Taking in order of appearance from the introduction above, South African Airways as a senior partner to the SAR & H, is appropriately the first supplementary Service to receive our attention and in doing so, is the first item to be drawn from a 'Century of Transport'.  Please bear in mind that these descriptions  were reasonably accurate in 1960 when first published in the book. 

 I mention 'reasonably' due to a slight discrepancy in the starting date of air mail flights in South Africa.  See below the extract from a 'Century of Transport' for a report in the SAR & H Magazine for March 1925.

A few photos to follow the 1960's description of SAA:

SAA JU 52 ZS-AFD  'Sir Benjamin D'Urban' flying past Lion's Head in the Cape.

SAA JU52 ZS-AFA  named  'Jan Van Riebeeck' at Rand Airport in 1934.

SAA made extensive use of Lockheed Lodestar aircraft  - employing 21 of them on domestic routes in South Africa. This one is ZS-ATE 'Ryk Tulbagh' at Rand Airport, Germiston.

The official opening of Jan Smuts International Airport was held in Kempton Park on 17 April 1952. 

In 1953 a SAA operated BOAC Comet took off from Johannesburg en-route to London, in the process becoming the first airline outside the UK to operate jet aircraft. (SAA operated two Comets in partnership with BOAC)

The 1968/1969 financial year was the first time SAA carried more than a million passengers.

The 70s welcomed new arrivals: our first Boeing 747B, ZS-SAN 'Lebombo' and Airbus 'Blesbok' At the same time, we sought to improve our traffic growth on domestic and regional routes by purchasing 12 Boeing 737s, three Boeing 747SPs and four Airbus A300s.

On March 23, 1976 an SAA Boeing 747SP (special performance) set a record for the longest non-stop commercial flight when it flew from Seattle to Cape Town, a distance of 16 560 km's covered in 17 hours and 22 minutes.

On 24 April 1976, South African Airways operated the world's first commercial flight using a Boeing 747SP. The aircraft flew on the Johannesburg-Lisbon-Rome-Athens service.

On 6 January 1977, the Boeing 747SP made its first scheduled flight between Johannesburg and Sydney. The flight offered in-flight audio entertainment and movies.

Two SAA Boeing 747 SP aircraft  ZS-SPA 'Matroosberg' and ZS-SPB at Jan Smuts Airport.

The Boeing 747 SP  ZS-SPE 'Hantam' was indeed an impressive aircraft even when sitting on the ground!

The next item listed is the string of Lighthouses that guarded the South African and previous South West African - now Namibian Coastline.  First we look at the Lighthouse situation in 1960 as the 'Centenary of Transport' commemorates rail transport in South Africa.  

Having had a 1960's overview of the Lighthouse  scenario on the Southern African coastline, let's turn back the clock to  March 1918 and the SAR & H Magazine to get an idea of Life at the South African Lighthouses - in some cases,  in very isolated places on our coast. Further extracts from later editions of the SAR & H Magazine are also included. 

Cape Agulhas Lighthouse  at L'Agulhas - the southern-most point of Africa!

Port Shepstone Lighthouse - Natal South Coast.

Dassen Island Lighthouse on Dassen Island, near Yzerfontein.

Cape Recife Lighthouse, Port Elizabeth.

The Hill Lighthouse, Donkin Reserve, Port Elizabeth.

Hood Point Lighthouse, East London.

Cape Columbine Lighthouse near Paternoster.

Slangkop Point Lighthouse at Kommetjie in the Cape, is worthy of another individual photo - being such a remarkable structure - 22 feet high!

Moving on to the next topic:  The SAR & H established Apprentice Training Schools across all parts of the Country.  These schools were largely, if not entirely, sited at Locomotive Depots under the control of the Locomotive Foreman.  Technical Education goes way back on the SAR & H - a typical example of articles being published from time to time in the SAR & H Magazine are reproduced here.  

After World War 2,  in 1945, a temporary training centre for railwaymen was set up by the Administration in Kroonstad in the Orange Free State, to provide in-house training for railwaymen.  A fully-fledged Railway College was built at Esselen Park near Kaalfontein station on the Germiston - Pretoria main railway line.  This College replaced the Kroonstad facility and was literally the 'Railwayman's University' opening 10 years later in 1955.  

Instruction on heavy vehicle maintenance was also carried out Esselen Park.

The SAR also established and managed several Childrens Homes to accommodate children orphaned by railway servants unable for various reasons to continue caring for their children. The first of these homes was established in Bloemfontein as described below.

Grain Elevators were erected by the SAR & H at stations serving grain farming areas of the Country and at harbours from where grain was exported.

The erection of Grain Elevators was combined with the aquisition of special grain wagons. 

A comprehensive descriptive article on the new wagons appeared in the SAR & H Magazine for March 1922, but for the purposes of this chapter, only the opening page is considered necessary.

Initially railway employees keen on gardening established the Railway Amateur Horticultural Society. In later years the Railway Administration also established Horticultural Nurseries in all provinces to provide a source for plants and horticultural needs to railwaymen wanting to enhance railway property. This eventuated in the coveted C. M. Hoffe Trophy being awarded annually to the most attractive station.

The SAR & H had eight  major Mechanical Workshops at Salt River, Cape Town; Durban; Pretoria,  which moved to new premises at Koedoespoort in 1954; Uitenhage; East London; Bloemfontein; Germiston; Pietermaritzburg, to maintain and repair railway locomotives, passenger coaches and goods vehicles.  The building of new coaches and goods vehicles  was also undertaken in these Workshops. A ninth large Road Motor Transport workshop for maintaining RMT vehicles including building new bodies onto imported chassis, was situated at Langlaagte near Johannesburg.  There were also two  sub-depots at Usakos and Mafeking for railway rolling stock repairs as well as a large depot for trackwork at Elandsfontein near Germiston. Durban Mechanical Shops had a sub-depot in the harbour for repairs to harbour craft.  It was known as 'Shop 24'.  A photo collage is appended to illustrate the extensive group of Mechanical Workshops under SAR&H control.

SAR Publicity & Travel Department.

The S A Railway Museum which embraced a wide variety of artefacts collected since the 1920s by various railway staff, in particular, a Mr. Bennett, was initially under the control of the Head of the General Manager's Reference Library housed in military-style bungalows at Esselen Park.  In 1956, with much celebration, the S A Railway Museum was opened under the Rissik Street Bridge in Johannesburg which later fell under the control of the Publicity & Travel Department. The Museum moved to the old station concourse in South Station Building, corner de Villiers & Eloff Streets in 1973.   The General Manager's 'Parliamentary Section' took over control in 1985.  The final major move of the Museum  occured in 1998 when it opened under the name 'Outeniqua Transport Museum' as part of the Transnet Heritage Foundation in the former PX goods shed adjoining George railway station in the Cape. Back in the 1970s a new major Railway Museum was envisaged and plans which were well-advanced to house it in the vacated Mechancal Workshops in Pretoria collapsed.  As a compromise, the Outeniqua Transport Museum was established in George.

The Museum staff in 1973 was from the left:  C.H. McLean, Museum Assistant; Dan Grib, Correspondence Clerk; Mr. Venter, Carpenter; Johnny Orsmond, Display Artist; Les Pivnic, Assistant Curator; Jan Coffee, Curator; Winnie Venter, Research Officer; Frank Cage, Museum Guide; Harold Rennie, Carpenter; Pietro Sabatelli, Workshop Assistant and Gordon Payne, Accessions Clerk.

The SAR Administration was very closely involved in providing Sports Facilities for its staff as evidenced by this cartoon which appeared in the SAR & H Magazine for November 1919.

Railway Institutes which provided recreation and sporting facilities for railwaymen were established in all main railway centres throughout South Africa.  A few of them are highlighted above and below, to give readers an idea of the various facilities that they provided.

The following collage shows a few SAR sports teams who excelled in their particular sporting fields.  In football alone the SAR & H had the highly successful JSAR, PSAR and GRI - Germiston Railway Institute,  

There is an old saying  'that there is nothing new under the sun'.  While researching for this chapter and SAR sport in particular, this page in the SAR & H Magazine for November 1919 highlights  Ladies Football!  In my youth and as a keen football fan, I was not aware of ladies playing this sport but in the SAR & H, well they certainly did - here below is the relevant page!

Before delving into the military exploits in this book, a few pages from the SAR & H Magazine are included to cover World War 1.

Moving on to WW 2 and 'We Fought the Miles'  - this is the foreword written by the Prime Minister, Field-Marshall the Right Honourable J. C. Smuts

Even at home on suburban trains,  the ticket examiners already had to deal with over-crowding after the War had just started in 1939!  

Troop trains filled to capacity became the norm on overnight journeys usually to the Ports like Durban, to facilitate troops boarding ships to go 'Up North' to the Middle East to join in the 'Western Desert' battles against Rommel etc.  These troops were packed 6 to a 4-person table in dining cars by necessity.  By sheer coincidence and much to my utter amazement, I came across the photo above of a troop train  on which my father, Joe Pivnic,  was travelling between Johannesburg and Durban.  He is the sergeant on the right staring at the official photographer. He was heading for Egypt.

Troop trains seen off by family and friends at major stations like this one below at Johannesburg were becoming a regular sight.

Not all South Africans supported the Allied War Effort and it became necessary to protect bridges on the Union's railway lines such as this example on the Natal Main Line.

The Harbours played their part too - such as in this example of the famous French passenger liner, Ile de France, being drydocked in Durban for repairs.

The Administration even sacrificed a number of our veteran engines for service overseas where they were more urgently needed.

The SAR& H also equipped and operated three ambulance trains which were manned by members of the Railways and Harbours Division of St. John Ambulance Brigade.

The South African Railways & Harbours Brigade: Fifteen thousand South African

railwaymen volunteerd for active service. The majority served with the Railways and Harbours Brigade, but many joined other units.

The Springbok Railwaymen not only repaired militarily damaged railway lines - they also built new ones in the Middle East.

Prior to the above, the Railway Construction Engineers had to deal with major damage to railways in East Africa and Abyssinia.

In no way intending to diminish the previous repair work done by the South African Harbours Brigade, the Italian Campaign was in my opinion, their greatest achievement  in WW 2.

It is not practical to reproduce details here of all the individual lines repaired in Italy but I can safely say that the work done by divisions of the SAR & H Brigade  to repair the Italian Railways was nothing short of magnificant!

Harbour Reconstruction.

 The 41st Harbour Construction Company of the Railways and Harbours Brigade was the only unit of its kind in the field on the Allied side during the first two years of the War and was formed towards the end of 1940. 

Moving on from the Military Achievements - we look first at SARSHIPS in the early days of  their use by the 'Union Government'.

Moving on to 1960, 'A Century of Transport' provided the following comment on what had become known as 'SARSHIPS'.

St. John Ambulance Brigade.  An extract from the SAR & H Magazine for January 1920 makes for interesting reading - even discussing the use of skeletons.

The Railway Mission was established in the early days of the Administration's existence and continued to be a part of the SAR & H's existence while it controlled the activities of the Administration in South Africa.

Railway Police  

The Railway Police date back to the early days of the SAR & H Administration but sadly, today they don't exist!  In 1960 however, they were still very much a part of the Railway Administration and this is how they are described in 'A Century ofTransport'.

A group photograph of Railway Police who had completed their training at the police training centre.

The Railway Police played a very important part in the 1947 Royal Tour of South Africa.  King George 6th with Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret toured South Africa by rail on the specially assembled Royal Train. The following photos and collage highlights the involvement of the Railway Police.

HMS Vanguard alongside in Duncan Dock with 15F 'City of Cape Town' at the head of the Royal Train on the quayside and Railway Policemen with their white pith-helmets keeping an eye on things.

Railway Policemen prominent on the platform at Queenstown as the Royal Train arrives during the tour with 15ARs Nos. 1825, 1805 and 1781.

The Railway Police C.1948 also had a motorised 'Flying Squad' as illustrated in the two photos above.

These final images show a 'Water Policeman' at the controls of a Police launch and a 'Railway Policeman' enjoying a break in the staff cafeteria  in the previous Public Tearoom in the old Johannesburg station.