The last Natal Government Railway locos at Durban

Durban harbour is a former lagoon, the Bay of Natal, with a narrow entrance. The Southern side of this is formed by a low narrow hill range called The Bluff. According to the chart, on the seaward side there used to be a whaling station, with a railway line continuing towards it right around the headland. On the lagoon side there was a great coal loader where entire bogie coal wagons were picked up, hoisted in the air and turned upside down. Further down the shore were various other installations, including a bulk grain store and loader where we were supposed to load maize pellets in several of the mv Spaarnekerk's holds. I remember we were at the grain loader for something like 16 hours, starting loading operations shortly before midnight and leaving at about 2 pm the following day.

I had been on deck at the start of the loading operation until about 3am, then turned in for a quick nap as we were supposed to leave in the morning. As it turned out, the loading had been delayed considerably, so when I came on deck at 8am we were still at it. By that time, the ship was covered in maize dust. As there was no visible progress and I had some hours to make up for my night work, I approached the second Mate (in whose watch I was detailed) and asked if I could be spared for one or two hours to take a look at the trains. By that time my preoccupation with trains was a general joke over the ship, so he groaned, cast his eyes heavenward and said if I had to, I could. Sailing time was at noon and I was supposed to be back on board two hours before that. This gave me about two hours to walk to the coal loader, look at the trains and return on board.

It proved to be a stiff walk to the loader, but I made it with time to spare. Here I saw three H1/H2 class 4-8-2 tank engines at work, whilst during my time there a 14R class loco came in with a coal train. The number isn't very clear from the photo which is slightly blurred, but it seems to be no. 1705. The tank locos were ex-Natal Government Railway locos built as 4-10-2Ts by Dübs at Glasgow in 1901-3, when a Mr G.W.Reid was the NGR's CME. Hence these locos, built for the grades to Pietermaritzburg, were called the 'Reid Tenwheelers'. When these locos were relegated to branch line and yard duties, the trailing coupled wheels were removed, which shows in a fairly large gap between the coupled wheels and the rear truck. These locos then became SAR class H1/2 and as late as 1971 fourteen are reported to have been still in use in the Durban area (Steam Locomotives of the SAR, D.F.Holland).

The poor old girls seemed to be on their last legs by this time, and indeed when I visited Durban again in '76, they proved to have been withdrawn. Later reports however suggest several went into industrial use, so they must have been better than I thought. Very recent (1999) information suggests that no. 330 has been preserved. At the time, their gruff exhaust beat sounded uneven and hesitant with badly set valves, but clearly they still packed enough power to handle the loaded stock to the coal elevator. Despite their massive appearance their graceful chimneys showed their Scottish lineage, and on later investigation they had the typical family look associated with all Natal engines. In common with SAR practice in shunting locos elsewhere, their cowcatchers had been removed.

During my excursion to the coal loader it had started to drizzle. August is the South African equivalent of February in the Northern Hemisphere, and although Durban winters don't get cold like ours, the weather can be quite miserable. The advantage of this kind of weather however is that it produces nice volumes of steam for atmospheric photos. Given the fact that my movie camera was out of action (see Cape Town page) and I had only a few exposures left in my camera, every photo had to tell, and luckily I managed to make several nice pictures represented here.

Regrettably time passed very quickly, and in the end I faced a very fast walk to return to the ship, finding out of course that the loading had been delayed even more, so I might have had much more time on my hands if I had known. The harbour pilot arrived at about 2pm, and when we proceeded to sea I was (predictably) at work again on the bridge, without a chance to properly say goodbye to the last of the old Natal tank engines.