Fuelflow (M14)

Name: Fuelflow

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Historic fact:
THE BLUFF RAILWAY
- the story of South Africa's wooden railway

by Terry R Hutson

No story and record of the Durban railway and it's locomotives would be complete if the Bluff Railway was ignored. Four years before the building of the Durban - Point railway, a line just 100 yards short of one mile had been constructed and was in operation on the Bluff side of Durban harbour. There was little glamour in this compared to the fanfare and ceremony experienced across the bay in 1860, and today nothing remains of this venture, which had such an important effect on the viability of the port.

.....................................This interesting account can be read at: http://www.fad.co.za/Resources/memoirs/hutson.htm


Of all the costly later attempts in overcoming the problem of the sandbar at. the entrance to Durban harbour, it was later to be proved that Milne's ideas were very close to being vindicated, certainly in respect of where he commenced building the north pier. His railway, albeit of 'wooden construction and drawn by oxen, proved highly successful, and introduced to the young colony a new method of transport, which it shortly was to develop and pioneer even further.

The Bluff Railway, although fallen into disuse following Milne's resignation, remained in situ until at least the early 1870s. Natal Government Railways constructed a railway in 1896 from a junction on the South Coast line at Clairwood to a terminus at. Wests Station.. In the early part of the 20th century an extension to this .line was made around the corner of the Bluff to service a number of whaling stations, by then established on the seaward side of the promontory. This line was laid over the original wooden railway trackbed and extended several kilometers further on. Although, since the mid-seventies it is no longer in use and is 1argely covered by a gravel road and undergrowth, this track still exists.

The sources this article include:

Birth and Development of the Natal Railways, The: F.D. Campbell: Shuter and Shuter: 1951
Cradle Days of Natal 1497-191845: Graham Mackeurtan: Shuter and Shuter: 1948.
Enterprise and Exploration in a Victorian Colony: Editors Guest & Sellers, Author Louise Heydenrych: University of Natal Press: 1985.
History of Old Durbam: George Russell: P Davis & Sons: 1899.
Father of City - the life and work of George Christopher Cato First Mayor of Durban; Eric Goetzshe: Shuter and Shuter:
Shipwreck & Survival: AR Wilcox: Drakensberg Press: 1984
Who saved Natal? - the story of the Victorian Harbour Engineers of Colonial Port Natal: Colin Bender: Self Published: 1988.

Other interesting info:
The Natal - the engine on SA's first railway

By Allan Jackson - 26 August 2003

In Facts About Durban (1st Ed.) I wrote:
1860: The first** railway in South Africa is opened in Durban by Acting Lieutenant-Governor Major Williamson on 26 June. The green-painted engine is named Natal and is described by the Natal Mercury as a ‘rather strange-looking, but withal very neat little engine ...{which}... savours of Yankeedom, and is new to most English eyes’. The driver of the train is Henry Jacobs and the line, only 8km long, runs from the Point to Pine Terrace [Pine Street]. There is no turntable on the line so the engine, mounted facing the Point, has to steam in reverse to get back to town. Prince Alfred is a passenger on the train during his stay. The line is extended to the Umgeni two years later, to Pietermaritzburg in 1880, to the border of the Transvaal at Charlestown in 1891 and to Johannesburg in 1895.

**I was not correct when I said that this was the first railway in South Africa. It was actually the first steam railway

http://www.fad.co.za/Resources/rail/natal.htm
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