see listed on your web page the Class 8 loco standing outside Potchefstroom Station. When last seen it looked fairly complete, probably because it had a hive of bees living between the frames!"

Lack of pictures was the reason for the missing blog entry, and Ian kindly helped to provide some pictures taken in 2008.

Autumn 2008 photo by courtesy of Ian Hardie.

This locomotive is a SAR Class 8A engine number 1097.

This engine was built in 1902 by Neilson, Reid & Co Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland as their works number 6181.

Panoramic photo by Jacques Philip Cato , Taken 14:48, 29/12/2009 - original 360 degree view may be seen here:
Steam Train At Potchefstroom Train Station in South Africa

The front-end of this locomotive is not in the form in which the locomotive was originally built, but modified in the the years 1929-36 - see text below for more details.

Autumn 2008 photo by courtesy of Ian Hardie.

A sister engine #1127 is(was? -in 2011) plinthed at the municipality buildings in Middelburg MP.

SAR Class 8 4-8-0 "Cape 8th"

Autumn 2008 photo by courtesy of Ian Hardie.

Railways of Southern Africa - Locomotive Guide 1994 by John Middleton
SAR Steam 3ft 6in SAR Class 8A Tender

Boksburg - Bokkie Park: North British Locomotive works #24520 4-8-2T industrial locomotive

2010-11-02T17:25:00.007+02:00

11-10-2010 photo: Clinton Hattingh

This standard design 4-8-2T (20"x24") industrial tank locomotive was built in 1938 in Glasgow by North British Locomotive Co. as works number 24520.

11-10-2010 photo: Clinton Hattingh

Over 50 of these standard NBL 4-8-2T and 4-8-4T locomotives were delivered for service at South African mines.

11-10-2010 photo: Clinton Hattingh

This one first saw service as Crown Mines No. 8 at this famous old mine about 3 km south west of Johannesburg city centre.

11-10-2010 photo: Clinton Hattingh

Crown Mines closed in 1977. Around 1979 No. 8 was then moved by Rand Mines to East Rand Proprietary Mines Ltd (ERPM) at Boksburg. The locomotive was intended be used as spares, and this may explain some missing parts as are visible in the photos. Around 1997 the locomotive was moved to its current position at Bokkie Park in Boksburg.

The "station and platform" - the coaches have been converted to be used for kitchen / cafeteria facilities - 11-10-2010 photo: Clinton Hattingh

Close sisters of this locomotive may be seen at

Google Map with location information for the Boksburg Bokkie Park locomotive.

Thanks to:

Derek Walker for following up on this locomotive (please check his Bokkie Park webpage.)
Clinton Hattingh for taking the pictures
John Middleton for providing a brief history for this NBL loco.

Ladismith line: More historical photos by David Perl

2010-08-18T15:42:00.013+02:00

All the photos (unless stated otherwise) in this entry, were taken by David Perl. Other contributions by David may be found in the Ladismith Makadas entry.

David did two other trips on the LS line; in June 1979, and in November 1980.

David wrote in April 2010: I finally unearthed the Ladismith slides from my first trip. For this one, my dad drove us up (me, my brother and sister. We parked at Touws River station, and we hopped on the train to Ladismith. I clearly remember it being FREEZING, and of course, the heater in the coach decided to die. I'm still trying to warm up 31 years later!

Interestingly, our trip was inspired by that famous CP Lewis photo of the class 7 - the one you include in your blog:

May 1971 photo courtesy © CP Lewis. This was the Makadas headed by Class 7A no. 1011 working up the last mile into Ladismith. This brilliant picture appears as a double page spread in THE GREAT STEAM TREK published in 1978.

Unfortunately, the slides themselves were lousy quality. I must have used some crapola no-name brand, and they all have a pink cast on them, plus horizontal lines across the middle. However, I did a little Photoshopping, and now they're somewhat presentable.

As always, feel free to use them, or simply enjoy a little history.

Regards,

David Perl

Ladismith, 1 June 1979

The train is approaching Ladismith town.

Taking the last bend towards Ladismith Station.

The train came in uphill, and under this bridge, to enter Ladismith station.

From the bridge this was the view of Ladismith station. At the far end of the station, the class 24 can be seen taking in water into its auxiliary tank. On the left - just before the goods shed, people are busy loading/unloading freight.

A closer shot.

Still taking on water - already refueled with coal.

A peaceful scene.

The engine marches up from the water point to resume her task.

Awaiting departure for Touws River.

Pedestrians continue to use a bypass in front of the train.

FEBRUARY 1980

Refueling at the coal bunker.

A closeup at the 144 km post - the distance to Touws River.

Some oxen had to catch the train!

Loading the cattle. Note the loco driver on the left, who had to move the train a few yards every now and then, to line up the next cattle truck door with the gangway for the animals.

The train on its way with the cattle trucks loaded. A refrigerator truck, with its outboard cooling unit visible, is seen near the front of the train. This may have been loaded with the famous Ladismith cheese destined for Cape Town.

On the way to Touws River - around sunset.

A wayside station scene on the way to Touws River.

Sunset from a Steam Train and the end of a memorable day.

Return to the Ladismith Makadas entry.

Port Alfred: Kowie Railway (1883-1913)

2010-08-16T17:17:00.018+02:00

Under Construction !!!!
This article will only deal with the early history [1881-1912] of the "Kowie Railway" line as a private operation before the line was taken over by the South African Railways.

The Cape Government passed - early in 1881 - a bill which authorized the construction of the Grahamstown - Port Alfred line using the Cape gauge of 3 ft. 6 in.. The government agreed to subsidize the builders of the line with £500,000. The private enterprise which started off with a capital of £200,000, was named the Kowie Railway Co., Ltd.

The first manager of the Kowie Railway, was Mr Henry Putt, a resident of Grahamstown. Later he became Director of the enterprise, which was eventually liquidated in 1912, and in February 1913 the line was taken over by the Government through the South African Railways.

30 percent of the 43-mile line had 1-in-50 gradients, and about 6 percent of the line had 1-in-40 gradients. The major constructional problem (see further below) was the erection of the bridge at the Blaauwkrantz ravine.

During 1882 the line was partially opened, but the completion of the Blaauwkrantz Bridge delayed full operations for public traffic to Grahamstown until 3rd December, 1884.

The S.S. Rothesay landed at Port Alfred on 22nd May 1882 with two locomotives for the Kowie Railway Co., Ltd. The Kowie Railway Co. had ordered four locomotives from Hunslet Co. of Leeds.

The "Grahamstown" Hunslet works no 294/1882. Photo: South African Railways & Harbours Board.

Two were 4-4-0 tanks for passenger service. Coal deposits had yet to be discovered in Southern Africa, and coal for steam locomotives had to imported all the way across the sea from England. Therefore these engines were designed for wood burning, and were therefore fitted with large American-type balloon stacks incorporating a sparks arrester. This detracted quite a bit from their looks!

The passenger tank engines were named Grahamstown and Bathurst being respectively Hunslet works no's 294 and 295. They had a working order weight of 27 tons 0 cwt, carrying 650 gallons of water and 11/2 tons of coal (or wood equivalent). The 29 ft 0 in long locomotive had a tractive force of 8450 lbs at 160 lbs boiler pressure. The locomotives employed Stephensons valve gear and had a 13in x 20in cylinder design.

The "Port Alfred" Hunslet works no 277/1882. Photo: South African Railways & Harbours Board.

The two goods locomotives, with 0-6-0 wheel configuration, were named "Port Alfred" and "Kowie", being respectively Hunslet works no's 277 and 278. They had a more pleasing appearance, being of conventional design. They had a working order weight of 22 tons 10 cwt, carrying 550 gallons of water and 11/2 tons of coal. The 22 ft 10 in long locomotive had a tractive force of 9120 lbs at 160 lbs boiler pressure. The locomotives employed Stephensons valve gear and had a 12in x 19in cylinder design.

For unknown reasons, the two 0-6-0 goods locomotives were converted to 4-4-0's in 1884. This was done by removing the leading coupled wheels, and substituting with a 4-wheeled bogie after extending the engine's frame by about 17 inches in front of the smokebox. All the required parts were made by Hunslet in Leeds, and were sent by sea to Port Alfred, where the actual conversion was implemented. It is suggested that the original design with its longer driver wheelbase experienced excessive wear on curves.

After 1904 the Kowie Railway Co also acquired three Cape 4th-Class locomotives from the Cape Government Railways (CGR), Cape No's 470, 471 & 477 (respectively Stephenson works no's 2478/1882, 2479/1882 & 2452/1882) which was renumbered Kowie Railway No's 1, 3 and 2 respectively.

This photo taken at Cradock shows a similar CGR Cape Class 4 engine no 265, originally deployed in 1882 as engine M65 for the Cape Midlands system. This locomotive was built by Stephensons in 1882 as their works no. 2462. The three locomotives acquired by the Kowie Railway would have had a similar appearance. Photo: South African Railways & Harbours Board.

Builders and Year: Robert Stephenson & Co. 1882
last CGR Numbering: 470, 471, 477
Wheel Arrangement: 4-6-0
Driving Wheel Diameter: 3 ft. 6 in.
Cylinders: 2 x 15 in. x 20 in.
Valve Gear: Joy's
Boiler Pressure: 140 lbs per square in.
Grate Size: 11.7 square ft.
Tractive Force: 11,250 lbs @ 75%
Length: 43 ft. 3¾ in.
Weight: 32 tons 1,400 lbs
Axle Load: 8 tons 1,400 lbs
Tank Water Capacity: 600 gallons
Tender Weight: 23 tons 200 lbs
Tender Coal Capacity: 6 tons
Tender Water Capacity: 1675 gallons

Through about 30 years of existence, the Kowie Railway did not really run at profit. The main factor was that the government abandoned the harbour at Port Alfred due to silt problems in the mouth of the Kowie river. Financial difficulties caused the Kowie Railway Company to skip on maintenance of the rolling stock and the line itself also deteriorated leading to a number of smaller accidents, but the final setback came on 22 April 1911 in the form of the Blaauwkrantz Bridge disaster in which in 35 passengers killed and 23 seriously injured. After the disaster the many claims for compensation resulted in the company being forced to sell all of its assets to the Government, which resulted in the SAR taking over the line in February 1913.

This undated photo was taken at the Kowie Railway station in Port Alfred. Presumably this was taken on the occasion of a "St Paul's Sunday School" outing - there is a banner behind the crowd on the platform. One of the Kowie Railway Co.'s passenger locomotives with a balloon stack (either the Grahamstown or the Bathurst) appears in the photo - the engine is decorated with flowers. This photo was sourced here.

This undated photo shows the off platform side of the Kowie Railway station in Port Alfred.

Port Alfred just before 1907 - the Kowie Railway station in foreground - this photo can be seen on page 177 of Cape Colony To-Day by Burton published in 1907. Pdf document here.

This photo of the Kowie Railway passenger locomotive "Grahamstown" with a train in tow dates from about 1885. In the back one of the converted (front-end lengthened) goods locomotives (either the Port Alfred or the Kowie) can be seen.

This photo at first would appear to be a crop of the precious one - however some of the people have moved or have different postures. Of particular interest is that each of the first 3 trucks of the train in the front have a load of sleepers. That would indicate that line construction work of some sort was still in progress at the time when this picture was taken. In the background to the left more stacks of iron sleepers are visible. This photo was sourced here.

This is a crop of the previous photo to show more detail - also note the railway sleepers in the trucks.

This photo appeared in the April 1898 3rd edition of Grocott & Sherry's Album of Grahamstown. The album is available here on the Internet Archive.

Henry Putt. This photo can be seen on page 177 of the book "The Cape To-day" By A. R. E. Burton, F.R.G.S. Published under authority of the Cape Government Railway Department. Cape Town, 1907. Pdf document here. The relevant text in the book reads: "The greatest cordiality is displayed by the railway officials from the General Manager downwards. This is all more noteworthy because the latter gentleman, Mr. Henry Putt, Mayor of Port Alfred, is at the head and front of most of the local public and private undertakings and institutions. He is also the station master, and his agreeable influence and that of his excellent staff are universally felt and appreciated."

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snippet:

Thos Begbie’s history begins with its entrepreneurial founder and master engineer, Thomas Begbie, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 19 March 1845. In 1884 he was appointed as locomotive superintendent to the Grahamstown and Port Alfred Railway Company. After completion of the railway and start-up of traffic, in 1887, he left for the Witwatersrand Goldfields.

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The following extract comes from a booklet Produced and Published in 1972 by the Port Alfred Publicity Association and reproduced here on Martin Kruger's www.kowietales.co.za

EXTRACT FROM THE CHRONICLES OF A CONTRACTOR
by GEORGE PAULING published 1926.
CHAPTER IX PAGES 36-38.

THE KOWIE RAILWAY.

Railway access from Grahamstown to the sea was then through Port Elizabeth, a distance of about a hundred miles. The natural outlet was, however, Port Alfred, at the mouth of the Kowie River, only about 40 miles away. The Government had in previous years spent something like £200,000 in making the river accessible to ships of small draught and big vessels were unloaded in the roadstead into lighters which were brought into the river by steam tugs. One of the Members of Parliament for Grahamstown was Mr. Cron-Wright, with whom I was on terms of intimate friendship, and I suggested to him that, if the Government could be induced to grant a subsidy of approximately £2,000 per mile for building the railway from Kowie River to Grahamstown, I might be able to raise the rest of the money in England. I had in mind to get Mr. Ralph Firbank to join me in the venture, and had previously written to him on the subject. Mr. Cron-Wright and other members of Parliament for Grahamstown and Albany thought well of the proposal and during that session the Cape Parliament passed a Bill giving a subsidy of £1,500 a mile for its construction. Leaving the management of the hotel and my other affairs in the hands of my wife, I lost no time sailing for England. As she was not able to look after all my local interests, I obtained six months leave for my brother Harry, who was then an engineer in the Western Province, and he went to Grahamstown to help Mrs. Pauling.

I took with me to England full particulars of the trade of Grahamstown and of Port Alfred and the district through which the railway would pass. I had figured to show that in the preceding years the trade of the Port had increased by several hundred per cent. I also took with me a photograph showing the thirteen sailing vessels lying in the river at the wharves which had been constructed by the Government. These sailing vessels were, of course, of comparatively small tonnage, most of them being boats which had brought sugar from Mauritius, and were being loaded with maize and other produce from the Grahamstown district. I had the photo enlarged to about six feet in length and it made a beautiful picture, showing the noble river with much shipping, indicating a centre of commercial progress, and I have no doubt the photo assisted us greatly in our efforts to raise the necessary capital for the railway. I also brought home with me several photos of the magnificent scenery along the Kowie River which nowadays attracts many visitors to that part of the country. I knew that whatever I might be able to arrange at home would have to be completed with the utmost dispatch. Having the utmost confidence in the ability and wisdom of Mr. Ralph Firbank, I at once referred to him. He took to my scheme with enthusiasm and in less than two months we had formed a company with which, on my estimates, he had made a contract in the name of Firbank & Pauling, to build the railway, and I returned almost post-haste to the Cape. There I saw Mr. Cron-Wright and we had no trouble in fixing up an arrangement with the Cape Government.

The survey of the railway presented many difficulties. A very bad piece of country had to be crossed and it took some time before it was decided to cross the worst spot on the route, called Blaauwkrantz, about thirteen miles from Grahamstown, by a high level bridge.

This bridge was subsequently built on the cantilever principle, with a central span over 300' above the bottom of the gorge. In point of design it has been described as the most graceful in the Colony. It was designed by Mr. Max Am Ende of Westminster, and to my mind it was at the time the strongest and lightest bridge of its kind in the world and so long as it is properly maintained it will continue to fulfill its purpose.

For a time the work progressed satisfactorily, but ere long I experienced much delay and trouble in obtaining money from home. When about two-thirds of the work was finished an arrangement proposed by Mr. Ralph Firbank for finding further capital fell through, and I had great difficulty in raising sufficient to carry on. I had reckoned on the probability of getting the Government to advance money against the subsidy of £1,500 per mile. But the department concerned resolutely refused to part with a fraction till the railway was completed, and I had no alternative but to acquaint my partner, Mr. Ralph Firbank, of my miscalculation in this connection. He wrote me that this fact had upset his arrangements, but that he was making others, which, he had no doubt, would be carried through, and by which sufficient funds would be forthcoming. About a fortnight after this letter was written he died suddenly from heart failure. He left an executor, his brother Christopher, who tried to complete the arrangement which Ralph had initiated. Unfortunately it fell through and I was put to all kinds of devices to manage to carry on. This would have been impossible had I not in the meantime obtained other contracts, of which I propose to write in succeeding chapters. We saw it through to the end but it proved a sore drain on our resources. We had financed it to completion and had taken part payment in paper, which was never of any value to us.

The Kowie Railway Company got the Government subsidy, part of which ultimately came back to us. The railway was opened in 1884, and was purchased from the Company by the Union Government in 1913. The first sod was turned by Mr. John X Merriman on October 21, 1881.

The route taken by the Kowie Railway Co line between Port Alfred and Grahamstown is marked on this map.

BLAAUW KRANTZ VIADUCT IN CAPE COLONY.

This article originally appeared in the Scientific American Supplement No. 484 published in New York on April 11, 1885. This article is part of a free eBook made available under the Project Gutenberg on November 3, 2004.

This viaduct is built over a rocky ravine on the railway from Port Alfred to Grahamstown, at a height of about 200 ft. from the bottom. Its length is 480 ft. 6 in., and the width of the platform is 15 ft., the gauge of the railway being 3 ft. 6 in. The central span of the viaduct is an arch of 220 ft. span between abutments, and about 90 ft. height; the remainder of the space on each side is divided into two spans by an iron pier at a distance of 68 ft. from the retaining wall. These piers are 36 ft. 2 in. high, and carry girders 144 ft. long, balanced each on a pivot in the center. One end of these girders is secured to the retaining walls by means of horizontal and vertical anchorages, while the other end rests in a sliding bearing on the top flange of the arch.

BRIDGE OVER THE BLAAUW KRANTZ RAVINE, CAPE COLONY.

(Note: Under the South African Railways, this bridge was replaced in 1928 with a new bridge)

In designing the structure the following points had to be considered:

That, on account of the great height above the ground, and on account of the high price of timber at the site, the structure could be easily erected without the use of scaffolding supporting it as a whole.
That, on account of the high freights to Port Alfred, the quantity of iron in the structure should be as small as possible.
That the single parts of the principal span should be easy to lift, and that there should be as few of them as possible. For this latter reason most of them were made in lengths of 20 ft. and more.

The question of economy of material presented itself as a comparison between a few standard types, viz., the girder bridge of small independent spans; the cantilever bridge, or the continuous girder bridge in three large spans; the single girder bridge with one large span and several small spans; and the arch with small girder spans on each side.

The suspension bridge was left out of question as inadmissible.

A girder bridge with small independent spans on rocker piers would probably have been the most economical, even taking into account the great height of the piers near the middle of the ravine, but there would have been some difficulty in holding those piers in position until they could be secured to the girders at the top; and, moreover, such a structure would have been strikingly out of harmony with the character of the site.

On the other hand, a cantilever or continuous girder bridge in three spans—although such structures have been erected in similar localities—could not enter into comparison of simple economy of material, because such a design would entirely disregard the anomaly that the greater part of the structure, viz., the side spans, being necessarily constructed to carry across a large space, would be too near the ground to justify the omission of further supports.

The question was, therefore, narrowed to a comparison between the present arch and a central independent girder of the same span, including the piers on which it rests. The small side spans could obviously be left out in each case. The comparison was made with a view not only to arrive at a decision in this particular case, but also of answering the question of the economy of the arch more generally.

This photo appeared in the April 1898 3rd edition of Grocott & Sherry's Album of Grahamstown. The album is available here on the Internet Archive.

The following table contains the weights of geometrically similar structures of three different spans, of which the second is the one here described. The so-called theoretical weight is that which the structure would have if no part required stiffening, leaving out also all connections and all wind bracing. The moving load is taken at one ton per foot lineal, and the strain on the iron at an average of four tons per square inch. The proportion of the girder is taken at 1 in 8.

Span in Feet.	Theoretical Weight.		Total Weight.
Span in Feet.	Arch.	Girder.	Arch.	Girder.
100	0.0724	0.1663	0.1866	0.2443
220	0.1659	0.4109	0.4476	0.7462
300	0.2414	0.6445	0.6464	1.2588
	<------------Tons per foot lineal.------------->

It can be seen from these results that the economical advantage of the arch increases with the span. In small arches this advantage would not be large enough to counterbalance the greater cost of manufacture; but in the arch of 220 ft. span the advantage is already very marked. If the table were continued, it would show that the girder, even if the platform were artificially widened, would become impossible at a point where the arch can still be made without difficulty. The calculations leading to the above results would occupy too much space to make it desirable on this occasion to produce them. —The Engineer.

SOURCES

TJ Espitalier & WAY Day - The Locomotive in South Africa - South African Railways & Harbours Magazine Nov 1943
Jose Burman - Early Railways at the Cape - Chapter 7 - The Midland line - published by Human & Rousseau 1984
DF Holland -Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways Vol 1 1859-1910 - published by Purnell& Sons (SA) 1971.
Scientific American Supplement No. 484
Grocott & Sherry's Album of Grahamstown 1898 available here on the Internet Archive
Martin Kruger's www.kowietales.co.za

Grahamstown: Blaauwkrantz Bridge Disaster (1911)

2010-08-12T11:35:00.033+02:00

This blog entry is a merely a collation of information (much thanks to the original posters of information!) which mostly are already available elsewhere on the web, with one or two exceptions. Some form of duplication will result - it is left to the reader to extract the information he/she is after.

The Blaauwkrantz Bridge Disaster

Credit: Text - Bev Young, the The Young Lioness who runs Port Alfred Publicity
This article was sourced from www.kowietales.co.za
from Martin Kruger's virtual book about Port Alfred (Kowie).

Once, a train ran from Port Alfred station every day: the 11.10 to Grahamstown, 68km away. In the early 1900s the train used to steam up through the valleys towards Bathurst and Grahamstown taking farmers, farm workers, holidaymakers and commercial travellers, especially on stock-fair days, when the atmosphere was festive and the coaches were full. It is no longer possible to go on the train. One must walk the line or take the road that loops and meets, strays from and returns to it.

The railway runs truer than the road: there are fewer meandering’s and distractions. In the old days, prospective passengers could signal to the train driver if they wanted to board, running up from a farmland or waving from the veranda of a homestead for him to wait. Train drivers were obliging in those days.

Mr. Robinson, driver of the 11.10 on Saturday April 22 1911, was aware of potential passengers as he steamed along. By the time he reached Martindale, he had 52 on board. The line was built in 1883, tracing a wide curve across the farms of lower Albany, ancient in the history of the indigenous people long before the first white colonists settled there in 1820. The names of the small stations and sidings are testament to the provenance of those Settlers: Hayes, Bathurst, Clumber, Trappes Valley, Martindale, Manley Flats, Oak Valley, with the occasional gesture to other origins: Blaauwkrantz. The older, Xhosa names for the rivers that cross those grass and copse-scattered hills are unrecorded in colonial records.

Blaauwkrantz is the destination of this journey, although it is not at the end of the track. It is the place of other ghosts. There is a limpid quality to the air in this quiet corner of the Eastern Cape, shrikes calling, proclaiming territory, the blue-black bush marking out the camps where cattle graze. The hills are low. There are lands cleared for pineapples and chicory. Far off, the sea is glimpsed between bushes trailing orange Tecoma, blue here and there with Plumbago.

The first real station is Bathurst. It was once an important destination thronging with passengers. Now but a ghost of days gone by. From here the line loops out, heading east past the sidings of Purdonton and spring Grove to Clumber. A small white church and school stand on a grassy knoll among old trees and quiet graves.

Trappes Valley station is derelict under a pale sky, and here we are furthest east in the journey. This is frontier country. Out there, further than the horizon, is the Great Fish River and Coombs, where the sacred clay pits of the Xhosa were found.

The tollhouse is derelict now. An aloe has taken root on the walls of the upper gable. Beyond the broken walls you will find a grove of Mtsintsi trees where - legend has it a besieged farmer had his hand pinned by a spear to a sneeze-wood post as he reached to take a loaded gun. His adversary was his long defected herdsman.

There is a well in a grove, perfectly preserved. At Martindale there are people living in the old guard house. A scarecrow made from an overcoat crucified on sticks, his head a rusted paint tin turned upside down, guards a mealie patch. There are neither mealies to guard nor birds to chase away. From Martindale the rail swings northwest again. The country is more broken. Surveying the possible route for the railway line in the early 1880s, the railway engineer George Pauling wrote: "A very bad piece of country had to be crossed and it took some time before it was decided to cross the worst spot on the route called Blaauwkrantz, about 21km from Grahamstown, by a high level bridge."

A very bad piece of country indeed. At the bottom of the gorge there is a large pool. It is one of a number of pools scattered randomly throughout the Eastern Cape where the "People of the River", Abantu Bomlambo, are thought to reside. In Xhosa cosmology, the People of the River are believed to live beneath the water with their crops and cattle.

It is they to whom initiates go when they are called to be diviners and who may sanction their vocation. Those they approve may be lured into the depths of a pool to join their society for a time. Those they reject drown. Libations and gifts for the Abantu Bomlambo are often floated out into the centre of the pool in small baskets containing sorghum, tobacco, pumpkin seeds, white beads, a calabash of beer or brandy. Small wonder then that the Blaauwkrantz River, its pools and gorge registered anxiety in the more sensitive traveller from the earliest times. There is a sense of another existence here. This was a place of pilgrimage, a spirit domain, a place of brooding - long before April 22, long before the railway line was opened on October 1st 1884. It was over the Blaauwkrantz Gorge, situated between two such pools, that Pauling built the bridge. Designed and constructed in England, the material for the bridge was transported from Britain by sea. It was assembled in 1883 and, when completed, was only 6mm out of specification: a beautifully calculated feat of engineering. Built light and strong, suspended web-like above the chasm, it could withstand the winds that often sweep down the tunnel between the cliffs. It no longer exists but, from old photographs, it had an airy, latticed appearance, vaulting the space between the kranses guarding the riverbed, the banks of which were planted at that time with the orange orchards of Leslie Palmer, owner of Brenthoek farm. Palmer's descendants, the Clayton’s, live there still.

The new bridge, built in 1928, sends its shadow out across their lands. The fence of the clay tennis court is supported by girders from the 1911 bridge. A ladder, constructed from the same, leans against the stonewall of an outhouse. Walking down into that gorge there is a feeling - quite apart from the knowledge of the history that was played out there - of the aloofness, the detachment of the landscape. Long before a road or bridge was built, it has been rumoured, early transport riders used to approach the place with some trepidation, while Africans on the journey would insist on waiting a time of placation before descending the slope.

On April 22 1911, the train left on time. Behind the engine was a coal tender followed by five trucks of stone, from Bathurst, for the completion of the Grahamstown cathedral. A fifth truck carried a loose cargo of pineapples, that crop of lower Albany that spikes the lands with pale sage coloured leaves against mulberry earth. Four passenger coaches and a guard's van were coupled behind this, the black passengers crammed together in the last coach, en route to stock-fair day in Grahamstown. Two-thirds of the way across there was a sudden lifting and lightening of the load. The sound of metal, the flump of steel on steel, smoke and dust rising. The fourth truck had uncoupled. One can only guess at Robinson’s the train driver, horror, at the moment of turning his head, and seeing the fourth truck rail-jump, fall on its side, the grind of steel as the passenger carriages and guard's van plummeted into space, the roof of one detaching, the last coach in which theblack passengers were travelling, somersaulting once before it hit the rocks more than 60m below. The roof of a carriage spiraled down, providing a safer landing place for a passenger, a lampholder caught in the girders, a man's coat fluttering on a spar.

The aftershock must have echoed up and down that gorge, stunning Leslie Palmer in his lands with his labourers, one of whom, at the moment of the accident, had called out, "It is falling! It is falling!" The appalled driver, knowing there was nothing he could do to help, hurtled his engine, coal tender and two trucks towards Grahamstown, and whistle shrieking. The stationmaster of Grahamstown was out on the platform. With what dread must he have heard the long-approaching shriek of the whistle, seen the smoke, then the engine and truck without the coaches or the guard's van, the distraught driver stumbling from the cab.

It was not the bridge that had failed. The weight of the stone had not broken it. Some engineering experts said it was the age of the dog spikes and the repair of the rails, rotten sleepers, the vintage rolling stock too heavily laden. The stationmaster of Bathurst believed it was the shifting of the pineapples as the train took a curve, causing a stone truck ahead to jump the rails and overturn, obstructing the path of the following carriages so that they concertina, derailed and fell. Some said it was other forces: the Blaauwkrantz is not a gorge to challenge. Within an hour a relief train had reached the sight with three doctors, nurses and medical equipment. Among the first Grahamstown residents to arrive at the scene were a group of clergymen representing every denomination.

Among them was the Rev William Brereton, (his daughter was one of the passengers). For him, the descent into the gorge must have been the most appalling journey of his life. And the longest. Hopie Brereton did not survive. Her father carried her body from the gorge. Grace Pike of Clumber did. But in the fall, the 22 pins with which she had arranged her hair so meticulously had pierced her head and had to be extracted one by one.

There is the well-known story of the miraculous escape of little Hazel Smith, who, with her sister Dorothy and three-year-old brother Willie, had been catapulted from the train window as it fell. Hazel was caught in the girders. Her sister Dorothy clung to the side of the bridge for some time. Then, unable to hold on, she fell. Baby Willie, whom Hazel had by the hand as he dangled precariously above the chasm, struggled violently. He too fell to the gorge below. Dorothy survived. Willie lived only a day.

The newspaper reports from the time are full of the language of drama, stories of bravery and courage. Absent from all of them is any description of the black passengers killed in the accident, except for mention of a woman whom rescue workers tried to free for many hours, only to die as she was taken up the gorge. The absence from the press reports of the story of that carriage full of passengers is reflected in a scrawled aside taken from an unpublished letter: An African woman being taken from Kowie Mental to Fort England was later found to be sane! A strange little silence hovers around these victims. Altogether, 29 passengers died. Twenty-three were injured. At the time, the Blaauwkrantz Bridge disaster was the worst accident South Africa ever witnessed.

*Since then, in 2001, Grahamstown Historical Society, assisted the Medical Superintendent of Settlers Hospital to collate and sift through the hospital records; which tells the story of the injured and their injuries.* M. Jones

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

From: "Ellen Stanton"
Subject: Blaauwkrantz Bridge disaster Article #1
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 21:59:47 -0600

Transcribed from South Africa Magazine (published in London), April 29, 1911
Found here on ROOTSWEB.

SERIOUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT
COACHES PLUNGE INTO A GORGE

THE KILLED AND INJURED

We regret to say that a serious railway disaster occurred on Saturday afternoon, on a section of the Grahamstown-Kowie Railway. The passenger portion of a train due at Grahamstown at 10:20 a.m. fell into a ravine while crossing the well-known Blaauwkrantz Bridge, 13 miles from Grahamstown. Thirty persons were killed, and so far as can be ascertained 25 injured, the condition of several of the latter being critical.

The disaster occurred on a line which is owned by a company and does not form part of the South African Government Railways. The train was proceeding at an average speed towards Grahamstown, when one of the trucks, loaded with stone, jumped the metals unknown to the engine driver, about 50 yds. from the bridge, but continued running on the check rail until the structure was reached. The check rail then splintered away from the pine wood sleepers, while the front coupling snapped, and the truck, four passenger coaches, and a van toppled over and plunged into the abyss. The chasm is 250 ft. deep, and the coaches crashed to the bottom.

The engine leapt forward as it lost its main load, giving the driver the first indication of something seriously wrong. On grasping the situation he put on full steam and dashed to Grahamstown for help, fainting as soon as he had conveyed the terrible news. A neighbouring farmer saw the train hurled into the gorge, and rushed to the scene with his natives to render aid, but he was powerless to do anything until the relief trains arrived from Grahamstown.

A Reuter's message states that the rescue party had a difficult and distressing task. The wreckage of the train was littered down the jagged sides of the gorge, and in the streams below, mingled with wreckage, were the dead and dying. These were only clearly distinguishable to the rescuers as they painfully descended the precipitous gorge into which the train had been flung.

They extricated the mangled forms from among the shattered coaches and twisted metal work to the agonizing accompaniment of the groans and cries of those who were still living and had been in the throes of torture over two hours. There were about 50 passengers in the train. Some of the killed and injured and a mass of wreckage were caught on a ledge about 120 ft. down. The removal of the debris from this point and from the crags was most difficult, but in six hours the doctors and nurses extricated the dead and injured, who were hoisted up in sacking to the edge of the gorge.

CHILD'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

A correspondent of the Daily Mail states that many of the rescuers fainted on approaching the wreckage. Rescue work was much impeded owing to thousands of pineapples from one of the smashed trucks rendering the rocks and crags slippery and dangerous. Exclusive of the engine driver and his fireman, there are only two uninjured survivors. A child, Janet Crockett, was miraculously saved. She was hurled through a window of the train and in the fall lodged on a girder at a height of 200 ft. Her rescuer, a farmer, who climbed at great peril, found her crying for her mother, but unhurt. Her parents and sister are badly injured. The guard, named Maxwell, leaped from his van as the front wheels left the rails, and escaped without injury.

The following is the list of victims as given by cable:--

KILLED: Mr. Dold, his wife, and three children, Mr. Wright, Mr. Forsyth, the Misses Brereton and Pike, Mrs. Bishop and child, Mrs. Moolman, Mrs. Cooper, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Smith and child, Miss Moolman, Miss Sherwood, Mr. Paulmarr, Mr. Daniel, Mr. Hully, Mr. Grant, Mr. Charlton, Mr. Richardson, Miss Arnold, Mr. and Mrs. Dell, a native.

SERIOUSLY INJURED: Mrs. Bradfield, Mr. A. Pike, Mr. Arnold.

SLIGHTLY INJURED: Mr. Elliott, Mr. Kreber. INJURED (degree unstated): Mr. Lerockett, Mr. Walters, Mr. Mears, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Cooper, Mr. N. Dell, Mr. Crear, Mrs. Crockett and baby, Mrs. Archibald Bradfield, Miss Smith. Nearly all the killed were well-known Eastern Province people. Mrs. Moolman was a sister of Mr. Justice Hopley.

AFFECTING SCENES

The dead and injured were conveyed to Grahamstown. A huge crowd of Whites and natives awaited the arrival of the train, and the most affecting scenes were witnessed at the station. The populace were awe-stricken at the disaster, and a pall of sorrow has descended upon the town. Several funerals took place on Sunday and Monday, the services being held at different churches in the presence of large and sorrowing congregations. There was a wealth of floral tributes; the Dead March was played in all the churches, and flags were flying at half-mast.

A Reuter's cable, dated Wednesday, states that a three-year-old boy, named Smith, has died of injuries received.

The scene of the disaster is in the heart of one of the fairest spots in the Eastern Province of the Cape. The railway passes through a varying panorama of rugged cliffs, rolling veld, extensive fruit gardens, and rich lands, frequently backed with a view of the ocean beyond, between the hills.

Near the Blaauwkrantz Bridge the scenery becomes bold and rugged, deep kloofs mingling with wooded ravines. The bridge, which is one of the highest in South Africa, crosses a deep rocky gorge in one span, and is in point of design the most graceful in the Cape Province.

The railway was opened in 1884, the total length of the line being 43 miles. It is under the charge of a Manager, who resides at Grahamstown, and certain financial assistance is given by the Government. The line was constructed by Messrs. Pauling and Co., Limited, Mr. George Pauling, who had charge of the operations, living at Grahamstown during the progress of the work.

Traffic over the bridge was resumed on Monday after the structure had undergone a severe test.

Messages of condolence have been received from Lord Gladstone and Sir Starr Jameson.

STATEMENTS AT THE INQUEST

The inquest on the victims of the disaster opened on Tuesday. Evidence was given by the Grahamstown Stationmaster who stated he had examined the scene of the accident. A wheel flange, he said, had marked the sleepers 28 rail lengths from the bridge, and the marks continued to the fifth rail of the structure. He advanced the theory that the wheel traveled between the check rail and the running rail, forcing out the latter. The sleepers were old and in bad order, and were not sufficiently strong to hold the dogspikes. The timbers on the bridge, he declared, were unserviceable, and the line was unsafe for traffic.

At the resumed inquest, on Wednesday, a policeman was interrogated in connection with the burning of the debris, which was found on Sunday morning to be blazing so furiously as to envelope the bridge in a blue haze. He said it was burnt by order of the Manager of the railway company. Railway officials testified to finding fifty bad sleepers between the places of the first and final derailments. The dogspikes were loose in the rotten sleepers, and the road was in very poor order. Two bad timbers were found on the bridge, one at the spot where the train went over. It was further stated that the line curved twice between the place of the first derailment and the bridge. The inquest has since been suspended, pending the arrival of expert assessors.

As shown in our "Union Parliament" pages a Commission of Inquiry will be appointed to investigate the circumstances of the disasters.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

From: "Ellen Stanton"
Subject: Blaauwkrantz Bridge Disaster Article #2
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 22:49:09 -0600
Transcribed from South Africa Magazine (published in London) April 29, 1911

Found here on ROOTSWEB.

THE CAPE RAILWAY ACCIDENT

In view of certain statements which have been made at the inquest in connection with the Cape railway disaster, which we record on another page, and of the fact that a Government inquiry is to be held, it would be out of place for us to suggest the actual cause of the accident. We can only say that the assertions as to the condition of the line as it approached the Blaauwkrantz Bridge are so serious that the most thorough investigation will be necessary before responsibility can be fixed for a mishap which has caused the death of some thirty people. This fact has to be borne in mind, that the accident did not occur upon any part of the South African Government Railways, but upon one of those privately owned lines which are so rare in South Africa.

Moreover, the disaster was accentuated by the fact that it took place in one of the worst spots imaginable for an accident. It is bad enough for a train to leave the rails at all when traveling at a fair speed, but that it should do so when approaching a bridge across a deep ravine must intensify the risk and render more lamentable the results.

Whatever the cause of the accident, there will be no lack of sympathy for the many injured passengers and for the relatives of the still larger number who were killed. As is always the case on such sad occasions, the disaster revealed qualities of great bravery and determination on the part of those engaged in the work of rescue, which in this case was specially difficult owing to the height from which the train fell, the fearful extent of the smash, and the perils attaching to both the approach and the removal of the dead and injured.

It is, of course, nothing more than a coincidence that this disaster should have happened so soon after the less severe Gaika Loop accident in the same part of South Africa. As we have said, a rigorous inquiry will be held; for these accidents ought not to occur if, humanly speaking, they can be avoided. It is well, however, to remember that South Africa, in proportion to its population, is exceedingly well supplied with railways, and the history of railway communication in all parts of the world shows that, whatever the precautions, a certain number of accidents seem fated to occur at intervals of average regularity.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

I acknowledge the National Library of New Zealand as the source of the following information which was found here.

Report in the The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. 1848-1954) 21 July 1911

BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS

If you want to visit the Blaauwkrantz Bridge today with a very knowledgeble guide (Ben Bezuidenhout), have a look at the BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage.

Map sourced from BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage.

photo sourced from BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage. These photo's show the 2nd railway bridge at Blaauwkrantz - this was built in 1928 by the SAR, which in 1913 had taken over the privately run Kowie line.

photo sourced from BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage.

photo sourced from BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage.

photo sourced from BLAAUWKRANTZ TOURS webpage.

Ben Bezuidenhout has also written a 53-page publication about the disaster - you can get more information about this here.

Kearsney-Stanger Light Railway 1901-c.1944

2010-08-09T14:25:00.012+02:00

NOTE: This page should be read collectively together with the other Sugar Cane tramway pages on this blog as general information is scattered across the different pages:

Darnall, Sugar Mill, Avonside 1740/1916 "MR BUSS"
Durban, Sugar Terminal - Maydon Warf: Avonside 1422/1900
Gledhow, Sugar Mill, Hunslet 2647/1942
Mtubatuba, Umfolozi Village, ?Hunslet 1032/1914 relic
Umzinto, Indian Koran School, Hunslet 3385/1946
Witbank, Tiny Tots Nursery School, Avonside 1858/1...
SEZELA Sugar Mill: Sezela No 1 - Avonside 1719/1915
RENISHAW Sugar Estate: Renishaw No 2 - Avonside 1986/1926
The Kearsney-Stanger Light Railway (1901-c.1944)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In operation 1901-1942/4?

Sir Liege Hulett had been largely responsible for the extension of the Government railroad from Verulam to Stanger, and then preceding the settlement of farmers in Zululand, he had been instrumental in taking the railroad further into Zululand. In addition, he had developed his own private railway line from Stanger to Kearsney. This railway line was constructed for a total cost of some 18 500 pounds which included all the station buildings, houses, engines, rolling stock and fencing. The line was cheaply constructed with 30lb rails, and had a ruling gradient of 1 in 30. The line from Stanger was brought into being for the conveyance of supplies from the coast to the tea factories, and also for the transport of finished goods, as well as farm produce, to the railhead.

This rare photo, which was published in 1903 in a book titled "NATAL - An Illustrated Official Railway Guide & General Handbook", shows the Kearsney Light Railway in action. The locomotive is clearly an Orenstein & Koppel design if one takes the cab roof design as a clue and compare it with this beautifully restored O&K 173/1896 locomotive in Spain. The Kearsney O&K's are said to be works numbers 723 and 724 built in 1900.

NATAL - AN ILLUSTRATED OFFICIAL RAILWAY GUIDE AND HANDBOOK OF GENERAL IN FORMATION; compiled & edited by C. W. FRANCIS HARRISON.

The above mentioned Guide reported in 1903 as follows on the Kearsney Light Railway:

"THE tea plantations of Messrs. J. L. Hulett & Sons. Ltd. form one of the leading features in the industries of the Colony. They are situated at Kearsney, to the northwest of Stanger, and a light railway runs from Stanger Station to the factory, a distance of eight miles [12,8km]."

"The construction of this admirable little line was undertaken on the initiative of Messrs. Hulett, and a laudable enterpise it is. The total cost was £18,5oo, which sum includes all station buildings and houses, engines, rolling stock, fencing, etc. It is built on the 2-feet gauge, and is splendidly laid with the 30 lb. type of metals. The country through which it passes is undulated and picturesque. The ruling gradient is one in 30, and the locomotives employed are respectively 50 and 30-horse power, the larger of which can haul with ease a load of 20 paying tons."

"The railway was opened with great eclat on the 2nd January, 1901. It is worked by Messrs. Hulett's own staff of station-master, platelayer, and train men. and is equipped with two engines, two carriages, and five trucks, together with all necessary buildings and appliances. First and third-class passengers are conveyed at a throughout rate each way of 1s. first-class, and 6d. third-class."

"The line enters a very productive country, and, besides proving an immense advantage to Messrs. Hulett's businesses, and to the planters and farmers in the Kearsney and neighbouring districts, it attracts a considerable native passenger traffic."

The Tea Factory at Kearsney around 1902.

"The wagons carry a net weight of five tons, being principally used for conveying the heavy tea traffic from the mill, and returning with coal and stores. Passengers and goods are of course transferred at the Stanger Station to the Government trains. The Kearsney train makes connection at Stanger with the passenger trains to and from Durban."

NOTES

Two Orenstein and Koppel steam locomotives, built for 2' - 0" (610mm) gauge, were used on this railway. These engines were built in 1900, with work no's 723 and 724. No 723 was a 0-4-0T 30HP engine which left the builder's workshop in August 1900, and No 724 was a 0-6-0T 50HP engine which left the builder's workshop in July 1900.
Kearsney is about 300 metres higher in altitude than Stanger, and located, in a straight line, about 8km northwest of Stanger Railway station where this little line also terminated - even before the main coastal railway from Durban reached Stanger. The route of the line had to follow some contours, and therefore, certainly was longer than 8km! The actual distance of the line was 8 miles [12,8km].
Kearsney must have had quite a few people working for Sir Liege Hulett, in 1908 even a Methodist Church, which could seat 100 worshipers, and now a national monument, was built on the farm.
Today the farm is known as Kearsney Manor, a venue for events.

Article on Kearsney-Stanger Light Railway

from Darnall Library webpage
Author unknown

This little railway of 24 inch gauge, and the two small trains using it, were originally organised by Sir Liege Hulett and his sons, of Kearsney, Natal North Coast. It was Natal's only private passenger-carrying railway, opened by the estate in 1901, and connecting with the main-line trains at Stanger.

The train rails (at least) first saw service in East Africa: Nairobi to the Coast of East Africa. The book, "the Maneaters of Tsavo" was written about man-eating lions attaching and devouring people working on this railway and train, in 1898. The Huletts somehow managed to get it all across from East Africa, and re-set it up, first as one little train, later as two short trains, to run backwards and forwards between their tea estates, later sugar, at Kearsney and Stanger town.

The Colonial Governor, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, officially opened the Hulett's railway on 2nd January 1901. It set off from the old Tea Factory of Sir Liege Hulett, at Kearsney. It crossed the road which now runs between Stanger and Grey Town, and stopped at a little station about 3 miles further on down the line, about behind where the Kearsney Post Office now stands, near the store there.

It then meandered down through the Balcomb estates, over or beside "Doctor's Kop" Farm. There is a distinct dip in the land there, (between the Old European school hostel, the Assembly of God Church and the road which goes up the hill to Lot 14).

It then looped down through what is now referred to as "New Town", the European residential area of Stanger Town. Before there were any houses there. It ran through Lot. 327, Curtis Smith Street, and Lot 584, 1st Avenue. Carrying on to across Theunissen Road, across the old main road which runs between Stanger and Shakaskraal.

It then bypassed where the new electrical transformer is standing, outside the Borough, Lavoipierre Buildings, and on down to come into the side (Durban side) on the main Stanger to Durban railway line, and into the side of the Stanger Railway Station.

Eventually, there were two little trains, both with it's own small high chimney, Puffing-Billy-type mounted on two pairs of wheels each, semi open cab and barreltype front horizontal tank changer.

The one train consisted of the engine and 4 open trucks, for haulage purposes of tea etc. This was driven by Mr Adams and then Mr Williams.

The other train consisted of the engine and 3 carriages, built of Burmese Teak wood. The first carriage ferried Indian passengers about. The second carriage ferried European people about, and the last carriage was for postal services, mail and parcels etc.

The Guardsman stood in the last carriage. He used to wave a red-glassed Acetylene gas lamp about, so that they driver could see, to guide him when it was safe to move the train. This lamp (what is left of it) is in the Stanger Museum, 10/1 323.

The first Guardsman was an Indian man called Juganatham. Mr Brandon was the driver of this passenger train.

The fare was 6 pence per person for a single journey.

The journey took 1 1/2 hours up to Kearsney and 1 hour down to Stanger.

It left Kearsney at 9am daily and the last return journey from Stanger was at 5pm. Uphill, the train travelled extremely slowly, 10 miles per hour or less, which gave passengers who needed to, the opportunity to jump off the train, relieve themselves and run to catch up with it again!

This historical old train service ceased to operate after about early 1942. It is probable that the rails were lifted in the early 1950's, to make way for the building of the houses through "Newtown" suburb. The rails were used in the cane fields around the Darnall and other Hulett estates, to run the small cane carrying trucks from the fields to the Darnall Sugar Mill. Some were used for fence posts.

Off Reynold Street opposite the side of the Borough Lavoipierre Buildings, lies the remains of an embankment, upon which is a sign "Kearsney to Stanger Railway embankment. Last used in 1944".

REPORT of possibly a 3rd Locmotive used on the Light Railway.

In the Industrial Railway Record of June 1971, article writer K.P. Plant speculated that a 3rd locomotive - Kerr Stuart 764, may have been acquired for the Stanger-Kearsney tramway:

On 19th September 1903 J. L. Hulett & Sons Ltd of West Street, Durban – one of the major sugar producers in South Africa – ordered one of the earliest of their many locomotives. Kerr Stuart 764, a "Waterloo" class 0−4−2 side tank, was painted in "standard" colours and shipped to Durban for the all−in price of £1,038; construction costs were estimated at £776. Its most likely destination was the Kearsney Estate. This was linked to the main line at Stanger eight miles away by the Stanger-Kearsney Light Railway which had been opened in 1901 (2nd January or 13th March? – authorities differ). It was cheaply constructed with 30lb rails and had a ruling gradient of 1 in 30. In addition to the normal traffic of sugar and tea, passenger trains were operated until about 1930.

The railway was closed at an unknown date and although a lot of the track has been lifted some was incorporated into the Darnall Estate system. Kerr Stuart 764 seems to be unknown to South African enthusiasts, and it would appear to have been scrapped many years ago. In 1911 and 1915 spare parts were sent out and ‘K.Y.’ in the shipping mark for the former consignment (‘J.L.H., K.Y., DURBAN’) could indicate that the destination was Kearsney.

Details for Kerr Stuart 764 were:
ex-works: 20.10.1903, gauge: 2ft 0in, type: 0-4-2T, cylinders: 9½in x 15in, coupled wheels: 2ft 3in, weight empty: 11t 9c, ordered by: J. L. Hulett.

Sources

INDUSTRIAL LOCOMOTIVES OVERSEAS by Anthony H Spit IRS Nov 1962
THE KEARSNEY-STANGER NARROW-GAUGE RAILWAY - Darnall Library
History of TONGAAT SUGAR
NATAL - An Illustrated Official Railway Guide & General Handbook by C.W. Francis Harrison published 1903.
Many thanks to Jens Merte (web: http://www.merte.de) for helping with information about the O&K locomotives.
Many thanks to Martin Murray (web: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/org/murray/okpres.htm) for helping with information about the O&K locomotives.
Sandstone: Gary Barnes's spreadsheet of Cane Locomotives

Nababeep - Steam Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Railways

2010-07-15T12:04:00.029+02:00

NOTE: Information about the Namaqualand Copper Mine Railways is spread over these entries:

"CLARA" built by Kitson & Co in 1891
The Namaqualand Copper Mine Railways - a brief history
Steam Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Mine Railways
"The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall
Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand
Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

[1]
Steam Locomotives
of the Cape Copper Company Limited

LIST OF LOCOMOTIVES

A total of 19 locomotives are known for the Cape Copper Company.

Initially two locomotives were employ between the years 1871-1876, but then scrapped and cheaper and more dependable mule traction were used instead.

[A] "John King" - the 1st locomotive (presumably a 0-6-0TT)

After completing the coastal section of the Namaqualand line, Richard T Hall was soon tempted to try steam traction on the little railway. He recommended to the directors of the CCC to send a light locomotive, to be tried as an experiment. Hall wrote thus in an article published in the April 1871 issue of the Cape Monthly Magazine:

"The engine - named 'John King', after the head of the late firm of Phillips & King, now (1871) King & Son, Cape Town, (who originated the working of the present productive mines, and but for whose energy and skill Namaqualand would probably have lapsed into destitution and barbarism) arrived here in January last (1871), and on 1st February (1871) commenced its work, and has steadily continued to the present time, and has successfully proved that even with light material and sand ballast, steam power may by used economically in South Africa."

"The engine is necessarily light; weighing, with water and coal, about 6 ½ tons; the cylinders are 6 inches in diameter, 12 inches stroke, wheels six-coupled 1 foot 10 inches in diameter, working pressure."

"The great drawback to railways in the country is the scarcity of water, especially in Namaqualand. Our supply along the line is very limited, and necessitates a tender being attached to the engine to carry water sufficient for a twenty mile run. This entails a dead weight of about three tons, which in a more favoured country might be dispensed with."

[b] "The Miner" - the 2nd locomotive (presumably a 0-6-0TT)

Later in 1871 another locomotive named "The Miner" was put into use.

The two locomotives ran regularly between Port Nolloth and Abbevlaack, drawing a gross weight of 20 tons up and 35 tons back to Port Nolloth.

When the Swedish naturalist Gustaf de Vylder traveled from Port Nolloth via the copper mine line on 9 April 1873 he wrote in his journal: There are two locomotives imported from England but these, as well as everything sent to the colonies from that country, are of such a bad quality, that when they have been used for a day, it takes 2 weeks to repair them. Because of that, the mules are used instead.

When Sir Henry Barkly traveled around in early August 1873 from Port Nolloth to Okiep via the copper line railway, both locomotives ("John King" & "The Miner") were still operational.

With Sir Henry Barkly's visit, "The Miner" was decorated with rosettes.

Over time the two locomotives proved to be subject to many breakdowns and were more expensive than mule traction. They were scrapped in 1876, when mule transport was reinstated along the entire length of the line.

However, 10 years later, steam was re-introduced - and a futher list of 17 locomotives followed.

In the Industrial Railway Record of April 1968 David Cole gives a list of the 2ft 6in gauge Cape Copper Company steam locos:

1 - 3	0−4−0T	Kitson	T198, T220 (1886) and T234 (1887) These 3 locomotives were fitted with overhead condensing apparatus
4 - 5	0−6−2	Kitson	T246/3475 (1890) and T258/3486 (1891) =Clara
6 - 7	0−6−2	Kitson	T261/3487 (1892) = James Kitson and T287 (1897)
8 - 10	0−6−2	Kitson	3976 (1900) and 4089, 4090 (1901)
11	0−4−0T	Dick Kerr	(1904)
12	0−6−2	Kitson	4291 (1904)
13	0−4−0T	Dick Kerr	(1905)
14 - 15	0−6−2	Kitson	4331 and 4332 (1905)
16 - 17	0−4−0ST	Bagnall	1894 (1912) and 2038 (1915)

Names noted for the locomotives were:

Clara
James Kitson (no 6)
Marie
Albion
Scotia
Cambria
Hibernia
Cannon (no 12)

NOTE: It is unsure that the 2 Bagnall loco's ever saw service in Namaqualand - the editor of the IRR noted: "The inclusion of Bagnall 1894 and 2038 is interesting for we have always understood (vide page 268 of Pocket Book 6) that these were at the Cape Copper Company’s Jersey Marine Works near Swansea, Glamorgan, along with six similar Bagnall locos (1963, 1978, 2004, 2010, 2039 and 2056). Is there any positive record of delivery of any of these Bagnalls to either Jersey Marine or South West Africa? - IRR Hon Eds.")

Confirmation: On page 64 of RECORD 24 you ask for the delivery data for the Bagnall locos supplied to the Cape Copper Company. According to my list, taken from Bagnall records, 1894 and 2038 did go to South Africa, and 1963, 1978, 2004, 2010, 2039 and 2056 to Jersey Marine. Nos.1894, 1936 and 1978 were consigned via "J. V. Money, Kent who was presumably an agent. -

NEWCASTLE, STAFFS.

A. C. BAKER

[Source]

Interestingly Kitsons had the technology to provide the Copper railway company locomotives No's 1-3 [T198, T220 (1886) and T234 (1887)] fitted with steam condensers on the roof, as they were a supplier of steam tram locomotives since 1876.

Nos.1−3 were 0−4−0 side tanks with 9in by 15in cylinders and 2ft 10in diameter wheels.

Photo: This is one of the three Kitson locomotives with the condensing apparatus of steam tramway linage - an overhead series of arched transverse tubes. These engines No's 1-3 were supplied in 1886/7.

The first of these condensing engines were introduced on 1 August 1886 on the 35km section from Port Nolloth to Abbevlaack station. On 1st June 1887 steam traction was extended to Anenous (a point 2,5 miles beyond the original terminus at Muishondfontein) using the condensing locomotives.

The condensing apparatus consisted of a large number of coils forming an atmospheric radiator over the top of the engine for its whole length. However, the arrangement did not prove satisfactory due to the high ambient temperatures. The condensers were later dispensed with and the engines transferred to shunting service between the Okiep and Nababeep mines.

NOTE: Kitsons entered the steam tramway locomotive field in 1876 building some combined steam cars to W.R. Rowan's design. In 1878 they built three to their own design with vertical boilers, four coupled wheels and inclined outside cylinders. Motion was by means of a modified version of Walschaerts valve gear. All was enclosed in bodywork and the wheels and motions were surrounded by protective plates. The condensing system was placed on the roof and consisted of a series of copper tubes through which the exhaust steam passed, the surrounding air cooling the steam and the condensate returning to the feed water tank. After many trials it was decided to replace the vertical boiler by a horizontal type and this was standardised for future steam trains. Various types of condensers were tried and the final type was a series of arched transverse tubes which were a great improvement.

In Kitson's patent valve-gear, a modification of Walschaert's valve gear, the ends of a floating lever are linked to the crosshead, the valve-spindle, and intermediately at a point near the valve-spindle; the lever is pinned to the radius-link, which receives its rocking movement through an arm linked to the coupling rod. The motion of the valve and its spindle is a compound of two movements: one a movement directly the inverse of that of the piston, on a reduced scale, for the lead; the other a reduced duplicate of the vertical movement of the coupling rod, to open the port for steam"

More than 300 units were built and besides supplying many to the tramway systems of the British Isles, others were sent to New Zealand. Australia and the continent. The last one built was in 1901 for the Portstewart Tramway (Works No. T302). Work numbers for tram locomotives were kept separate and bore a prefix T. (Source here)

In the Industrial Railway Record of August 1969 G. Alliez of UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON S.E.19. wrote: "The Kitson locomotives owned by the Cape Copper Company were of two types. Nos.1−3 were 0−4−0 side tanks with 9in by 15in cylinders and 2ft 10in diameter wheels; Nos. 4−10, 12, 14 and 15 were 0−6−2 tender engines with 14in by 21 in cylinders and 3ft 0in diameter wheels."

The Kitson 0-6-2 "Mountain Locomotives"

Between 1890 and 1905 a total for 10 of these Kitson locomotives were deployed on the copper line: The Nos. 4−10, 12, 14 and 15 were 0−6−2 tender engines with 14in by 21 in cylinders and 3ft 0in diameter wheels."

These "mountain locomotives", with a working weight of 42.5 tons, were required for the rapid ascent of about 2000ft about 35 miles inland from Port Nolloth. The Anenous Pass at this point was very steep. A very steep gradient was present in "Dick's cutting" and at "Hopkin's cutting it was 1:19 uncompensated.

Initially the mountain locomotives started their work on the most difficult section of the route - between Anenous and Paddagat.

official Kitson photograph: Kitson T258/3486 of 1891 (Clara)

G. Alliez continued: "The official Kitson photograph reproduced here is of Cape Copper Company No.5 (Kitson T258/3486 of 1891); the tank-like structure above the footplate is a shield to protect the J. Hawthorn-Kitson valve gear which had working parts above footplate level."

In Kitson's patent valve-gear, a modification of Walschaert's valve gear, the ends of a floating lever are linked to the crosshead, the valve-spindle, and intermediately at a point near the valve-spindle; the lever is pinned to the radius-link, which receives its rocking movement through an arm linked to the coupling rod. The motion of the valve and its spindle is a compound of two movements: one a movement directly the inverse of that of the piston, on a reduced scale, for the lead; the other a reduced duplicate of the vertical movement of the coupling rod, to open the port for steam"

Below the footplate were dust covers to protect the wheel motion gear from sand blown by wind.

Note the double buffer of continental pattern.

The is a photo of "Clara" all ready to work the Namaqualand Copper Railway.

No 5 (CLARA), today carries the boiler of No. 7, and has a boiler back plate Kitson 287 / 9.4.1898, which you can see, when you visit. [comment from John Middleton provided in in 2009]

photo A.A. Jorgensen abt. 1980 - Clara as plinthed earlier at the Nababeep Mine. The original tank-like structure above the footplate was used as a shield to protect the J. Hawthorn-Kitson valve gear which has working parts above footplate level - clearly shown it this photo.

A more recent photo of CLARA - photographer unknown

[2]
Steam Locomotives
of the Namaqua Copper Company

After the Cape Copper Company had opened their line, the Concordia Company (or their successors, the Namaqua Copper Company) decided to rail its ore to Port Nolloth also, and built their own line from their mines near Concordia to join the main railway just north of O'Okiep. The railway line from Brakpits (just north of O'okiep) reached Concordia on 23 April 1889.

From the junction the Cape Copper locos took over. In 1905 the Namaqua Copper Company had four locos in operation. (source: Frank Jux in his "Rails to the Well" article in the Industrial Railway Record of April 1969)

This locomotive, said to be the "Pioneer" from Concordia, was reputedly the engine which the Boers sent into Okiep, in April 1902, with a truck load of dynamite.

[3]
Steam Locomotives
of the Okiep Copper Company (O.C.C.)

KITSON WORKS NUMBERS
explained (also by G. Alliez)

Concerning your editorial comment on page 59 of RECORD 24, I would like to say that Kitson's practice of giving works numbers to tenders ceased long before 1890. According to my records Kitson 1980-1985 of 1874 were the last numbers allocated to tenders and were in fact for Taff Vale 43, 44 and 92−95. The batches allocated in the main list for tram engines as quoted by you are agreed, making a total of 292, whereas the Txxx list runs from 1 to 302. I believe the difference of ten numbers may be accounted for as follows:

The first four tram engines, notionally T1−T4, were in fact 678 of 1876, 918 of 1878 and 921-922 of 1878. These numbers had already been used in the main Kitson list and as these were experimental engines the numbers may well refer to designs or drawings.
T5−T14 were tram engines built for service overseas in 1879, and this is where the discrepancy may have arisen.
T15 was built in 1880 and T16 in 1881, and these would fit numbers 2375 onwards in the main Kitson list.

Although this "T" list commenced with street tramway engines, it also included examples such as the Cape Copper Company's 0−6−2 tender locos, and even a 2−6−2 tender engine of 3ft 6in gauge for an Australian timber firm. From 1900 onwards the Txx series was discontinued although Kitson still recorded engines under the tramway category, as for example the 2−6−4 tanks for the Leek & Manifold.

Sources:

Industrial Railway Record of April 1968
A history of Copper Mining in Namaqualand - By Johan M Smalberger - Struik, 1975.
Early Railways at the Cape - Jose Burman- Human & Rousseau, 1984.
Industrial Locomotives of South Africa 1991 - J Middleton & H Williams.
RAILS TO THE WELL - The Industrial Railway Record - April 1968
http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/26/Letters_26.htm
Kitsons & the Airdale Foundry
Kitson and Company (Wikipedia)
The Journal of Gustaf de Vylder - Van Riebeeck Society 2nd Series No. 28 (1998)

Nababeep - Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

2010-07-15T12:03:00.019+02:00

NOTE: Information about the Namaqualand Railway is spread over these entries:

"CLARA" built by Kitson & Co in 1891
The Namaqualand Copper Mine Railway - a brief history
Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Railway
"The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall
Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand
Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

Traveling on the Company Railway (1882-1909)

On July 14, 1882, a young (24) Catholic priest, Jean-Marie Simon, born 6 Dec 1858 in Lyon, France, left his country of birth together with four colleagues, to work in Namaqualand. The traveled by ship (the Spartan) to Cape Town and then took a three day trip on the little Namaqua - she only drew six and a half feet of water - to Port Nolloth. were the passengers disembarked. Simon and his party was to proceed to Pella near the Orange river. We now join him in his humourous account of the railway trip between between Port Nolloth and O'okiep as published in the book "Bishop for the Hottentots - African Memories 1882-1909" as translated from French by A.M.Bouchard in 1959 published by Benziger Brothers.

Bishop Simon penned this account of these railway trips in 1909:

The train was scheduled to leave [from Port Nolloth] at exactly six o'clock in the morning. It was winter [presumably around end-August 1882], and the sun rose at seven. Even so we awoke on time and were soon on our way to the railroad station. Where was the waiting room for the travelers? There was none. It appeared that we were to wait next to the track. You can imagine how pleasant it was standing in the cold for twenty minutes, for we were there at twenty minutes before six.

There was a thick fog, and we could barely see thirty feet ahead. The thermometer read four degrees above zero (36 F.), and we were lightly clothed. Would anyone in France have thought it possible to be cold in Africa! We walked back and forth, we blew into our hands, and looked impatiently into the distance. We were hoping to see the train so that we could jump into a compartment and at least have shelter. But nothing came into sight except some mules with harnesses on their backs. We wondered what these beasts could be doing in the African sands.

I cannot describe our amazement when we saw that the mules were firmly harnessed to a few little carriages. Yes, this was the train! These rolling boxes were our dining and sleeping cars, these mules were our engines. Each passenger carriage had three mules, and the freight cars, which were coupled in groups of three, were coupled in groups of three, were pulled by six mules harnessed in single file and trotting between the rails. The whole train consisted of about sixty mules and thirty cars.

A whistle announced the departure. Passengers for O'okiep, all aboard! Actually O'okiep was the end of the line. Once there we would have to seek other means of transportation, for we would still have to travel about ninety-five miles before reaching Pella.

The train began to move. I need not to mention its speed since you already know the power of our locomotive. Each unit was entrusted to two conductors. One of them, armed with as strong whip, took charge of speeding the progress of the mules should they imprudently choose to slow down their gait. The other conductor had his hand on the brake to control the speed of the vehicle. This latter function was quite essential since the tracks tended to follow the topography of the land. When we went downhill, unless the brakes were applied, the car would take on more and more speed until it was practically on the mules' heels. This would have been disastrous both for the passengers and for the poor animals.

Our impression in transferring from the large ocean steam to the Namaqua was repeated on this railroad. At first sight we were shocked by the improvised mule train, but after we spent a few hours in our rolling box, we had to admit that it was not so bad after all. Besides, this ninety-five mile trip cost us nothing. The Company is exceedingly accommodating. Anyone who wants to travel between Port Nolloth and O'okiep has only to inform the mine superintendent or one of his subordinates on the eve of his departure. The next day there will be room for him on the "Special" - that is the name given to the passenger cars. Even if he is the only one to make the trip, it makes no difference. He will have a "Special" and all its conveniences for himself.

I cannot guarantee that this courtesy of the Company will continue much longer, but for the present (1909) it is a free trip for the "aristocracy." Our missionaries have been traveling on this line for twenty-seven years. What a saving it has been for the mission!

On the other hand, freight rate is excessively high: ninety francs per ton. But we missionaries have nothing to complain about, for we always have a fifty-per cent discount on everything we receive from Europe or from the Cape. Our most sincere thanks to the Company. These gentlemen are Protestants but without prejudice or bigotry.

Scenes around Port Nolloth before 1907. This cameo was published in the book "The Cape To-day" By A. R. E. Burton, F.R.G.S. Published under authority of the Cape Government Railway Department. Cape Town, 1907. Pdf document here. Burton wrote: "There is a daily train at Port Nolloth, so that travellers [coming via a 36hr steamer trip from Cape Town] never need wait long at the port. The Copper Company who owns the wharves and the railway, are very attentive and obliging to visitors, and place the train to O'okiep at their disposal gratuitously."

As I was saying, a trip on this line is not unpleasant, at least for those who have something of an explorer's taste. The true traveler gladly accepts the inconveniences he may meet with. As for those who thing they are martyrs if they do not have a well-appointed table or a nicely furnished room, my advice to them is to stay at home.

When this trip is made in summertime you can see almost nothing but sand and dry, scraggly bushes. But even this can be interesting, for if you have seen only the pleasant side of nature your knowledge of it is very incomplete. The whole of nature is not to be found in plains covered with vines and fruit trees, fields of wheat, barley, or other cereals, forests cut through by brooks and carriage roads, cities with splendid monuments, or villages and hamlets with their modest steeples.

If you travel on our “Special" in winter you will see a sight unequaled even in the most fertile and prosperous lands of Europe. It is an unending flower bed of bright and varied colors. The colors of the flowers change with the altitude and the climate in which they grow. On the heights they appear dark red and velvety; on the plains where the cold is less intense their colors are lighter, turning to the yellows or even becoming perfectly white when the sun shines continuously on their corollas. Such is the case in the sands of Bushman-land where fogs are very rare. Since the flowers are of the same species everywhere, it is evident that the difference in their colors is due to the amount of light and heat they receive.

When we had traveled less than ten miles the mules had gone as far as their legs could carry them. A relay was ready. The tired animals were unharnessed and allowed to enjoy substantial and well-earned forage. Usually their meal consisted of six to eight pounds of oats or the equivalent amount of wheat mixed with straw. A new set of mules was harnessed to our vehicle, and after a ten-minute wait we were on our way again.

At noon each passenger opened a little package of sandwiches that he had prepared in advance according to his taste and appetite. The English washed it all down with a few cups of tea that the employees of the line brought them, and then they were ready to enjoy the rest of the day. We Frenchmen preferred beer, and although it was a German brand we enjoyed it as if it had been Burgundy wine.

At one o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at Anenous, a tiny village on the farthest limit of the plain that stretches between the sea and the first chain of mountains, the Kamies range. Actually, we were at the foot of a mountain almost 3,050 feet high that we would have to negotiate with the lone help of our mules. They would sweat and be almost out of breath, but they would get to the top. This would not be the first time they had accomplished this feat.

The construction of the railroad on this mountainside is a masterpiece of engineering. The grade was calculated with a view to the locomotives that would some day replace the mules. The engineer who solved the problem certainly gave proof of his immense knowledge. The ascent lasted about two hours, and at two points bridges had been thrown over ravines. These bridges were about sixty-five feet high.

As we approached the summit of the mountain we were reminded of the gorges of Switzerland or the Tirol. There were drops of over 2,000 feet. The road had been hewn out of the rock and there was just room enough for one man between the “Special” and the rocks. When we looked over the precipices we felt dizzy. The view was grand, but it was hard to enjoy it because we were terrified when we looked into the abyss beneath our feet. We were afraid in spite of ourselves. What if the road should cave in! What if the “Special” should be derailed! What if the mules should lose their footing!

All these hypotheses galloped through our imaginations and we couldn’t help wishing we would go a little faster and get out of this danger as soon as possible. But we were alone in our fears. The other passengers were not even looking at the view, the conductors were laughing and talking, and the mules trotted along as usual.

We soon arrived at the summit. It was five o’clock in the evening, so we would go no further that day. We were to spend the night in a hotel that the Company had built for the convenience of travelers.

A German operated the inn, and he did it admirably. The food, the lodging, in fact everything was to our taste, and the fee was very reasonable. The innkeeper’s wife knew a little French and enjoyed listening to us talk. We were proud to hear her say to her husband: “What a beautiful language!”

The next morning after a good night’s rest and a hearty breakfast we returned to our train. Everything was ready, and on the dot of eight o’clock we pulled out for O’okiep, arriving there at five o’clock in the afternoon. The landscape was extremely varied. There were climbs and descents, hills and real mountains. Some of the mountains were rounded, others seemed to be topped with large skullcaps of bare rock devoid of vegetation, their flanks full of crevices and ravines. Here and there we could see a few bushes and some aloe plants. But the vegetation lacked vitality because there was little soil to nourish it. Even sand from the disintegration of the rocks was scarce, and that was where the plants tried to take root.

But even if these mountains lacked vegetation they appeared rich in metals of all sorts. Most of them were reddish-brown in color, a sign of iron. Often the rocks were covered with a greenish patina, a sign of copper. This metal provided a livelihood for all of Namaqualand and had been the incentive for the building of our mule train. Two English companies purchased the richest deposits and have been mining this metal for over a half-century, sending it to England on steamers or sailing vessels.

During the rainy season the inhabitants of the region plant wheat, rye, or oats in the valleys. From the “Special” we could see these green bands which were a pleasing rest for our eyes after the sand, the desert plains, and the arid mountains.

Finally, a whistle announced we were nearing O’okiep. Already we could see the native quarter, that is, a group of semi-spherical huts. A few youths ran toward the train. They were porters, eager to earn tips from generous travelers when they got off the “Special.” The station was a square, brick building covered over with galvanized iron. It was no better than the one at Port Nolloth and was really nothing more than a warehouse for freight.

It is twenty-seven years since [written in 1909] I traveled on this line for the first time. Since then there have been some improvements. The Company has replaced the mules by locomotives that make the trip in eight hours instead of two days. However, there are frequent delays. The mules used to sweat and get out of breath as they climbed the mountains at Anenous, and it is about the same with the locomotives. Even though the train is divided into sections, the engines often lack the power to pull the train. Since more is demanded of them than they can give, it is not unusual for the boiler rivets to give way.

The Siege of O'oKiep during the Anglo-Boer War

Meanwhile, a Col. Cooper with a substantial relief force had been dispatched from Cape Town to Port Nolloth, arriving there on the 12th April 1902. They set off immediately by train and travelled as far as they could go. Although the tracks had been torn up in places, the bridges and viaducts that had been guarded by blockhouses were still intact. They first encountered the enemy at a place called Klipfontein which was about 45 miles out of Okiep, but the Boers had withdrawn to some higher ground that commanded the railway line. On the 14th, Col. Cooper managed to clear the Boers out of the area by the use of a shrapnel bombardment that caused heavy casualties.

Then on the 25th April, General Smuts had to leave the Siege and make his way by special pass through the British lines*, as he was required to attend the Peace Conference at Vereeniging.

[*In the final pages of his well-known book "Commando" Deneys Reitz describes how he and general Smuts were transported to the sea on the Okiep-Port Nolloth line - General Smuts in a 1st class wagon, and Reitz in an open truck with the luggage.]

This locomotive, said to be the "Pioneer", was reputedly the engine which the Boers sent into Okiep with a truck load of dynamite (see below).

General Manie Maritz, who had taken over from Smuts after the latter left for the Peace Conference, tried to send a rail wagon packed with dynamite and driven by an unmanned steam locomotive along the railway line into Okiep. Fortunately for the defenders it was derailed by the barbed-wire entanglements and overturned. It caught fire and burned with a brilliant light for rest of the night. Source: S.A.MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY - Durban Branch November 1998 News Sheet No.285 here.

The truth is not easy to verify - this version makes no mention of the locomotive: In the book "Jan Smuts: A Biography" Author F.S. Crafford gives a different version: "Then Marirz became desperate. He recalled the terrible havoc wrought at Braamfontein at the beginning of the war, when two dynamite trains collided. Ruthlessly he decided to blow up O'okiep. His men filled a railway coach with seventeen thousand dynamite cartridges and set it going downhill towards the fort in the town. The fort itself contained a huge supply of dynamite. The burghers held their breath. The coach reached the fort. There was no explosion! The town was saved miraculously!

Traveling on the Company Railway (1910)

This extract comes from "The Glamour of Prospecting" (published in 1920 by T.Fisher Unwin, London) in which prospector Fred Cornell recalls his 1910 railway trip from Port Nolloth to Kookfontein [now Steinkopf].

August 1910 ... as soon as I possibly could I finished my business in Port Nolloth and proceeded thither. Leaving at 8.30 one morning when, the combination of fog, surf, and bell-buoy were more unbearable than usual, the tiny little engine laboriously hauled its long load of coke-laden trucks, together with a few antiquated coupled carriages of fearful and wonderful design and dilapidation, and dignified locally by the name of “ specials,” inland across a monotonous and level belt of sand which, arid and destitute of vegetation near the coast, becomes eventually covered with low bush, scanty at first, but after a few miles thick and luxuriant, and apparently excellent for stock-raising purposes.

This picture of "Five Miles" shows the railway line and the watering point gear at the tanks. This photo was taken by Frank Jux and published in the Rails to the Well article in the Industrial Railway Record of April 1968.

At “ Five Miles,” where there is the Namaqualand equivalent for a station, some iron tanks of goodly dimensions show from whence Port Nolloth draws its supply of fresh water, which is taken in in” water cabins” by train, and distributed about the town by a primitive system of water-barrels drawn by mules.

The mountains dimly visible from Port Nolloth are first reached at Oograbies, where abrupt sandstone kopjes of considerable height extend north and south from either side of the line. These, however, are but outliers of the formidable mountain range farther inland, which forms an abrupt barrier at Anenous, some thirty-five miles farther on. This place was for many years the terminus of the railway, the copper having in those days been brought down to it in wagons through difficult passes in the mountain. Here, as at several other spots along the line, there is a good supply of water; indeed, it appears that practically wherever water has been bored for in this so-called “ waterless desert “ it has been found at a very moderate depth below the surface.

Thence the mountains rise abruptly, the track ascending by tortuous curves and gradients far exceeding in steepness those of the famous Hex River Pass, and climbing some 2,000 feet within the next few miles. The scenery is magnificent mountain after mountain on either side, peak after peak, and range after range; near at hand the vivid splashes of bright-coloured rocks showing up in brilliant contrast to the green of the melk bosch (euphorbia) clothing the less precipitous slopes, everything startlingly clear and distinct in the brilliant sunshine and clear air of the mountains, the tawny hues of the peaks in the middle distance gradually changing to a blue, which in the more remote ranges became ethereal to a degree, till mountain and sky became merged in the bright shimmer of the horizon.

26 August 2006; photo of Clara and the train: photo by Stefan and posted to flickr.

Around Klipfontein are the corn-lands of the natives, and on the occasion of my first visit these lands presented a most beautiful and wonderful appearance. For field after field of cleared plateau and mountain slopes were ablaze with gorgeous colour, being absolutely covered with the most brilliant-hued flowers, not mingled in blurred and confused masses, but in broad and clearly defined stretches of different vivid colourings. Here, morgen after morgen of glorious crimson; there, half a mountain-side of mustard yellow, in startling contrast to the other half of azure blue. Parterres of lovely heliotrope, red-hot patches of scarlet and orange of every shade, of pink, of mauve, salmon, a hundred tints, and all so thickly clustered and luxuriant, so well-defined and separated, that the general impression was that of an enormous garden of wonderful carpet bedding. The veldt flowers of South Africa are justly celebrated (or their wonderful beauty, but I doubt if at any other part of the sub-continent they can be seen in such gorgeous perfection as at Klipfontein on the Port Nolloth-O’okiep line.

16 October 2006 - photo by Vaalheuwel & posted to flickr. This photo and the preceeding one neatly illustrates Fred Cornell's text here.

The season for them is, however, but a transient one, and two months later, when I again passed the spot, not a blossom was to be seen.

A few miles farther and Steinkopf is reached from thence the track winds on a down-grade across a wide, barren, desolate plain, broken by queer-looking granite kopje, to where a high, humped mountain marks the position of the copper-mine at O’okiep

Lawrence Green talks about the Port Nolloth - Okiep Railway line

Lawrence (“Laurie”) George Green 1900 – 14 May 1972) was a South African journalist and author. Eschewing any grandiose view of his literature and his lifestyle, he wrote for the layman and general reading entertainment as a raconteur. As such his writings, though well populated with researched facts through his wide travels and many hours of research in the South African and British archives, do not constitute in any strict sense historical or academic reference works. Nevertheless, he remains frequently cited as a recorder of little remembered or noted facts of some historical or cultural significance in the southern African domain.

A Decent Fellow Doesn't Work, published 1963 (reprinted 1982), Howard Timmins, SA

The following is an extract from the above work:

Most remarkable of all the narrow-gauge railways I knew, and probably the oldest, was the private line that ran from Port Nolloth to O'okiep in Namaqualand. All but a few miles of this two foot six track have been torn up; but the old people of that dry corner of South Africa insist that a ghost train still runs over the ninety mile route between the sea and the copper mines.

Camels and mules, horses and oxen were used for hauling stores and ore when the Namaqualand copper boom started in the middle of last century. It was a difficult line to build, for there was heavy sand at the coast, and mountains barred the way inland. Locomotives had to be equipped with special casings to protect the moving parts during sandstorms. These storms were so devastating that huge dunes formed close to the railway sheds at Port Nolloth and the line was blocked. People complained that they could not visit the cemetery because the graves and tombstones had been buried under thousands of tons of sand.

Many narrow-gauge records were claimed by the engineers who worked this line. I remember the skill with which they handled the train on the section between Anenous on the plain to Klipfontein summit, where the rise is thirteen hundred feet in seven miles. They had to split up the train to conquer the gradient of one in nineteen.

Gemsbok and springbok roamed the coastal plains years ago. Trains stopped to allow passengers to shoot for the pot. The most skilful hunter along the line was a plate-layer named Edward Burgoyne. Once he was struck on the neck by lightning, but he survived and carried a black scar as a result. Burgoyne left the railway, worked as a miner until he was eighty-four, and passed the century mark. He always said that the lightning put new life into him.

I met a later character when I first travelled by the copper railway about seven years after World War I. Copper had slumped and there were only two trains a week each way. Staff had been paid off, too, and people talked about the line as a "one man railway." The one man was a huge Cornish-man named Jack Meadows.

Jack Meadows sold me a ticket from O'okiep to Port Nolloth. For many years the company carried passengers and baggage free in their three little coaches, and to the very end they gave every school-child a free pass. I paid my fare and sat down in a compartment the size of a packing-case. Soon afterwards Jack Meadows whistled the train out and jumped into the van.

Things were so quiet at Port Nolloth in those days that Jack Meadows had time to carry out the duties of port captain on arrival. He organised the handling of cargo on the Port Nolloth wharf. Then he took the train back to O'okiep.

In the prosperous days, two trains always met at Klipfontein, and lunch was served at the hotel. I had a good steak there while one of the old hands talked of the time when the company ran a special excursion train for its employees to Klipfontein in the spring to see the wild-flowers in full and glorious array. That happens about once in seven years, and then Klipfontein becomes one of the world's botanical marvels.

Botanists from many parts of the world have gathered seeds at Klipfontein in good seasons. One professor collected forty different species in as many minutes. Brilliant wild-flowers grow so thickly that they could be cut like wheat with a sickle.

Now the station and hotel at Klipfontein are in ruins. Only the tall blue-gum trees are still there to nod a greeting as the ghost train passes - a tiny phantom engine eight freight cars and three passenger coaches bound for Port Nolloth with the shade of Jack Meadows in the van.

Port Nolloth and the copper mines were outposts of Cornwall for many years, and they left many Cornish names along the line. Sailing ships from Swansea came up to the jetty at Port Nolloth and discharged coal, which was railed to O'okiep. The trains brought the copper ore to the port, and that went back to Swansea. Most of the work was done by Cornish miners, St. Helena craftsmen and Hottentot labourers. To this day old Hottentots speak English with Cornish phrases and accent.

Among the early travellers on the narrow-gauge railway was John Galsworthy the novelist. His father was the copper company's solicitor. The young Galsworthy was treated as a guest of honour and occupied a special coach - I climbed into this tiny compartment many years later. It looked rather like a hansom-cab set on a bogie. Galsworthy responded by starting a library at the O'okiep terminus. He choose the books himself in London, and a fine collection they made at that period. I noticed some of his own masterpieces among them.

It was a slow trip by rail, but Jack Meadows told me that there had never been a fatal accident on the line. Good roads made it possible to carry freight and copper at lower cost; and so, during World War II, the railway that had linked O'okiep with the sea for nearly seventy years was closed down. Two short sections were retained; a line from O'okiep to the smelter plant at Nababeep; and the five miles of track from Port Nolloth to Five Mile Station.

Port Nolloth is waterless. Five Mile Station, however, has wells and windmills, and a water train with tank-cars runs several times a week and carries one hundred thousand gallons a month. (People who dislike the brackish flavour of this water have to buy Cape Town water from coasting steamers). Five Mile Station is also the isolated spot where dynamite for the mines is stored, and the old passenger coaches are still put on the run when dynamite is carried. And they are still hauled by an engine that was built very soon after King Edward VII came to the throne.

"On Wings of Fire", published 1967 (reprinted 1982), Howard Timmins, SA

Those who, like Martin Leendertz (a colleague of Lawrence Green) and myself, are fascinated by narrow gauge-railways have never recovered from the shock they experienced when the line from Port Nolloth to Okiep closed down. Construction started almost a century ago, and the tiny engines and quaint match-box passenger coaches were still jittering over the thirty-inch gauge track after World War II had started. Then the old line (apart from two short sections) was torn up for the sake of the metal and sleepers. You will see the old culverts and embankments, of course, and some of the historic rolling-stock has been preserved. Come back to the beginning of this peculiar venture.

Spooner, the genius behind the Festiniog miniature railway in Wales, inspired this line, one hundred miles long, between Port Nolloth and the copper mines. William Taylor, driver of the pioneer locomotive (named Miner) had come from the London underground; a strange contrast in atmosphere. When the governor, Sir Henry Barkly, travelled up the line in 1873 the Miner was decorated with rosettes. Proper coaches had not yet arrived, but open trucks had been fitted with canvas roofs, curtains of duck lined with green material and sheepskin carpets. It was early August, the spring flowers were out, and the train stopped often so that the governor and his staff could examine the great display closely. At first the train ran across the sandy coastal plain between the dunes. There were many curves. Someone explained to the visitors that the contractor had been paid one thousand pounds a mile, and naturally made the line as long as possible. At first it was thought that steam locomotives would be put out of action by the sand, but the Miner and another little engine called John King were imported as an experiment. Each engine weighed about six tons with water and fuel. They were a great success, and soon they replaced the hundreds of mules on the coastal section.

When the governor's train reached Abbevlaak, twenty-two miles from the coast, he was welcomed by a sentry who raised his ancient musket and fired a salute. -Twenty miles farther on the governor saw a famous landmark, the first tree, a lone kameeldoring twenty feet high. The railway builders had feared that the embankment might give way, but a plate-layer named Woodcock had made a name for himself by finding a succulent, the senecio or soap-plant, which bound the loose sand perfectly. The train climbed from Anenous to Klipfontein, where the governor spent the night. Next day he watched a copper train, twenty trucks carrying sixty tons, rushing down the hill. This section was then named the Barkly Viaduct. The governor's train went on to Okiep drawn by the Cape Copper Company's finest mules in new harness and rosettes. At Kookfontein (now Steinkopf) the Rhenish missionary had made an archway of evergreens, palms, wild flowers and flags. After another fusillade by a guard-of-honour the governor visited the church and school. The journey to Okiep was completed by Cape cart, as this was faster than the mule train. Okiep had risen on the farm Braakfontein. The visitors thought it looked more like Cornwall than the Cape, with its villas of solid rock. When the mine "roarer" sounded, hot coffee and biscuits were served to all workers free of charge. And a bottle of champagne for the governor.

Mules were still being used on the level section when Bishop Simon arrived nine years later, five hundred mules, each one consuming fifteen pounds of oats, rye and bran a day. The bishop left Port Nolloth in a cold fog at six in the morning. Tiny passenger coaches were provided, each drawn by three mules. Freight cars had six mules. The whole train was made up of thirty little cars. Each car had a conductor with a whip and a brakeman. After the train had covered ten miles fresh relays of mules were attached to the cars. When the train reached the mountains at Anenous the bishop was greatly impressed by the bridges over the ravines, and he thought the scenery resembled the gorges of the Tyrol or Switzerland, with drops of more than two thousand feet. He wondered what would happen if the mules lost their footing, for there were dizzy precipices beside the line. (When the line closed down, officials boasted that there had not been a serious accident during seventy years). Bishop Simon first saw Namaqualand from the railway in the spring, and he remembered the unending flowerbed, yellow on the plains, dark red on the heights.

Everyone travelled free in those days and for years afterwards. Permits were issued in Port Nolloth early this century by Mr. Deane, the copper company's senior official. Passengers quoted a little jingle as they went away with their free passes:

If you wish to possess
The Nama qua Express
You call on Deane at the Deanery.

The line was used by the British Army during the South African War. A famous episode in which General Smuts and Deneys Reitz took part was the capture of one of the small locomotives. The Boers loaded the tender with dynamite and sent it at full speed without a driver along the track leading into besieged Okiep. However, the engine jumped the points near the mine and rolled over into a ditch without exploding. [Note for Malcolm: See, another version of the story!]

Hundreds of troops were rushed up the line early in World War I to cross the Orange River into German South West Africa. The last time men in uniform crowded into the trucks of the "Namaqua Express" was in 1922, during the Bondelswart campaign in the barren, twisted gorges beyond the river.

The exiles of Port Nolloth laid out a cricket field in the dunes outside the settlement. Everyone trudged through the sand to watch the matches, for such events broke the monotony; but it was a grim walk, especially for the women. Then a railwayman had an inspiration. Secretly, and certainly without the knowledge of the directors in London, a branch line was built from the seafront to the cricket pavilion. A special train was run to every match ever afterwards. [Note for Malcolm: In your postcard picture either the line going left or right may be this cricket line - who knows? :) ]

Perhaps the item of rolling-stock which made the greatest impression on the primitive Hottentots was Mr. Zebulon Pearce's railway yacht. Pearce, a blacksmith, was fond of hunting. As he had neither horse nor wagon he designed a sail-driven trolley to carry him along the railway line over the veld between Port Nolloth and the mountains. The yacht had a square sail for "running before" and head-sails for use when the wind was on the beam. Pearce sometimes reached twenty miles an hour, a speed envied by the engine-drivers on the run. The doctor at Port Nolloth used a "rail bike"; and he, too, had a sail to help him along. This railway curio was still to be seen at Port Nolloth a few years ago, near the pump-house where the camels were once watered. The doctor, by the way, had to cover an area of four thousand square miles; from the port to the Orange River, inland to Anenous, south to the Buffels River. I once saw a letter he wrote: "To any part of this tract of land I am at any time prepared to go," he said, "but I think my salary of £150 a year should be increased."

John Galsworthy the novelist knew Port Nolloth. His father was a London solicitor who acted for the Cape Copper Company and the novelist visited the mines early this century. He trekked through Namaqualand and wrote a little-known murder story based on this experiences. Galsworthy sketched the veld background vividly; the Namaqua partridges flitting to a half-dry water-hole, the springbok drawing together in serried squadrons against a possible attack by stealthy, hungry jackals. He camped under a venerable kokerboom that threw gnarled and fantastic shadows. "That little world of rocks and sand, of scanty brush and tree, held its breath", wrote Galsworthy as the drama moved to its climax.

Port Nolloth is not an earthly paradise, but is has its old families who have been faithful to this weird settlement in the sand. Three generations of Robsons have lived there; the first Robson built the jetty, and his grandson restored a sixty-year-old London locomotive not long ago for shunting trucks along the waterfront. When I close my eyes and think of Port Nolloth I seem to hear the dirge of the bell-buoy, the rumble of surf, the regular explosions of detonators in fog, the seaweed and the sand, the railway whistles, the odour of freshly-boiled crayfish from the factory. Perhaps there are some who have grown fond of this forlorn harbour. As far as I know, Port Nolloth inspired only one poet, the great William Charles Scully:

Here on the margin of the land's wild waste
I sit with eyes set seaward, whilst the sweet
Wind from the west, spray-laden, flowing past
Bears to the sense faint fragrance, whilst the fleet
Foam-bells from each wide-wandering billow cast
Over the rocks, are blown about my feet;
Far off, a white-winged ship, with straining mast,
Bound on her course, close-hauled, with swelling sheet.

Sources:

The Glamour of Prospecting - Fred C. Cornell - David Philip 1986
The Journal of Gustaf de Vylder - Naturalist in South-Western Africa 1873-1875 - Van Riebeeck Society 2nd Series No.28 1998.
Commando by Deney Reitz
Bishop for the Hottentots - by Bishop John M Simon, translated by A.M. Bouchard Benziger Brothers 1959.
Early 20th century railway carriages in Port Nolloth, South Africa - Debbie Krivens

Nababeep - Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand

2010-07-15T12:03:00.015+02:00

NOTE: Information about the Namaqualand Railway is spread over these entries:

"CLARA" built by Kitson & Co in 1891
The Namaqualand Copper Mine Railway - a brief history
Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Railway
"The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall
Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand
Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

Richard Thomas Hall

Richard Thomas Hall, a former superintendent engineer of the Redruth & Chasewater Railway, was charged with improving railway links in Namaqualand. Hall's 93-mile Port Nolloth Tramway, built between 1869 and 1876, was considered one of Africa's engineering marvels, and set the 2ft 6in narrow-gauge for sub-Saharan Africa. The following brief bio written by Graham Ross and Tony Murray appeared as the 14th article in the series "Past Masters" in Civil Engineering | February 2008. (pdf document here.):

Ore from the Namaqualand copper mines was shipped to Cornwall for treatment, so it was perhaps natural that the Cape Copper Company should appoint a Cornish-man to investigate its transport problems.

Richard Thomas Hall, the engineer who conceived, designed and built the narrow-gauge railway through the forbidding country from Port Nolloth to Okiep, was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1823. His experience as Superintendent of the narrow-gauge Redruth to Chasewater Railway and of its conversion from horse to steam traction stood him in good stead when it came to tackling the transportation problems of the Namaqualand copper mines.

He arrived in Namaqualand in 1865, enlisted the help of surveyor Patrick Fletcher (PM 13), and carried out extremely thorough investigations into the various options for getting the copper to the coast. He did not exclude road transport from his studies, but he must soon have become aware of the difficulties attached to this mode, particularly the seasonal lack of water and forage for draught animals, which meant that the riding season was limited to a few months in each year. In the closed season, ore would be stockpiled and income would cease, which had obvious drawbacks for the copper companies.

Thus his comprehensive report recommended a narrow-gauge (2’ 6”) tramway or light railway from Okiep to Port Nolloth. The Colonial Government did not support this solution and instead built Fletcher’s Messelpad road to Hondeklip Bay.

Unfortunately the Cape Copper Company was in the meantime committed to contributing to the improvement of this road, so Hall’s proposal for a railway, although accepted in principle, could not be implemented at that time.

However, when in the next few years the transportation of ore by wagon went from bad to worse, the Copper Company called Hall back to carry out the necessary surveys, and to design and build the Port Nolloth railroad which he had recommended three years earlier.

It was a formidable task involving a 70 km section across the littoral sandveld to the foot of the escarpment. The Anenous Pass then climbed 400 m to the plateau over a distance of 12 km, and the final section across the hardeveld to Okiep covered 55 km. Not only did Hall have to cope with the unfriendly climatic, geological and topographic conditions, but also with a lack of trained artisans and labour, and with the continual difficulties of getting supplies and equipment delivered on time from overseas. (It should be remembered that government road builders could invoke convict labour – Hall had no such resources.) Nonetheless, he succeeded in building a work unique in our history, and one which saved the copper mines from closure.

The complete railway was formally opened on 1 January 1876 and was in service until 1942.

The first section was brought into use using mules, and when Hall saw how well the track stood up to the carriage of materials he recommended trying a light steam engine. Two locomotives were imported, but proved unreliable, not the least because they consumed large quantities of water. The company reverted to mules and for a time kept an enormous stable of some 260 animals. Each train required about 60 mules to pull it, except on the section down the Anenous Pass, which the trucks ran down under gravity – and the watchful eye of the brakeman! Eventually, and not without some false starts, steam was reintroduced in 1890, and served until the line was taken out of service. Road motor transport proved more efficient and gradually took over, initially to Port Nolloth and later to the SAR railhead at Bitterfontein.

The benefits of the railway were quite spectacular. In 1870, 12 000 tons of ore were mined, but only 7 300 tons could be transported to the port. In 1872, when only the coastal section was in operation, 13 240 tons were exported. Little wonder that the company opted to extend the line!
After the Namaqualand job Hall was employed by William Brounger of the Cape Railways to find a way for the line from Worcester through the Langeberg to the Karoo, from where the location of the line to the Diamond Fields was relatively simple. His best route was via Montagu and Ladismith and then doubled back to Touws River. He spent about six months on that job, for which he was paid a mere 100 pounds. (Fortunately for the efficiency of the SAR, Wells Hood, Brounger’s star location engineer, discovered a much more direct line through the Hex River valley.) During this period Hall’s voice was heard in influential circles, and he is credited with having advised the Colonial Select Committee to adopt the 3’ 6” (1 067 mm) gauge which has since become the standard gauge in Africa south of the Sahara.

Hall next did a flying survey from Pretoria to Lourenço Marques for President Burgers of the ZAR, and then became traffic manager of the Cape Railways at Port Elizabeth until he was pensioned at the age of sixty. Thereafter he filled his days as manager of Thomas’ Mine (near Avoca). In 1889 he was appointed by President Brand to manage the Free State railways, but he died in Pretoria while on his way to take up the post. He was then aged 66 years.

Like several of his contemporaries, Richard Thomas Hall was a bold and competent engineer whose achievements merit more appreciation than they have received in the professional annals of our country.

Sources:

Past Masters 14 - Richard Thomas Hall - Civil Engineering | February 2008

Nababeep - "The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall

2010-07-15T12:03:00.014+02:00

NOTE: Information about the Namaqualand Railway is spread over these entries:

"CLARA" built by Kitson & Co in 1891
The Namaqualand Copper Mine Railway - a brief history
Locomotives of the Namaqualand Copper Railway
"The little railway in Namaqualand" written by Richard Thomas Hall
Richard Thomas Hall - 1st builder of the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand
Traveling on the Copper Mine Railway in Namaqualand - some personal accounts

"The Little Railway in Namaqualand"

This article was written in 1871 by Richard Thomas Hall for the Cape Monthly Magazine - it was published in April 1871. Richard Thomas Hall, a former superintendent engineer of the Redruth & Chasewater Railway, was charged with improving railway links in Namaqualand. Hall's 93-mile Port Nolloth Tramway, built between 1869 and 1876, was considered one of Africa's engineering marvels, and set the 2ft 6in narrow-gauge for sub-Saharan Africa:

At the present time, when the attention of most persons in the Colony is more or less drawn to the necessity of providing some cheap, but effective, means of opening up the resources of the country, any information of a practical nature is desirable, and a description of the railway I have lately constructed here, may be of benefit to some, and interesting to others. Before proceeding to describe the line and its working, I must give a short account of its history and of what called it into existence.

The Cape Copper Mining Company, since their mines began to be developed, has experienced great difficulty in obtaining transport for their ores. At the commencement of their operations cattle were plentiful in Namaqualand, and the farmers had been induced to become riders, and thereby neglected their farms. Drought ensued, followed by lung-sickness, which swept off hundreds of trek oxen. As the drought continued the means of transport diminished, until at length it became a serious question with the Company as to the future. In 1865 I was sent here by the directors of the Cape Copper Mining Company to inquire into the means of transport, and to see how the difficulty could be overcome.

The difficulties were the frightful state of the road over the mountain towards the coast, and the long and tiresome drag over sand from the mountain to the sea. Hondeklip Bay was the the Company's port for shipping and the landing of all their cargo. On my arrival, the question of improving the road from Springbok to Hondeklip Bay was before Parliament, in connection with a Tramway Bill from Hondeklip to Riethuis, sixteen miles towards the mountain. [Act No. 4 of 1865, Act to Authorize The Cape Copper Mining Company (Limited) to construct a Tramway or Railway between Hondeklip Bay and Riethuis]

On examining the country I found such greater such greater facilities were afforded for making a railway or tramway towards the mines from Port Nolloth, and the superior advantages of that port over Hondeklip Bay were so manifest, that I recommended the directors to abandon the Hondeklip route and bay, remove their establishment, and carry a railway 2 feet 6 inches gauge from Port Nolloth to Muishond, some forty miles inland. The question was duly considered by the directors, and approved of, but in the meantime, they had been committed to the Government road between Sringbok and Hondeklip, and were, therefore, compelled to abandon the idea. Matters, however, did not improve. Ox-wagons gave way in a great measure to mules, and notwithstanding all efforts, the ore accumulated at O'okiep, until a pile of the value near £160,000 lay waiting for removal. The directors then reconsidered my suggestion, and resolved to abandon their valuable property at Hondeklip, and transfer their business to Port Nolloth. In the latter part of 1868 I was sent there to make necessary surveys for carrying the railway into effect.

The railway starts from the jetty at Port Nolloth, and going eastwards, passes over a loose sandy plain, with ridges of blowing sand, for about nine miles. The country then becomes more settled, and at fifteen miles arrives at Oograbies Poort, having attained an altitude of 500 feet above the sea level. Oograbies Poort is a pass in the first range of mountains which runs parallel with the coast. The poort is about a mile wide, and opens a communication from the coast to a very fine valley running into the heart of the mountains en extending to near Kookfontein Mission Station, or within twenty miles of the plateau of Bushmanland. This valley varies in width from two to eight miles, along the middle of which the railway runs to its further limit. The soil throughout, excepting about four miles of alluvial matter, is sand, generally loose, but becomes firmer as you advance towards the head of the valley.

The present terminus of the railway is near Muishondfontein, forty-six miles from the port and 1,600 feet above the sea. The question of its further extension of ten or twelve miles to near Kookfontein or Steinkopf Mission Station is now being considered by the directors. The difficulty is the mountain ridge; but a ruling gradient of one in twenty for about two miles will carry the line over the worst part, and from this point to the mines, no serious obstacle exists. Kookfontein Mission Station is about 2,850 feet and O'okiep Mine is about 3,000 feet above sea level.

Rivers are said to have existed, and places are pointed out, as Kama River and Oograbies River, but no appearances, except at the two points mentioned, where the soil is firm, indicate that water has flowed along them for very many years. The upper and lower portions of the line are of a different character. The lower portions, as far as twenty-two miles, are very curved, there being but five miles in the aggregate of straight in the length, and the surface is in many parts undulating, arising from the character of the ground and the frequent occurrence of sand-hills. From the twenty-second mile to its terminus, the direction is more decided, having runs of perfectly straight line from two miles to six miles in length.

The preparation of the line is such, as is necessary for other railways, the whole course being laid out at regular gradients adapted as nearly as possible to the nature of the country, great care to avoid cuttings and bankings, as the sand, especially in the lower portion of the road, being loose, and in many parts shifting, the slightest disturbance might therefore create a drift not readily stopped. Banks vary from three feet to eight feet in height, and being formed of loose sand, are planted with bush, to protect the sides from running or being blown away. Cuttings are few, the heaviest are near to port, and vary from three to four feet, but in one case a six-feet cutting occurs. Ont the upper portion of the line the works are very light. The curves are, as stated, in the lower portion, frequent and continuous; in many places five or six alternate curves occur in succession, varying from five hundred to one thousand feet radius; nearly all are of parabolic form. On the mainline the sharpest curves is five hundred feet radius, but as at the port there is a curve of one hundred and forty feet radius, over which the traffic passes.

The gradients in the lower portion are mostly short and varied, seldom more than two hundred yards in length. This portion being constructed for animal power was formed of a more undulating character than if intended for steam, but can at little expense be made suitable for steam power. The gradients vary from on in fifty to one in two hundred, but are chiefly from one in sixty to one in one hundred. On the upper portion they are of better character and of greater length, varying from one in two hundred at the lower end to one in one hundred and seventy near the terminus.

The works other than 'formation', are trifling. Rivers and streams require but little expense. The dry bed of the River Kama, about three hundred feet wide, is crossed on the level, and however objectionable this may be from an engineering point of view, it is cheaper to restore a small portion of the railway in the event of being washed away than to build a bridge. Three other rivers are crossed, but as they have banks somewhat prominent, and are narrow, a simple wood girder bridge has been thrown across, with masonry piers. The culverts, for the same reasons, are very few, and do not number more than six in all.

The railway is constructed in a gauge of 2 feet 6 inches, rails 18 lb per yard - of what is are termed 'bridge' pattern, such as were used by Brunel in his broad-gauge railways in England. They are securely bolted to longitudinal sleepers 7 inches x 3 inches, of European pine creosoted, and fixed laterally by iron tie rods, which, with attention, becomes solidated.

The railway has been rapidly constructed. Its first rail was laid September 4, 1869, and its last on December 23, 1870. Considerable delay occurred, and the platelaying ceased for want of material for many weeks. The time actually occupied in constructing the forty-six miles was about twelve months. [NOTE: This was enabled by Act No. 4 of 1869, Act to Authorize The Cape Copper Mining Company (Limited) to construct a Tramway or Railway between Port Nolloth and Nonams, and to build a Jetty at Port Nolloth.]

Considering the light character of the material used and the nature of the country, it was intended at first to use animal power only in hauling the traffic; but as the work progressed, and finding it stood the carriage of material so well, I strongly recommended to the directors to send a light locomotive, to be tried as an experiment.

The engine - named 'John King' - after the head of the late firm of Phillips & King, now King & Son, Cape Town, (who originated the working of the present productive mines, and but for whose energy and skill Namaqualand would probably have lapsed into destitution and barbarism) arrived here in January [1871] last, and on 1st February commenced its work, and has steadily continued to the present time, and has successfully proved that even with light material and sand ballast steam power may by used economically in South Africa.

The engine is necessarily light; weighing, with water and coal, about 6 ½ tons; the cylinders are 6 inches in diameter, 12 inches stroke, wheels six-coupled 1 foot 10 inches in diameter, working pressure generally 100 lb, but can work to 120 lb per inch.

The great drawback to railways in the country is the scarcity of water, especially in Namaqualand. Our supply along the line is very limited, and necessitates a tender being attached to the engine to carry water sufficient for a twenty mile run. This entails a dead weight of about three tons, which in a more favoured country might be dispensed with.

The little engine performs its work very satisfactorily. At present its daily performance is to leave the bay at seven a.m. with a train of ten wagons loaded with about seven tons of goods to thirty-five miles; the gross weight of the 'up' train with tender being about 20 tons, and to return with ten wagons, carrying twenty-two tons of ore, or a gross load inwards of about thirty-five tons, arriving at the bay about 2.30 pm. As the requirements increase, it will take twelve wagons from the bay, weighing gross about twenty-two tons and return with a train weighing gross forty-two tons. This, I think is the limit of its power.

On first working the railway, great inconvenience was experienced from the very rapid wear of wheels under the wagons. The wheels were about 16 inches in diameter, of rough cast-iron; but the continuous attrition, caused by the rails being covered with loose sand driven by the wind or thrown up by action of the mule's feet, became a serious difficulty to keep the work going. A set of new wheels would last only three weeks - being by that time worked into a regular groove, so perfect that in sending a wheel to Cape town as pattern for a supply, the manufacturer was in doubt whether the groove was intentional or not. This, however, was soon remedied, by sending wheels of cast Bessemer steel. No inconvenience is now felt, and wheels are now running that have been in use six months, with very little perceptible wear on their faces. The rails, too, do not yet exhibit damage from attrition, many persons having supposed that the wear would thus transferred from wheel to rail; but consideration would show this is not to be expected to any great extent.

A question of great importance in constructing such a line as above is the cost. In this case I am not in a position to say what the Port Nolloth Railway has cost per mile, as our accounts are not yet closed. I will, however, assume £50,000, a matter of little over £1,000 per mile - not more than is necessary for constructing a good wagon road. Although the road* as at present constructed may be sufficient for its requirements, I would not, in the event of any similar undertaking of a more public character being desired, recommend material so light as I have here laid. [*road = a reference to the railway line of course - "railroad"]

That our road is equal to its requirements, I may only say that the work the engine is at present doing daily from the port to thirty-five miles is as much as twelve months ago would have required five hundred mules to perform, and to put it in another form, the engine is now carrying to thirty-five miles, as much as four hundred and twenty mules are bringing forty-two miles.

I must next say something about the port, as until of late, it was comparatively unknown except to a few in Cape Town. Port Nolloth is the only place in the Colony north of Saldanha Bay worthy of the name harbour, but it must not be compared to Saldanha Bay in any respect. It is a mere lagoon or indentation in the coast, with a reef of rocks protecting it from the was of the Atlantic. Its length, from north to south points, is about two miles, and its breadth from shore to reef varies from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. The reef runs nearly NW by SE, but about the middle and for space of near 1,500 feet, there is a break, which is termed the bar or entrance to the harbour. The depth of the water here is about twenty-eight feet at low tide; the reef on either side is nearly bare at low-water spring tides. On the south side of the bar or entrance is 'Robbe Island', a small islet, nearly covered at a very high spring tide, but a great protection to the shore against the run of the sea from westward. Opposite this island stand the Company's wharf, stores, and place of general business. The proposed jetty abuts on the wharf here, and runs out towards the island about 100 feet below low-watermark, where vessels drawing nine feet of water may lie in all states of the tide. At the north end of the harbour is a fine pool, with a depth of twenty to twenty-seven feet at low water. To the south of the jetty is also another fine pool, but shallower, with a depth of water of only about ten or eleven feet.

That the narrow-gauge railway here is a success, no one who has seen it can doubt. That it can be constructed for about one tenth the cost and in one fifth of the time required for ordinary railways, has been proved by the Cape Copper Mining Company; and its adaptation generally for this Colony, can be readily ascertained. Prejudices may oppose, but necessity should compel it being fairly and fully considered.

The originator of the idea of this very narrow gauge railway, was the late Mr. Spooner, C.E., of Port Madoc, North Wales, who, in constructing the Festiniog Railway, adapted this gauge to meet the requirements and ramifications of some slate quarries in that country, thus enabling the same wagons to pass through the galleries in the quarries, the workshops, and on the mainline to the shipping at the port. To his son - the present engineer of that railway - is due credit of introducing steam-power on a railway only two feet in width, and who, by his energy and ability, has enabled it to carry a traffic of near 140,000 tons per year by steam-power. If this can be done in England, why can it not be done in the Cape Colony?

Sources:

"The Little Railway in Namaqualand" - published in the Cape Monthly Magazine of April 1871 - Account written by Thomas Hall - also recently (2008) republished in "Life & Travels in the Northwest 1850-1899 - Namaqualand, Bushmanland & West Coast" - By Arne Schaefer, Tony Grogan -published by Life&Travels in the Northwes, 2008.