Natal Railway Company
Encyclopedia
The Natal Railway Company was formed in January 1859 for the construction of a 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) railway in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

.

Unlike later railways in South Africa, the Natal Railway Company made use of Standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 of rather than Cape gauge
Cape gauge
Cape gauge is a track gauge of between the inside of the rail heads and is classified as narrow gauge. It has installations of around .The gauge was first used by Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl and the first line was opened in 1862.- Nomenclature :...

 of .

The railway's first steam locomotive, the 0-4-0WT Natal
South African "Natal" 0-4-0WT
The first locomotive to run in South Africa, the Natal Railway Company’s “Natal”, was landed at Durban on 13 May 1860 and made its inaugural run during the official opening of the first operating railway in South Africa on Tuesday, 26 June 1860...

started operations on 26 June 1860. Up until that time the railway had been operated using ox-drawn wagons. The inaugural run was across a 2 mi (3.2 km) stretch from Market Square in Durban to the newly built Point station at Durban harbour.

Alexander McArthur, the mayor of Durban described the new line in a letter to Sir George Grey
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...

.
The Natal Railway’s initial rolling stock consisted of six wagons, two travelling cranes and one passenger coach. By 25 January 1867 the line had been extended a further 3.5 mi (5.6 km) to Umgeni, from where stone, quarried from the Umgeni River, was transported to the harbour.

The Natal remained in service for fifteen years, until the Natal Government decided in 1875 to convert
Gauge conversion
In rail transport, gauge conversion is the process of converting a railway from one rail gauge to another, through the alteration of the railway tracks...

 the railways to Cape gauge in conformance with the railways in the Cape Province. The Natal Railway Company was bought by the Natal Government Railways
Natal government railways
The Natal Government Railways was formed in January 1877 in the Colony of Natal.In 1877 the Natal Government Railways acquired the Natal Railway Company for the sum of £40,000, gaining the line from the Point to Durban and from Durban to Umgeni...

in 1877 for the price of 40 000 pounds.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK