Wolwehoek is a railway station on the Vereeniging-Bloemfontein line to the south of Sasolburg (see photo above). The railway between Wolwehoek and Heilbron was part of a longer line which connects further down to Petrus Steyn, Lindley and joining the mainline between Bethlehem and Bloemfontein at Arlington. This article is about the section between Wolwehoek and Heilbron, a distance of about 50km. On the map below, dating from the time of the Anglo Boer War, it is the line marked in blue.
Map
The line is not in use and the rails have all been removed. It is one of the older rail tracks laid just before the Anglo Boer War in 1898/99, at that time only up to Heilbron. The extension of this line came later, first to Petrus Steyn (1925) and in the thirties, to Lindley and Arlington. That line, from Heilbron to Arlington, still exists and is in use, but largely underutilised.
I will take you on a tour starting at Wolwehoek down to Heilbron.
At Wolwehoek Station was the branch off from the main line. The route can clearly be observed in the picture below taken from the top of the silos, it is to the right of the road. On the ground not much is still there, the switch has been removed completely, some...
