I have been looking for an ideal opportunity to share these pictures of a little known garden railway built by my wife’s great-grandfather, Arthur Nieman Smith. I’ve also managed to ask some of the remaining descendents what they could remember of the railway.
The caption in Kenneth Smith’s 1922 photo album reads: “Daddy’s Railway looking north”
View of the main railway station (see main image as well). Towards the right of the picture is a pair of tools, a hammer and a pair pliers to remove nails from horse shoes or from wood. (Kenneth Smith, August 1922)
It existed at a time in the 1920s when steam engines and horse drawn vehicles were the order of the day. King George V was on the throne, Jan Smuts Avenue was still gravel and the Union flag still flew over the recently completed Union Buildings in Pretoria. Photographs were extremely rare and printed small. Care...
