SA’s first public rail infrastructure

It has been established that South Africa’s first rail-esque infrastructure was a 1.6-km-long oxen-operated wooden line, which was laid along Durban’s Bluff in 1856 to facilitate the conveyance of quarried sandstone for the construction of the harbour’s North Pier. However, the country did not have to wait too long thereafter for the commissioning of the first proper railway built of steel and operated by steam locomotive.

While it would be perfectly understandable to guess that South Africa’s first proper rail line was built in Cape Town, given that the Cape colony had the most advanced economy and infrastructure of all the colonised Southern African territories in the mid-nineteenth century, the truth is that Durban boasts the honour of commissioning not only Southern Africa’s but also sub-Saharan Africa’s first revenue- earning rail infrastructure. That railway, a 3-km-long line linking the Point at the harbour with Durban’s old Market Square, was officially opened 156 years ago – on June 26, 1860. (It should be pointed out, however, that, while Durban may have commissioned the first railway line, it was actually the Cape colony that first started constructing steel rail infrastructure. The first sod for the Cape colony’s 72-km-long railway line, linking Cape Town with the pastoral village of Wellington, was turned in early 1859. However, a number of challenges hampered that project to the extent that the initial section, which reached as far as Eerste Rivier, officially opened only on February 13, 1862.)

It is remarkable that Durban should hold the distinction of operating the first steam railway, given that, by 1860, it was still very much a fledgling colonial village, with a small population and a limited economy. A population census undertaken in 1863 revealed that Durban’s inhabitants numbered just 4 313, including 1 593 Zulus and 153 Indians. More to the point, in 1860, its economy was mostly limited to service industries like blacksmithing, carpentry, wagon building, transport riding and inn-keeping. While the foundations of KwaZulu-Natal’s great sugar cane industry had, by that stage, been planted, only 8 000 t of sugar was produced in 1860 and it was only two years later that it became the colony’s principal export.

Given this context, what could have prompted the Natal government to undertake such an expensive and pioneering initiative as the construction of a public steam railway?

Perhaps the most influential factor was that, in 1859, the harbour acquired its first steam tug, aptly named The Pioneer, to assist in the conveyance of vessels and goods in and around the lagoon. It was believed that the tug would obviate a delay of vessels anchored in the lagoon and allow for a significant increase in the volume of traffic in and out of the harbour. This would, naturally, result in an increase in both import and export tonnage, and the colony’s government realised that it would need to facilitate the conveyance of these goods to and from the town’s Market Square, which was, at the time, Durban’s main trading centre.

Thus, in early 1859, a special Act of the Natal legislature made provision for the incorporation of a company, with a capital of £10 000, to build and manage a railway that could both assist with logistics at the harbour and stimulate the town’s fledgling economy. The prospectus of the new Natal Railway Company, which was published on January 31, 1859, boldly stated that there would not be a single member of the community who would not “benefit either directly or indirectly by the opening up of railway communication in Natal, of which [the Durban–Point line] is but the forerunner”.

By the time it had been incorporated, the Natal Railway Company’s new manager and chief civil engineer, Albert Robinson, had already surveyed the land and completed the plans for the proposed line. From the new wharf at the Point, it followed what was then Kearsney road, across Smith and West streets, and terminated at a point opposite St Paul’s Church on what is now Monty Naicker road.

By August 1859, all the earthworks had been completed but the project was put on hold, owing to a dispute about where the town terminus should be erected. Although the dispute was resolved within a few months, such was the nature of the bureaucratic red tape that Robinson resigned out of frustration and was replaced by another British civil engineer, Edmund Tatham, who completed the project.

It was only in November that the actual line began to be laid. The track consisted of iron rails that ran over cast iron sleepers. Each sleeper consisted of two round ‘pot’ castings held apart by a spacer bar. The rails fitted into saddles on top of the pots and were secured tightly by oak wedges. Given that South Africa had yet to even start mining coal, let alone manufacturing steel, all the material required for the railway line was imported from England. (The locomotive used for this line was also imported from England; this will be elaborated on in the next instalment of this column.)

It took about six months for the 3-km-long line to be laid and, by June of the following year, it was commissioned.

Given the growth of Natal’s economy over the next few years, especially the agriculture sector beyond Durban’s borders, it was deemed necessary to extend the Point–Durban line a further 7 km to the Umgeni river in 1866. However, no sooner had that extension been completed in January 1877 than a new upgrade – converting the line to a more standard gauge – was undertaken. This upgrade was aimed at creating a consistent rail track throughout the colony so that Durban could not only be linked with the rapidly growing farming and coal mining villages of Natal but also provide more convenient access to the newly discovered diamond and gold mines in South Africa’s hinterland.

The original track was used for the last time on May 11, 1878, before being stripped and upgraded. Interestingly, the upgraded Point–Durban rail track continued to be used for another half century before rising road traffic pressures at street crossings compelled its closure. The last train to use South Africa’s most historic track ran on May 2, 1936.