The South Western Railway Co. Ltd., Also called Knysna Forest Railway, was a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

forest railway A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felling, felled logs to sawmills or railway stations. In most cases th ...

in the southern

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The line connected the port of

Knysna Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47 ...

with sawmills in the Tsitsikamma Forest and had a length of 31 kilometers. The railway was in operation between 1907 and 1949.

History

In the late 19th Century, during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

transport with the help of mules and oxen reached its capacity limit, as many mules and their drivers had been drafted into military service. The 1898 replacing attempt using a

steam tractor :''This article refers to the steam-powered agricultural tractor; for other types of steam tractor, see: Traction engine'' A steam tractor is a vehicle powered by a steam engine which is used for pulling. In North America, the term ''steam ...

failed because the machine sank in the muddy roads. For this reason it was decided to build a railway. The Government and the

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...

supported the project because the wood of the region was used, among other things, for the production of railway

sleepers ''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin H ...

. Also a connection to

Avontuur Avontuur is a town situated in the Garden Route District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The town is located 13km south-east of Uniondale on an intersection of the R339 and R62 regional routes. History The name is A ...

, the terminus of the narrow gauge

Avontuur Railway The Avontuur Railway is a closed railway line between Port Elizabeth and the town of Avontuur in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. It is the longest narrow gauge route in the world at a length of . "Avontuur" is the Afrika ...

to Port Elizabeth was considered, and although only 31 km apart, no money was provided for it at this time. The project was also not pursued because the Tsitsikamma Mountains would have made a connection very time-consuming. The construction of the line lasted from 1904 to 1907. It was completed 20 years before the Cape gauge route from

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

reached Knysna, until then it was completely isolated from the rest of South Africa's rail network.

Railway description

The 31-kilometer rail line from Knysna on the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

climbed to about 430 meters above sea level at the terminus in Deep Walls, and the trip took about four hours to complete, where speeds of 10 km/h were rarely exceeded. On the route, there were three railway stations: Bracken Hill Park Station and Temple Mans. Bracken Hill and Temple Mans sawmills were located in Parkes, a small settlement. Deep Walls was not much more than a clearing in the forest, which served as a rallying point for the wood that was cut in the area. The railways transported not only raw and already processed wood from the sawmills, but to a lesser extent durable goods for the sawmills and settlements, and even passengers. However, there were no passenger trains, but only a single roofed passenger car that was accompanying the freight trains.

Profitability

By 1911, the railway was able to keep financially afloat with difficulty. Revenue ranged from just to pay the interest, salaries and vehicle maintenance. But then, less than 50 meters away from the railway line, lignite deposits were discovered. The hope not just burn the coal in the locomotives, but also to sell on the market, faded within a few months, because the deposits proved to be too small for profitable exploitation. In the already difficult years of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1916 the railway suffered substantial

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

damage after heavy rains and several bridges were damaged or destroyed. However, the damage was already repaired a month later, and the entire line was back in operation. In 1919 the first small profit dividends were paid to the owners. In the same year, however, a factory for railway

was moved from Knysna to

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...

. This eliminated not only the transport of the finished sleepers itself, but also the transport of

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

used for the impregnation of the sleepers.

Decline and closure

In the mid-1920s the South Western Railway helped constructing an embankment for the new cape gauge railway line to George. When the

South African Railways Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people ...

(SAR) reached Knysna in 1927, the port lost most of its importance, together with the South Western Railway. On the other hand, there was hope that the SAR would take over the narrow gauge railway, which quickly dashed because the SAR considered the narrow gauge lines as obsolete. However, the forest railway could continue to work, sometimes on the verge of financial collapse, and lost more and more customers due to the emerging of competition from road trucks . In 1934, for first time since 1911, another locomotive was purchased, a second hand locomotive of the SAR NG3 class. 1944, a commission of the SAR after came to the conclusion that the heavily corroded rails were no longer suitable for safe operations and recommended the closure of the railway. Because of the shortage of motor vehicles after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

however, new rails were laid again, procured from

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

. This work was completed until 1946 and would have allowed operation of the railway for the next 20 years. In 1947 there was the only serious accident on the railway, when a child lost a hand during a collision. This case contributed to the suspension of operations on 7 November 1947, the last train drove on 30 April 1949. Then the track was completely lifted within the next year. One of the four locomotives survived as an industrial locomotive in

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

, the rest of the

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

was sold as scrap. Today, only few traces remind of the railway, for example on a quayside in Knysna.

Locomotives

The South Western Railway had a total of four

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

. The machines were fitted with

spark arrestor A spark arrester (sometimes spark arrestor) is any device which prevents the emission of flammable debris from combustion sources, such as internal combustion engines, fireplaces, and wood burning stoves. Spark arresters play a critical role in ...

s on the chimneys, for the prevention of

forest fires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

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Orenstein & Koppel Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major Germany, German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876 in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel. ...

, , B1' n2t , , Wood fired , - , 2 , , 1907 , , Orenstein & Koppel , , C1' n2t , , Wood fired , - , 3 , , 1911 , , Orenstein & Koppel , , D n2t , , Wood fired , - , 4 , , 1934 , ,

Hawthorn Leslie and Company R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was formed ...

, , 2'C1' n2t , , Ex-SAR NG 3 Nr. 4, 1907 Mainly

flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...

s for long timber and

open wagon Open wagons (trucks in the UK) form a large group of railway goods wagons designed primarily for the transportation of bulk goods that are not moisture-retentive and can usually be tipped, dumped or shovelled. The International Union of Ra ...

s were used, there was also a passenger vehicle.

External links