Twelve years ago Bulawayo was the head kraal of a bloodthirsty savage, and was approached only by a few adventurous spirits who recked little of danger and less of time. The journey from the coast to the inland centre took at least three months, and now it can be visited with comfort and despatch. Without alighting from the train the traveller can enjoy his morning bath; he can breakfast, lunch, and dine; he can press a button and call for cool, liquid refreshments at any hour of the day; and he can complete his journey of 1360 miles from Cape Town to the Rhodesian industrial capital in 3½ days. The Cape Town-Johannesburg journey of 1000 miles is done just within 44 hours. These results may not be considered of much account by the English or American traveller accustomed to a speed of 50 miles an hour for long distances, but South African railways have been built to suit the special necessities of the country. The gauge is only 3 feet 6 inches, and on all the lines heavy gradients have to be negotiated.
The interior of South Africa is a great plateau elevated from 4000 to 6000 feet above sea-level. The edge of the plateau runs round the sub-continent at no great distance from the sea, its bold escarpments looking over the 50 to 100 miles of broken, low-lying coast lands which skirt the continent. In consequence, all the railways to the interior, within the first 100 miles from the coast, begin climbing up steep inclines cut along the sides of one or other of the few passes which admit of ascent by railway trains. Whether the journey is made from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, or Delagoa Bay, the ascent has to be negotiated. The tedium of the uphill journey is compensated to some extent by the grandeur of the scenery in these initial stages of the routes to the interior. On the Cape line there is the magnificent view of the Hex River which, like Fair Melrose, can best be seen in pale moonlight as towards morning the night train from Cape Town winds along, gradually climbing up and up above the valley lying 1000 feet below. On either side grand brown mountains rise like sentinels to guard the pass. It has often been conjectured what would have been the upshot if the Boers had marched right south and seized this pass at the beginning of the war. It would have been Colenso over again, only worse. On the Port Elizabeth line, from Coerney to Cradock, the line passes up through rugged valleys in places bright with the sub-tropical evergreen bush of South Africa, and hemmed in with massive mountains forming the broken edges of the continent. The line through Graaf Reinet negotiates similar country, as does also the line from East London through King William’s Town. The ascent from Durban is the most difficult of all. Natal is formed almost wholly of great fragments of the South African plateau which seem to have broken off, and now lie in long lines of broken mountain chains running north and south. These mountain ranges lie transverse to the route of the railway, so that ascents and descents have to be made time and again before the Transvaal high veldt is gained. From Durban to Charlestown the aggregate ascent is 12,600 feet. Altitudes of two, three, four, and five thousand feet are gained en route and then partially lost again. Some of the scenery on this line is of surpassing interest and beauty. Near the coast there are fruit gardens, pine and banana plantations, and orange groves, with here and there fields of pasture fenced in. Farther up, mealie fields spread along the slopes of the hills and down the valleys. Then there follow stretches of open grass country alternating with bush. Herds of cattle, fat and sleek, graze on the rich grass lands. Above Pietermaritzburg the line ascends for three thousand feet to highlands to descend again two thousand to Colenso.
Bridge over the Tugela, Zululand Extension (1330 Feet Long) Connecting Natal and Zululand
The next stretch of fifty miles has become one of the historic districts of the empire. In a winding of the Tugela lies Colenso. Then Pieters Hill is climbed, and the traveller can realise the desperate nature of the task set to General Buller’s army. Then come Wagon Hill and Cæsar’s Camp, with Bulwan on the right and Ladysmith lying in a hollow in the centre. Beyond Ladysmith the train climbs again to Elandslaagte, and begins in a succession of gradual ascents to climb to the crest of the Drakensberg, the final climb being made under the shadow of Majuba, and through the tunnel of Laing’s Nek. Once at Charlestown the high veldt is gained for good. The ascent from Delagoa Bay is easier, in that there is not the same repetition of ups and downs as on the Natal railway. The line runs through the Komati Poort, and then up the Elands River Valley, a beautiful valley indeed, but a veritable valley of death to the builders of the railway. At Waterval Onder the final steep ascent is begun, part of the way being so steep that the cog-wheel system is required. At Waterval Boven the high veldt is gained, and the main difficulties left behind.
The Beira railway to Salisbury has a similar ascent to make. Having described the approaches, some idea may now be given of the railway routes on the interior plateau itself. The Cape Town line to De Aar and Kimberley after gaining the plateau traverses the Great Karroo, a monotonous stretch of several hundred miles of parched brown, barren-looking plain with isolated, flat-topped mountains, and ranges which serve to give variety, and make a scene of widespread solitude, having a melancholy charm wholly its own. This barren-looking veldt, with its sparse vegetation of stunted shrubs, supports millions of sheep and goats, and however unpromising its aspect, it plays an important part in the railway and general economy of the country. The Midlands railway from Port Elizabeth to De Aar and Norval’s Pont traverses similar country, but not so arid. The Eastern railway, from East London through King William’s Town and Queenstown to Bethulie, traverses more undulating country covered with grass intermixed with karroo shrub. In some districts, notably round King William’s Town and Queenstown, agriculture has made considerable headway. The western line continues from Kimberley through Vryburg (British Bechuanaland) to Mafeking, and on to Bulawayo through grass-covered country, with clumps of Kameeldoorn trees, presenting in many places the appearance of an English park. This is a great cattle country, and provides considerable traffic for the railway over and above the mining traffic of Kimberley and Rhodesia. All the Cape lines connect with one another with two necks which converge at Springfontein for the Orange River Colony and Transvaal traffic. From the Orange River northwards the railways are known as the Central South African Railways. The line through the Orange River Colony runs through flat grassy plains for a distance of 300 miles: plains which, after a devastating war, still hold over a million sheep and 160,000 head of cattle. In time of peace the whole country is one monotonous scene of pastoral prosperity. On entering the Transvaal at Vereeniging—the place of the declaration of peace—the railway enters at once into the rich gold-bearing region of the Transvaal. There is a gradual rise over open country to the Rand. On every side there is evidence of great industrial activity, and at many places along the line beginnings may be seen of Transvaal agriculture, beginnings which promise a great future.
The south-eastern branch of the Central South African Railways connects with the Natal line at Volksrust, and proceeds along the high veldt viâ Standerton and Heidelberg to the Rand. The high veldt of the Transvaal has an average height of 5000 feet above sea-level. It is a vast open grass country with rocky ridges rising a few hundred feet above the ordinary level. A magnificent stock country, and rich in coal, iron, and gold. On the eastern line, the Central South African line connects with the Portuguese line at Komati Poort, and passes up the Elands River Valley already described. From Waterval Boven the railway continues to ascend to the summit of the high veldt at Bergendal, near Belfast. It was here where the last big pitched battle was fought before the break-up of the Boer army into guerilla forces. The line passes along the northern limits of the high veldt viâ Middelburg to Pretoria. The country it passes through is equal in stock-raising capabilities and mineral riches to the south-eastern line. There are enormous areas of coal of good quality and abundance of iron ore, and limestone sufficient for the establishment of a great industry which itself will doubtless bring about and maintain great railway expansion in the future.
From Pretoria, the Pretoria-Pietersburg line, formerly a private company, now taken over by the Central South African Railways, strikes north to Pietersburg into the heart of the tropical part of the Transvaal. The country it traverses is partly flat and partly hilly, at some places thick bush and at others wide grassy plains. In the northern district there is a large population of Kaffirs who cultivate the extremely fertile soil, and produce great quantities of mealies (maize) and Kaffir corn, which products, together with timber for the mines, form the principal items of traffic carried by the railway. The Beira railway to Salisbury, originally a narrow gauge, has now been widened to the standard 3 feet 6 inches gauge of South Africa, and carries all the traffic for the Mashonaland mines.