Cape Government Railways

The Cape Government Railways (CGR ) were the first state-owned railway company in today's South Africa and one of the previous tracks of the later South African Railways.

History

The CGR originated in 1874, when the government of the Cape Colony took over four private railways in and around Cape Town. A year earlier, Parliament had decided that the Cape gauge ( 1067 mm) should be the standard - which until then built on the territory of modern South railways have gauges of 1435 mm or 762.

After the diamond discoveries in Kimberley, the rail link with Cape Town had a high priority - it was completed in 1885. In parallel, more lines were built by the port cities of Port Elizabeth and East London, starting inland.

The discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand provided the impetus for continued construction of the railway through the Orange Free State to the border of the province of Transvaal, as South African Republic was then independently and also has its own railway company operating that Nederlandsch -Zuid - Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij ( NZASM ). The route through the Orange Free State was taken over in 1897 by the Orange Free State Government Railways ( OVGS ).

In the south of the Cape Province, the CGR built in the early 20th century, two 610 -mm narrow gauge lines, the Hopefield Railway and the Avontuur Railway.

After the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the CGR were together with the Natal Government Railways (NGR ) and the after hours Boer War from the NZASM, the merged Pretoria Pietersburg Railway ( PPR) and the OVGS incurred Central South African Railways ( CSAR), where the South African Railways (SAR ) emerged.