Peter Ball

Thousands of people in South Africa and abroad dream of the day when the famous Outeniqua Choo Tjoe will run again. In the article below Peter Ball sketches the history and potential future of this world in one branch line.

The town of Knysna was founded in 1804 by an Englishman called George Rex, although the surrounding area had already been settled by the Dutch in 1770 for the purpose of farming and wood cutting. Rex saw great commercial potential in the indigenous forests and became the driving force behind Knysna becoming a port for the export of timber, even though the channel between the “Heads” became notorious for shipwrecks. In truth the land links were so poor that shipping was the only economic alternative no matter the risks involved.

George Rex Grave (The Garden Route by David Steele)

The Heads (The Garden Route by David Steele)

By 1870 a Norwegian family settled in Knysna by the name of Thesen and they became the owners of a business in logging, sawmilling, ship building...

Peter Ball returns with this fantastic article on narrow gauge railways in South Africa. He believes that the line from Port Elizabeth towards the Langkloof, which can be reopened in stages, is the most viable preservation project in the country and argues that we should look to the Welsh experience over the last sixty years for inspiration.

The story of narrow gauge railways began in Wales when, in 1836, the FESTINIOG RAILWAY was to build a line with a gauge of 1’-11½” (597 mm), for the purpose of carrying slate from the quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog down to the sea at Portmadoc, a distance of 13 miles (21 km). When operations commenced a horse did the work of pulling the empty wagons back up the hill, while on the downhill journey gravity alone did the job with the horse getting a free ride! In 1863 steam engines were introduced as demand for slate (roofing) increased. The line became famous for its “Double Fairlie” locomotives that had two boilers and a central cab supported by two steam bogies (cylinders, wheels and motion), which were ideal for negotiating the tight curves and powerful enough to climb the steep gradients. The Slate traffic went into terminal decline soon after the Second World War and the line closed in 1946. Grass, bushes and even trees grew up and around the abandoned track, however this was not the end of the line by any means as by the mid 1950’s a group of railway enthusiasts took control...

The series on the History of Southern African Railways continues with this piece on the mighty Garratt engines that conquered the geography of the sub-continent. The article is a must read for any railway enthusiast!

The Highveld plateau of southern Africa which rises sharply from the narrow coastal plains means that most of the sub-continent is higher than 1000 metres (3 280 feet) above sea level. This topography hampered the exploration and development of the hinterland as the escarpment proved to be a barrier to those who lived along the coast. Passes would in due course be made allowing hunters, missionaries and above all farmers, to make their way up to the top of the plateau. A generation after the Great Trek (of 1838) diamonds were discovered (1869), where Kimberley stands today and that was the impetus to be built a railway towards the interior (from 1874 to 1885). Those railway builders would face the same difficulties in finding a way up the escarpment as had the Trek Boers.

The routes taken, by South Africa’s railways (refer to “Ox Wagon to Iron Horse), from the coast were dictated by the inland plateau and it was impossible to avoid the steep gradients which had to be surmounted. The difficult terrain encountered meant that not only were the gradients severe but also “S” curves and horse shoe bends were many. Moreover the permanent way was lightly laid as it was not financially possible to build to the standards of Britain. Paradoxically...

In the previous installment of the History of Southern African Railways series Peter Ball explored the politics and economics of the Benguela Railway. In this edition he heads east and unpacks the complexities of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway.

On the 14th July 1976 the Chinese officially handed over the TAN-ZAM Railway to the Governments of Tanzania and Zambia. It had taken just five years to build and its commissioning would change the pattern of economic dependencies in the region.

Officially known as the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) the 1 860 km (1 156 miles) long rail link between the Copperbelt and the port of Dar es Salaam, has long been dubbed the “Uhuru” or Freedom Railway, a reference to the fact that it was built to lessen Zambia’s heavy economic reliance on Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.

Tazara Railway on the right

If we go back fifty five years, to 1960, the political map of Africa was totally different to what it is today and large parts of the continent were still under the colonial rule of the European powers of Britain, Belgium, France and Portugal. Independence movements were however agitating just as they had in Asia fifteen years before, at the ending of the Second World War.

At the beginning of the 1960’s Zambia was still called Northern Rhodesia and with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland formed the...

In this article Peter Ball jumps across a few borders and looks at some of the history and politics of the Benguela Railway which runs for over 1300km across Angola.

On the 13th August 2014 the Benguela Railway, in Angola, was reopened throughout, between the port of Lobito and the town of Luau, near the border with the DRC, after a seven year long rehabilitation by the Chinese, reportedly at a cost US$ 2 billion. The line was reopened in stages, from the coast eastwards, starting with the Lobito to Huambo section, which had its train service restored in 2011. China has rebuilt the line under a trade agreement which exchanges infrastructure for oil (from Angola’s Cabinda oil fields). The rebuilding was undertaken by the management and construction team, the “China Railway 20 Bureau Group (CR20)”, with all the rails (50 kg/m), equipment, locomotives and carriages as well as the skilled labour force being sourced from China. The reinstated railway follows the same route as the original line conceived one hundred and twelve years ago, from the Atlantic coast to the interior of central Africa.

Map of Benguela Railway (and Tazara Railway in the East)

The devastating Angolan civil war, which lasted for 27 years, from 1976 to 2002, forced the closure of the entire railway line, except for the 34 km (21 mile) stretch between the coastal towns of Lobito and...

This installment of the History of Southern African Railways series looks at the demise of the branch line network and will be relevant to many in the heritage community. Over the last few decades many lines have been closed and the heritage assets associated with them have fallen into disrepair. We certainly hope that Transnet's strategy to revitalise the branch line network will go some way towards turning this situation around.

The original mandate conferred on South African Railways (SAR) in 1910 placed a great onus on the Railway’s administrators. It said that the railways, ports and harbours should be run on business principles. However, it went on to say that due regard was to be paid to the provision of cheap transport for agricultural and industrial development.

The railways, as of 1910, had a total route mileage of 7000 and the trunk lines were considered to have reached to their fullest extent. Thus further development (and expenditure) would be in the upgrading of the existing system and the construction of branch lines to serve the country districts. The latter will be the focus of this article.

By definition a branch line is a secondary line which branches off a trunk line, that enables rail traffic (either passenger or produce) to be carried onward from the country districts to the major centres (ports or markets).

The typical branch line in South Africa was a Cape Gauge, lightly laid single track (45lb/yard rail) and with its accompanying telegraph line was a vital link between...

Over the past few weeks Peter Ball has traced the 'History of Southern African Railways' up until 1910. In this installment of the series he looks at various aspects of building and running one of the largest state run railways in the world.

On the 31st May 1910 the Act of Union created South Africa as one country, formed by the coming together of the four colonies of the Cape, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal. It was a union of the two white races, Boer and Brit with little to no consideration of the Black people who lived in the region. Louis Botha became the first Prime Minister and Jan Smuts became the Minister of Defence (both from the Transvaal). As a back drop to the further development of the railway infrastructure it would do well to review the events that transpired between 1910 and 1924, as those years were tumultuous, with several crises for the country.

Unrest on the mines of Rand was always a threat and the white miners went on strike in 1913 and again in 1922, both were put down by military intervention. The second strike was known as the Rand Revolt and it weakened the position of the ruling South African Party under Smuts significantly, which in turn led to its defeat in the June 1924 general election by the National Party, led by Barry Hertzog; with his “South Africa First” policy, which appealed to the growing number of Afrikaners flocking from the farms to the...

In the previous installment of the History of Southern African Railways series Peter Ball looked at the role of the railways during the South African War. In this piece he looks at post war reconstruction, the completion of various lines and the contribution of the railways to political union in South Africa.

By the time of the outbreak of the Boer War the railways of South Africa had revolutionised transportation and made possible speedy links between the interior and the coastal ports. The War brought any new railway construction to a virtual standstill, as both labour and materials were commandeered for the war effort, as the British army moved north to take over the Boer Republics. In hindsight it would have been far better all round had the Middelburg Peace Talks, between Louis Botha and Lord Kitchener (28th February 1901) succeeded and concluded the War. It would have saved many lives and would have forestalled further damage to the farms on the Highveld. The opportunity of a settlement was missed and the War dragged on for another fifteen months, finally ending when the Boer delegates at Vereeniging voted in favour (54 to 6) of Kitchener’s peace, on the 31st May 1902. It was very much a case of living to fight another day, but that is another story.

The aim here is to tell of the interim period between the War’s end and the Act of Union as pertaining to the existing railways prior to the establishment of the South African Railways (SAR), which coincided...

Following hot on the heels of the 'Race to the Rand' here is the third installment of the History of Southern African Railway Series by Peter Ball. The article looks at the role of the railways during the South African War (the Second Anglo-Boer War).

At the end of the Nineteenth Century the railway network in Southern Africa was near to completion as all the major trunk lines had been laid down. Bulawayo, in Southern Rhodesia had been reached, in 1897, with plans to extend the line still further into central Africa, with the eventual hope of linking up with a line coming down, through the Great Lakes region, from Egypt and the Sudan; the fabled Cape to Cairo Railway Railway construction ceased abruptly in 1899 when it became plain that war was on its way. A war that would decide, once and for all, who would control South Africa.

The Second Anglo-Boer War, which raged for 2 years and 8 months, between the 11th October 1899 and 31st May 1902, was the outcome of the ideological differences between the British Empire, at its zenith and a small but very rich young republic, known as the Transvaal. The reasons for the War have been made plain in other texts, notably “The Boer War” by Thomas Packenham (published 1979) and suffice to say here that the War was a tragedy that should never have been allowed to happen.

It could be argued that the first shots of the War were fired four years before...

In the first installment of the series on the history of Southern African railways, Peter Ball described some of the earliest railways in the country and the extension of a number of lines into the interior. In this article he looks at the fascinating politics and economics of the 'Race for the Rand'.

Johannesburg was literally and figuratively built on Gold, the discovery of which in 1886 was to change the entire economic and financial structure of South Africa. The inconvenient truth for Britain was that the Rand Goldfields were in another country, to be exact the Transvaal Republic (a.k.a. South African Republic), which had regained its independence, after the Battle of Majuba Hill, Natal on the 27th February 1881.

Johannesburg, springing up as it did in the midst of a rural, land locked Boer republic, was situated 345 miles (555 km) inland from the nearest harbour (Delagoa Bay); it had grown, within four years, from a mining camp into a boom town (second only in size to Cape Town) and urgently needed good communications to develop further.

Johannesburg in the early 1890s (Seventy Golden Years, Johannesburg City Council)

The Race to the Rand was a three (iron) horse race over many physical and political hurdles and the riders wore the colours of the Cape...