Locomotive breath spewed for 35 years
Today, more than 35 years after its foundation, Umgeni Steam Railway is still run by volunteers and the train now carries more than 550 each running day.
THERE’S something magical about train travel. From arriving at the station and buying your tickets to boarding the train and waiting in anticipation for the engines to fire up and for it to start moving.
It brings to mind popular Harry Potter and friends having to travel on the Hogwarts Express to get to school.
We are fortunate in Durban to have the Inchanga Choo Choo Steam Train which transports passengers from Kloof Station to Inchanga station, and has been chugging along for the past 35 years.
Subsequent to a donation on 6 September 1982, by Illovo Sugar Mill, of a small standard gauge shunting locomotive, a group of enthusiasts from the then Natal branch of the Railway Society of Southern Africa formed Umgeni Steam Railway, located near Durban, South Africa.
Since then, other locomotives and coaching stock have been donated by the former South African Railways (SAR) or have been purchased from scrap yards or other bodies.
The first public run took place in early 1984, with a total of 80 passengers for the day, from the old New Germany Power Station.
Today, more than 35 years after its foundation, Umgeni Steam Railway is still run by volunteers and the train now carries more than 550 each running day.
Trains run from Kloof Station (Stokers Arms), departing at 8.30am and 12.30pm to and from Inchanga Station, and 10.30am and 3pm, on the last Sunday of each month along the edge of the picturesque Valley of a 1000 Hills.
Additional trains are run during school holidays and during the December/January holiday period.
Inchanga is a colonial station, (built 1890 – 1892) and is 55 minutes ride away along the old main line. The line was built in the late 1800s and officially opened on 6 December 1880 to Pietermaritzburg, and is one of the oldest active railway lines in South Africa today.
At Inchanga Station the popular Inchanga Station Craft Market and Tea Garden warmly greets you. Visit the Inchanga Station Master’s House Museum.
A festive option is to join the train for the 10.30am departure from Inchanga for Kloof where passengers can sit down to fine pub fare and an ice cold beer at the Stokers Arms Station Restaurant, and still be in time for the 12.30pm train returning to Inchanga.
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