New Cape Central Railway

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The New Cape Central Railway (NCCR) was a private railway company in South Africa . They operated the 328 km route between Worcester and Voorbaai (near Mossel Bay ) in the Cape Province and the George – Mossel Bay route .

history

In 1882 the Cape Central Railway (CCR) was founded to build a line from Worcester to Ashton . This went into operation in 1887. The CCR went bankrupt and in 1894 a new company, the New Cape Central Railway , took over operations.

The railway was extended to Voorbai until 1906. The route, which runs the entire length in the foothills of the Langeberg Mountains , is very demanding and has numerous tight curves and gradients of up to 25 ‰ (1:40). Places along the route include Swellendam , Heidelberg , Riversdale and Albertinia .

In 1907 the route between Mossel Bay and George , built on behalf of Cape Government Railways (CGR), which is connected to the route from Worcester at Voorbaai, was opened. The route was built by George over the Montagu Pass to Oudtshoorn , where it connected to the existing network of the CGR. This was completed in 1913, and operations between Oudtshoorn and Mossel Bay were taken over by the now-established South African Railways (SAR).

The route between Worcester and Voorbai, on the other hand, was operated by the NCCR even after the SAR was founded, as the only public railway in South Africa. It was not until 1925 that the NCCR was also taken over by the state railway.

Locomotives

Most of the NCCR locomotives corresponded to types that were also used by the CGR (in particular 2'D locomotives of the CGR class 7 ). The two Garratt locomotives G1 and G2 , which were purchased in 1923 and were the only NCCR machines to form their own SAR class, were an exception . Because of the demanding route profile, the SAR continued to use Garratt locomotives until the introduction of diesel locomotives.

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