R

AILWAYS

CHAPTER XXV

HE first record of any railroad in South Africa was in the year 1860 when a small line was constructed at Durban, otherwise Port Natal, and it was certainly a fitting place as a birthplace of any great scheme. The first line was commenced at the wharf, more commonly known as the Point, and in length two miles, terminating at the town of Durban. It was a very modest joint-stock affair, and not till 1874 was it extended, and then only to the Umgeni River, four miles from Durban.

Two years later when the Government decided upon the construction of a scheme of colonial railways, this small concern was purchased for £40.000 and became the basis of the Natal Railway system.

The gauge of the original railway was 4 ft. 8A in., but it was decided to adopt a 3 ft. 6 in. gauge for the Natal Government, and the gauge of the old joint-stock line was altered to harmonize with what has now become the standard gauge of the South African Railways, which at the present time have an open mileage of approximately 8,000 miles of single 3 ft. 6 in. track.

NATAL GETS THE LION'S SHARE.—From the earliest days of the Rand up to the year 1892. the Natal railways conveyed the lion's share of the Transvaal trade, which was transhipped at the terminus to the slow and cumbersome ox-wagon. But in that year the Cape Colony obtained direct rail entry into Johannesburg—the result was obvious. Practically the whole of this valuable traffic was diverted, resulting in a fall of 20 per cent. in the Natal Railway receipts.

531