Skukuza Railway Relics
(18.10.06)


In the southwestern part of Kruger National Park, Skukuza Rest Camp features a nice ensemble of railway relics:

First of all, there is the old railway station,  which now hosts a restaurant,



and North British-built 24 3638 "Skukuza" plus SAR Coach No7:



Coach No7 once was an observation car, then a lounge car and then converted to the State Funeral Coach. Later, it was re-converted to a lounge car, donated to the National Parks Board and placed in Skukuza along with the loco in 1978 (or 1981?). Twin diner 206/250 (withdrawn from SAR service in 1978) was placed in Skukuza in July 1981 and used as a restaurant, but has been destroyed by a fire some time between 1993 and 1998. Before the fire, the train was long enough to keep the loco outside the roof. The roof itself was longer then; the concrete block in the foreground of the first picture used to support it:

(picture used with kind permission from author)


Back to 2006. Next thing there is a trolley that looks about operational (and has been there in 1993 already, but had no canopy then)



and, last but not least, the Old Railway Bridge across Sabie river:



Station and bridge once formed part of the Selati railway line - the original line through the Transvaal lowveld built to serve the the Selati goldfields of the Murchinson Range around Gravelotte. Trains ran from Komatipoort, crossing the Crocodile River (i.e. the Park boundary) by means of a brigde that is still visible from Crocodile Bridge rest camp, continuing to Skukuza and then further on to Hoedspruit and Rubbervale, where locos where changed.

Work on the Selati railway was started in 1892 (by which time the Selati goldfields had already petered out) by Eugene and Robert Oppenheim, but stopped in 1893, when it turned out that the brothers had added more than 40 km of unnecessary bends to the line to sell more shares and make more money. The 120 km of track that had been laid so far were left rusting away until work was resumed probably in 1908/09. The first section from Komatipoort through Skukuza to Newington was opened 15 May 1910, and extended through Hoedspruit to Tzaneen on 9 November 1912.

To serve the mines being developed at Phalaborwa in the 1960s, a branch line from Hoedspruit to Phalaborwa was opened in 1963, considerably increasing the volume of traffic. However, the Selati line was lightly built; stations inside Kruger NP were isolated, had no electricity and were subject to encounters with lions, elephants and more; operating heavy trains on this line was not an option. Therefore, a new line betweeen Kaapmuiden and Matshaye,  electrified and running entirely west of Kruger NP, was built. It was opened in 1971, after which the old Selati line was closed, except for a short spur from Komatipoort to a point named Reserve. The Station of Hazyview, were the Shongololo Express trainset is stationary while passengers tour the Park, is located on the new Kaapmuiden - Hoedspruit line.


This still leaves me with two questions:
  1. Was the platform roof present for the original station already? Are there any pictures of the station while it was still in servive?
  2. What was 24 3638's manufacturer's number?


By the way, as we found out the next morning, there is more about the Skukuza area than just railway relics:






Literature:
AA guidebook: Southern Africa from the Highway (2001)
Railway Atlas of South Africa
comments from various members of the sar-L list

back to the index


Ralph Timmermann, 11. Jan. 2007