Castle Line Atlas of South Africa

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Cape Colony. - The three main or trunk systems of railways in the Cape Colony are called the Western, Midland, and Eastern.<br><br>The Western Railway, with its starting point in Capetown, and the Midland Railway from Port Elizabeth, are worked as a single trunk system, 839 miles in length, the connection between the two systems being at De Aar, 501 miles from Capetown, and 339 from Port Elizabeth. Through trains are also despatched from both Capetown and Port Elizabeth to Kimberley, the centre of the Diamond Fields, 647 miles from the former, and 485 miles from the latter port; and the line has been extended to Vryburg and to Mafeking. Another line, with junctions at De Aar and Nanuwpoort, has been completed, via Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and Pretoria. On the Western portion of the line the principal stations are Durban Road, Paarl, Wellington, Ceres Road, Worcester, Touw's River, Beaufort West, and De Aar. There are branch lines to Malmesbury, and to Wynberg, Kalk Bay, and Simon's Town; and another, 42 miles in length, from Worcester to Robertson and Roodewall (Kogmans Kloof) - the station for Montague - has been opened for traffic.<br><br>The chief stations on the Midland Railway from Port Elizabeth are Alicedale Junction, Cookhouse, Cradock, Middleburg Road, and Nanuwpoort Junction, where it joins an extension to Bloemfontein, Kronstad, and Viljoen's Drift (Vaal River), Johannesburg, and Pretoria. Branch lines run to Uitenhage, and Graaf-Reinet, Grahamstown, and Colesberg.<br><br>The Eastern system of Railways has East London as its starting point, and runs through Fort Jackson, Blaney, Kei Road, Toise River, Queenstown, Sterkstroom, Molteno, and Burghersdorp to Aliwal North. 280 miles, with a branch line to King Williamstown. This line has been extended to join the Midland Railway (to Johannesburg) in the Orange Free State.<br><br>There are also railways belonging to private companies between Port Nolloth and t