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 and Peter Micenko.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS

A special THANK YOU is extended to:

 o     Yolanda Meyer of Transnet Heritage Library. As Soul of a Railway progresses, a common observation I am noticing is the loss of personal historical knowledge. And that, with the passage of time, continues to occur at an accelerating rate.

o   In this regard, it must be appreciated the knowledge that is stored in various documents in the Transnet Heritage Library notably:-

§  the Hardhoff Collection and

§  the DRISA collection of SAR & H and NGR magazines of the time.

o       Peter Wood, whose father, G. D. WOOD, was a retired Inspecting Engineer (civil) SAR, provided the attached articles, which I have taken the liberty of attaching in full to this chapter of Soul of a Railway. Mr Wood's articles were compiled with and through the appreciated assistance of the following:-

o   Keith Gardiner, for editing Mr. G.D. Wood's original article and the photos courtesy of Glynis Cox Millet-Clay.

o   Notes compiled by George Mills, Benoni, after interview with GD Wood on 1/03/1994

         o   Les Pivnic; for various documents in his collection.

  o Bruno Martin, for technical and computing assistance in preparing this chapter of Soul of a Railway and particularly for his cartographic skills.

 o  The Facebook site "Benoni's History – Now & Then".

Photographic credits: 

Transnet Heritage Library - via Yolanda Meyer, Dave Parsons, Leith Paxton, Phil Braithwaite, 'The Star' newspaper, Peter Wood

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

INTRODUCTION

The railways in South Africa were not "fit and forget" and reflect the continual upgrading that took place to facilitate the betterments that all South Africans subsequently enjoyed (some to a lesser extent) as the Nation progressed through the pages of history. One of the main drivers was the industrialisation that followed the discovery of gold and coal in the Witwatersrand.

The Benoni area, in particular, saw many changes over time and this update to chapter 13 of Soul of a Railway has been compiled as more information came to light. Several rail routes passed through the area, and Benoni station itself occupying several locations and name changes over time.

In fact, the first railway in the immediate Benoni area was the mine railway, taking off from the "Rand Tram" at "Benoni Junction" later named "Kleinfontein Junction" and still later as "Rangeview" This "railway line" took off from the "Rand Tram" and running northeast to the Kleinfontein Valley gold mine workings. This preceding the "CSAR" discussions with the Benoni municipality for a proposed line by a decade!

Benoni was a typical Witwatersrand city that developed as the local gold mines progressed, and with them, the coal mining expanded and ultimately closed down. In the passage of time, many local industries developed. Atypically the area acquired more South African Railways than most, with the original Rand Tram junctioned west of the town at Dunswart and leading ultimately to 3 separate, double-track, electrified mainlines traversing the town/city eastwards to various destinations.

The opening dates from the SAR Annual Reports were:

o   The "Rand Tram" extended through Dunswart and "Rangeview" to Springs to tap the coal reserves on 13 October 1890.

o   The Kleinfontein Gold Mine line from present Rangeview to the Kleinfontein valley.

o   Dunswart-Benoni 4 July 1910. This was the original location of Benoni station and, later renamed Cranbourne when the new Benoni station was located and constructed in Harpur Avenue.

o   Welgedag (Welgedacht)-Modderbee (New Modderfontein) 2 July 1911;

o   Benoni-Modderbee (New Modderfontein) 25 May 1914;

o   Dunswart - (new) Benoni-Apex 12 April 1923;

o   Alliance-Daveyton 1 April 1957.

The SAR&H magazine also records staffing transfers notably a Mr J.A. Wood transferred from Cranbourne station to Modder Bee (Vol24 of September 1930).

Also the Dunswart-Cranbourne-Welgedag line had some works performed.

o  Relay track from the "14-mile 40 chains" to the "15 miles 03chains" in July 1930. Mileages were measured  from Germiston.

o  Uplift the Triangle at Cranbourne and relay at Alliance in February 1930.

The railways also acquired many private sidings to not only serve the gold and coal mines but also local industries, which developed to meet not only the mining needs but also local and national needs of the country. Most towns had an abattoir, and Benoni was no exception. Like many towns, this warranted a shunting locomotive duty from Springs depot to service the abattoir.

Several such articles in various publications containing the knowledge of the late Mr. G.D. Wood have come to light and are appended to compose this chapter.

The following three extracts from the Chief Directorate Surveys and Mapping topographic map  2628AB BENONI graphically illustrate the development of both the SAR in the Benoni area and the gold mine and private sidings as well. 

The 1939 map showing the original location of Benoni station (later renamed Cranbourne) when the second Benoni station was opened. Also of interest are the original alignment of the Dunswart-Alliance line immediately east of Cranbourne station and, crossing the lower Kleinfontein dam and then further eastwards the large horseshoe alignment built to reduce earthworks. Some of these ruins of the old alignment can still be seen. Also shown are the Racecourse and several separate lines to gold mines from Van Ryn station and Rangeview station. Of further interest is the private siding from Modrea station, heading south to Brakpan Mines and the Victoria Fall Power Station.

THE BENONI RAILWAY LINE & STATIONS

The history of the three railway routes in Benoni.

(Courtesy Peter Wood, written by his father, D G Wood)

Edited and photos added by Keith Gardiner. Photos courtesy of Glynis Cox Millet-Clay.

The following articles by Mr. G.D.Wood give an excellent account of the various railways and stations in the Benoni area and the East Rand.

The First Line

The extension of the Rand Tram from Boksburg to Springs was opened on 13 October 1890, and the first station towards Springs was the original Brakpan, which was situated between present-day APEX and ANZAC, near the north corner of the golf course.

In the early 1920s, Boksburg was renamed Boksburg East, while Vogelfontein became BOKSBURG.

After the Anglo-Boer War, a station was opened to the South of Benoni in order to serve the private sidings to the mines, to the north and the APEX stone quarry to the south in the Leeuwpan. This station was called BENONI JUNCTION. (NOW KLEINFONTEIN)

A CSAR train at Benoni Junction. This appears to be a Rand-Tram engine.

(Courtesy Glynis Millett-Clay/Benoni City Times)

The line is in its original position in the Benoni area. It was a single line then but is now doubled and electrified. (ED: This line between Dunswart and Apex is now closed.)

The Rand Tram was a three-foot-six-inch railway and not a tram. It had nothing to do with the electric (battery) buses the Benoni municipality ran many years later.

On 26 December 1906, the Apex-Witbank line was opened but it is probable that the Apex-Geduld section was already in use by then. APEX was originally known as BRAKPAN JUNCTION, and the first station beyond it was MODDER DEEP. This name was later changed to DEEP LEVELS because the mine labourers who used it in large numbers insisted on calling it that. BRAKPAN JUNCTION became APEX when the present-day Brakpan was opened.

In the mid-1900s, a HALT was opened to the South of present-day Dunswart Iron Works, where the platform for unloading racehorses still exists. This is referred to as 'RACE HALT" in the official programme for the inaugural meeting of the race club on page 57 of 'THE HISTORY OF BENONI.'

When it was decided to build a new line to the north side of Benoni, DUNSWART was made the JUNCTION for the line, and the Race Halt became part of its layout.

The Second Line

The second line was started from Dunswart in the late 1900s and was opened to a new Benoni Line on 4 July 1910. This station was just north of the Traffic Department test ground, and the goods yard was on the east side of Tom Jones Street, where the Municipal Offices are. The burnt Goods railway shacks shown on page 227 of "Benoni Son of My Sorrow" are in this goods yard. (I think the date is 1913 and not 1922 as stated).

(ED: Mr Wood is correct because P160 of B.SOMS states that "the mob burned the goods section of the railway station…". This was during the 1913 strike, and only Cranbourne station existed at that time.

Photo 2. I make no apologies for including this duplication of photo 28 in the original part 13 of the Western Transvaal chapter of Soul of a Railway. It shows an early "Benoni" station building, as shown by the "running in board" on the left side of the picture. It is thought that this station site was later renamed Cranbourne and is in the location marked 13 in the following aerial photograph. 

Editor's note: The station name "Benoni" can be quite confusing as there was the "Cranbourne station (originally Benoni), the current Benoni station and at one stage a "Benoni Junction" station which was later renamed "Kleinfontein Junction"and even later as "Rangeview".  A little assistance is given in Mr Wood's "letter to the editor" as follows- "I think, Beatrice O CALLIHAN is wrong in her belief that the photo is of the OLD BENONI STATION (renamed CRANBOURNE STATION) because the station building at CRANBOURNE STATION was always a stone building on a platform (the photo is a building at formation level as well as being wood and iron)." 

Aerial Photograph of Benoni showing the development of the town/city and its railways.  

From the Facebook site "Benoni History-Now and Then". (Original source unknown).

The Point marked 13 is the location of the original Benoni station, renamed Cranbourne and since demolished, and Point marked 17 is the current Benoni station.

"There was a halt near the footbridge in Victoria Avenue known as 'Avenue Halt'.

A line was opened from Welgedachts to Modder B (Known then as New Modderfontein) on 2 July 1911, and the report made by Sir R.T. PRICE quoted on page 85 of the 'HISTORY OF BENONI' refers to the closing of the gap between Modder B and the New Benoni Station.

The line closing this gap was opened on 25 May 1914. There were three stations on it:

·   Northmead Station

·   Van Ryn Station

·   Cloverdene Station

The date of 30 March 1912 given in the 'HISTORY OF BENONI' appears to be wrong because the dates I quote are from the 1960-61 Report of the General Manager of the SA Railways.

When the new BENONI STATION was opened, BENONI JUNCTION was renamed KLEINFONTEIN JUNCTION. 

The Third line

The third railway was built from Dunswart to the present BENONI and onto APEX with a halt called NEW KLEINFONTEIN between the latter stations. It was opened on 12 April 1923, and as a schoolboy, I rode in the first train, which smashed a bottle of wine hanging under the footbridge as it arrived from Dunswart and back to BENONI.

Built in 1922 but opened in 1923, the New Benoni Station on Harpur Avenue which still exists. (Courtesy Glynis Millett-Clay)

A steam loco at the new Benoni station, probably in the 1960s because this line was electrified in 1957, and the overhead cables are shown here. (Courtesy Glynis Millett-Clay)

With the opening of this line, the Kleinfontein Station was renamed RANGEVIEW STATION. This was closed down when the mine siding was closed in 1970.

At the same time, in 1923, the Benoni Station near the TRAFFIC GROUND was renamed CRANBOURNE STATION.

The present DUNSWART-BENONI-APEX line has not been altered except that in 1933, the section from Benoni to Apex was doubled. The DUNSWART-MODDER B has been altered by being regraded from the OLD RACE HALT to near CRANBOURNE STATION from where it was deviated to the present NORTHMEAD STATION. This was done to eliminate level-crossings on Main Reef Road, Woburn Avenue, Lanyon Road and Tom Jones Street.

In the process, CRANBOURNE STATION disappeared as did the road subway at VOORTREKKER STREET. The latter was replaced by BUXTON STREET BRIDGE.

While this work was on the go, it was decided to double and electrify the line to ALLIANCE HALT (a halt beyond MODDER B), and as a result, the line was straightened out at two places and shortened by 1¼ miles.

In the early 1950s, the mixed passenger service from DUNSWART to ALLIANCE HALT had been suspended, and the various halts and stations were not in use except that VAN RYN STATION was opened as a TRAINS WORKING station and MODDER B (opened for that purpose in 1929) still operated.

The other halts were demolished by the doubling work, and the present NORTHMEAD STATION took the place of the original halt of that name, which was about 1km towards VAN RYN STATION.

The photo of the old station could be BENONI JUNCTION, but the buildings are of wood and iron and is a type which was used by the CSAR at a number of places, e.g. between APEX AND WITBANK and also between SPRINGS and BREYTON.

A number of these old buildings are still in use. That at KINROSS is one that is, although it has had some additions.

In the last 30 or so years, the building at RANGEVIEW STATION was a small brick building.

The locomotive in the picture is either a 40 or 46t ZASM type. The New Kleinfontein Gold Mining Company was using one on the Sidings No.10 from RANGEVIEW STATION when it closed down in Benoni.

I think Beatrice O CALLIHAN is wrong in her belief that the photo is of the OLD BENONI STATION (renamed CRANBOURNE STATION) because the station building at CRANBOURNE STATION was always a stone building on a platform (the photo is a building at formation level as well as being wood and iron).

It was not originally intended to have a line from ALLIANCE HALT to DAVEYTON because of the very shallow undermining to the north of the through line. However, I had to call on Mr JEWEL, the last manager of the MODDER B Gold Mining Company and saw his plan of the undermining and noted that there was a volcanic dyke from ALLIANCE HALT to the north, and so submitted a report recommending that a line could be provided and this was accepted.

The line was then agreed to and built as a double-electrified line. It was opened on 1 April 1957, and I took an 8mm at the joint inspection before the opening was arranged. Trains had been running for some time from DUNSWART to ALLIANCE HALT using steam to start with before this date.

I also suggested at one of the joint meetings with the BENONI MUNICIPALITY that a halt be provided near DUNSWART Iron Works because there were then 6 000 to 8 000 blacks working in the area. When this was agreed, it was given the name AVENUE HALT, although it is some distance from the original halt of that name.

By D. G. Wood

Benoni City Times dated 12 September 1980.

Note: D. G. Wood was Peter Wood's father. Peter Wood has kindly submitted substantial material towards this project.

The following extracts from the SAR&H magazine for  May 1923 formalised the various station names.

The Dunswart-Apex deviation, sanctioned by Parliament last year, was opened for public traffic on Thursday, 12 April. The new deviation brings Benoni, which has hitherto been on a loop line, on to the Springs main line and brings the station nearer the business and industrial parts of the town. A new station named "Benoni" is open for all classes of traffic and a halt has been provided named "New Kleinfontein".

The old "Benoni" Station has been renamed "Cranbourne" and will deal with passengers, luggage and goods for private sidings only.

"Kleinfontein" Station has been renamed "Range View". This station will only deal with goods for private sidings.                                                                                             

"SOME NOTES ON EAST RAND RAILWAYS

Notes compiled by George Mills, Benoni, after an interview with G D Wood on 1 March 1994.

PREPARED BY G D WOOD

Retired Inspecting Engineer (civil) SAR.

FOR THE PURPOSES OF THESE NOTES, THE EAST RAND IS TAKEN AS THE AREA FROM THE EAST SIDE OF GERMISTON TO SPRINGS AND RAILWAYS, INCLUDE PRIVATE SIDINGS AND SIMILAR TRACKS.

The first railways were established by private companies in the Cape from Cape Town to Wellington (1863) at Port Alfred (mid-1850s) and in Natal (in 1863) and were all laid to the British standard rail gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches (1 435 mm), and the moving structure gauge (which limits the maximum size of vehicles on the track) was also that of the British Railways.

The Cape and Natal Governments retained the rights to take over the railways. The Cape Government exercised this right in 1876, and the Natal Government followed suit.

It is interesting to note that the first railways were built using labourers imported from the UK, and as late as 1872, a shipload of 2 000 white men arrived in the Cape at a cost of £26 000. This gives the lie to the story that all the labour work was done by blacks.

With the discovery of diamonds in the Cape and coal in Natal, the need to extend the railways arose, but generally speaking, there was very little development inland to sustain a rail network. In addition, the governments were unable to afford the work so ways were investigated to find a method of reducing costs.

This led to the suggestion that the rail gauge (the width apart of the inner edges of the rails forming the track) be reduced. After a parliamentary enquiry in the Cape, it was decided to adopt a gauge of 3 feet 6 inches (1 067 mm) and the Natal Government also adopted this gauge.

In the Cape, a third rail was laid from Cape Town to Wellington to permit the running of both broad and narrow gauge trains, which was done until 1881, when the broad gauge was done away with. In Natal, there was very little broad gauge track, and this was also done away with in 1878.

The original 4ft 8½in gauge locomotives used in the Cape and Natal are on display at Cape Town and Durban Stations, respectively.

The original rails were a "v" type on pot sleepers with metal spacing bars, but in due course, the present log rails were introduced and modified to give the "oak tree" cross-section of the present-day SAR type (designed to resist the force in the rib and with a larger crown to given longer wear to extend the period between re-railing of the track. This design was later copied by the USA and other overseas countries.

In the period of the extension of the rail network inland, not only was traffic light but the cost of earthworks was relatively expensive as compared with the cost of the track components - especially the steel. This led to track layouts being designed to reduce earthworks to the minimum, even at the expense of longer track routes. This gave rise to the popular belief that contractors were paid by the mile of track they built, and so they took a longer route.

This method of track layout also gave a quicker building programme as cutting particularly the time with hand drilling of explosive holes and the use of gunpowder. Speed was required to get to the diamond fields or gold fields as quickly as possible.

When gold was found on the Witwatersrand, there were no railways in the SA Republic (Transvaal), and there was resistance to the building of railways by the local inhabitants. However, the welfare of the gold mines established first around Johannesburg and to the west depended on a reliable source of fuel for the boilers and, in the reduction plants and for hoisting from underground.

Coal had been discovered between present-day Boksburg East and Dunswart Stations and between Anzac and Springs at about the same time as gold was discovered on the reef.

The Transvaal Republic Government gave a concession to the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij  (NZASM, usually called the ZASM) to build railways in the Transvaal and the first to be completed was from Braamfontein to Boksburg (now Boksburg East) on 17 March 1890 and to Springs on 13 October 1890, built to the 3 feet 6 inches gauge and was called the "Rand Tram" to cope with the opposition.

The first private siding (a private railway connected to a public railway) was opened at the original Brakpan Station (between present-day Apex and Anzac Stations) in December 1890 for the SA Coal Corporation. Third-party rights were granted on this private siding in 1896 to the Central Electrical Works, who built the first power station on a coal field in that area to the east of the Rand Tram.

The first railway was a single line from Germiston (then called Elandsfontein) to Springs and a double line between Germiston and Braamfontein.

It is on record that the price of coal dropped by £2  per ton when the Rand Tram started operating to Johannesburg (one can see why there was opposition to a railway from transport riders), and it was necessary at times to cancel passenger trains in order to run extra coal trains from the East Rand. The Germiston - Springs section of the Rand Tram was doubled to Apex in 1895 and to Springs in 1905. The latter extension was done with white labourers.

A third track was opened as follows:

·       Germiston - Angelo in 1936

·       East Rand - Boksburg East in 1912

·       Boksburg East - Dunswart in 1936

A fourth track was opened as follows:

East Rand - Boksburg East in 1938. At a later date (1956), it was extended to Dunswart.

The tracks were electrified to Dunswart (all via Benoni - New Kleinfontein - Apex) in 1937 and via Rangeview to Apex in 1958.

When the Rand Tram was first built, it followed a minimum earthworks route, and there were fewer stations than were provided later. A number of the stations also had other names. The new names generally arose after the Boer war and, in many cases, were to suit altered conditions in the surrounding area. The rail layouts were also different at that stage.

In addition, Benoni and Brakpan as towns or municipalities did not exist. When they came into being in the late 1910s, the area was under one municipal control (Boksburg) until first Benoni became a municipality in 1907, then later Brakpan became independent of Benoni in 1919.

On the East Rand, the Rand Tram originally ran to the north after leaving the Germiston area in an arc up to about present-day Knights Station on the Pretoria line and came back to the present route at Delmore. It passed over what later became a shaft and dump of the Wits Deep Gold Mine.

Then, east of present-day Boksburg East Station, the line ran towards the south in an arc to miss the coal mines and came back to the present layout near Dunswart Station (which then did not exist). This track passed over where the large grain stores are situated in the Lever Brothers factory today.

In 1905, the track between Germiston and Delmore was deviated over the present-day high embankment and in 1896, when the coal mines had closed, the ZASM straightened out the tracks towards Dunswart east of Boksburg East station. In doing so, they passed over an area where a 20-foot-thick coal seam had been mined out 60 feet below the surface to the top of the coal. In the 1950s, it was necessary for the SAR (South African Railways) to reclaim this area to make the track safe at a cost of over R100 000 - a sum I think more than that paid for all the coal mined at Boksburg.

The tracks at Schapenrust Station had to be deviated in 1909 in order to move them away from an undermined coal area.

The East Rand stations on the Rand Tram at the time of opening the line were:-

Halfweg / Halfway - now Delmore

Heidelbergerpad - Angelo (the Heidelberg -Pretoria Road crossed the track at the station. Angelo was a gold mine)

East Rand - the same (or Oosrand)

Vogelfontein is now Boksburg (the nearest station to Boksburg Lake), a very popular holiday place in the early days. Visitors took the train to Boksburg station and found they had a long walk back to the lake. In 1924, the SAR changed the name Vogelfontein to Boksburg and then changed Boksburg to Boksburg East.

Boksburg – re-named Boksburg East in 1924.

Dunswart did not exist. It arose because of the need for a connection for the Benoni race track in the early 1900s and later as a take-off Point for the new line to the station in Benoni (the second Benoni station, which later became Cranbourne)

Benoni Junction - the first Benoni, later called Kleinfontein and lastly Rangeview - is now closed. This was required to serve private sidings for new Kleinfontein and other gold mines to the north and Apex Quarry to the south. Did not exist on Rand Tram Line at opening.

Apex - did not exist at the opening. It was later needed as a junction to serve the line to Witbank.

Brakpan - the original site was about halfway between the present Apex and Anzac Stations. In 1912, when the town of Brakpan was built, the present-day Brakpan Station was built.

Old Brakpan had served as the first passenger station for Benoni town. There was a store and hotel near the station. In the 1920s, the old station building and quarters were used by the platelayer (a Scot named McLeod) and his gang of white labourers.

Schapenrust - it served a coal mine.

New Era - did not then exist. Later, it provided to serve a gold mine.

Pollock Park - did not then exist. It was provided later to serve a gold mine and part of Springs.

Springs - provided to serve a coal mine run by the ZASM. This coal mine had to be reclaimed in part in 1939 to permit the building of the present-day springs station and goods yard. In December 1906, a single railway line was opened from Apex to Witbank. It was doubled from Apex to Geduld in 1931 and to Welgedacht (Welgedag) in 1936. It was electrified from Apex Welgedacht (Welgedag) in June 1937.

In 1905, a single railway was built from Springs to Breyten.

A single line was opened from Dunswart to Benoni (the second station with that name) in July 1910, Modderbee in May 1914, and Welgedacht (Welgedag) to Modderbee in July 1911.

A double line was opened from Dunswart to Benoni (third and present-day station) in April 1923, and a single line from there via New Kleinfontein to Apex on the same date. On that date, Kleinfontein (originally Benoni Junction, then Benoni) on the Rand Tram line became Rangeview, and the second Benoni Station became Cranbourne. The resident engineer on this contract was Jimmy Bateman, and white labourers were employed.

(ED: Jimmy Bateman was an uncle by marriage of G D Wood–Bateman was married to one of the sisters of G D Wood's mother.)

In 1935, the section Benoni - New Kleinfontein - Apex on to Springs line was doubled and electrified in May 1937.

On the Apex – Welgedacht (Welgedag) railway, there were the following stations:-

Modder Deep (to serve that mine) was later changed to Deep Levels, the name given to it by the mine labourers (from the mine name Modderfontein Deep Levels Gold Mine).

Modrea - to serve private sidings for state mines and the Victoria Falls Power Station. The mining company paid part of the cost of providing it.

North shaft - a halt to serve the northern area of state mines and adjacent mines; a shaft known by that name.

Dersley - a halt provided to serve the quarters of the Geduld Gold Mine.

Geduld - a station to serve initially the Geduld Gold Mine and the Welgedachts Coal Mine and afterwards the Modder East Gold Mine, East Geduld Gold Mine and then SAPPI (South African Pulp and Paper Industries) paper mill and the Union Corporation Platinum Refinery.

Welgedacht (spelling changed to Welgedag in 1953) - a station provided to serve the Largo Coal Mine, which supplied coal to the Victoria Falls Power Station.

In October 1935, a single line was opened from Springs to Kaydale on the Natal Main Line via Nigel.

In December 1938, the Pretoria line from Germiston was deviated away from the original route through parts of Germiston to its present-day route to Elandsfontein (the original Elandsfontein was where the present Germiston goods sheds are) as a double line. A new Knights Station was opened on this line, and from Knights, a single line was built to Angelo past Delmore.

In 1952, a line was built from Springs to Welgedacht (Welgedag) via Payneville.

In 1955, a line was built from Springs to Rooikop. There was one station, Vogelfontein  (Voëlfontein), near No.5 Shaft of the Van Dyk Gold Mine and a passing loop Auram between it and Springs and another passing loop between Vogelfontein (Voëlfontein) and Rooikop called Rondebult after the adjacent sewerage works for Boksburg and Germiston. This line went on to join the Vereeniging - Germiston line at Natalspruit."

"When I went on pension in 1975, a new central marshalling yard – Sentrarand - was being built at Bapsfontein to serve the southern Transvaal and various new connecting tracks were planned to connect this to the various main lines to Pretoria, Witbank, Natal, the Cape and Free State. I am not 100 per cent familiar with these lines, but portions of them pass between this yard and Welgedachts, Auram, Springs, etc.

In the 1950s, the Benoni Town Council approached the SAR to eliminate four dangerous level crossings in the original Benoni Township. This was before the government introduced a planned programme to eliminate level crossings throughout South Africa.

At that stage, there was a scheme whereby a crossing could be eliminated on a joint cost basis, i.e. SAR and, the local authority and possibly the provincial roads department would jointly bear the cost of elimination. On this basis, the cost was shared between the SAR and the Benoni municipality with a contribution from provincial roads for the Dunswart crossing because the Main Reef Road was their responsibility. It was also agreed that the large area of land of the original Benoni Township, which had been used for the goods yard and station (second Benoni station - later Cranbourne) in 1910, would be transferred to the municipality. NB Cranbourne station was approximately where the present-day Benoni motor vehicle testing centre is situated, and the goods office was on the corner of Tom Jones Street and Elston Avenue. A picture of this area is shown on the page following page 226 of "Benoni - son of my sorrow" (history of Benoni), where it is titled "railway goods station burnt by strikers 1922", i.e. Before the present Benoni goods sheds were built in 1923 on the present site. This was about where the present-day municipal offices are.

When these level crossings were eliminated, the line was diverted from just west of Cranbourne station to present-day Northmead station. This also eliminated the subway where Voortrekker Street passed under the railway. It also freed the area given to the municipality of tracks and provided the old railway embankment across the Kleinfontein Dam for development into the present road past Northmead Station into Northmead Township.

While this was in progress, the municipality established Daveyton to re-house the squatters on the land bought to provide Apex Industrial Township. This gave rise, in turn, to the provision of electric passenger service from Dunswart to Daveyton.

Sometime earlier, the steam train service between Dunswart - Alliance, which served the gold mines, was closed partly because the closing of the mines removed most of the passengers but mainly to use the line for the increase in coal traffic from the Witbank area.

To provide the electric passenger service, the line was doubled between Dunswart and Alliance and three deviations to improve the line's location were provided between the existing Northmead and Cloverdene Stations. This shortened the distance by one and a quarter miles - the main saving came from eliminating the large loop to the north between Van Ryn and Cloverdene, where the track ran through parts of what is now Morehill.

It was originally considered impossible to provide a line from Alliance into Daveyton because of shallow undermining, but I had to call on the mine manager (Mr Jewel – the last manager of Modder B and of Modder East Gold Mines) to tell him that it would be necessary to close the mine's private siding because of the new train service (which also included colour light signals controlled from Alliance or Dunswart). He showed me a map of the undermining, and I noted a volcanic dyke between Alliance and Daveyton, so I realised there was no undermining in that area. I then put in a report covering this and recommended that a line be built to Daveyton. This was done.

As a result of the doubling, etc., the original stations at Modderbee, Cloverdene, Northmead and Avenue were closed, and new stations - the existing Northmead and Avenue were provided. At a later stage, I made a recommendation that a few "white" stations be built to serve the west and north sides of Benoni and "white" trains be run, stopping off at these stations and continuing to Johannesburg in the peak hours, but this recommendation was rejected.

Private sidings are private railway lines that are connected to a SAR line at all stations these days. They are of two types, viz:

1. Those used to receive and dispatch goods and

2. Those provided as a connecting link between the first type and the SAR, where the first type is remote from the SAR.

These private sidings (PSs) are either operated by SAR locomotives or by SAR locomotives to an "exchange yard" beyond which the PS owner operates the siding with his own locomotives.

If a private line is not connected to the SAR, it is then not a private siding (which is defined in the Railway Act).

There were many PSs on the East Rand of both types and methods of operation.

There was also at one time at least one 3ft 6in gauge private railway. On the New Modder gold mine, there was such a line (it was also electrified and was probably the first such line in the Transvaal) – it ran between the mine's northern and southern reduction works, past the east side of the mining township of New Modder. There was a sub-station more or less opposite the mine manager's house (now a riding school), a level crossing over the Benoni – Modder B road, and an electric running shed near the south side of this road.

The Van Ryn Estate Gold Mine had a narrow gauge (possibly 18in or 2ft) private line, electrified, which operated around the area South of Van Ryn Station and crossed over the SAR by a bridge west of this station to service some areas to the north of the present recreation club.

All the gold mines except Modder Deep had private sidings, which were extensive in layout and operated by steam locomotives owned by the mines. One of these locomotives is preserved in C.R. Swart Park, Benoni. (ED: Now outside the Benoni Museum.)

The mines also had a few short sidings operated by the SAR only.

The CSAR (Central South African Railways; successor to the ZASM and the Imperial Military Railways (IMR), and predecessor to the South African Railways) introduced the numbering of private sidings until 1908, and as a result, many of the East Rand mining sidings had low numbers, (e.g. New Kleinfontein group siding no. 10, which served New Kleinfontein, the Van Ryn Deep Gold Mine, Kleinfontein Power Station and – after the opening up of the Apex area in the 1930s – a direct connection to Apex gold (coal?) mine at Anzac to provide coal for their power station.)

Most of the sidings owned by the mines were closed and up-lifted when the mines closed, but Brakpan Mines siding was taken over by the Brakpan municipality and used to serve their industrial township. The at Geduld for East Geduld gold mine was similarly taken over by the SAPPI paper mill and the platinum refinery in the East Geduld area.

All the East Rand municipalities have one or more of the second type of private siding (also called feeder line layouts) to serve industrial townships.

The first such feeder line layout in South Africa was built by the SAR for Germiston Municipality in 1923, and the SAR built the second one to serve the Benoni Municipality's industrial township to the south-west of Benoni Station (private siding No.1006). The Benoni and Boksburg municipalities have a joint feeder line to serve their two industrial townships South of Dunswart Station.

These industrial townships have numerous private sidings of the first type to service individual industries in the townships. These are connected to the municipal feeder lines, all of which on the East Rand are SAR operated.

Most of the mines on the East Rand had narrow gauge tracks to serve their sand dumps (usually called coco pan tracks) and for taking materials to their shafts and also underground (where, of course, there were extensive underground narrow gauge tracks.) It is strange, but there was no standard for such underground track gauges or track components. When I worked for a firm of consulting engineers (after retiring from South African Railways), we were employed by one mining group to investigate this. We made recommendations for standardising underground gauge and standard type turnouts, etc., but I do not know if these were adopted. One of the other mining houses did have standards for turnouts but not for other matters.

Editor's note: certainly, in the late 1970s and 1980s, there was a quantum leap in underground track standards, construction, maintenance and operation on many gold mines in South Africa with concrete sleepers, drainage and full ballast profiles and tamping machines becoming the norm.

On the surface, all 3-foot 6-inch gauge tracks were/are built to SAR standards and to SAR approval if connected to SAR tracks. I understand that the government engineers also lay down standards. The latter did not apply to SAR, which had laid down its own standards.

In preparing these notes, I hope I have not overlooked anything of importance".

G D Wood. 1 March 1994."

The following letter is taken from the Benoni City Times of an unknown date, although it must be post 1970 as that date is mentioned when the Kleinfontein Mine closed.

Keith Gardiner, the "decipher" and contributor of the following article.

The Editor,

Sir - To my way of thinking, Dr Humphries' article "The Railway comes to Benoni" (City Times, 22 August) gives a wrong impression of railway development in the Benoni Municipal area.

The history of the three railway routes in Benoni is briefly as follows:

The extension of the Rand Tram from Boksburg to Springs was opened on 13 October 1890, and the first station towards Springs was the original Brakpan, which was situated between present-day Apex and Anzac near the north corner of the golf course.

In the early 1920s Boksburg was renamed Boksburg East while Vogelfontein became Boksburg.

After the Boer War, a station was opened to the south of Benoni in order to serve the private sidings to the mines to the north and the Apex stone quarry to the south in the Leeuwpan. This station was named Benoni Junction.

The Rand Tram was a three-foot-six-inch gauge railway and not a tram, and it had nothing to do with the electric (battery) buses that the Benoni Municipality ran many years later.

The line is in its original position in the Benoni area. It was a single line then but is now doubled and electrified. 

(KG 2010. It has since been de-commissioned entirely.)

On 26 December 1906, the Apex-Witbank line was opened but it is probable that the Apex-Geduld section was already in use by then.

Apex was originally known as Brakpan Junction, and the first station beyond it was Modder Deep. This name was later changed to Deep Levels because the mine labourers who used it in large numbers insisted on calling it that. Brakpan Junction became Apex when the present day Brakpan was opened.

In the mid-1900s, a halt was opened to the south of present-day Dunswart Iron Works, where the platform for unloading racehorses still exists. This is referred to as Race Halt in the official programme for the inaugural meeting of the race club on page 57 of the "History of Benoni."

When it was decided to build a new line to the north side of Benoni, Dunswart was made the junction for the line, and the Race Halt became part of the layout.

The second line was started from Dunswart in the late 1900s and was opened to a new Benoni line on 4 July 1910. This station was just north of the Traffic Department's test ground, and the goods yard was on the east side of Tom Jones Street, where the Municipal Offices are. The burnt railway tracks shown on page 227 of "Benoni, Son of my Sorrow" are in this goods yard. (I think the date is 1913 and not 1922, as stated.)

There was a halt near the footbridge on Victoria Avenue, known as "Avenue."

A line was opened from Welgedacht to Modder B (known then as New Modderfontein) on 2 July 1911, and the report made by R. T. Price quoted on page 85 of the "History of Benoni" refers to the closure of the gap between Modder B and the new Benoni Station.

The line closing this gap was opened on 25 May 1914. There were three stations on it – Northmead, Van Ryn and Cloverdene.

The date of 30 March 1912 given in the "History of Benoni" appears to be wrong because the dates I quote are from the 1960-61 Report of the General Manager of the South African Railways.

When the new Benoni Station was opened, Benoni Junction was renamed Kleinfontein.

The third railway was built from Dunswart to the present Benoni and on to Apex with a halt called New Kleinfontein between the latter stations. It was opened on 12 April 1923, and as a schoolboy, I rode in the first train, which smashed a bottle of wine hanging under the footbridge as it arrived from Dunswart and back to Benoni.

With the opening of this line, the Kleinfontein Station was renamed Rangeview. This was closed down when the mine siding was closed in 1970.

At the same time, in 1923, the Benoni Station near the traffic grounds was renamed Cranbourne. The present Dunswart-Benoni-Apex line has not been altered, except that in 1933, the section from Benoni to Apex was doubled. The Dunswart-Modder B has been altered by being regraded from the old Race Halt to near Cranbourne, from where it was deviated to the present Northmead Station. This was done to eliminate level-crossings on Main Reef Road, Woburn Avenue, Lanyon Road and Tom Jones Street.

In the process, Cranbourne Station disappeared as did the road subway at Voortrekker Street. The latter was replaced by Buxton Street Bridge.

While this work was on the go, it was decided to double and electrify the line to Alliance (a halt beyond Modder B), and as a result, the line was straightened out at two places and shortened by one and a quarter miles.

In the early 1950s, the mixed passenger service from Dunswart to Alliance had been suspended, and the various stations and halts were not in use except that Van Ryn was opened as a "trains working" station and Modder B (opened for that purpose in 1929) still operated.

The other Halts were demolished by the doubling work, and the present Northmead Station took the place of the original halt of that name, which was about one kilometre towards Van Ryn.

The photo of the old station could be Benoni Junction, but the building is of wood and iron and is a type that was used by the CSAR at a number of places, for example, between Apex and Witbank and also between Springs and Breyten.

A number of these old buildings are still in use – that at Kinross is one that is, although it has had some additions.

In the last 30 or so years, the building at Rangeview was a small brick building.

The locomotive in the picture is either a 40 or 46-tonner ZASM type. The New Kleinfontein Gold Mining Company was using one on Siding No.10 from Rangeview when it closed down in Benoni.

I think Beatrice O'Callahan is wrong in her belief that the photo is of the old Benoni Station renamed Cranbourne because the station building at Cranbourne was always a stone building on a platform (the photo's building is at formation level as well as being of wood and iron.)

It was not originally intended to have a line from Alliance to Daveyton because of the very shallow undermining to the north of the through line. However, I had to call on Mr Jewel – the last manager of the Modder B Gold Mining Company - and saw his plans of the under-mining and noted that there was a volcanic dyke from Alliance to the north, and so submitted a report recommending that a line could be provided and this was accepted.

The line was then agreed to and built as a double-electrified line. It was opened on 1 April 1957, and I took an 8mm at the joint inspection before the opening was arranged. Trains had been running for some time from Dunswart to Alliance using steam to start with before that date.

I also suggested at one of the joint meetings with the Benoni Municipality that a halt be provided near Dunswart Iron and Steel Works because there were 6 000 to 8 000 blacks working in the area. When this was agreed upon, it was given the name Avenue, although it is some distance from the original halt of that name.

Yours, etc.

D G Wood.

Photo 4. This lovely shot by Phil Braithwaite shows the preserved mine locomotive "Benoni" built for the New Kleinfontein Gold Mines mentioned in Mr Wood's informative articles quoted above and photographed shortly after restoration and relocation to the area of the Benoni Museum.

Photo 5. The plaque gives advice on the New Kleinfontein locomotive. The type of locomotive was subsequently named the Benoni type, and several examples were supplied to various entities throughout the world. One being equipped with air brakes was supplied to New Zealand.

REFERENCES

1.   "Benoni – Son of my sorrow" – D. Humphries.

2.   "SAR & H – South African Railways & Harbours – Annual Report of the General Manager, 1960-61" – for tables of details of opening of lines.

3.   "The South African Railways – the history, scope and organisation" – published by SAR June 1947.

4.   "Chronicles of a Contractor." – George Pauling, Rhodesian reprint library, Vol 4. (Original – Constable & Co. London, 1926)

5.   The "SAR & H" magazine had many articles dealing with railways. Bound copies were held in the SAR Library and SAR Museum, Johannesburg.

6.   The "Proceedings of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers" and its predecessor, the "South African Society of Civil Engineers" had many papers over the years dealing with SAR contractors and railway construction.

7. "Railways of Southern AAfrica 150 years"- J.A.Dulez

8. "The Buildings, Steam Engines and Structures of the Netherlands South African Company" - R.C.DeJong, G-M van der Waal and D.H.Heydenrych.

8.   Original ZASM plans were held in the Chief Civil Engineer's (as he was called) plan room in the old SAR Head office building (this building is on the corner of Rissik & De Villiers Streets, Johannesburg.)

Editor's note: During my 25 years on the SAR, these repositories of plans migrated, and they have had several locations over the years. When I worked at Springs, we had some appropriate Springs-related ZASM plans in our Drawing Office, and years later, all the plans were kept in the basement of 138 Eloff Street.