South Western Railway (South Africa)
| Knysna - Deep Walls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Knysna Railway Station
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| Gauge : | 610 mm ( 2 foot track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The South Western Railway Co. Ltd. Even Knysna Forest Railway called, was a forest railway in the southern Cape Province in South Africa . The track, which was built with a gauge of 610 mm, connected the port of Knysna with logging areas and sawmills in the Tsitsikamma Forest and had a length of 31 kilometers. The railway was in operation between 1907 and 1949.
history
At the end of the 19th century, during the Second Boer War , timber transport with the help of mules and oxen reached its capacity limit, especially since many mules and their drivers had been called up for military service. The attempt made in 1898 to use a steam tractor failed because of the muddy paths in which the machine repeatedly sank. For this reason it was decided to build a railroad.
The government and Cape Government Railways supported the project because the wood from the region was used, among other things, to make railway sleepers . A connection to Avontuur , about 30 kilometers north of the terminus of the Avontuur Railway to Port Elizabeth , which was then under construction and also with a gauge of 610 mm , was also considered; however, no money was made available at this point. It can be assumed that the project was not pursued further because the Tsitsikamma mountains between the two end stations would have made a connection too complex.
The construction of the line lasted from 1904 to May 1907. The completion took place 20 years before the Cape gauge line reached by George Knysna, so that the railway was completely isolated from the rest of the rail network of South Africa.
The 31 kilometer long railway rose from Knysna on the Indian Ocean to the terminus in Deep Walls at 429 meters above sea level, and the journey took about four hours, with 10 km / h rarely exceeded. There were three stations on the route: Bracken Hill, Parkes Station and Templemans. There were sawmills in Bracken Hill and Templemans, and there was a small settlement in Parkes. Deep Walls was little more than a clearing in the forest that served as a gathering point for the wood that was felled in the area.
The railway not only transported raw wood and wood already processed in the sawmills, but to a lesser extent also consumer goods for the sawmills and settlements and even passengers. However, there were no passenger trains, only a single covered passenger car that was placed in the freight trains.
Until 1911 the railway could barely keep afloat financially; the income was just enough to pay the interest, salaries and maintenance of the vehicles. But then, in some cases less than 50 meters from the tracks, lignite deposits were discovered. The hope of not only being able to burn the coal in the locomotives, but also to sell it, was dashed within a few months, however, because the deposits turned out to be too small for profitable exploitation.
In the already difficult years of the First World War, the railway suffered considerable damage from floods in 1916 after heavy rainfall; several bridges were damaged or destroyed. However, just under a month later, the damage was repaired enough that the entire route could be driven again.
The railway made a profit for the first time in 1919 and was able to pay a small dividend to the owners. In the same year, however, a railway sleeper factory was moved from Knysna to Mossel Bay . This not only meant that the transport of the finished sleepers was omitted, but also the transport of creosote for the impregnation of the sleepers from the port to the factory.
In the mid-1920s, the railway helped to fill the railway embankment in the Knysna lagoon for the route under construction to George. When the South African Railways (SAR) reached Knysna in 1927, the port and with it the South Western Railway lost importance. On the other hand, there were hopes that the state railroad would take over the narrow-gauge railway, which quickly fell apart because the SAR considered the narrow-gauge lines to be obsolete even then. Nevertheless, the forest railway was able to continue to work, sometimes on the verge of financial collapse, but increasingly lost customers to the emerging competition from trucks.
In 1934 - for the first time since 1911 - another locomotive was purchased, a class NG 3 locomotive bought second-hand by SAR .
In 1944, after an inspection of the line, a SAR commission came to the conclusion that the heavily corroded rails no longer allowed safe operation and recommended that the railway be closed. Due to the shortage of motor vehicles after the Second World War, however, new rails were laid again, which were procured second-hand from South West Africa . This work was completed by 1946 and could have operated for another 20 years.
In 1947 there was the only serious accident on the railway, in which a run-over child lost a hand. Although the railway was acquitted of guilt, the case contributed to the cessation of operations, which was decided on November 7, 1947. The last train left on April 30, 1949. The route was then completely dismantled, which took over a year.
One of the four locomotives survived as an industrial locomotive in the Witwatersrand , the rest of the rolling stock was sold as scrap. Today there are only a few remains of the railroad tracks, for example on a quay in Knysna.
vehicles
The South Western Railway had a total of four steam locomotives. The machines were equipped with conspicuous spark arresters on the chimneys to prevent forest fires.
| number | purchase | Manufacturer | design type | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1906 | Orenstein & Koppel | B1 'n2t | Wood-fired |
| 2 | 1907 | Orenstein & Koppel | C1 'n2t | Wood-fired |
| 3 | 1911 | Orenstein & Koppel | D n2t | Wood-fired |
| 4th | 1934 | Hawthorn, Leslie & Company | 2'C1 'n2t | Ex SAR NG 3 No. 4, built in 1907 |
The wagons used were mostly turntable wagons for logs and open freight wagons, but there was also a passenger car.
Web links
- Private Website for South Western Railway (English)
- Roger Farnworth: The Stinkwood Railway (English)