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Welcome Welcome to this edition of the SAS-SAR with the focus on “old” Durban Station in particular and Natal (today KwaZulu-Natal) in general. My lifelong love affair with railways began about 70 years ago. I was born a lover of trains. To me Natal railways is the main line from Durban to Van Reenen where we, as young children, spent many a Christmas holiday with Oupa and Ouma at Van Reenen, to me Natal Railways is the annual train trip from Durban to Pietermaritzburg and return to visit the Royal Natal Show in Pietermaritzburg – we used to stand on the balcony and watch the rails slip by, as a young recruit I will never forget the first official trip from Durban to Pretoria and many more trips to and from Pretoria as a policeman, finally when stationed at King’s Rest working in the Charge Office many a weekday I had to receive the post bag from the guard or give him the post bag – many a day I watched the whales being taken fr0om the slip way to the whaling station at the Union Whaling Company.
Front Cover The front cover is by courtesy of Ms. Donna MacKinnon and the cover was designed by Glenn Elsden.
Contact details Hennie Heymans, Pretoria, ZA, – tel 012- 329-4229 E-mail: heymanshb@gmail.com
Christmas and New Year Our readers are wished a blessed Christmas and a very prosperous New Year!
Soul of A Railway (SoAR) by Les Pivnic & Charlie Lewis While on the subject of Natal Railways do you a favour and visit the following excellent sites by clicking on them:
https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-6-1 https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-6-1/system-6 https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-6-1/part-2-greyville-loco-greyville-station-to-umgeniand-berea-road-to-rossburgh
This is still work in progress but its excellent material for those in love with railways in Natal. Natal was a very progressive colony and it had the first Royal Train in Africa.
Contents Welcome .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Front Cover ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Contact details ................................................................................................................................. 2 Christmas and New Year ................................................................................................................. 2 Soul of A Railway (SoAR) by Les Pivnic & Charlie Lewis ................................................................ 2 1935: Menu: SAR (via Terry Schwartz) ............................................................................................ 4 2
The legend of the swapped station roofs: Durban’s Railway Station roof said to have collapsed in Toronto (under 5 m of snow in 1892). Unlikely, actually. ................................................................. 5 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 5 The Durban Railway Station ......................................................................................................... 5 Old Union Station, Toronto ........................................................................................................... 8 “Whispers” as played on the web: the legend of the swapped roofs .......................................... 10 Design snow loads (2016) .......................................................................................................... 13 The Union Station, Toronto and its new roof (2016) ................................................................... 14 Promoting a historic building. ..................................................................................................... 16 References and links .................................................................................................................. 16 Some old Durban Station and other Natal railway photographs: Hennie Heymans ....................... 17 NGR Amamzimtoti ...................................................................................................................... 21 Natal: The Kearsney Light Railway ................................................................................................ 22 Old Natal Railways: The Stanger to Kearsney Private Railway: Dr. BJT Leverton ..................... 22 NGR: Nel’s Rust ......................................................................................................................... 24 NGR: Estcourt -Weenen NG Railway ......................................................................................... 25 Diagram NG No’s 1 & 2 .............................................................................................................. 26 1910 Van Reenen: Reversing Station on the Pass .................................................................... 27 Some Natal Government Railway Stations: Nico Moolman ........................................................... 29 NGR Harrismith .......................................................................................................................... 29 NGR Newcastle .......................................................................................................................... 29 Some NZASM, CSAR & SA Railway Stations in the ZAR, Transvaal: Nico Moolman ................... 30 NZASM: Pretoria: Nico Moolman ............................................................................................... 30 Germiston Station .......................................................................................................................... 30 Waterval-Boven/ Waterval-Onder .................................................................................................. 30 Barberton ....................................................................................................................................... 32 1896: Barberton .......................................................................................................................... 32 Station Master: Barberton........................................................................................................... 34 Anglo Boer War Ambulance Trains: MC Heunis ............................................................................ 35 Funeral Train: Worcester ............................................................................................................... 38 Armoured Train: Nico Moolman ..................................................................................................... 38 Rangeerwerf: Dr. Dawid Lotter....................................................................................................... 39 Ladysmith: Natal: ʼn Soldaat beskou die rangeerwerk aldaar: Tony Savides ................................ 39 Greetings ....................................................................................................................................... 40
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1935: Menu: SAR (via Terry Schwartz)
Three shillings and a sixpence are 35 cents. A meal like this will cost about R150-00 today. 4
The legend of the swapped station roofs: Durban’s Railway Station roof said to have collapsed in Toronto (under 5 m of snow in 1892). Unlikely, actually. William James date 2016.11.21 “Construction of the [Old Station Building] in Durban was completed in 1892, but there was much confusion, the result of a mistake by the architects in London who had mistakenly switched the roof plans with those for the station in Toronto, Canada. The roof of the old station is capable of supporting more than five meters of snow, however the Toronto station's roof collapsed during the first winter.” http://www.wheretostay.co.za/topic/3417 [4]
Introduction From Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopaedia, we learn [1] that “Chinese whispers” (or “Telephone” in North America) is an internationally popular game in which one person whispers a message to another and so on through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming misheard and altered along the way, part of the fun is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from that of the first player, usually with amusing or humorous effect. Reasons for changes include … that some players may deliberately alter what is being said to guarantee a changed message by the end of the line. The game is often … invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread, or, more generally, for the unreliability of human recollection or even oral traditions. The game has no winner: the entertainment comes from comparing the original and final messages. Intermediate messages may also be compared; some messages will become unrecognizable after only a few steps. There are several observations to be made about the “Whispers/Telephone” game as a metaphor for the spread of an unreliable rumour: 1. Like entropy (the departure from truth, or chaos in the information transmitted),truth degrades into untruth with repetition; 2. The game itself is linear, whereas real rumours spread two dimensionally (as in a web); 3. Normally information degrades with time, but degradation rates are likely slower in a web; 4. It’s difficult to trace degradation and its chronology in a web; and 5. The degradation is not a vector quantity: like potable water in a biofilmed water distribution network, degradation occurs no matter what the direction of flow. We come back to this later.
The Durban Railway Station In 1892, the Natal Government Railways built a terminus station in Durban, comprising a steelframed roof covering four platforms, 1 to 4. After 1981, the structure was moved 30m and still exists. In 1898 an imposing brick office building was added, and a significant part of that building – mostly the façade – is also still in existence, though the two are now separated by a roadway. They were originally attached by a passenger concourse with a lower roof, as seen in Figure 2 5
below. Over the years, the combined building became known, simply, as the Durban Station, and now (2016) as the Old Durban Railway Station.
Figure 1: Natal Government Railways Head Office, Durban [2].
Figure 2: The concourse linking the 1892 (steel train shed to the left) and 1898 (red brick offices to the right); the top two floors were added in 1904 [9]. 6
Figure 3: 1892 Durban Railway Station from train approach [14 – photo now in public domain].
Figure 4: 1892 Durban Railway Station from Pine St. [14]. Clearly the 1892 Durban Station roof arches are rectilinear hip-roofs with 6 roof slabs on each side, each with a substantial step at the lower edge. There was no longitudinal open vent or cupola at the summit ridge. Internally, the arches had – and probably still have – a circular arc lower cord in their elegant trusses, attractive enough to have been designed and executed in e.g. Torchon bobbin lace:
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Figure 5: 1892 Durban Railway Station interior [14]. According to Bruno Martin, the 1891/92 Natal Government Railway Annual Report item C12 (page not recorded) mentions that Edward Griffiths was awarded the contract for the passenger terminal (the contract for the station roof being let during August 1891). From another NGR Annual Report, the iron [sic] roof was supplied by Handyside & Co., Derby, England and erected by Messrs Micheson & Kohlbrunner, and work on the station roof was completed on 18 October 1893. “An unusual number of defects and omissions in detail had to be rectified”. The metric dimensions are: clear span of 32 metres; length 64 metres and a centre height of 17 metres [Bruno Martin, 18]. Michael Cottrell in an article The old Durban railway Station (part 2) – how it developed and memories [20] states that the two-storey concourse and administration building was designed by architect William Street-Wilson, and opened in December 1898.
Old Union Station, Toronto Charles Cooper’s excellent early photograph collection of Ontario Railway Stations is available on the web [20]. From Toronto.ca [10] we learn that, preceding the current Union Station, an earlier (denoted “old” herein, but not the first station) Union Station was built in 1872 on Front Street between York and Simcoe Streets. An impressive front was added and completed in 1895 and contained ticket offices, waiting rooms and railway offices. Also added was a ¼ mile (1320 ft.) long train shed [15], with a generally semi-cylindrically-shaped roof. This train shed is taken by the present author to be the closest in time and shape to the Durban station, and therefore the roof most likely to have become associated with the Durban Station roof-swap-tale. For the record, the old Union Station addition was designed by E. P. Hannaford, Chief Engineer of the Grand Trunk Railway (North America), and modelled on the Illinois Central Station in Chicago, having three domed towers – one containing a clock. Evidently, in its time, the old Union Station was considered one of the most modern and handsome stations on the continent – its tall silhouette was a noted feature of the turn-of-the-century Toronto skyline [15]. Even though this station almost doubled the previous station in size, demands for an even larger station came soon after its 8
completion. The train sheds were demolished in 1927 and 1928, and the old station was torn down in 1931, four years after the present (written in 2016) Union Station was officially opened.
Figure 6: Excerpted from a scanned image in Ralph Beaumont’s book [19], the 1895 semicylindrically shaped train shed can be readily seen just beyond the road overpass. The following two images are taken from Derek Boles’ book Images of rail: Toronto’s Railway Heritage [15], the third image below having an arbitrary circle superimposed by Mike Walton.
Figure 7: Toronto Railway Station showing 1895 additions [15].
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Figure 8: the new train shed added in 1895 [15, photo now in public domain].
Figure 9: This detail of the 1895 “about ¼ mile” long train shed [15] shows that the lower frames of the semi-cylindrical roof are unclad, reminiscent of exposed flying buttresses in gothic masonry buildings. The simple semi-circle is an unlikely inspiration for Torchon bobbin lace, one would have to admit. The photo also shows that the shed carried a substantial longitudinal vent along the summit, as conspicuous as an extended cupola on a caboose.
“Whispers” as played on the web: the legend of the swapped roofs We don’t yet know the origin of the swapped roofs story, and we continue to research it. The author recalls himself in the 1950s propagating a story that the Durban Station was based on a Canadian design and the roof could handle snow. Since it was well known that the 1910 Durban City Hall exactly replicated the 1898 city hall in Belfast [26], and since the station building was (and is) starkly different from other downtown edifices, the story held obvious appeal. From there a plausible whisper development could be: 1. The Durban Station is a copy of one in Canada. 2. The Durban Station roof is designed for snow. 10
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
The Durban and Toronto station roofs were swapped accidentally. The Durban Station roof can support 16 ft snow. The station roof in Toronto will perform poorly under snow. The roof in Toronto collapsed under heavy snow. The roof in Toronto collapsed during the very first snowfall.
But let us start somewhere down the sequence of known, documented 2-D whisperers, say at n+1 (the sequence number is arbitrary; italics below are for emphasis by the present author; being 2-D the rumours do not degrade smoothly; all links were active in November 2016): Whisper n+1: From SA-venues.com [3] we learn: The Old Durban Railway Station was built in 1892 and, therefore, showcases the gorgeous Victorian look and feel of the time. Its elegance is timeless and continues to give the building and its surrounds an undeniable charm. This sizeable building was built using dramatic red bricks, standing tall and bold on the street corner. The roof plans were accidentally switched by the architects, and this railway station got the roof design that was meant for the Toronto Railway Station in Canada, and vice versa. Whisper n+2: From Pinterest.com [5] we learn: A monumental mix-up in 1892 saw Durban getting the plans for Toronto Station, & Toronto getting those for Durban. The Durban Station was built with a roof capable of supporting 16 ft of snow, which is totally ironic as the coastal city, with its sub-tropical climate, has never experienced even one minor snowfall. The fate of Toronto Station's original roof during the first bad winter, however, is another story. Whisper n+3: From WhereToStay.co.za [4] we learn: The Old Station Building in Durban is one of only few remaining examples of Victorian style railway stations in South Africa. Construction of the station was completed in 1892, but there was much confusion, the result of a mistake by the architects in London who had mistakenly switched the roof plans with those for the station in Toronto, Canada. The roof of the old station is capable of supporting more than five meters of snow, however the Toronto station's roof collapsed during the first winter. Whisper n+4: From cityseeker.com [6] we learn: This old railway station building, built in 1898, formerly served as the main railway station house in Durban's city centre. It is one of the few remaining stations in South Africa with a British, Victorian design. It underwent extensive changes under the apartheid system in order to ensure separate facilities and train access for members of different racial groups. 1 Today the old station has become 'Tourist Junction,' the extensive and main tourist information bureau for Durban and KwaZuluNatal. Oddly, the roof of the station was built to support five meters/16 feet of snow because of a mix-up in its initial planning, when the London architects sent the roof plans for the Toronto Station to Durban in error. Whisper n+5: From zulu.org.za [7] we learn: Built in 1892 as the main railway station house in the city centre. A particularly interesting building as its roof will support at least five meters (16 feet) of snow. This is attributed to the confusion of the London architects whose staff sent the Toronto station roof plans to Durban in error. Toronto received the Durban plans and their station collapsed during the first bad winter. Today the building houses tourist junction, the tourist information centre for Durban. 1
One wonders if this is completely true. “Apartheid” was enforced even in the days of the NGR, one thinks of the Ghandi-incident that happened on the NGR. It would be interesting to obtain the correct historical facts. – Hennie Heymans.
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Whisper n+6: On p. 288 of DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: South Africa [8] we learn Durban’s former railway station, a four-storey red-brick building was completed in 1894 (sic) and now houses the tourist centre. In the entrance of the building stands a statue in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who bought a train ticket to Johannesburg here in June 1893. The building’s most curious feature is the roof, which is designed to carry the weight of 5 m (16 ft) of snow. The London firm of architects accidentally switched the plans for those in Toronto in Canada, and the roof of Toronto Station caved in during the first heavy snowfalls. Whisper n+7: From Allen Jackson ‘Facts about Durban’ (FAD Publishers, Durban, 2003) [16], we learn: The old station on the corner of Pine Street and Gardiner Street [which currently houses Tourist Junction] was built in 1892 with a roof that can support 16 foot of snow. This was apparently the result of a mistake by the architects in London who sent the roof plans for the Toronto station to Durban and the plans for Durban station to Toronto. The roof which had been designed for Durban did not cope at all well with the snowy conditions in Canada and collapsed during the first winter. Whisper n+8: From KZN Railway History Chronicle, (#7, Mar 2007) [20], we learn: It is said that this building could withstand heavy snow. Allan Jackson in his Facts about Durban confirms this. Durban received plans for a station in Toronto while the Canadian city received the Durban plans and the roof collapsed during the first winter! Commenting now on the credibility of the swapped-roofs tale, how could an architect in those ponderously slow and careful days carefully pack and seal (with sealing wax) in London for a steamship journey a Canadian design, a large package of blueprints, and how could the steelwork for a train shed be manufactured for and delivered to the wrong continent? After all, it was not at all comparable to the present day where one can simply prematurely hit “SEND” before checking which AutoCAD window on the screen is active. No, designs were fastidiously checked those days. For me the obvious take-down is the fact that the Toronto roof was many (about 4 or 5) times longer than the Durban roof, so it would have taken a fishes-and-loaves job to have stretched the Durban roof into covering the Toronto station, and it would have been a massive waste of steel to have compressed the Toronto roof onto the Durban substructure. Furthermore, should the story be based on some related incident, the situation would surely have been a bonanza for the local media, knowing their penchant those days for criticism of railway affairs. It also would have kept political commentators very audible, even down to modern times, and thus provided us today with plenty of good, perhaps amusing, evidence. Alas, there is nothing in the record. Further, the dates don’t quite match (1892 construction in Durban, 1896 addition in Toronto, are the nearest dates when there may have been railway station roof construction at the two places). Yet further, the Toronto Station train shed is a circular arch with 4 or 5 roof slabs and a large open longitudinal vent at the summit, as shown in the above enlargement, and no steps are included in the Toronto roof. Finally, the Toronto stations were designed in Canada, not in the UK. All this leads me to suspect that the roofs, or their designs, are unlikely to have been sent to the wrong places, as the legend claims, and even less likely that the Durban roof ended up on the Union Station in Toronto. Significantly, Graham Leslie McCallum’s scholarly website on Durban’s historic railway stations [9], and Barend van Niekerk’s2 Old Durban Railway Station [21] do not 2
The late Prof. Barend van Niekerk of former University of Natal (Durban) – Hennie Heymans.
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mention the legend of the swapped station roofs, and Les Pivnic on the website Soul of a railway [14] states that the story is “probably apocryphal”.
Design snow loads (2016) “Sixteen feet” of snow may sound impressive but is by itself meaningless, because if fresh and light, it would weigh almost nothing, but if saturated would be the equivalent of 16 feet of water and bring down any roof. By way of explanation, in Canada snow loads are distributed according to roof geometry as illustrated by Figure 10 and as described by the National Building Code Act of 1992.
Figure 10. Attached buildings make the design of roof structures complex. Source: Alberta Agriculture. [23] 1: balanced snow load; 2: unbalanced snow load caused by wind; 3: increased load in valleys; 4: increased load on lower roof; 5: added load from sliding snow; 6: drift load behind obstruction; 7: change of slope; 8: sheltered conditions (not wind-swept); 9: load adjusted for slope The National Research Council of Canada [24] explains that our building code requirements are based on snowfall observations converted to a snow load; roofs are designed for a combination of snow and rain load, according to a table of locations in the National Building Code (NBC). Roofs on today’s large buildings are designed for 1/50y snow load events and take into account factors such as roof shape and accumulation. Trusses for today’s houses and smaller buildings are built under Part 9 of the NBC and designed according to the simplified snow load equation: Specified Snow Load S = Is[Ss(CbCwCsCa)+Sr] where the variables are factors specified in the code. Many on-line calculators are available on the web, including [24] and [25]. As an example, for a slippery roof located near Toronto City Hall: At 45 degrees S = 1.15[0.9(0.8*1.0*0.33*1.0)+0.4] = 0.74kPa (15.4 lbs/sq ft) If the roof is flat: S = 1.15[0.9(0.8*1.0*1*1.0)+0.4] = 1.29kPa (26.9 lbs/sq ft) Of course, it would be difficult in Durban to imagine Toronto’s winter, let alone the exaggerated design for 5 m of snow. Below is a December 2012 table of selected numbers relating to snow pack management in Toronto (pop. 2.6M; excerpted from [17], snowfall is measured as accumulated at ground level in a clearing, and never on an elevated, curved roof): 13
1.30 M 2.074 M 130,000- tonnes 150,000 82 1,100
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Average Toronto snowfall each year Record snow that fell on Toronto in the winter of 1937-38. Salt used on Toronto roads each year. Even before a storm starts, salt trucks are sent out to apply a salt and water “brine” on hills and bridges. $Millions City of Toronto budgets each year for snow clearing and salting. number Pieces of equipment the city uses — it owns 200 — for winter response: 200 salt trucks, 600 ploughs, 300 sidewalk machines. Cm Snow that must accumulate before plowing begins on expressways. On arterial roads, that number is 5 cm, while on side streets, it is 8 cm. $Millions Cost of responding to an average storm
The Union Station, Toronto and its new roof (2016) Coincidentally, readers will be interested to learn that 124 years after the hypothetical date of the Durban folklore, the Union Station is now (written towards the end of 2016) indeed getting a 6580 m2 new roof. (Hopefully this roof will not be said to have been originally designed for Durban, and hopefully this time the roof will be seen to be sound enough to support the Canadian Building Code’s standards for winter loading. On the other hand, it must be said, at first glance the new roof seems well suited to the Natal coastal environment: the flat glass roof seems more apt for a Durban sub-tropical galleria than for Toronto’s heavy sub-arctic snow packs – so perhaps the new roof will sustain the original legend for a few more generations). A 2-minute YouTube video [11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD_1Zz44BS8 entitled Union Station Revitalization - Get on Board! introduces Toronto commuters to the enhancements to Union Station, including the new illuminated roof.
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Figure 11. Union Station new glass roof viewed from the 19 th floor of the Royal York Hotel in Nov 2016. Photo: William James
Figure 11: Union Station, Toronto, 2016 new roof [12].
Figure 12. An interior view of the new rectangular glass roof to Union Station’s old train shed platforms appears to be curved in this 180 degree panorama of two sides. Photo: William James. The whole 5-year project is now estimated to cost CAD$795 million, and is slated for completion this year (2016).
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Figure 12: Architect’s rendering of Union Station, Toronto, 2016 new roof [12]. The whole 5-year project is now estimated to cost CAD$795 million, and is slated for completion this year (2016).
Promoting a historic building. So, is the roof-swap legend being deliberately encouraged in Durban, to stimulate interest in the old building? Websites exist that give advice [13] on how to promote historic relics; among several options, are: add collections and displays; writing and publishing; education; television, radio and podcasts; digital media; host art, live performances and music; host parties and functions; and, I may add: create imaginary monsters and ghosts; or perhaps spread exotic rumours about a snowcapable roof. Sorry, so far as I can determine, there are no related technical records of wrong roofs, nor contemporary reports of railway station roof collapses in Toronto. Still, both structures are intrinsically interesting - it would be rewarding to discover how the myth arose in the first place. Unfortunately, the decay of truth by cut-spin-paste seems to be a scalar process, with a positive slope on the creativity axis. (If it were directional and of variable slope, one could conjure a backto-the-future whispers game, in which the rumour is sent backwards, negatively, through whispers N-i for i = 1, 2, ...N-1, to extend the algorithm, revealing a possible clue to an original “truth” and first deviation. Perhaps a germ of an idea for a sci-fi movie lies here.) Kindly send your comments and suggested next whisper in the evolving legend to: bill@chiwater.com
References and links (good in Nov. 2016). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers Frontispiece, Natal Government Railways Magazine, Vol 1 No 9, Jun 1906. http://railways.haarhoff.co.za/issue/29/ http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionskzn/old-durban-railway-station.php http://www.wheretostay.co.za/topic/3417 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/245657354644046415/ http://cityseeker.com/durban/215069-old-station-building http://www.zulu.org.za/places-to-go/durban-metro/old-station-building-P48081 16
9. https://books.google.ca/books?id=NJ1ZCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA288&lpg=PA288&dq=durban+st ation+roof&source=bl&ots=Z2OD4S0MA3&sig=HweScknogR136t1yqULSfM3IO6A&hl=en& sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ_5K4xojQAhUL0YMKHSgUBJY4ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=d urban%20station%20roof&f=false 10. https://grahamlesliemccallum.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/durbans-railwaystations/comment-page-1/ 11. https://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=2765962c8c3f0410VgnVCM100 00071d60f89RCRD 12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD_1Zz44BS8 13. http://www.azuremagazine.com/article/destination-station-unions-extreme-makeover/ 14. http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/publications/Heritage_Tool_Kit_DHP_Eng.pdf 15. https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-6-1/system-6 16. Derek Boles (2009). Images of rail: Toronto’s Railway Heritage Arcadia publishing, 128pp. 17. http://www.fad.co.za/sample.htm (promo for Allan Jackson’s POD book “Facts about Durban”) 18. http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/snowfall-in-toronto-by-the-numbers 19. Martin, Bruno (2016.10.20 20:59) Personal correspondence. Folder BERRT2014/5/6/7 20. Beaumont, Ralph (2015). Heckman’s Canadian Pacific: a photographic journey. Pub by Credit Valley railway. 328pp. 21. http://www.railwaypages.com/railway-stations-a-gallery 22. KZN Railway History. Chronicle #6 Aug 2006; #7 Mar 2007; #8 Oct 2007) 23. Van Niekerk, Barend (1980). Old Durban Railway station, in Durban at your feet – an alternative guide to a city. Overport Publishers, pp 40-45. 24. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/10-089.htm 25. http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/solutions/advisory/codes_centre/faq/snow_loads.html#Q4 26. http://www.had2know.com/househome/roof-snow-load-calculator.html 27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast_City_Hall
Some old Durban Station and other Natal railway photographs: Hennie Heymans
The “old” station. 17
The new station.
Durban NGR Magazine June 1906 p293
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Once again the “old” station.
c1906: Durban station – note the two African Policemen leaning on the lamppost 19
1924: Durban Station
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Durban Station NGR Magazine 1906 April 245.
NGR Amamzimtoti
Amamzimtoti River Rail Bridge. Note NGR train crossing the river.
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Natal: The Kearsney Light Railway Doing reading on the old Durban Station I came across various articles and interesting snippets of Natal Railway history. In this edition focussing on the old Durban Station it might be fitting to have a look at some of Natal’s old railway history.
Photo by the NGR (NGR Book - Natal Province published by the SAR in 1911: Page 274). Some further research in my archive on the Kearsney Light Railway brought the following to light:
Old Natal Railways: The Stanger to Kearsney Private Railway: Dr. BJT Leverton Old Natal Railways: The Stanger – Kearsney Private Railway, Chapter 2 by Dr. BJT Leverton
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Source: SASSAR, October 1976 p 632 – 633.
NGR: Nel’s Rust
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Photo 1 the dairy. Photo2 dairy products being loaded at Nel’s Rust. (NGR Book - Natal Province published by the SAR in 1911)
NGR: Estcourt -Weenen NG Railway
NGR (NGR Book - Natal Province published by the SAR in 1911). This photo of the NGlocomotive took me back to my schoolboy-days when it featured in my scrapbook. This locomotive was originally featured in the Brandwag-series of SAR Locomotives circa 1959.
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Here is a better photo of the locomotive:
Diagram NG No’s 1 & 2 Here is the official diagram:
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1910 Van Reenen: Reversing Station on the Pass
At Ladysmith the NGR had a branch line from Ladysmith to Harrismith via Van Reenen’s Pass
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Some Natal Government Railway Stations: Nico Moolman NGR Harrismith
NGR Newcastle
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Some NZASM, CSAR & SA Railway Stations in the ZAR, Transvaal: Nico Moolman NZASM: Pretoria: Nico Moolman
Pretoria station in the 1890’s.
Germiston Station
Could be during the CSAR-period? – Hennie Heymans.
Waterval-Boven/ Waterval-Onder 30
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Barberton 1896: Barberton
1896 – Barberton: opening of the station and the line 32
Ladies of the day, on the platform, waiting for the arrival of the train.
At the train – a going away photo. 33
Station Master: Barberton
After NZASM came the IMR followed by the CSAR and finally the SAR was established in 1910. We don’t know if this is a CSAR-uniform worn by the Station Master – Hennie Heymans. 34
Anglo Boer War Ambulance Trains: MC Heunis
1899: ZAR Ambulance Train (Coach No. 4001)
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Somewhere in Natal – Hennie Heymans. 36
At Pretoria – Hennie Heymans.
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Funeral Train: Worcester
Comments by Hennie Heymans: I believe this is either the funeral train of Cecil John Rhodes or the late Pres SJP Kruger. Photo taken while the train stopped at Worcester.
Armoured Train: Nico Moolman
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Nico Moolman sent me this photo of a South African Armoured train. Comments by Hennie Heymans: I have shared this photograph with a few SAR experts and the general consensus is that this is not a British Armoured Train used during the Anglo Boer War but rather a South African Armoured Train used during WW1 and during the rebellion. In my research I have never come across the armoured trains used during the “1922 Red Revolt on the Rand” although a few trains were derailed. If one looks at the engine it could be a Class 7, look at the signal box, looks at the signals and look at the coal stage, they are of a more modern design and look at the many tracks. Any comments welcome.
Rangeerwerf: Dr. Dawid Lotter Rangeerwerf ʼn Gedig oor soldate lief en leed vloei uit die graffiti op my brein se mure en as ek dit verbreed dan sien ʼn leser net venyn en omskep alles in ʼn politieke trein Waar al sy feite waar is maar in die rangeerwerf word interpretasie geterg met die lokomotief in die middel die kondukteur vasgegrendel in sameswering teorie of geloofseuforie En lees dan mis en gis in ʼn geseëlde nis oor niks ©Dawid Lotter.
Ladysmith: Natal: ʼn Soldaat beskou die rangeerwerk aldaar: Tony Savides Snaaks hoe een ding ʼn mens laat terugdink na iets heel anders: In die 1960s was die rangeerterrein by Danskraal, Ladysmith die grootste in Suider-Afrika, met die moontlike uitsondering van Germiston. Danskraal was waar die spoortrajekte vanaf en na die OVS en die Transvaal bymekaar gekom het op pad Durban toe en weer geskei het vanaf Durban na die binneland. Richardsbaai het toe nog nie ʼn hawe gehad nie en die hoeveelheid treine wat deur Danskraal beweeg het was enorm. Toe daar een jaar (moes omtrent 1964 of 1965 gewees het) hewige sneeu in die omgewing geval het, het die hele trajek tot stilstand gekom weens die feit dat die telefoon/telegraaf kabels (waarmee kontak met die treine behou was om effektiewe beheer en beweging te verseker) beskadig was; met die gevolg dat daar groot gevaar was van treine wat in mekaar kon vasry - wat nog van vertragings en ophoping van treinverkeer. 39
Ek was toe by 5 SAI Bataljon te Ladysmith gestasioneer en die eenheid het al wat ʼn voertuig met ʼn radio was gemobiliseer om treine te gaan opspoor en om dmv ons “beheernet” die trajek darem aan die loop te hou. Hieroor is daar baie stories te vertel maar ons los dit daarby. Wat Dawid Lotter se gedig my eintlik aan herinner is Theuns Meyer. Theuns was op daardie stadium ʼn hoofrangeerder by Danskraal en sy huis was langs my skoonfamilie s’n (wel, op daardie stadium, nog nie my skoonfamilie nie maar my meisie s’n). Die huise was so 10 minute per fiets of 5 minute per motor vanaf Theuns se werksplek op die rangeerwerf. Een van die hooftake van die rangeerders was om enkele treintrokke wat op sekere treine was te ontkoppel en dan aan ander treine te koppel wat elders heen op pad was – en dit was nie so eenvoudig soos alles gaan Durban, Bloemfontein of Johannesburg toe nie. Aikona, êrens op die rit verder moes die trokke afgehaak en dan na sylyne of op “sytrajekte” gestuur word. Ek onthou nie meer die detail van die “rangeerspreek” nie, maar dit was iets soos: “Haak 156 van trein nommer ABC af en haak dit aan EFG tussen 213 en 456; hou 187 oor tot môre se XYZ op sylyn ....” ens, ens. Theuns, as hoofrangeerder moes kophou soos die spreekwoordelike verkleurmannetjie op ʼn boks Smarties en moes hy al hierdie informasie in sy kop hou en verwerk; want dit was die 1960s – geen smartphones of rekenaars nie en beslis geen video nie! Theuns was ʼn gewone Boereseun en ʼn “eenvoudige rangeerder” maar met ʼn rekenaar in sy brein wat skrik vir niks. Hoekom Theuns se vermoëns my so beïndruk het, was nie net dat hy in staat was om al hierdie trein- en troknommers en allerlei syfers, en die uitleg van die rangeerterrein in sy kop te hou en verwerk nie; maar dat hy elke nou en dan terwyl op nagskof, huis toe geglip het om gou ʼn koffie en ʼn broodjie te geniet – en dan rangeer hy die treine uit sy sitkamer uit – koffiebeker in die een hand, radio in die ander (die SAS&H het darem in daardie dae al radio’s gehad) en toebie in die mond! As ek dit nie self gesien het nie, sou ek dit ook nie geglo het nie. Terug na Dawid se “Rangeerwerf” en ʼn les uit Theuns Meyer se verhaal: mens hoef nie binne in jou eie rangeerwerf vasverstrengel te wees om jou probleme op te los nie; soms is dit beter om maar ʼn entjie weg te beweeg en rustig (spreekwoordelike koffie in die hand) sake half van buite af te orden. Maar, soos wat Theuns sy werk deeglik verstaan het, die omgewing (rangeerterrein) goed geken het, en met vertroue die saak kon aanpak, moet elke “rangeerder” ook sy of haar eie rangeerterrein baie goed ken.
Greetings Greetings from Hennie Heymans
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