Cape Town Harbour in times past

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John Ashworth
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Cape Town Harbour in times past

Post by John Ashworth »

Some interesting old pictures of Cape Town Harbour railways have been posted on the sar-l group.

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The aerial ‘1948’ shot... shows the plethora of railway lines and trains at work in the V&A in those days. How much has changed and how much of what was at one time so important to our transport economy has been lost. In the official map of Cape Town harbour tucked into the back of the SAR Annual Report for that year, this layout can be clearly identified with certain aspects named. For instance the long, low building in the centre is named the “Baggage Warehouse” while just behind that lies the “Amsterdam Coal Yard”. The larger structure with concrete stilts in the middle right hand is the “Trackless Tram Depot”. Just in front of the impressive power station, there no more, lies the “RMT Vehicle Park”, home to Big Albions and Diamond T’s, Brill luxury busses and all the paraphernalia of a road depot with the grunt and growl of big diesel power while Dock Road winds demurely past to cross Adderley and to meet up with Monument station.
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In 1959... the great 4E electrics were already there. Had been for about 5 years. They changed from green to red sometime in the ‘70’s but remained beautiful, impressive machines. Here one is depicted together with an S2 shunter ready to take what could be the fast fish train on its hurtling journey to the fish-starved Reef. No better locomotive to start that journey with than one of these giants. Later that night, they’d meet up with another legend of locomotion at bustling Touws River – the big 25 Condensers, exchanging voltage for coal and plenty of it too, with voluminous clouds of smoke and a whine like a Boeing. Passenger trains would pull aside for this train, their passengers all relegated to second class so that the fish reached Jo’Burg still fresh and cold.
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