Natal Railway
| Natal Railway | |||||||||||||
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 Point train station in a photo from around 1869. In
front of it the Natal locomotive with the passenger car. | |||||||||||||
 Route of the Natal Railway on a map from 2016
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| Route length: | 10 km | ||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 5.4 ‰ | ||||||||||||
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The Natal Railway Company was a railway company founded in January 1859 in what was then the British colony of Natal . They built and operated the one rail link between the city center of Durban and the shipping docks on a headland called The Point in Durban Bay. The route was about 3 km long and is considered the first public railway in what is now South Africa . It was extended to the Umgeni River in 1867 . The company, which ran into financial difficulties, was taken over by Natal Government Railways on January 1, 1877 .
Superstructure
The track was laid out in standard gauge . The superstructure consisted of the bull-head rails that were customary in England at the time - a kind of double -head rail in which the rail head lying on the underside is flattened, and potlid sleepers "pan cover sleepers", where the rail chairs were attached to large plates which were connected to a tie rod. The plates should increase the contact area on the subsoil and prevent the track from sinking into the sandy subsoil.
Rolling stock
The railway had two crane cars, six two-axle freight cars and one passenger car. The passenger car had three compartments. The 1st class compartment was arranged in the middle and offered ten seats on wicker chairs on a carpet. The two 2nd class compartments together offered space for 20 passengers.
The first locomotive, named Natal , arrived by ship in May 1860 and was assembled on site. The first test drive took place on June 23, during which the locomotive carried five freight cars with machines for a sugar factory and some travelers. The official opening of the route took place on June 26, 1860.
In 1865 a second locomotive named Durban was delivered. In 1874 the route was extended by about seven kilometers to the north, where it reached the quarries on the Umgeni River . Due to the increased traffic volume, a third locomotive was procured, the Perseverance , which was the last standard gauge locomotive built for South Africa.
This locomotive did not have a long service life, because as early as 1876 the railway, which had struggled with economic problems from the beginning, was taken over by the government and operations were temporarily suspended on July 1st of this year. In order not to endanger a later connection to the Cape Colony , it was decided in Natal to transition to the Cape Trail . The line was rebuilt accordingly and became the starting point of the Natal Government Railways .
The then Durban train station was about a kilometer south of today's central station. It kept its location until 1893. The route to the Point was closed in 1936, and its route can only be guessed at the course of some streets because of the urban development. At the Point , the Old Station Road is reminiscent of the terminus there.
The Natal locomotive has been preserved and is a memorial in Durban Central Station.
Web links
- Old Steam Locomotives in South Africa (English)
- Michael Cottrell: The first public railway in South Africa: The Point to Durban railway of 1860 . In: Natal Society Foundation (ed.): Natalia . No. 40 , 2010, p. 20-31 ( pdf ).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Michael Cottrell: The first public railway in South Africa: The Point to Durban railway of 1860 . In: Natal Society Foundation (ed.): Natalia . No. 40 , 2010, p. 21 ( pdf ).
- ^ Michael Cottrell: The first public railway in South Africa: The Point to Durban railway of 1860 . In: Natal Society Foundation (ed.): Natalia . No. 40 , 2010, p. 27 ( pdf ).