Friends of the Rail Forum

Looking through some transparencies, I came across these photos taken along the Garden Route. They show the daily Cape Town - Port Elizabeth passenger train standing at George and on the next day breasting the summit of Montagu Pass at Topping. Of interest is that there was a single (ie containing both kitchen and dining area) open balconied Type A-18 Dining Car attached to these services. On 5th August 1976, it was No. 186 named "Umkazi" built at Durban in 1914 and where passengers having lunch were in 1976 charged just R2.20 for lunch or R2.60 for dinner! Class GMAM No. 4095 provides the motive power with the same train on 6th August. Today George not only has no passenger service of any description but hardly any freight traffic either.