The Cape Eastern system of the South African Railways was fairly simple in structure, consisting of a 475 km long main line running northwards from East London to just outside of Springfontein. This formed the 'spine' of the system, from which led off two secondary routes to the west each of which also incorporated a junction giving access to a relatively minor branch line. From the main line itself, five other branch lines - two of which were around 280 kms long - served other communities in this vast area, much of which was rural in the extreme. Last but not least, from a junction just to the north of Burgersdorp a 53 km line headed east to Aliwal North, beyond which the line continued into the Orange Free State System. From Aliwal North, and remaining within the Cape Eastern system, a 157 km branch line struck out to the east. The final 93 km of this line (double the physical geographic distance), from Lady Grey to the terminus at Barkly East, was arguably the most remarkable stretch of railway in South Africa.

The Cape Eastern main line was dieselised by 1966, and steam traction was eliminated from the last shunting and branch line activities by October 1983. Given that the Author only emigrated from the United Kingdom to South Africa during May of the previous year (and lived far from this area) it is fortuitous that more than a third of this books coverage is devoted to everyday 'real steam'. That was - of course - not to be the end of the remarkable steam activities in this System, and comprehensive coverage is provided of a number of steam era recreations that were - with difficulty - possible until the death knell rang out in 2001.

Landscape format : 25 x 20cm, fully 364 pages with more than 500 photographs. Please note this book is also available in a very large landscape version 33cm x 28cm. Please see separate entry in catalogue for details.