Compiled by Peter Micenko ©

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, Charlie Lewis, Bruno Martin, Michael Carter, Peter Stow and Peter Micenko.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKYOUS 

A special THANK YOU is extended to:

● Yolanda Meyer of the Transnet Heritage Library (and now retired), who generously assisted in retrieving and providing me with background information under trying environmental circumstances, from the THF collection, most notably the Natal Government Railways Magazines, the South African Railways Magazines, and the DRISA and Haarhoff collections.

● Transnet Heritage Library

● William Goosen, a colleague and a longstanding Professional Railway Engineer, whose family had farmed in the Eastern Free State for generations, was able to assist with references and background information on the early history of the area, notably the “Conquered Territory” through which the railways described in this chapter later ran.

● Jamie Hart and Michael Carter for their courage in attempting to create a Bethlehem Steam Railway, and some of the business case history of their early efforts in this direction. An endeavour that had the potential to create one of the world's leaders in railway and African tourism, which is briefly described later in this chapter. 

 ●  Les Pivnic, for various documents in his collection.

 ●  Bruno Martin, for going the extra mile with technical and computing assistance in preparing this chapter of Soul of a Railway and particularly for his cartographic skills.

●  Peter Stow and Douglas Capewell for their very detailed photo captions on operations, allocations, and rolling stock.

Photographic credits:  Nathan Berelowitz; William Botkin; Douglas Capewell; A.E. (Dusty) Durrant via Jean due Lez collection; Warwick Falconer; Dave Fleming; Allen Jorgensen via Dick Manton collection; Dick Manton; Bertram Lewis via Charlie Lewis; Charlie Lewis; Justin Lewis; Bruno Martin; Paul McDonald; Peter Micenko; Glen Mills; Dennis Mitchell; Harold Nave and Alfred Luft via C.P.Lewis collection; Thomas R. Schultz, Donald Taggart, Martin Smith; Peter Stow; Andy Sturt; Graham Watkins.

One of the observations made by this author during the compilation of this chapter is the loss of personal historical knowledge that, with the passage of time, continues to occur at an accelerating rate. Many references to the more common public Wikipedia references have been made as initiators of further research.

Great help was found in various documents in the Transnet Heritage Library, notably:-

●    The Haarhoff Collection and

 ●    The DRISA collection of SAR &H and NGR magazines of the time,

Hansard, particularly those of the 1860s, with reference to the Orange River de-annexation by the United Kingdom.

Several personal extracts from individuals relating to their experiences as train staff working the lines.

A paper by Walter Peters and J.L. DuPreez entitled “The 'Wall of flesh' of the Conquered Territory: farmhouses and towns established in defence of the eastern boundary of the Orange Free State”. Department of Architecture of the University of Free State, Bloemfontein, 2014. ISSN 0258-3542

Apologies to anyone I should have thanked for their assistance, but whom I have overlooked.

Overview of this Chapter

The railways through the Eastern Free State have interesting histories. This is not only from a purely railway engineering and operational aspect, but also their part in the region’s history, geography, economy, and social picture as this region developed through the decades and centuries to become part of one of the world's leaders in Class 1 railways.

For this reason, this chapter has been subdivided as follows into smaller “mouthfuls” to eat the “elephant”.

1.   Introduction to the railway and beginning of a network, and a Broad historical overview of the eastern Free State area

2.   Bloemfontein eastwards to Thaba Nchu-The inner and outer suburban train service

3.   The branches to Maseru and Ladybrand

4.   Bloemfontein to Modderpoort as a through route to Natal.

5.   Bloemfontein to Aliwal North 

6.   “Die Bittereindes” (The bitter-enders). The ones from the line that survived the end of steam. (1993) into a form of preservation and an early “Where are they now? “

1. Introduction and setting the scene

It is relevant to provide some historical context regarding the significant events leading up to the construction of the Bloemfontein to Modderpoort railway. Railways, like all businesses, only exist where an economic need exists for the movement of significant quantities of goods and people.

The Orange Free State is a tableland of approximately 50 000 square miles (125 000 square kilometres), which is broken only by low ranges of hills. It is typically located at an elevation of 4 500 feet (1 350 m) above sea level and is bordered in the north by the Vaal River and in the south by the Caledon and Orange Rivers. These rivers rise in the eastern escarpment of Southern Africa (typically 10 000 feet or 3 000 metres) and flow westwards to the Atlantic Ocean. This forms the main drainage of the region, with watercourses draining westwards from the Drakensberg Mountains, also known as the ‘Barrier of Spears’, resulting in the ‘Free State’ having approximately 30 per cent of the agriculturally productive land in South Africa.

This Chapter of ‘Soul of a Railway’ could well be titled ‘Rails through the Conquered Territory’ or ‘The start of a National Railway Network’. Both would be appropriate! The reasons are that the 19th century established commercial needs based on the geography and history of the former, and as such, developed into the initiator of railway development in the latter. Until the late 1880s, railways in Southern Africa had essentially followed the ‘Penetration’ model as a commercial resource to tap the previous three centuries of exploratory, cultural, migratory, agricultural, and industrial development.

Although South Africa is currently quite populated, with approximately 65 million people, it was not always so. Certainly, when railways were becoming a necessity in Europe and North America, the population in Southern Africa, particularly in the ‘Free State’ area, was several orders of magnitude lower.

At the time the Portuguese navigators rounded the ‘Cape’ and later European settlement occurred in the Cape Town area, the population of the interior was very sparse, consisting mainly of nomadic ‘Koi’ and ‘Bushmen’ peoples. These ‘Koi’ and ‘Bushmen’ peoples were the original and main population at the time. The ‘Bantu’ migration from the north had only just reached the region south of the Zambesi, and as these various peoples from the north grew in numbers and consolidated in some areas, the more aggressive groups launched attacks known as the ‘Mfecane’ and associated ‘Difaqane’. This resulted in a large depopulation of the area west of the Drakensberg. Additionally, some groups fled and managed to repel these marauders in the mountains, taking a defensive position at Thaba Bosin under their leader, Moeshoeshoe, to form a global rarity: a kingdom completely surrounded by another country yet independent of it. This was Basutoland, later named Lesotho. Later, this would trigger one of the many reasons for the railway in the eastern Free State.

In parallel and independent of these events, exploration from the south by Europeans, mainly of Dutch origin, resulted in the northward migration of Europeans from the Cape.   First, they settled and farmed, and then the British annexed the region north of the Orange River without having settled there.  This created a period of ‘stability’ and farming in a largely ‘depopulated’ region, but not without conflicts.

The British government, after several disastrous wars against the Basuto people in 1851, 1852, and 1853, sought to extricate itself from the responsibility of the ‘Orange River Sovereignty’. On 23 February 1854, the area became known as the Orange Free State. Independence was achieved for the Boer Republic without solicitation. In addition, by default, the Republic also inherited the border problem.

Subsequently, the OFS government engaged in a series of battles over the disputed territory between 1858 and 1866 between the Basuto people and the Republic’s General Fick in the north and Commandant Wepener in the south. This resulted in the ceding of territory east of the ‘Warden Line’ by Moeshoeshoe in terms of a treaty of Thaba Bosiu on 3 April 1866. This ‘settled’ the border between OFS and Basutoland as the Caledon River and created the ‘Conquered Territory’ despite the vanquished Basuto refusing to vacate the area. 

After winning the last of three wars in the 1860s against the Basuto, the OFS Government passed the Occupation Act (Occupasiewet) of 1866, which required, as a prerequisite for peace and order in the area, the settlement of the ‘Conquered Territory’. The ‘wall of flesh’ of the ‘Conquered Territory’ resulted in farmhouses and towns being established in defence of the eastern boundary of the Orange Free State. Three such towns were established, notably Ficksburg, Ladybrand, and Wepener. In addition to three parallel rows of farms. Included was a need to provide improved transport links to Bloemfontein. The establishment of the three defensive towns of Ficksburg in the north, Ladybrand in the centre, and Wepener in the south led to increased farming activity and trade with Basutoland (now Lesotho). These, in turn, created the driver for rail-based transportation to move people and products to and from the farms and towns.

The OFS and its culturally close neighbour, north of the Vaal River, had an alliance of sorts, but transport connections were mainly southwards from Bloemfontein. The OFS, despite being a Boer Republic, tended to maintain English as the business ‘lingua franca’, mainly due to its strong associations with the Cape markets for agricultural produce, notably wool.

As the world entered the last decade of the 1800s, and the Cape Government had reached Aliwal North from East London, talks in the OFS were held regarding the need to connect Bloemfontein to Aliwal North, and hence, the sea. The dual triggers of firstly the discovery of diamonds in the Kimberley area and later, gold on the Witwatersrand prompted the Cape Government Railways (CGR) to review this proposal and a shorter link via Springfontein was constructed. This is the cheaper option due to its shorter construction route, and ultimately, the gold fields are accessed by extending from Bloemfontein northwards via Kroonstad to Vereeniging. Good to access the mining activity in Kimberley and Johannesburg, but still not a direct link from Bloemfontein to the sea.

The late 1800s saw continual representation by business interests in Bloemfontein to provide a link to the sea. The CGR was the main railway financier, constructor and operator, with the OFS only building a couple of minor branch lines. In 1896, Engineers indicated that it would be possible to link Bloemfontein with a direct route to the port at Durban via Modderpoort, Bethlehem and Harrismith after the Natal Government constructed a branch line from Ladysmith to Harrismith in 1892.

Planning was well advanced to construct a railway eastwards from Bloemfontein to Thaba Nchu when the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) interrupted the planned development of railways. For strategic reasons, the Imperial Military Railways (IMR) completed this line as far as ‘Waterworks’ in the vicinity of the farm Sannah’s Post (later abbreviated to Sannaspos).

After the cessation of hostilities and to cement the Boer Republics and English Colonies into a new Nation, circa 1904, the Intercolonial Council at Conference (ICC) in Bloemfontein developed a scheme for railway expansion in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. The ICC approved the proposed seven new lines, notably Bethlehem to Kroonstad, Bethlehem to Modderpoort, Aliwal North to Wepener, Modderpoort to Ladybrand, and Bloemfontein to Kimberley, as well as Pretoria to Rustenburg and Krugersdorp to Mafeking. These last two lines are outside the scope of this chapter. The railway organisations of both English Colonies, Natal and Cape, under agreement with the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, undertook extensions of their services to tap the produce of the ‘Free State’. The Cape and Natal Governments planned to build a program of lines, which included linking Aliwal North, Maseru, and Ladybrand with Bloemfontein.

The Natal Government Railways to construct and operate Bethlehem–Kroonstad and Bethlehem-Modderpoort, and the Cape Government to build and operate Aliwal North to Wepener.

The Central South African Railways (CSAR), being the successor to the IMR, completed the line to Thaba Nchu, which opened on 22 March 1903. It was later extended to Modderpoort, which was opened to traffic on 8 July 1903.  The Modderpoort to Bethlehem extension was completed on 2 July 1907, just after the Bethlehem to Kroonstad and Harrismith links were completed.

With the Inter-Colonial Councils' proposed lines, it is interesting to read a progress report in the November 1905 edition of the Natal Government Railways Magazine. I quote ‘As we have said, a comparison of the railway situation 12 months ago and now reveals but little alteration. The large schemes to which Natal had put her hand, she has, with characteristic promptness, pushed forward towards realisation, and orders for plant and material to a considerable value for the Bethlehem to Kroonstad and Bethlehem to Modderpoort lines have been placed with British manufacturers. The Bloemfontein to Kimberley line is now in a forward position, the Legislative Council of the Orange River Colony having, within the past few weeks, undertaken the responsibility for its construction at a cost of 4 Million Pounds, thereby not only providing Oranje with an important market but bridging one of the worst gaps in the main trunk system. The Cape Government, on the other hand, have been unable to carry out their share of last year’s programme, their Aliwal North to Wepener scheme having been recently rejected by the Legislative Council on the grounds that the Cape Colony’s own districts should be developed before any over-border work.’

1.1 Effect of Population on Railway Development in the Eastern Free State

If one looks at figures available, one sees that the population of the area in the mid-1800s was still quite low, being of the order of roughly 100 000 persons in total.

A census taken in 1880 found Europeans made up approximately 45% of the total population. What is particularly relevant is that the order of magnitude of the total population was very low, both in terms of density and numerically. This has been so for quite many decades in the early to mid-1800s.

Comparable figures for Natal from the Natal Government Railways Magazine of October 1905 put the population of Natal in 1884 as 31 912 Europeans in a total population for Natal of 97 100, and in 1904 as 418 781 Europeans of Natal’s total population of 1 108 754 persons.

Comparable figures for Natal from the Natal Government Railways Magazine of October 1905 put the population of Natal in 1884 as 31 912 Europeans in a total population for Natal of 97 100, and in 1904 as 418 781 Europeans of Natal’s total population of 1 108 754 persons.

With primary and secondary business (Agriculture and ‘Industrialisation’) economies being the main drivers for potential railway development, the above tables illustrate the low population densities and numbers. The region having moved from the original subsistence of the early settlers to that of an agricultural product exporter and an importer of more complex goods, with the balance favouring the former. The last table above shows the main reason for the relatively slow development of railways in Southern Africa compared to more industrialised areas of the world. Basically, the population could be accommodated by other means.

Stability in the ‘Conquered Territory’ led to increased settlement and increased agricultural production, which needed transport to market. When overland volumes and hence cost became noticeably greater from the late 1870s, representation by Bloemfontein and the agricultural interests in the eastern Free State to provide rail transport increased. Populations were still sparse, but the need was driven by the long distances and hence time and cost to transport goods and people from farm to market and consumers, mainly in the Cape, i.e. Wool, but Natal was closer. Plans were drawn up to progress a railway from Bloemfontein to Natal to meet the Natal Government Railways (NGR) line from Ladysmith to Harrismith after the cessation of the Anglo-Boer War hostilities, there were multiple triggers to railway expansion.

1.2. Effect of Topography and Climate on Railway Development of the Eastern Free State.

The topography and climate were very conducive to agriculture. The most fertile lands were along the rivers and streams, and mainly the eastern area of the ‘Free State’. At the time of the ‘Trekboere’, the area was very sparsely populated, and as agricultural migrations from the south continued, the population increased, and the region increased in production in a natural move from subsistence agriculture to marketing of produce from farms to towns and the coastal areas to the south. The steep, fast, but intermittent flowing streams of the area caused by the topography and climate meant that overland transport was impractical by water-based means. 

TABLE OF OPERATING COSTS OF CERTAIN BRANCH LINES

MARCH 1923

This table is included to show the relative impacts of the branch lines in this Chapter and how these fed into the Bloemfontein to Natal railways.

Extracted from the SAR&H Magazine for August 1923.

To visualise the relativity of operational productivity, some figures from the 1922/23 financial year would be of interest. As a benchmark in 1923, despite there being poor economic performances in the first half of the year, the Free State and Transvaal Coal Mines were producing 140 000 tons of coal per week, generating GBP 44 377 of railway transport revenue against GBP 92 171 of total goods and revenue on the entire network per week.  However, modern transport economics has shown that customers want transport from door, farm or workplace to consumers’ doors, ports, or workplace, and trans-shipping cost is one that one tries to avoid.

The important aspect of the above table is that despite their ‘accounting’ loss, they show that branch lines are important feeders to core routes, without which both fail. Bruno’s map shows this in the progressive deterioration of network coverage when branch lines are closed or downsized under the guise of ‘uneconomic’ and the bridge routes lose the branch line tonnage and so start to fail, as transporters avoid trans-ship costs, ‘The Death Spiral’. The chapter on the Maseru branch will show the beneficial impact that one can see from its large number of Private Sidings Maseru has compared to those of Modderpoort and Ladybrand.

1.3 Description of the Route

Small-scale section of the Bloemfontein to Modderpoort Railway

The direct route of any railway from Bloemfontein to the port of Natal, although slightly north of due east ‘as the crow flies’, has not only to negotiate the Drakensberg Mountains but also to circumnavigate the vast and deep Orange River valley. A completely new railway in a direct line would also the need to traverse another country. By keeping to the ‘Conquered Territory’ and junctions into the NGR line from Durban via Ladysmith to Harrismith, the line would serve the development of the farms in the eastern Free State, and the railway would remain in South African territory, which had political as well as construction cost benefits.

The interim goal being the Bloemfontein city’s waterworks on the Modder River and then the farming concerns around Thaba Nchu.  The line commences at Bloemfontein at an elevation of 1392 m and progresses slightly south of due west through easy country to Lynchfield at 1399 m and Melorane at 1410 m. Roughly following the course of the valley of the Modder River’s course, but at a higher elevation to make crossing north-flowing streams closer to their headwaters and hence less onerous and with quite easy gradients, having only gained 28 m of elevation after 19 km. The line then climbs more steeply to Vercoe, gaining 69 m of elevation in 6 km.  Crossing the ridge between the Renosterspruit and the Meiliespruit before losing 85 m of elevation to Waterworks (Sannaspos) after 8 km. The terrain dictated a large horseshoe to the south and back to Waterworks to cross streams more closely to their headwaters. Later, when earthmoving machinery was more readily available, the line was straightened.

Departing Waterworks, the line crosses the Modder River on a three-span through-truss iron Bridge, having climbed a small ridge and then descended a further 45 m to Likathong, after which the line follows a watershed between north-flowing rivers, ultimately part of the Vet and Vaal watershed complex and the south-flowing streams that feed into the Caledon River. This is the pattern of the route further to Modderpoort. Following approximately along a ‘water shed’, the route takes in the towns of Sepane at 1395 m elevation and Thaba Nchu, 102 m higher at 1498 m and 60 km from Bloemfontein, having passed the large lands of Botshabelo. Thaba Nchu was one of the interim goals during the planning stages of Bloemfontein’s route to the port of Natal in the late 19th century.

From Thaba Nchu, the line climbs another 77 m in 15 km to Waghorn and Tweespruit, a further 121 m higher. The line then crosses a small watershed of the Mansvretersberg. (Afrikaans place names can be quite descriptive in themselves, and one wonders about the possible hardships faced by the early ‘Trek Boere’ crossing unsettled areas largely depopulated during the ‘Mfecane’). From the ‘watershed’ at Halkyn, the line rises a further 36 m to Westminster before undulating and gaining only 4 m elevation by Marseilles. One last ridge is crossed before Modderpoort is reached, requiring a climb of 103 m to pass through Hoogfontein at 1712 m, before dropping down to Modderpoort at 1595 m. In their journey, trains have progressively gained elevation from Bloemfontein, running along a minor watershed as they have, while maintaining the most direct route commensurate with minimising earthworks and bridges.

2. Bloemfontein eastwards to Thaba Nchu-The inner and outer suburban services

‘All stations to Thaba Nchu’

2.1 Introduction

This subchapter covers the Bloemfontein eastwards suburban railways as an introduction, both historically and geographically, as the railways expanded eastwards to serve the ‘Conquered Territory’ and its surrounds.

The initial ideal for the populace of Bloemfontein was to link by rail their city with the agriculturally productive areas to the east, to provide a more productive transport medium and allow farming to expand and be supported, later encompassed in the desire to link Bloemfontein with a more direct route to the sea. The first stage of such a railway would be eastwards from Bloemfontein to Thaba Nchu. Unfortunately, the second Anglo Boer War intervened and although approval was given in the 1890s, no construction took place until late in the conflict when for strategic reasons the Imperial Military Railway (IMR) which had taken over the assets and operations of the railways of the Free State and the Transvaal, built a line to Bloemfontein’s Water Works to secure and protect those strategic assets.   Later, this station was renamed Sannaspos. (After a local farm, ‘Sannah’s Post’). With time, this led to the expansion of the rail to Modderpoort and then Natal.

Later, passenger traffic became such that a Bloemfontein suburban service was developed and ultimately led to full-size passenger trains often double-headed until surpassed by buses.

Meanwhile, the city of Bloemfontein kept expanding, and with time, public transport (railways) was needed for the surrounding population. To the east, there was a relatively busy inner suburban link to Melorane (19 km from Bloemfontein), with 16 return workings to Lynchfield (13 km from Bloemfontein), five of which continued on to Melorane on weekdays and less frequent services on weekends. 

There was also a less frequent but more heavily patronised outer suburban service to Thaba Nchu (60km), which more often than not sported double-headed trains to collect and return Bloemfontein’s work force to their homes in Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu.

Extract of the 1952 public timetable as a typical timetable for the Melorane ‘suburban’ service. The included Bloemfontein to De Bloem service appears to be a convenient extension of the Melorane services.

Above is an extract of the Bloemfontein to Ladysmith passenger time table which has been included to show the services to Ladybrand and Thaba Nchu.