Travelling Tim

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June 20, 2007

South African Rail

Preserved and current railways of Southern Africa

This page contains some railway-related photos that I have taken during my recent travels backpacking around South Africa. I thought that they might be of interest to other steam-railway and railroading fans. No attempt was made to provide a complete picture of current or past railway operations in South Africa.

You can click on any of the photos to get the full-sized image in a new browser-window.

If you wish to place one or two (!not all!) images on your own non-commercial site, please download and save them on your server. DO NOT hot-link to them. The condition of use is that you include a link back to this page, and that they are not used commercially. For any other use, please contact me for permission and prices.

The next group of photos were taken at the Natal Railway Museum, in the small town of Hilton, which is just a few kilometres away from Pietermaritzburg. Click here to show the location in Google Maps. The museum is based at the old railway station at Hilton, which has not been connected to the main line since 1960, when the twin-bore Cedara tunnels were completed. They are a massive 6.023 kms in length, and completely bypass the station in Hilton. The museum was founded in the same year that the tunnels were completed and is today an interesting collection of steam locomotives, running stock, and a small indoor display of memorabilia, run by the local garden-centre. There is also a fine display of model railways housed in an adjacent building. Work on the models is undertaken by a small but dedicated band of enthusiasts, who meet on Friday mornings. The outdoor exhibits are open for viewing at normal office hours - if you are in the area, please go along and give them your support. They would also welcome an influx of volunteers and funds, as there is still a lot of work to do to maintain the locos and bring them up to working condition. Unfortunately the area along the tracks is not adequately fenced, and so the locos have suffered from some vandalism, and these days need access to the footplates protected with razor-wire!!

NB: The notes below come from the society's own pamphlet.

Designed by Hendrie, these engines were the first class of tender locomotives on the NGR. They were powerful and capable of running longer distances than the tank engines being used at the time. Although not the first eight-coupled type, they were the prototype design from which later eight-coupled designs evolved, through Classes 3, 12, 14, and 15 and finally the 15F, 23 and 25 classes. This Class 1 locomotive was NGR 306 and SAR 1276. She was in service for just over 70 years. In her final years she was used for shunting at Glencoe, Vryheid and Empangeni.

The platform at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station is the one made famous where in 1893, the young lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, later to be better known as the Mahatma Gandhi, was unceremoniously thrown out of a railway carriage, after refusing to move from the first class to a third class coach despite holding a valid first class ticket. Click here to show the location in Google Maps.

Click here to show the Kimberley Big Hole Museum location in Google Maps.

Posted by travellingtim at June 20, 2007 04:06 PM