The Garden Route (3), Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat, assembled by C P Lewis ©
Please note: All photographs, maps and text in Soul of a Railway are protected by copyright and may not be copied or reproduced in any way for further use without prior permission in writing from the compilers of this series, Les Pivnic and Charlie Lewis.
OUDTSHOORN-KLIPPLAAT
"The last light fades and drifts across the land, the long low land, the sunny land bounded by crags and peaks"
(Extracted from a Hemingway sonnet by Taki and mangled for this chapter)
Hemingway would have provided us with a more powerful word picture of the Little Karoo, one of the loveliest parts of our world that I know of. Langenhoven, Nortje, Pauline Smith and many others have provided lyrical descriptions that could not be surpassed by your lowly columnist (they said it couldn't be done, so I didn't do it). I trust our photos will make up for what we lack in literary accomplishment - the title photo certainly does (if you don't like it with the overbearing titles just be patient and look a bit further on).
Brief History of the Grand Junction Railway Co. with reference to the Klipplaat – Oudtshoorn railway, compiled by Allen Duff.
A Cape Colony Parliamentary Committee in July 1895 recommended that the Cape Government subsidize private construction companies, under strict conditions, to build a number of railways. It was hoped that this strategy would rapidly extend the railways of the Cape Colony. This was a considerable change in policy as since 1872 all railways in the Cape Colony had been constructed by the Cape Government Railway (CGR). The Colonial Government was prepared to subsidize up to 40% of the cost of construction to a maximum of £ 4,000 per mile. The Government reserved the right to buy these lines after a period of twelve years from the date of the contract. This funding opportunity was taken up by John Walker who had built the Cape Central Railway and the Sea Point Railway. He floated the Grand Junction Railway Co. which, through parliamentary legislation, was awarded three railway construction contracts:
(a) Mossel Bay via George, Oudtshoorn and Willowmore to a junction with the Port Elizabeth - Graaff-Reinet railway at or near Klipplaat.
(b) Somerset East to Fort Beaufort via Cookhouse and Bedford.
(c) Fort Beaufort to King William’s Town via Alice.
The company was undercapitalised, but Walker planned to raise capital by selling shares – particularly to farmers and traders established along the routes. As share-owners they would use and promote the railway. However, the latter’s buy-in enthusiasm was considerably below what Walker envisaged. A contract for the Klipplaat – Oudtshoorn railway was concluded with the Grand Junction Railway in May 1896. The ambitious completion date was August 1899.
Earthworks and culverts were commenced from Klipplaat, Mossel Bay and Somerset-East. However, it soon became apparent that the company would be unable to achieve the completion dates which the contract stipulated. The Grand Junction Railway Co. ordered the required bridges from the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. When the former was unable to pay, the latter company was given this contract by the Cape Parliament (Act 40 of 1898). The take-over by the Thames Ironworks Co. (TIC) of the Klipplaat – Willowmore – Oudtshoorn railway resulted in renewed construction and 7,306 tons of railway material was carried by the CGR and stock-piled at Klipplaat in December 1898. The track was laid into Willowmore (62 miles) by August 1899 though at this stage only 25 miles were ballasted. The ballast was quarried south of Miller at a siding named Ballast (!) - renamed Draaiberg in later years.
The line was then extended from Willowmore via Kranspoort (80 miles) and Vondeling to the northern portal of Toorwaterpoort (originally Toverwaterpoort) which was the railway’s route through the Swartberg Mountains. By the start of 1901 a crude track to assist construction had been laid into, but not through the poort (91 miles and 65 chains). This construction line was laid directly on the sandy bed of the Traka River to expedite the transportation of materials to where the permanent track-bed was being constructed by embankments and cuttings about 5m above the river-bed.
Then in October 1899 the Boer War started. In the initial year of the war the Klein Karoo saw none of the action. However, in the latter part of 1900 the Boers leaders decided that a number of commando brigades would enter the Cape Colony thereby to draw off British forces from the Free State and Transvaal, hopefully to cause a rebellion among Boer sympathisers. Commandos under Kritzinger, Fouche and Scheepers successfully implemented this strategy and by early 1901 had reached the Willowmore district. On 17th January 1901 the latter two commandos attacked Willowmore, but the Town Guard drove them off. On 18th January Kritzinger decided to traverse the Swartberg and break through into the Klein Karoo. His route was via Toorwaterpoort. Surprised and fearful the construction crew looked on as the Boer horsemen picked their way through the boulders and pools in the river course. The boiler of the construction locomotive was peppered with rifle fire and the wooden trucks set alight. The unharmed construction crew then trudged back to Vondeling, piled their belongings on to a ganger's trolley and began the 20 mile push back to Willowmore through Kranspoort which section has the steepest gradients on the line. (Between Vondeling and Antonie there is an altitude difference of about 800 feet.) These workers then remained in Willowmore waiting to be paid. By mid-June 1901 they were still there. Their presence increased the number of rifles the Town Guards could muster which was a decisive factor in the repulse of the Boer attack under Scheepers on Willowmore on 1st June 1901. With the Boer War in its final throes and the TIC having defaulted on their contract, the CGR with T S McEwen as the Chief Resident Engineer, took over construction in May 1902. By November 1902 the railway was opened to Uniondale Road (later Barandas). By March 1904 trains were operating through to Oudtshoorn.
The CGR General Manager commented in his 1900 report : “The experience which we have had with the Company (TIC) as well as its predecessor, the Grand Junction Railway Company, forms a distinct beacon to warn the Government against entering into similar contracts in the future.”
1. Oudtshoorn, late 1950s: the fireman of 8-up/7-down is looking back down the platform for the 'right away' in a busy photo by my late father, taken on one of his numerous 'business' trips on this train. The class 24 was making up the afternoon goods (with passenger accommodation) to Calitzdorp but it is doubtful whether the posh-looking main-line balcony saloon on the right would have been included in the consist of the branch-line mixed and why it was parked on the Calitzdorp bay platform track is unknown.
2. The stop at Oudtshoorn to change engines was 15 minutes, just enough for a hasty trot down to the loco shed to check out the visiting engines, usually a GEA or two from Mossel Bay and 19Ds from Klipplaat. The only power allocated to Oudtshoorn was the Calitzdorp branch engine (a 7th class until the late fifties) and the yard pilot (an eight until the late sixties).
3. The old shed at Oudtshoorn in March 1962, hosting three Klipplaat 19Ds and a GEA from Mossel Bay.
4. Oudtshoorn shed at sunset on 29th June 1978 with 19D's 3339 and 3363 and 24 3668. The cramped and rickety old shed at Oudtshoorn had been used for 60 years before being replaced by this modern facility with its state-of-the-art coaling appliance in 1965/6. However, unlike Touws River, this one at least saw 12 years of fairly intensive use.
5. The new shed also had a proper ash disposal pit that gravitated the ash directly into the DZs (with a little encouragement from the two labourers in Dick's superb study of railwaymen at work).
6. Dave speaking: "During our first visit to South Africa our information suggested that there was no booked rail traffic on Sundays on the George - Knysna, Mossel Bay - Oudtshoorn and Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat lines. Consequently, being in the area, we had a day of rest sightseeing and visiting the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm. Imagine our surprise when leaving an ostrich farm we could clearly see a huge pall of smoke over Oudtshoorn!
We immediately headed to the station and found Class 19D 3333 preparing to leave on a mixed to Klipplaat. Clearly the 'locals' were well aware of the existence of this train. The lingering question remains what else did we miss that day? Sadly the train departed at 17.50, a good 20 minutes after sunset. 3rd August 1975"
Well, this is half of what you missed, Dave:
The schedule of unadvertised trains extracted from the 1971 WTB shows that SAR didn't worry too much about the public, let alone railway photographers (those goods trains all offered passenger accommodation, remember).
7. 9-down/10-up from the weighbridge at Oudtshoorn, July 1958 (almost got left behind here).
8. 19D 3340 leaving Oudtshoorn with 9-down/10up, the Cape Town - PE mail at sunset on 6th August 1976.
9. The same train a few miles further on at Vanwykskraal - by this time the sun really had set.
10. Galloping into the outskirts of Oudtshoorn is 19D 3334 with 8-up/7-down in the winter of 1978. Today this unspoilt landscape has been obliterated by low-cost housing.
11. 19D 3335 hastening 322-up T&P on its way to a meet with 8-up/7-down at Vanwykskraal in April 1979.
12. The 19D of 8-up/7-down clearing its throat at Vanwykskraal preparatory to setting off on the last lap to Oudtshoorn. In case you're wondering why I don't prefer diesels: this is why.
13. If this isn't a photograph that tells you what you probably already know about the railway through the Little Karoo then I've yet to see it. The Cape Town mail getting away from Vanwykskraal in April 1979, having crossed 322-up T&P. Vanwykskraal was the first calling point for Sagmoedige Neelsie and family on their trek to Meiringspoort in 1924.
14. We are grateful to Mike for sending this one as a follow up to his crossing shot depicted as photo 13 above (and used for the introduction to this chapter). As you can see, it shows the recently crossed freight heading for the hills and 7-down/8-up well on its way to Stolsvlakte. Like a Constable painting, we shall not see its like again.
15. Geoff was firing for Nico van der Berg on his regular engine, 19D 3367 on 322-up T&P, about to cross a sister Dolly on the westbound Cape Town mail; Vanwykskraal, October 1978..
16. For more than a decade, each Christmas the Lewises would motor down from Bloemfontein to Cape Town via the Little Karoo, photographing the invariably ample number of trains along the way. This is how the crossing at Vanwykskraal looked in somewhat warmer weather on 24th December 1974.
17. "Early spring in the Little Karoo has quickly turned the landscape from the browns of winter to green with a riot of wild flowers* appearing. The Cape Town mail near Vanwykskraal in October 1979, less than a month before steam finished on the line".
*Charlie had a botanist Aunt who told him those are pink mesembryanthemums or simply vygies in Afrikaans.
18. The view from my bedroom window as we approached Hazenjacht on the return journey of Bruce Brinkman's RSSA special; Knysna to PE, July 1983.
19. Another December holiday photo, from the side of the De Rust - Oudtshoorn road (the N12). Except for the erasure of a wayward strand of fencing wire the photo is neither photoshopped nor posed.
20. The sheet of corrugated-iron (white-washed on its other side) tells the driver that Hazenjacht siding is 600 yards away. February 1968. The train is crossing the bridge over the Hazenjacht river which was washed away in the flood of 1924, vividly described by Langenhoven in "Herrie op die óú Tremspoor".
21. Woe, how those solid rakes of clerestory stock and steam engine are missed; would that they could carry on providing this service forever. A vain dream, alas, but it doesn't stop one from missing it and wanting it to come back. In February 1968 this was pretty much as things had been since the 19Ds arrived in 1951. In the interim the N12 (left background) had been tarred but that was it. Tarred roads took away the remoteness of the Little Karoo and inevitably led to the erosion of the railway's freight business; gradually at first then whipped away seemingly overnight upon the passing of the Road Transportation Act in 1977.
22. In the beautiful early-day light an unidentified Class 19D approaches Le Roux with 322-up T&P on 28th June 1978. Looks like he isn't planning on stopping at Le Roux this morning. The guard would already have signalled to the crew that he had no passengers to disembark here and the fact that the outer home is off means the station foreman has neither trains to cross nor passengers awaiting.
23. The shut-off engine would imply that 322-up has to offload passengers or parcels at Le Roux in spite of through clear boards. Both this and the previous photo would have been taken before 1978 when the semaphores were removed upon closure of Le Roux station.
24. In the railway's heyday: 19D 3337 with 327-down T&P in the hole for the eastbound mail (9-down/10-up) at Le Roux in December 1971 (the UCW tin carriages are taking over and, in case youse have never noticed, I'm a sucker for American railroad jargon).
25. 322-up drifting to a stop with one passenger waiting and three to see him off. This is how Le Roux station looked in December 1974 with everything neat and tidy and hardly a ballast stone out of place. You should see it now (or perhaps not - from the facing to the trailing points the whole place is a ruin stinking of human excrement).
26. Accelerating vigorously away from Le Roux with its landmark cliffs of Enon conglomerate glowing gloriously in the early light.
27. 1968 was the last year that a solid rake of clerestory day/sleepers could be relied upon. This was 8-up/7-down, the PE-Cape Town mail coming up to Le Roux.
28. First light catches 8-up/7-down emerging from the tunnel at Delport (one of only two between Oudtshoorn and Klipplaat) in April 1979.
29. Woe betide anyone chasing 8-up/7-down who comes across a herd of teenage ostriches being moved from one paddock to another. The train was just emerging from Delport tunnel and we're on the original road through the Little Karoo from Oudtshoorn to Willowmore.
30. Enon conglomerate towers over the tunnel at the other end with 322-up T&P emerging. Smoke by arrangement.
31. This is the view from on top of the tunnel, 8-up/7-down approaching. The previous photo was taken from atop the pinnacle formed by the cutting; observe 8-up's van on its far side.
32. 322-up T&P on another day, from the top of the pinnacle (see previous photo).
33. Donkey carts and Cape Cottages* have also all but disappeared from our lives. The style of the train itself has already been taken down a peg or two by the tin carriages and soon the Dolly would be history too. April 1976.
* the much more attractive thatched version of which had practically gone by the seventies (but not all, see photo 10).
34. Even the sight of the mountains under snow has become rare. Due to the coastal ranges taking the lion's share of precipitation, snow on the Swartberg was infrequent, but when it fell it generally lasted on the higher peaks. Global warming has had a noticeable effect.
35. Middelplaas, where 19D 3354 with 9-down/10-up is standing, was nothing more than a halt with a tiny corrugated iron shelter for passengers and milk churns. The plaas after which it is named is in the centre background. The train has just passed the confluence of the Meiring and Olifants rivers and will follow the Olifants all the way to Toorwater, 40 miles further on. This was 18 November 1979, the day of the last known steam working of the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth mail.
36. A month before the end of the steam era in the Little Karroo, 19D 3323 worked 8-up/7-down in the valley of the Olifants River between Marevlakte and Middelplaas. 17 October 1979.
37. 326-up, 14:00 Oudtshoorn-Klipplaat goods, approaching Marevlakte in October 1979. The greenness of the countryside and the clumps of vivid pink vygies tell of recent good rains.
38. 8-up/7-down departing from Marevlakte in December 1977.
39. Marevlakte is a lonely siding nestling between the Swartberg and the Kammannassie ranges. Dick found the Little Karoo fynbos sparkling after rain in October 1979.
40. A doubleheaded ballast working coming through Marevlakte. The quarry at Draaiberg is exactly 100 miles east of here. At the time (1975), Montagu Pass was undergoing relaying and strengthening so we can safely assume those stones had another 50 miles to go before they reached their destination.
41. Spotless 19D 3334 brings 8-up/7-down into Marevlakte in December 1973. Right until the end Klipplaat took pride in how it turned out its engines.
42. A year later the relaying gangs were busy between Stompdrif and Marevlakte.
43. About a mile downstream of the Stompdrif dam 9-down/10-up passes a vineyard that would not have existed ten years earlier before the dam and its associated irrigation canals had been completed.
44. One has to envy the crews who traversed these parts day in and day out through the seasons. Were they affected by the beauty surrounding them? Would they have noticed Spitskop, bathed in morning light and mist or would they be too busy shoveling coal and using the steam economically? The train is on the deviation built in 1962/3 to circumvent the Stompdrif dam wall and the dam itself, see Bruno's map below.
45. In addition to an uncanny liaison with the weather gods plus an artist's sense of composition, our photographer has an unerring eye for beautiful landscapes. In sending us these two pictures, somewhat laconically he had this to say:
"On 28th June 1978 we found that there were two eastbound trains from Oudtshoorn and we duly headed to Stompdrif. Soon after the sun reached the track 19D 3333 steamed past on an additional freight (pic 44). Later, No. 3324 headed the daily waysider to Klipplaat at the same location (pic 45)"
46. The same location with the Swartberg in late winter garb. The landmark Spitskop (middle horizon) rises to just under 7,000 feet. 4th September 1979.
47. During the Christmas holidays trains were loaded to capacity, as with this formation on Christmas Eve 1973.
48. Geoff (see below), a worthy contributor to SoAR, spent a large part of his early career firing the dollies between Klipplaat and Oudtshoorn, during which he was teamed with driver Nico van der Berg on their regular 19D 3367. Being a fireman had its advantages, such as being able to stage your own runpasts or to pose your engine that you've spent hours polishing for a portrait in perfect light at a scenic location such as this one a short distance ahead of where photo 48 was taken. This was 328-up goods, 17:10 off Oudtshoorn, on 13 January 1979.
49. Nowadays they're eradicating these in the UK (he was a bit more furry in those days).
50. The tiny hamlet of Aangenaam (=Pleasant) was a victim of the Stompdrif dam project. It was due to be inundated so its inhabitants were bought out and moved to higher ground.
It took several years for sufficient water to accumulate upstream of the dam wall. In the interim Aangenaam became a sort of ghost village. The railway formation was (is) still there with its track removed. Sufficient of the old halt remains to remind me of stopping here on 9-down on the old line in the mid fifties. On a balmy July evening we had paused a few yards away from the only piece of furniture on the sharply-curved platform: a wooden sleeper mounted on two upturned ones embedded in the ground. Sitting on it were three old toppies wearing floppy brown felt hats, smoking their pipes and swapping remembrances. The world we had come from seemed a long long way away. And it was. It had taken more than a day and a night to get here from Cape Town.
51. 25 years later and Aangenaam had finally been submerged. Dick's picture of 19D 2698 on a chartered mixed train* is a bit closer to Stompdrif and he and his tourmates were lucky; it took several years for the dam to get this full.
*this was the infamous Steam and Safaris railtour of May 2003 when the train was summarily terminated at Drew and its passengers left stranded in the gramadoelas.
The dam was built 1962-65 at the behest of the Minister of Water Affairs, P K Le Roux, who just happened to own the farm upon which it was built and after whose family Le Roux station was named (who said the current government has the best record of 'influence peddling'). Bruno's map shows the dam full to its maximum extent, pretty much as in photo 48.
52. 19D 3334 accelerating away from Vlakteplaas with 8-up/7-down, December 1974.
53. Vlakteplaas station is between the poplar trees on the right. This was 19D 3327 on the 06.50 Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn, 28th June 1979.
54. 19Ds 3327+3334 coming through Vlakteplaas on 8th April 1978. Alan's fine view shows how organised it all was, for examples: the station is scrubbed clean and there is business for SAR at the goods-shed platform. Just this side of the station nameboard is a vacant piece of ground. This is the site of a turntable that had been removed by the early 60s. What it was used for and why it was sited in such an unlikely place I've been unable to find out. The circular pit is still there.
55. About two miles east of the station is Jakkalsdraai, the curve where the Cape-bound mail overturned on 21st December 1936, resulting in eight people losing their lives. The Transnet library has been unable to locate the accident report but Allen Duff has tracked down contemporary newspaper accounts which are transcribed below:
55a. A newspaper photo from Leith of the overturned locomotive. The engine number is believed to be 19B 1407.
Extract from THE GEORGE AND KNYSNA HERALD, 23rd December 1936:
SERIOUS TRAIN DISASTER NEAR OUDTSHOORN
Six Killed and Many Injured
The most serious disaster on the South Western Districts railways (sic) happened on Monday morning when the passenger train from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town was derailed, resulting in loss of life. The accident occurred shortly after eight o'clock at a place called Jakkalsdraai, two miles from Vlakteplaas and 35 miles east of Oudtshoorn, on a bend. The engine left the rails and seven of the eleven coaches were derailed. The first three were reduced to matchwood. One coach shot past the engine to a distance of 20 feet, whilst two others were telescoped against the embankment. Farmers and others nearby, headed by Mr H. S. Schoeman, rushed to the scene to give every assistance possible, and an ambulance train was despatched from Oudtshoorn with the district surgeon, doctors and nurses and from George the St John's Ambulance was hurried to the scene. So far as is known, six people were killed, including the engine driver, Mr Stevens of Klipplaat. Of the many injured 28 were removed to the Oudtshoorn hospital and on Tuesday morning 15 were still detained of whom eight were reported to be in a critical condition.
To allow the train service to continue a deviation of the line is being made around the scene of the accident. The Assistant General Manager of Railways, Mr Skillicorn, Mr Steyn of the System Manager's staff, and Mr Moir, technical adviser, flew to Oudtshoorn by aeroplane and on Tuesday the departmental enquiry into the accident was opened.
An Eye-witness Account
Mr J. A. Rautenbach, who has arrived in George on leave from Calvinia, was a passenger on the ill-fated train with his son. He tells us that at the time of the accident he and half-a-dozen others were in the dining saloon which was about eighth from the engine. Between Rooiloop and Vlakteplaas, a section of line over which Mr Rautenbach has frequently travelled, he noticed the terrific swaying which the saloon had developed and remarked to the Chief Steward upon the speed of the train. He queried whether track relaying was in progress as the rocking of the coach was quite uncommon. Further conversation took place and the rocking became so bad that the passengers in the saloon could not be served and crockery was being flung about prior to the accident which happened a few seconds later. As they could not be served Mr Rautenbach and his son were on the point of leaving when the crash came. The saloon toppled over on its side and with the assistance of another man they smashed their way out through a window. Peter Rautenbach sustained a gash on the hand. From the dining saloon on every coach was derailed and badly smashed. Towards the rear only one coach was partly turned over although they were damaged.
Mr Rautenbach remarks that several passengers in the rear of the train commented upon the rocking of the train and feared to leave their compartments to go in for breakfast. Mr Rautenbach and his son were taken to Oudtshoorn by Mr R. Barwell and continued to George that night by car placed at their disposal by Mr Good.
This was followed up on 3rd February 1937 by a report on the Board of Inquiry (note that in the interim, two more passengers had died):
The Vlakteplaats Disaster
THE BOARD OF INQUIRY
The Board of Inquiry has now completed its report and it is expected that the findings will be made public after the report has been submitted to the Governor-General in Council.
The courtroom at Oudtshoorn was crowded on several days last week when the enquiry was opened. Eight people died in the smash, which occurred on 21st December. The board consisted of the Oudtshoorn magistrate, Mr M. M. Basson, chairman, Mr C. H. Clutterbuck (Chief Inspector of Factories and Machinery at Pretoria) and Mr G.C. Lawson (retired locomotive superintendent of the SAR). Sergeant W.F.K. Landman led the evidence and Mr B.J. Pienaar appeared for the Railway Administration.
Johan Rautenbach, one time of the George Standard Bank staff, who joined the train at Fullarton, said he had travelled along this section every year since 1919. Up to Rooiloop the speed of the train was normal. After leaving there, he and his son went to the dining saloon for breakfast. "The train, in my opinion, was then travelling at an excessive speed," he said. "The dining car gave two jerks and cups started flying off the table. I thought there might have been washaways and that we were going over a section where new sleepers had been laid. The steward told me they had twice sent word to the front and that it was impossible to get passengers into the dining car for breakfast. I knew something was going to happen." Rautenbach said he was so convinced there was going to be an accident that he told his ten-year-old son not to lose his nerve when it happened. "We were sitting in suspense, waiting for the smash. In my opinion the dining-car at this time must already have been partially derailed it was shaking so much".
Sergeant Landman: "Did you have breakfast?" "We could not get served - fortunately we hadn't paid for it". (laughter in court)
Carrying on, Rautenbach said that as he and his son rose from the table in an attempt to reach their compartment the smash occurred. "The dining-car did not turn right over, there was a man in the saloon who helped all of us out but I cannot remember who he was." Neither Rautenbach nor his son were seriously injured.
The Oudtshoorn Stationmaster, Edward Strever, gave evidence of sending a relief train to Vlakteplaats [its original (Dutch) spelling]. It had the railway doctor on board and removed the dead and injured to Oudtshoorn. Several other witnesses gave evidence of the train being in a serviceable condition. Before the accident, said John Allen, the relieving Stationmaster, all the trains along this section had been fairly well on time.
56. A sprinkling of snow on the Swartberg in June 1996 presents a scenic backdrop for GMAM 4122 'Jenny' (after the late Jenny Pretorius, wife of Ian) steaming through Vlakteplaas with a returning Union Limited 'Golden Thread' tour which at that time ran as far as Vondeling, affording passengers two views of Toorwater Poort.
As a bit of relief after the story of the tragedy at Vlakteplaas, our photographer has sent us one with a happy ending:
"Vlakteplaas is an important place in Rogers family history. Pete’s paternal grandmother allegedly eloped from a farm in the district with Pete’s grandfather, a widowed 'much older man' who was contracting as a stonemason on the farm house. Apart from the age difference and him being a tradesman, her father would not give her permission to marry as Mr Rogers was a Roman Catholic (seven kinds of scandal in those days). They settled in Mossel Bay and had two children, one of whom was my dad."
Hey Pete: this reads like an extract from Pauline Smith's "Little Karoo"
57. The ruling gradient between Klipplaat and Oudtshoorn was 1/70 in both directions. West of Oudtshoorn it was 1/40 westbound and 1/36 eastbound so only rarely were doubleheaders to be seen along here. Usually it was for a ballast working (as here) or balancing of motive power. This was between Rooiloop and Vlakteplaas in 1976.
58. The Swartberg, rising to over 7,000 feet, looking much more attractive with its make-up on. 19D 3353 with 322-up T&P approaching Rooiloop in September 1978. Looks as if the loco inspector is on board.
59. Crossing of the RSSA's 'Trans Cape Limited' railtour of April 1985 and 8-up/7-down at Rooiloop. The Trans Cape engine was 19D 2714 (thank you Mark). Note the effective buffering plate around the knuckle coupler of 8-up's van, standard SAR practice for > 60 years at this time.
Those pinkish-red blotches at the bottom of the picture are in fact an exquisite variety of miniature succulent known as bokbaaivygies which are found in profusion all over the Little Karoo in July/August after rain.
60. At the Rooiloop trailing points the guard of our railtour overseeing the departure of his train.
Note his uniform: we have written before how it was that with each name change our railway went further down the tubes, the first being SAR to SA Transport Services in April 1981. Someone in head office decided that to celebrate the termination of our once great railway the uniforms should go as well. Appropriately, the dignified black uniforms were replaced with hideously awful brown ones - the exact shade being a close rendition of human shit - a sure sign that the trucking industry was getting its own back after being suppressed since 1931.
61. The westbound daily SuX T&P, 327-down with 19D 3323 in charge, pulling away from the water stop at Snyberg (this is the same train as in photo 90).
62. Well blow me down. Just as I was explaining that it was mainly the ballast trains that needed two engines, Geoff comes along with 19Ds 3327+3334 doubleheading a heavy general freight out of Snyberg in April 1978. Geoff's comment is relevant: "What strikes me is the amount of traffic on these trains, a crying shame what happened"
63. The same 'Trans Cape Limited' as in pictures 59 & 60 taking water at Snyberg in April 1985.
64. The last knockings of the midsummer sun reflecting off 9-down/10-up at Snyberg in December 1972.
65. After some serious fire cleaning, and having its torpedo tank filled, 19D 3324 gently starts out of Snyberg on 28 June 1978.
66. Two days later, 19D 3324 pulls away from the Snyberg water stop, on 30 June 1978. Only 20 miles further on the ritual described in photo 65 will be repeated at Toorwater in preparation for the 1000ft climb from there to the summit at Antonie.
67. A mile east of Snyberg, 9-down/10-up in December 1972.
68. On the very last occasion that this picture was possible with a timetabled train, 8-up/7-down, the Cape Town mail, approaching Struisvogel in November 1976.
69. The spectacular cliffs of Enon conglomerate around Le Roux/De Rust/Vlakteplaas occur again between Snyberg and Barandas, even higher and much more adjacent to the railway. According to geologists the the red color results from oxidation of iron in the matrix of the conglomerate. 19D 3325 with 325-down T&P carrying plenty of spare water for both domestic and locomotive use during the 1978 drought which undoubtedly hastened the end of steam on this route. Geoff: "Alan Buttrum was with me at this isolated spot. The only inhabitants in the area were some baboons which we could hear in the distance. 18 November 1978"
70. 19D 3363 with 322-up T&P on 18th November 1978. Alan provides us with a wholly different perspective on the well-known Red Wall. He musta been either levitating or clinging onto the cliff by his eyebrows.
71. We have used this picture of the Red Wall before.....
72. I never realised that it looks even more spectacular at eventide in midwinter. It took savvy rooineks to find this out. This was 14CRB 1882 (RIP. Died tragically at Camfer in 2002) with a winter Rodgers excursion in 1998.
73. With all the conglomerate cliffs in the vicinity one tends to forget that the surrounding countryside is almost as striking. Looking the other way, i.e. towards the Kammannassie range, Dick found a domeless Dolly ambling down the Olifants valley with 321-down goods in June 1979. In the middle background is Rooikrans (= Red Cliff) farmhouse, whose tolerant owner must have wondered at the hordes of wild-eyed, camera-toting uitlanders chasing the trains all over the place in the last decade of steam.
74. 8-up/7-down approaching the Red Wall in February 1968.
75. A down goods near the same location as photo 74, in June 1968.
76. The Sunset Limited driving away from the Red Wall on a crisp morning in April 1979. Locomotives: 24cl 3652+19D 3324
77. The Boswell-Wilkie circus train passing the Red Wall on 29th April 1979. Picture 76 should convince you that Alan's picture came within an ace of being the best photo of a circus train ever made on the SAR. Here is his account of it:
"I came across the train at Oudtshoorn a few days before and found out that it was due to leave overnight for PE on the 29th April. I calculated that the Barandas time would nicely match sunrise with a bit to spare, so drove down from PE specifically for the shot, getting to the spot early with the sun not yet riz. Soon, horrors – I could hear a train working hard, away to the west, and I still needed 20 mins for the sun, but then all became quiet so maybe my train was stopping for water at Snyberg. No such luck - after a short while the far off bark of a Dolly or two working away from Snyberg pretty well doomed my plan, for as the minutes slowly ticked by and the rumble so quickly grew louder, it all meant that the circus was rounding Rooikranz and passing the spot in really fine style, but a good 5 minutes before the light."
Oh woe woe woe, Alan. We include it none the less for its rarity value - note the elephant vans immediately after the two standard SAR baggage vans.
78. 19D 3324 heads a Steam and Safaris special in July 1979 on the ledge shortly after the Red Wall which is visible in the background.
79. Dick advises that this is the same train as in the previous photo but doing a second runpast and taken from river level.
80. Looking down the Olifants River valley across its bone-dry watercourse in December 1978, the year of a terrible drought that caused extreme distress to many farmers in the Little Karoo and caused locomotive water to be transported from SAR's dam at Willowmore to the critical watering stations. Note those four tank wagons - they're all empty.
81. Along the 60 miles from Oudtshoorn to Toorwater the railway is overshadowed by the Swartberg - typically in this silhouette of 322-up T&P headed by 19D 3324 near Barandas.
82. Barandas (formerly Uniondale Road) was the connecting station for SAR's Road Motor Service to Uniondale. As a 'junction' it was therefore the most important calling point between Oudtshoorn and Willowmore and adequately staffed for three shifts/day. The immaculately uniformed station foreman taking his orders to the footplate crew of 8-up/7-down in this 1962 photo reflects the pride taken in their jobs and their railway by SAR staff in those days. And check how neat and tidy the place is (sorry to keep harping on this).
83. Rags was dodging the leopards in some wild country between Barandas and Toorwater in the last year of steam operation along here.
84. "19B 1412 is seen shortly after sunrise departing from Toorwater station with a Steam and Safaris special in May 2001.This loco was previously plinthed at Middleburg but put back into service by THF for use on special trains. It is now based at Ceres and used on special trains from Cape Town to Elgin." *
*Including, as it does, a trip over Sir Lowry's Pass both ways these have proved extraordinarily popular; booking is essential - just Google "Ceres Rail".
85. 3363 19D was driver Frans Koen's regular engine which he kept spotless as you can see, doubtless with a little assistance from his fireman, who in this case was Geoff. See his tribute to Frans below.
86. "The late Klipplaat driver Frans Koen. What a great guy this was. I fired for him a few times, very friendly. We stopped once or twice in the poort to get some drinking water. One trip I worked with him to Oudtshoorn I remember turning out quickly as they were short of firemen. I was quite tired and he told me to take a 'spello' as we rocked along, it was not easy.
After I moved to George the Union Limited was running with steam. It must have been about 14 years ago I saw him at Camfer on the 19D [the train was doubleheading with a GMA]".
87. At Toorwater the railway bids farewell to the gently-graded Olifants River which it has followed all the way from Oudtshoorn. From here it accompanies the Traka tributary through Toorwaterpoort into the Great Karoo. In a sympathetic moment, fireman Geoff recorded one of his Klipplaat colleagues piling on the coal (some 80 - 100 shovelsful of it) in preparation for the next 20-miles during which 19D 3333 and its crew will overcome a 1000 feet difference in elevation to the summit at Antonie. Geoff's heartfelt comment on his own picture: "It was quite a slog back to Klipplaat . The CX tenders held 12 tons of coal and at Klipplaat I calculated that there was a third remaining, indicating that the fireman moved 8 tons on the journey from Oudtshoorn." 19 November 1978.
88. The guard of 360-up goods holds the Toorwater-Barandas tablet at catchable height for the driver of 8-up/7-down which will not necessarily stop here, January 1971.
89. "Get ready to grab the pill, Geoff!" The guard of Klipplaat-bound 322-up T&P (in the siding, eastbound) flags 327-down T&P, westbound for Oudtshoorn, into Toorwater. From the cab of 19D 3367. 9 Feb 1979.
90. After threading Toorwaterpoort Class 19D 3323 heads the westbound waysider into Toorwater siding on 28th June 1978 (same train as photo 61).
91. The railway's southern entrance to the Little Karoo is dramatic. This was 8-up/7-down approaching Toorwater siding in December 1973. The precipitous nature of the chasm is clear from the contours of Bruno's map alongside. ("Toorwater" = Magic water)
92. A chartered steam freight for photographers in the southern entrance to Toorwaterpoort with the plain of the Olifants River valley beyond. In the foreground the naloop (a word that doesn't translate easily into "afterflow") [no Briggs, not afterglow] of the Traka River tells us it was recently in spate. 19D 2753 on a Steam and Safaris special in June 1993.
93. Framed by the sandstone sculptures of Toorwaterpoort; a living sculpture of the North British Locomotive Company at its finest: 19D 3353 with 322-up T&P; 18th March 1978.
94. Near the end of the era of steam-hauled general freight, an impressive angle of 322-up T&P entering Toorwaterpoort with Jan Rheeder's 19D 3324 on 7 September 1979. Observe the half-container in the first wagon; SAR began to rail containers during the 1920s and by the '70s this was lucrative business. The Road Transportation Act of 1977 brought this to a snappy end as the eighties dawned.
95. And here is fireman Geoff downing his shovel to point his camera at the very spot where Alan took the previous photo. Note the twisted strata of Karoo sandstone (see Johannes's descriptions of the geology of the gorge: photos 109a to 109y with accompanying text). Geoff's comment: "from the footplate of 3367 in Toorwaterpoort. A time when the fireman could put his feet up! I remember a trip with Frans Koen on a hot day. We stopped in the Poort where there is an ice-cold spring of water flowing out of the rocks. Water never tasted better!"
96. Our doughty fireman/photographer has been known to stage his own runpasts, although he swears that is not the case with this nice one of 19D 3368 bringing 322-up T&P through the gorge on 8 April 1978.
97. In the sixties doubleheaders were uncommon on this route but doubleheading of two classes was even rarer, only occurring when Oudtshoorn, George or Mossel Bay/Voorbaai 24s were being ferried to or from Uitenhage shops. A decade later energising of the national grid and the introduction of diesels will remove a sizeable chunk of 323-down's load which consists mainly of power-station and locomotive coal for the southern coastal power stations and loco depots. June 1969.
98. The classic clerestory lines of the 'Trans Cape Limited' look at home in Toorwaterpoort. Except for the mechanical-refrigerator van the picture could have been made 25 years earlier.
99. The short-lived Premier 'Classe' service in June 2009. As Transnet/Prasa colour schemes go this one was actually quite attractive. The cutting opposite the 4th/5th coaches is where the Boer War fort was. In 1900 the cutting was only one third constructed (see photos 109u & 109v in Johannes Haarhoff's account of his hike through the gorge).
100. Your photographer reporting: "In 1999 I organised another SA tour 'Cape Province Explorer V' (almost annually at this period). On 19th June 1999 I had arranged for the sole active 14CRB, 1882 to work the tour train from Miller to Oudtshoorn. It is seen here in Toorwaterpoort."
101. Peter reports: "In June 1979 Johanna and I squeezed in a few days by train [from Joeys] to Port Elizabeth and Toorwaterpoort. The plan being to hike from Toorwater to Vondeling and photograph trains as they came. After disembarking from the PE-CapeTown train in the dark we camped in the tin shed that constituted the passenger facilities at the isolated station of Toorwater and awaited dawn. The only sounds to break the eerie silence were an eastbound double header with a block load of maize and some scary animal noises. The dawn proved our fears unfounded as the noises had come from a donkey foraging nearby. Daylight arrived and we started hiking into the gorge. On this day 19D 3354 came through at 08:48 on a westbound working followed at 09:45 by 3323 also westbound on this short and correctly marshalled train (the 4-wheel shorts marshalled behind the bogie wagons. Other photographers in this chapter have recorded several instances of shorts marshalled ahead of the bogie wagons). This was followed at 11:34 am by the only eastbound train we were to see in daylight, 3334 on a full goods train complete with a stool seated third man (or inspector?) on the footplate. For the record to show how busy traffic was then, later in the day we would be passed by 3340 on the 'water' train at 1:15pm and finally when we arrived at Vondeling to await the PE bound passenger train, 19D 3335 would depart westbound at 4pm to be followed shortly thereafter by 3327+3338 on a double header."
102. The last regular runnings of the once-weekly 51-down and 52-up, the 'fast' service between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and vice versa (we have described this train several times before), occurred in December 1970. On our way to Cape Town for Christmas that year we photographed the train coming under the overhanging rock (see also photo 109-l below).
103. Org's take of a 'Steam Safari' crossing the Traka River bridge in July 1990.
104. And a decade earlier: Allen's extremely rare one of GMA 4051 crossing the Traka river on its way to shops at Uitenhage, having been given a 19D load by the operating staff at Oudtshoorn. January 1979.
105. At the northern entrance to Toorwaterpoort is Vondeling siding, which became an unmanned interloop c 1978. Vondeling was the loneliest place between Oudtshoorn and Klipplaat and even today, in the absence of trains, it can only be reached via a circuitous dirt road from Willowmore. On 14 February 1979 Geoff and driver Robert Rademeyer ("another fine railwayman") on 19D 3326 were standing on the main line with a special passenger train. They were crossing a Klipplaat-bound dolly taking the loop with a heavy-looking 322-up T&P.
106. An excellent photo of an uncommon event at Vondeling. Genuine crossings of draught trains at this lonely outpost were a prize for railway enthusiasts in the last years of steam. Here is Peter's comment on his shot: "For my wife and I, the 1979 'Sunset Limited' tour promised to be a memorable event. This was based on the itinerary and memories of the the late Dean Harvey's well organised and photographically well catered for tours in South Australia.* These tours, a decade or more earlier, had numerous run-pasts for on-train photographers, so enticing photographers to commercially support the train and cater for all custom. Unfortunately, the 'Sunset Limited' organisers squandered this opportunity for fare paying passengers as run-pasts were frugal in the extreme (5 photo stops or 'false starts' for on-train photographers in 11 days). Even then we were harassed and obstructed by an "on train" employee of SAR whose idea for the paying passengers was that the train was run for "Operating" inconvenience only. American and European passengers who enquired about their funding the trip were quite rudely 'told off' by this person. However, I did manage to capture this crossing made between the Sunset Limited and an eastbound goods train at Vondeling."
*The other SAR (and the first one!)
107. The old order changeth....... The second man of an eastbound freight steps across the front of a Class 34 diesel and prepares to hand the token over to the crew of Class 19C 2439 waiting patiently in Vondeling loop with the 'Cape Mountaineer' tour heading from Klipplaat to Oudtshoorn on 20th July 1990.
108. A chartered steam-hauled 'goods' train performing a photographic runpast for its tourist passengers in 1993. Looking on were local kids, seemingly quite intrigued by the activity.
Dick's photo showing 19D 2753 (never an engine associated with this line in the draught days) was made some 15 years after the closure of Vondeling as a station. It shows that decline has set in, paint is peeling, the fire buckets and extinguishers have vanished although by and large everything is still intact. This was probably due to the fact that perway staff and the sanitation officer* were still based here (they lived in those houses in the right background) and District Engineer Duff Conradie (by now retired) had done such a thorough job of making Oudtshoorn a model district.
*SAR euphemism for the guy who changed the buckets.
At this point it seems appropriate to refer you to Johannes Haarhof's detailed account of a hike through Toorwaterpoort in 2015 (all copy by Johannes in italics):
Toorwaterpoort is a narrow cleft through the Swartberg – one of only four such gorges and the only one with a railway line. The gorge offers spectacular scenery, largely missed by the
public as passenger trains usually traversed it in the dark hours of the morning or just after nightfall. I travelled this line numerous times as a student without even knowing about its
existence up to a few years ago. During 2015, two opportunities arose to get a closer look. On 18 September, a group of seven hiked the gorge from south to north – Linda and Andrew Foster, Lyn and Bill James, Alwyn du Preez, Michael Barrett and me. Only six weeks later, on 29 October, I hiked it a second time, this from north to south, with Paul Coetzee as part of a larger adventure to traverse all the Swartberg crossings (four gorges and one pass) within three days. Such good company, humour and conversation – a big thank you to all!
Both hikes required support to drive our vehicles around to pick up the hikers. Thanks to Tertia, Anne-Maree and Christo Vorster, and Cecile Coetzee for making our hikes possible.
The following photo essay was compiled from photographs taken during these two visits."
Johannes Haarhoff
6 November 2015
The Swartberg (directly translated as Black Mountain, but never used in translation) in the Western Province of South Africa runs parallel to the coast in an east-west direction and is the
barrier between the Little Karoo in the south and the Great Karoo. There are five crossing points in the Swartberg, depicted by the dots in the figure below.
109a. From the left, they are:
• Seweweekspoort, a gravel road;
• Gamkaspoort with no road of any kind – requires clambering over rocks;
• Swartberg Pass, a gravel road pass built by Thomas Bain, legendary road builder from the 19th century;
• Meiringspoort, a modern, surfaced road; and
• Toorwaterpoort, only passable by rail or on foot.
Paul and I hiked Gamkaspoort and Toorwaterpoort on foot, and explored the remaining three by car in the company of Cecile and Tertia from 29 to 31 October.
109b. The SAR distinguished between stations (major nodes or termini), sidings (smaller but with permanent personnel), halts (no permanent personnel, but trains had to stop) and stopping places (trains only stopped for passengers or when, say, a milk can was left at the side of the track). Our hikes started and ended at two railway sidings. The Toorwater siding is at the southern portal to Toorwaterpoort. Here our September hike starts off briskly towards Toorwaterpoort, showing up in the distance above Lyn’s white hat. Below, I appear (less briskly) at the end of the October hike with temperatures in the high 30’s.
109c. And here is the man himself: Johannes Haarhoff, Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. Among his numerous accomplishments, the man who founded DRISA the project to put the irreplaceable material in the Transnet Heritage Library into permanent and comprehensive digital record.
Note the 147km marker, representing the distance of Toorwater from Klipplaat.
109d. Vondeling siding is at the northern portal to Toorwaterpoort. The September group, happy to have made it in pleasant weather, are Alwyn, me, Bill, Lyn, Linda, Andrew and Michael, with the entrance to the gorge in the distance above Michael’s head. Tertia and Alwyn’s uncle (Oom Johannes van der Merwe) was a station master at many different locations in South Africa, at one point also at Vondeling. They visited their uncle here as kids, but were too young for specific memories.
109e. Oom Johannes would have cringed to see his once proud little station building today.
The [metric] rail chainage starts with 0.0 km at Klipplaat station in the east. At Vondeling the chainage is 137 km and 147 km at Toorwater, making the hike exactly 10 km. The chainage is indicated at 500 m intervals. It took a while to figure out that a “clean” number indicates the exact distance, while a small triangle below the number indicates a point 500 m beyond the number.
109f. In three cases the [kilometre posts] at the side are missing and replaced with numbers painted on the sleepers. The yellow dots are 1000 m apart.The northern approach is therefore about 5 km and the southern approach 2 km. The scenic part in the centre, enclosed by high cliffs, is 3 km long.
109g. The Traka River, draining a part of the Great Karoo from the north, joins the railway at Vondeling, from where they run together, all the way to Toorwater. Along the northern approach the Traka runs wide and freely. An interesting feature is the heavy conveyor belting suspended along the farm border – an effective barrier for wandering animals, but sympathetic towards flood water [a better photo is No 109y below].
109h. The railway crosses to the right bank of the Traka at the point where they enter the narrow part of the gorge. The river, now narrowly confined, becomes a raging torrent during floods which have washed away the line on a number of occasions. The original designers, around 1898, in the absence of hydrological data, had to scratch their heads and eventually, rather arbitrarily, settled for about 5 m clearance between river bed and track level. The entrance to the narrow part of the gorge [starts at the southern abutment].
109i. Builder's plate on the Traka River bridge [The Thames Ironworks Shipbuilding Co Ltd was a partner in the contract to build the railway. Because of slow progress this contract was taken over by the Cape Government in 1902].
109j. It would be so much fun to hike Toorwaterpoort in the company of a good field geologist! Even so, it does not take a trained geologist to realise that Toorwaterpoort has been the scene of some angry geological processes in the past. Multiple layers of sandstone generally dip southwards, but there is intense folding visible everywhere. A long geological time ago (pre-Gondwana), the region was subjected to a strong thrust from the south, pushing up the sediments and folding the layers. The upper layers in Toorwaterpoort are remnants of the Cape Supergroup, mainly evident in the Cape Town region – between Swartberg and Cape Town they have been eroded away completely.
109k. At microscale, the traces of earlier geological process are equally fascinating. Thanks to the railway these traces have been made clearly visible in the many cuttings! Above: a contact with Paul lending scale at an intrusion that has been rudely twisted through ninety degrees.
109l. Moving onto engineering geology, the cutback angle of fairly deep rock cuttings had me puzzled. Above, the rock had simply been hollowed out to just accommodate the train profile. Note the soot-stained rock after about 75 years of steam, and the concrete infilling.
109m. A neatly cut rock face (traces of rock drilling still visible) with slightly reclining slope. There is evidence of earlier flood damage to the trackbed, so it is likely that the cutting was trimmed back during more recent times.
109n. Two more cuttings to consider. The angle of these two is almost exactly ninety degrees, although there is an illusion of slight overhang.
109o. This one looks like a bad dream of civil engineering come true – having to force a cutting through a particularly nasty piece of rock. One wonders whether there had been anything more than just gut feel when sizing those concrete props!
109p. Different means of bank stabilisation have been applied at Toorwaterpoort. This retaining wall [under the overhanging rock] has a pleasing aesthetic appearance, particularly where integrated with the natural rock support.
109q. A short distance away, stepped embankments have been used – one using mass concrete steps, the other rock-filled gabions. These structures were constructed at different times to repair flood damage [in fact those gabions were installed to restore the damage caused by the great flood of 1995. A glance at photos 91 & 92 will show you how it looked before].
109r. Drainage structures are completely absent in the narrow part of Toorwaterpoort. On the southern and northern approaches, different designs are used. The steel overpasses, with the exception of one, have the track on top, with up to four spans for large-capacity drains. The one exception is shown below, where a more substantial bridge design is used.
109s. This structure was manufactured by the same company as the Traka River bridge (see picture 102i for the builder's plate), but with manufacturing date 1899.
109t. This cutting an interesting tale attached - [see next two photos]
109u. Soon after construction of the Klipplaat – Oudtshoorn line began in 1899, it was interrupted for almost the full duration of the Boer War. The Toorwaterpoort section was under construction when hostilities began and the activities of Boer Commandos in the area put an end to construction until the end of the war. During this time, the blockhouse was built in the cutting using its sides as walls, manned by a contingent of CGR railwaymen. All traces of the fort were removed after the war as the cutting in which the fort was built was part of the track alignment.
109v. A view of the fort from the other side. Both these photos courtesy of Allen Duff.
109w. Along the way we also had opportunities to stop to enjoy the spring flowers of the arid Karoo. A fine display of vygies (mesembryanthenums) alongside the railway.
109x. Finally, two unusual designs: The first is a standard CGR farm gate in the fenced corridor along the railway line. Trust the CGR to do things in a proper way! Farm gates are characteristically rickety and improvised, but this gate is a masterpiece of detailed design and sturdy manufacture.
109y. A better view of the farm boundary across the Traka River which I described earlier on. One can only speculate on how effective it really is for keeping wild animals at bay.
Toorwaterpoort is the unforgettable climax of a train journey through the Little Karoo; on a par with the journeys described by the great Afrikaans poet C. J. Langenhoven* with 'Herrie', his imaginary elephant that drew their 'tram' to Meiringspoort. Thank you Johannes for providing a different and fascinating perspective on this highlight of our journey.
*Author of "Die Stem van Suid Afrika", South Africa's strong, moving and beautiful original National Anthem. Written in Afrikaans it never was comfortable when translated.
110. The Cape Mountaineer scored a hit with its 80 participants by staging a braai on the platform at Vondeling. Dave asks "Could this be the busiest that Vondeling has been in its entire history?"
111. This was the RSSA special of July 1983 from PE to Knysna and back, brilliantly organised by Bruce Brinkman, descending to Vondeling and the Traka River prior to accompanying it through Toorwaterpoort. The 'badlands' of the southern Great Karoo are well illustrated here and note the Swartberg reaching for the clouds in the background.
112. Ruling gradient of the Vondeling - Antonie bank which railwaymen called 'Kranspoort' (after the farm by that name) is 1/70 although it looks steeper. 9-down/10-up used to leave Toorwater siding at 19:34, i.e. just after the first sitting for dinner, so ritually, my late father would immediately make for the nearest balcony to the engine in order to experience the poort and the climb to Vondeling in the gloaming. Dad and I only did it twice together but to attempt to convey the experience to our readers would be a travesty. How does one begin to describe the surging engine, its assorted smells drifting back to the open balcony, and its marvelous exhaust echoing off cliffs in countryside where no other sounds existed?
113. The heaviest climb facing up trains between Oudtshoorn and Klipplaat was Kranspoort bank from Vondeling to Antonie, a 13-mile stretch mostly at 1/70. Geoff was an intrepid photographer, getting to this spot was almost like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. This was 19D 3338 on 322-up the 06:15 Oudtshoorn-Klipplaat T&P on 22nd August 1979. A heartfelt note from Geoff concerning this section and the gradient: "I never knew about the railway here until I was working on the footplate; it was another heavy climb and time for the fireman to stay busy. My photo shows the rugged bleakness of the countryside at this point."
114. In December 1968 I decided to get some photos in the Kranspoort gorge. The only way in was to drive to the abandoned old Kranspoort farmhouse at Donkerhoek and park there, from where it was another hour of strenuous rock scrambling to the best positions. As you can see, December midday was not the ideal time to attempt this, both photographically and temperature-wise.
115. I vowed to come back and do this in winter, but of course never did......
116. This was 325-down goods (05:05 off Klipplaat) ambling down the hill, December 1968.
117. Ten years later one could drive quite close to this spot along the newly-constructed maintenance road. The train is 322-up T&P and two of those tank-wagons are for domestic water supplies to outlying stations while the two immediately behind the engine are for the locomotive water supplies at Snyberg and Toorwater which had dried up due to the worst drought in decades (they would be filled up at Willowmore where the supply came from the SAR's own large dam - see photo 113).
118. The 19D of the 'Trans Cape Limited' apparently making an all-out assault on the Kranspoort bank in April 1985. Actually it was performing a run-past for the passengers.
119 "After a poor day's photography due to the weather we finally caught a fortunate patch of sun". Two class 24s bring the Cape Mountaineer through the S-curve appropriately known as "Donkerhoek" (= Dark Corner) by railwaymen.
120. Even without the luxury of a photographic stop for the train passengers, photos like this were comparatively easy after the maintenance road was constructed. 19D 3354 with 324-up goods in January 1979.
121. The same train a bit further up the bank; about three miles before Antonie siding, the summit.
122. Geoff tells us: "I was on the cab roof of 3367 we were doubleheaded with 3338 on 327-down, the 06.15 Klipplaat-Oudtshoorn T&P, crossing 360-up at Antonie, summit of the line. 7 February 1979"
123. Geoff: "3340 and 3333 approaching Antonie summit from the east with 329-down goods on 8 April 1978. There was a lot of traffic moved on that line!"
124. There was a time BD (before diesels) when the water engineer was the most important individual in the CCE's office (I can still remember how they used to strut around the place).
This was the substantial and reliable locomotive water supply dam at Willowmore. It did more than just provide locowater at Willowmore however: purified, it provided domestic water for all station personnel between Klipplaat and Snyberg and by means of tanker wagons in times of drought, locowater at Toorwater and Snyberg as well. As interesting as the dam itself are the people in the picture: from the left: Loggie van Loggerenberg, the trolley driver who was more, much more, than just that. He was about the best braaier I ever came across and somehow the trolley schedule always managed to get to the best spots at lunch time. The fire would be ready, having been lit at just the right time by the length patrolman. Second is the legendary Duff Conradie about whom we have written plenty in the Garden Route chapters. As District Engineer in charge of the section from Riversdale to Klipplaat (including branches) there was never anything to inspect on his district, it was invariably perfect. The third figure is the Cape Midland track engineer, Chris Müller, now sadly also no longer with us.
Soon after steam working was discontinued SA Transport Services, the successor to SAR, donated the dam to Willowmore Municipality.
125. A few miles west of Willowmore and the Dolly of 329-down goods has got her teeth into the climb to Antonie. Aasvoëlberg (= Vulture Mountain) in left background. July 1968.
126. The CT-PE Premier 'Classe' luxury passenger (same train as in photo 105 of 'Garden Route Part 2' ) passing by Laughing Waters dam on the outskirts of Willowmore on 9 May 2009.
127. Immaculate 19D 3324 leaves Willowmore with a Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn freight on 7 August 76. Ahead is a 300ft climb to the 3,047ft summit of the whole line at Antonie.
128. The Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn line took a big leap forward when they upgraded from eighth classes to 19Bs in 1930. Bill provided posterity a perfect portrait of a prewar rake of Hendrie's balcony day/sleepers to go with the still quite new engine.
129. "The locomotive rostered for the 1979 14 coach (550 ton) 'Sunset Limited' on the Klipplaat-Oudtshoorn section on Tuesday 17th April, was beautifully turned out by the shed staff at Klipplaat under the watchful eye of Mr W. Watson. Here, the train headed by 19D 3324, named 'Marlene', the regular engine of Jan Rheeder, senior driver at Klipplaat, is stopped for well-earned locomotive purposes at the lovely old cast iron tank at Willowmore. Of interest is that these tanks, with their pattern of ribbing and rounded corners, still retained their
elephant trunk bowsers although elsewhere in the yard was a more modern (and much slower) gate-valved gantry facility. Visible are the triangulated stay wires and counterweights for supporting the bowser; also the tank overflow pipes and water level indicators. All alongside the ubiquitous pile of locomotive ash."
130. This is how they did it in the early days, and it worked. Bagged wheat being hand-loaded into wooden short wagons at Willowmore, pre WWI. (Cape Archives DRJ 1076).
131. 19D 3326 heading 322-up, the 06.00 Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat T&P, just shut off for Skerpkop halt on 7th August 1976. In the immediate background is Skerpkop itself and behind it is the much more imposing Aasvoëlberg which looms over Willowmore.
132. Allen's commentary: "The last Cape Town to Port Elizabeth Southern Cross ran on 29 March 2002. The photo location is just west of Skerpkop. A group of us travelled on this train from George to Willowmore where we got off (wife collected us). But Don Baker travelled on to PE where he overnighted and rode the train back to George on the Sunday."
133. The RSSA's Trans Cape Limited accelerating away from its van Schoor tablet stop at Knoetze, April 1985. A very typical Great Karoo/Little Karoo farmstead in the background.
134. 19D 3354 with the 07.15 Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn in June 1979 stopping at Knoetze to change the tablet - this was after manned stations and paper orders had been abolished.
Seven minutes were allowed at each stop which increased the running times between Klipplaat and Oudtshoorn (& vice versa) by an hour and 25 minutes - that's progress? It was slow enough before but small wonder passengers deserted the trains in droves from the late seventies onwards.
135. After a largely cloudy day the sun finally dropped below the clouds to illuminate an immaculate 19D 3324 emerging from the poort approaching Knoetze with the 'SAR Travel' Safari of October 1980. The train manager was Eugene Armer and the driver was the famous Jan Rheeder, senior driver at Klipplaat, whose regular engine this was for more than ten years.
136. In late-afternoon light 19D 3324 leaves Fullarton behind with an Oudtshoorn-bound freight on 27th June 1978.
137. It's GMA 4051 again, eastbound out of Fullarton, see also photos 104 and 147.
138. A lucrative string of insulated containers destined for the Table Top frozen vegetable siding at George (see caption to photo 30 in Garden Route Part 2), trails behind 19D 3354 hauling 321-down, 10:40 SuO Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn (unadvertised!!) mixed coming through Fullarton on 9th July 1978. The engine was ex-works on its first run to Oudtshoorn after overhaul.
Dave Rodgers provided further comment: "This is most interesting because I had been in touch with SAR and had the the Garratt-hauled Rosmead - Graaf Reinet passenger made straight engine. As Rosmead then had only one operational 19D Operating sent 3354 which was ex-works from Bloemfontein and on Sunday 2nd July 1978 3354 double headed with 2672. So the shot at Fullarton (9th July 1978) was only days after my Lootsberg special working!"
139. The same train as in photo 136 above, brewing up in Fullarton while the tablet is manually exchanged at the van Schoor instrument housed in the hokkie behind the name-board. This was after Fullarton had been closed as a permanently manned station (with proper semaphore signalling) in 1974, resulting in every train having to stop here for seven minutes while its guard strolled up from his van to exchange the tablet in the automatic Van Schoor apparatus. If this pretense to efficiency were confined to one or two stations it would perhaps not have been so bad, but multiply the seven minutes by the number of stations that had had their staff withdrawn between Worcester and Uitenhage and it amounts to several hours! Needless to say, the decision to take such drastic steps (and they were applied countrywide) was 100% in the interests of politics, not economics.
140. 19D 3323 departing Fullarton eastbound with 322-up T&P, the 06.15 Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat in June 1979.
141. The 'Trans Cape Limited' crossing the mighty Grootrivier* just east of Fullarton in April 1985.
* a major drain of the south-eastern Great Karoo, the Groot (=Big) only justifies its name about once every 10-15 years.
142. The same train as in photo 130 crossing the bridge over the Plessisrivier* about two miles east of Fullarton.
* This has to be one of the laziest rivers in these parts, only rarely serving its purpose, the riverbed is usually a jumble of sand, rocks and acacia bushes. However, when it does wake up it can get very angry, as testified by the concrete approach spans in Dick's photo, built to replace the original steel deck spans after a flood.
143. 19D 3354 head the 07.15 Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn rounding the curve into the short poort after Fullarton in June 1979 (the same train as in photo 134 above). Observe that its load consists almost entirely of locomotive and power station coal.
142. You can sense the power of 19Ds 3340 + 3333 heading westbound up the Plessisrivier* valley at Eensaam, April 1978.
* a euphemism
143. The same train as in photo 132 above, 19D 3326 with 322-up, the 06.00 Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat T&P, in Witpoort near Draaiberg on 7th August 1976.
144. The Cape Town-Port Elizabeth Premier 'Classe' (sic) luxury passenger train (same train as in photo 105 of 'Garden Route Part 2' ) passing through Eensaam (“Lonely” in Afrikaans) The name says it all. Ruins of the station building on the left. Date 9 May 2009.
145. Westbound from Miller the terrain gets ever more interesting as the railway threads its way through one gorge after another (five before Willowmore). This was the Trans Cape Limited emerging from Swanepoelspoort in April 1985.
146. 19D 3323 paused for the tablet swap after arrival at Miller with the 06.15 Oudtshoorn - Klipplaat in June 1979. By this time Miller had been closed as a manned station for some two years and was on its way to becoming yet another heap of railway rubble in the Karoo. Customers (mainly farmers) were expected to phone the regional office in Port Elizabeth to arrange for wagons to be parked off in the goods-shed siding, a process fraught with difficulty (not least being uninterested railwaymen) which was soon dropped in favour of user-friendly lorries.
147. 4051 arriving at Miller on the same run depicted in photo 104. January 1979. Although Toorwater is generally recognised as the southern entrance to the Great Karoo, from here on the hills are suddenly much more barren. Miller is where the real Karoo takes over.
148. Even in steam days Jan Rheeder, the senior driver at Klipplaat, dressed in his Sunday best (i.e. jacket, waistcoat and tie) which explains why his regular engine, 19D 3324 was equally immaculate. We have a better picture of this wonderful man a bit further on but unfortunately on a rather unkempt relief engine. Can you imagine keeping yourself tidy while raking the ashpan but somehow Jan usually managed it.
149. The same 14CRB 1882 and train depicted in photo 100, departing Miller in the early morning of 19 June 1999 with Dave's "Cape Explorer V" railtour.
150. "If this photograph conveys the isolation and bleak, hostile environment of the countryside around Miller then it has achieved its goal. It was the spring of 1979, a full week after Lootsberg Pass lost its steam, and snow had covered the Lootsberg and Carlton mountains. In the goods siding is an orange-painted workman's caboose, dropped off in the morning by a westbound goods train. These vehicles provided accommodation for the District maintenance Teams in areas such as Miller where public accommodation was minimal. With an icy wind from the south west, an unknown (possibly 3335) and now ubiquitously grubby 19D can't keep up with its wind blown exhaust as it departs Miller station. In fact that day several trains went through including 19D number 3324 (now work stained but not grubby) driven by Jan Rheeder. This in pouring rain and sleet but only the first of the day No 3340 was in sunlight. As if to emphasise the conditions the 19D (equally grubby), rostered for the Mossel Bay-Johannesburg passenger train, failed at Miller after spending two hours overtime on Antonie bank. Rescue was by a diesel locomotive from Klipplaat which continued all the way through to Noupoort. This was the only steam failure I ever saw. As if in support, even though the station was still manned, the passenger waiting room had lost its furnishings and we resorted to scabbing coal from the track-side to keep a semblance of a warming fire going. These were indicative that as the 1970s drew to a close, the run down was well on its way."
151. Shortly after sunrise 19D 3324 is seen arriving at Miller with a Steam and Safaris special in July 1995. The sunrise was very short lived and the rest of the day was largely cloudy.
152. The Sunset Limited paused to collect the tablet at Humefield, April 1979. Class 24 No 3652 leading 19D 3324.
153. The same CT-PE Premier 'Classe' luxury passenger train in more open country east of Humefield as it approaches Klipplaat. Technically, the train never reached Klipplaat, bypassing the sorry remains of the station and town on chord constructed to the south of the station.
154. 19D 3354 heading the 07.15 Klipplaat - Oudtshoorn near Humefield shortly after sunrise in July 1979.
155. 3323 sets out from the bleak landscape of Klippaat on the 150 mile journey to Oudtshoorn on 27 May 1973
156. 3338 arrives at Klipplaat with a goods from Oudtshoorn on 27 May 1973
157. 3334 departing from Klipplaat with a goods for Oudtshoorn on 27 May 1973. The track coming through the diamond joins up with the PE main which can be seen on the far right.
158. All information provided by Dave: "several unidentified 19Ds rest outside Klipplaat shed on the afternoon of 7th August 1976. For interest here is a list of the locos on shed on this Saturday afternoon.
On shed:
15AR 1961
19Ds 3327, 3339, 3335, 3368, 3340, 3333, 3337, 3336, 3338, 3323, 3353 and 3367
GMA 4054
Shunting: 15AR
Later, at 16.00 GMAM No. 4127 ran short of steam on a freight from Port Elizabeth some 2km before Klipplaat and required a 'blow-up.' This was followed by a diesel-hauled freight."
159. "The shed staff at Klipplaat had done an excellent job of cleaning, shining and preparing 19D 3324 for the run on the 'Sunset Limited' between Klipplaat and Oudtshoorn next day. The evening of 16 April 1979 sees 3324 being moved about the shed as the staff go about the normal ritual of locomotive preparation in readiness for its run to the ostrich capital. It is a tonic to know that this engine is still with us. In the background is 15AR 2082 and an unknown member of Klipplaat's roster of 19D's already looking tatty."
160. "16 April 1979 sees 15AR 2082 and 19D 3324 in the shed at Klipplaat. The 15AR 2082 had come in from Port Elizabeth coupled with former Springs supershine 15AR 2023 on the Port Elizabeth to Klipplaat portion of the "Sunset Limited" and 19D 3324 was to carry the train onwards the next day to Oudtshoorn."
161. And here is the man himself, Jan Rheeder, unfortunately not on his regular 3324, at Marevlakte in May 1971. If anyone has a picture of Jan on his regular 3324 please send it to us, and Les thinks the fireman was Tony Attwell (can you confirm this please, Tony?).
162. I wish we could finish this epic chapter on a high note, but these days it is not possible to finish off ANY story about our once world-class railway on a high note. Johannes's photo just serves to prove the old adage: when steam goes it takes the railway with it.
163. Under new management. No, it was neither an earthquake nor a tornado. This is how Klipplaat looks in 2018.
164. A once-proud 15AR 1840* abandoned and forgotten when it could be taking tourists to Graaff-Reinet and the Lootsberg. REMEMBER: the converse is also true, proven around the globe: when steam comes back it brings the railway with it.
*Thanks to Piet Conradie for providing the engine number, which I found in his wonderful web site "Old Steam Locomotives in South Africa"
Even today I find it hard to comprehend that the destruction of our railway was driven by the very people who were running it. Our story has taken us a long way past the era when the SAR&H bore comparison with best overseas practice. Since the late 1970s general rail traffic, both passenger and freight had begun to decline, imperceptibly at first then accelerating alarmingly after the passing of the Road Transportation Act 74 of 1977. By the time the ANC government took over in 1994 both these categories of business were beyond rescue as commercial enterprises but immediately before that, the U.S. railway consulting firm Mercer had convinced management to dump wagonload traffic altogether, close down regional offices, concentrate their efforts on 'heavy haul' and centralise all operations in Johannesburg. These were blows from which our railway has never recovered. Countrywide, infrastructure and equipment began to look shabby and disorganised - a process that has continued unabated into the 21st century and compounded by the loss of institutional memory, unprecedented corruption and managerial ineptness.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Again a chapter where so many have contributed photos, text and time that no individual can claim credit for it. The following is a list (in alphabetical order of surname or organisation) of those who have participated: Bruce Brinkman, Alan Buttrum, Cape Archives, John Carter, Eric Conradie [2], Andrew Deacon[1], Org de Bruin, Pierre de Wet, Allen Duff [2], The George Herald, Johannes Haarhoff [3], Geoff Hall, Allen Jorgensen, Robert Kingsford-Smith, Charlie Lewis, Dick Manton, Bruno Martin[4], Yolanda Meyer[5], Peter Micenko, National Archives, Les Pivnic, Dave Rodgers, Peter Rogers, Peter Stow, Transnet Heritage Library[6] and last - even though he contributed our leading photo - Mike Tyack.
[1] Andrew is the computer fundi who formats SoAR and thus prepares it for sending out to youse.
[2] Now that Messrs Rhind and Bates have passed on, Eric and Allen are the senior railway researchers among us amateurs.
[3] Johannes Haarhoff has provided us with his personal and illustrated account of a hike through Toorwaterpoort in 2015 with a wealth of fascinating detail about the most interesting section of the line.
[4] Bruno is SoAR's cartographer - enough said.....
[5] Without Yolanda we would not be able to publish our most precious historic material. Nowadays she is ably assisted by DRISA, the brain child of Johannes Haarhoff.
[6] Transnet Heritage Library is the irreplaceable home of our principal source archives; presided over by Yolanda Meyer.
And that concludes our biggest chapter to date, mainly as a result of a veritable tsunami of contributions, for which a heartfelt thank you from Charlie on behalf of Les and our 3,000-odd readers. The next chapter will cover PE harbour; followed immediately by the Port Elizabeth suburban service and local goods workings. After that Les will be doing the Natal Main Line between Pietermaritzburg and Charlestown including the Bergville branch (but not Glencoe - Vryheid), for which he is already requesting photographic contributions from our readers.