South African Railway

The old SA Railways and Harbours was broken up into several separate entities some years ago, amongst them Spoornet (railway freight), Portnet (harbours), Metro Rail (urban transit), etc. The old SAS/SAR initials still appear on a lot of older rolling stock and other equipment, and Spoornet containers are still lettered SARU.

SA Railway History

Locomotives

Diesel Locomotives

Electric Locomotives

Steam Locomotives

Freight Equipment

MofW

Passenger Equipment

Blue Train

Metro Electric Lines

Transwerk Workshops

Wrecks

These pictures were taken at the site of a train wreck back in 1975, involving a freight train and a commuter. Not a head-on - some freight truck's load came loose and side-swiped the passing commuter and both trains ended up derailed. The freight loco nearly buried itself by plowing into the earth.

Here are some pictures of the collision between the Blue Train and the Shosholoza Meyl (better known as the Trans-Karoo) on 27 October 2005.

These are Spoornet pictures, not by me, that were taken by a Spoornet employee at a derailment that happened the night of 7 December 2005 near Caledon, Western Cape.

Here are some Spoornet pictures of the derailment of a train carrying= steel coils on 17 May 2004. It happened between Portugees and Bergrivier= sidings on the Kraaifontein-Saldanha branch line.

All these pictures are by Johann Ras, taken at the scene of the derailment of a gypsum train just outside Rust Station, near Moorreesburg, on 15 May 2008.

Another set of wreck photos.

Rovos Rail

22 June 2005 at Rovos Rail, a tourist train operator who has its headquarters at Capital Park in Pretoria, Gauteng Province. Rovos, owned by Rohan Vos, does excursions from here to Cape Town, Namibia, the Kruger Park, the Eastern Cape and several more. Also to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe/Zambia border, but since Tim (That Idiot Mugabe) is ruining Zimbabwe at great speed, the rail infrastructure in Zimbabwe is going to pot and Rovos had a few derailments there. So the Victoria Falls trip these days go only as far as Musina NP, on the SA/Zimbabwe border, and from there the pax are flown in DC3 Daks to Vic Falls. The locos are all named after Vos' wife Marjorie and kids Shaun, Brenda, Tiffany & Bianca.

Narrow Gauge

Separate Page

South African Gold mine railroad equipment

Spoornet Calender

Late 90s - {Andre Kritzinger Collection}

Spoornet Equipment

Other Photos

The last time I went that way by train was in about 1970, and the route still went across the Hex River Pass, from De Doorns via Osplaas Siding halfway up, through a short tunnel and past Tunnel Siding, and then on to Kleinstraat Siding and Touwsrivier.

When they found diamonds at Kimberley in the 1870s, the Cape Governmnt Railway was expanded up north PDQ. And the tough and curvy climb from the Hex River Valley via the Hex River Pass up to the Karoo plateau was the final straw that convinced the Cape Government back then to abandon Standard Gauge (4' 8") and convert to Cape Gauge (3' 6"), which is still used all over most of Africa as a direct result.

When I was a young boy in the 1950s, it was decided to dig a tunnel that would end in the Hex River Valley and eliminate the pass, from a spot about 20 kilos west of Touwsrivier. The end result is still there, right next to the N1. They tunnelled for about 40 feet from the Touwsrivier side when they struck strong water that flooded the works and eventually put an end to the tunnel plans. I remember the farmer at the spot installed pumps and pumped irrigation water from the "tunnel" for many years.

In the 1980s they started tunneling again, but this time somewhat south of the original spot, and ended up with a set of four tunnels that finally eliminated the pass. The longest of the four is 13,7 kilometres (8,56 miles) long, and has a passing siding in the middle of it. The tunnelers struck water again, but this time they managed to get the upper hand.

Yesterday when we got to Worcester, where there's a crew change, I managed to get myself a cab ride, all the way through the tunnels and on to the destination at Matjiesfontein. Then I got invited to ride in the cab again going back to Worcester! What a day! -- Andre