The line from Durban to
Pietermaritzburg was already proposed in 1862, but it was not surveyed until 1873. Under Natal Law 4 of 1875, Natal Government Railways (NGR) was authorized to build three lines from the
Point Waterfront: one of from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, one along the
Natal South Coast to near
Isipingo, and one along the North Coast to near
Verulam. The Natal colonial government paid for the lines with a £1.2 million loan obtained in
London.
Durban to Pietermaritzburg The line to Pietermaritzburg ran through hills that would have made the 4' 8 1⁄2" NRC gauge prohibitively expensive. Therefore, the 3' 6" (1067 mm)
Cape gauge was used. Afterwards, the old NRC lines were replaced by ones with the new gauge. The building of the new line between The Point and Umgeni began on 11 May 1878. The contract with the railway builders specified the minimum radius at and the maximum
gradient at 1:30. Construction began on 1 January 1876. On 4 September 1878, the from Durban to
Pinetown was operational, and on 1 December 1880, the entire line from Durban to Pietermaritzburg went online. Although the towns were apart, the railway stretched for . The line climbed from sea level to Richmond Road (931 m above sea level) and then declined to Pietermaritzburg (633 m above sea level). The line followed the contours of the land and there was not one
tunnel between the two cities. The current line between the two, by contrast, is long and goes through 15 tunnels.
Pietermaritzburg to Newcastle While the
Voortrekkers had mined coal on a small scale, the North Natal coal rush began in earnest when Frederick Noord published his report in 1881. A report by the British Empire (1871) reported that it cost twice as much to transport coal by wagon to Durban as it did to ship it to London. This, together with the opening of the
diamond fields in
Griqualand West, led the
Natal Provincial Council to order the line continued to
Newcastle in 1881 with a branch line connecting Natal to the diamond fields through the Drakensberg. After the line reached Ladysmith in 1886, service northward from Pietermaritzburg began. The distance from Pietermaritzburg to Ladysmith is , and the line ranges from its highest point between
Mooi River and
Estcourt ( above sea level) to the bridge over the
Tugela River ( above sea level). On 7 November 1889, after an agreement was reached between the governments of Natal and the
Orange Free State, construction began on the line from Ladysmith to Harrismith. The line reached Van Reenen's Pass in 1891, and on 13 July 1892, service from Ladysmith to Harrismith was formally opened by the
Governor of Natal and the
State President of the Orange Free State. Although it stretched into the
Orange River Colony, the entire length of the line () was the property of the NGR. The Free State portion was largely flat (between
Van Reenen and Harrismith the line drops ), but in Natal the line climbed over the course of . Three
zig zags were made to overcome the harsh terrain of the Drakensberg. Harrismith remained the
terminus of the railway until after the
Second Boer War. Between 1903 and 1906, the link between Harrismith and Kroonstad was opened in several stages. After the discovery of gold, there was a race between
Cape Colony and Natal to connect the Witwatersrand with the coast. Before the line from Ladysmith to Newcastle was completed, an agreement was signed between the governments of Natal and the ZAR to extend the line from Newcastle to the Rand. The line reached Newcastle on 15 May 1890, and was immediately continued on to Charlestown, the last town in Natal before the ZAR border. The line, which climbed over the from Newcastle to Charlestown, was formally opened by President
Paul Kruger of the ZAR and the Governor of Natal on 7 April 1891. Where the line crosses
Laing's Nek Pass, a tunnel was built. For political reasons, the rail line was not connected with the
Netherlands–South African Railway Company (NZASM) lines until the NZASM line to
Maputo Bay was finished. That line went into service on 1 January 1895. By the terms of an agreement made on 3 February 1894 between the SAR government and NGR, the NGR was to build a link from the Natal-ZAR border to NZASM network. The first half, of from between the border and
Heidelberg, Gauteng, opened 27 April 1895; the second opened on 15 November 1895. On 1 December 1895, the branch line between the border and Charlestown opened, followed on 15 December by the branch from Heidelberg to Union Junction, from
Germiston. At the time, there was already a line from Durban to Umgeni, but it was in the of the NRC, not the
Cape gauge of the NGR. Since that line was already operational, it was
retrofitted with a new Cape gauge track in 1877. In 1878, the extension of the North Coast Line to Verulam opened. The South Coast Line began near the Rossburgh station, a depot around from Durban. In 1880, the line to Isipingo opened. Such lines included, for instance, the
Ffestiniog Railway in
Wales and the
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India. In 1899, Hullett & Co. obtained permission from the Natal government to build a private narrow-gauge line from
Stanger in the tea plantations to the Kearsney tea factory. The line opened to both freight and passengers on 13 March 1901. Narrow-gauge railways were cheaper than and could also take
sharper turns. The trade-off was that locomotives did not run as efficiently on them and therefore less could be hauled. The first narrow-gauge rail line in rural Natal, the
Estcourt-Weenen line, opened in April 1907. The following year, the
Ixopo-Stuartstown line opened between
Donnybrook (a station on the
Natal-Cape Line) and
Umzinto (Esperanza, the terminus of a branch off the South Coast Line). The line between Umlaasweg and Mid-Illovo and the line from
Port Shepstone to
Paddock opened in 1911. 1886 was an erratic year for the NGR. New locomotives had to be ordered to serve the new line. A single
2-8-2 tank and tender locomotive was built by the NGR in Durban and began service in 1888. The locomotive was the first steam locomotive built in South Africa. At the same time, 100
4-8-2 locomotives were ordered from
Dübs & Company. The locomotives came into service between 1888 and 1899. During the 1890s, these locomotives were the NGR's workhorses. In the last years of the 19th century, traffic grew on the NGR, requiring more powerful locomotives. The
4-10-2 locomotive was designed by George William Reid, Locomotive Superintendent of the NGR, to achieve this task. To conquer the sharp switchbacks of the NGR, the front and rear wheels of the locomotive lacked
flanges. The locomotive was heavier than a
tender locomotive, giving it more horsepower. In honor of G.W. Reid, the locomotive was called the "Reid locomotive." Between 1899 and 1903, 101 of these locomotives were ordered. Derailment issues with the Reid "ten-wheelers" were eventually solved by removing the rear drive wheels from the locomotive, making it a
4-8-0 locomotive. In the 1900s, the NGR began experimenting with tender locomotives. They were especially useful on the plains of northern Natal, the northern and southern coast, the Orange River Colony between Harrismith and Kroonstad, and in the
Transvaal Colony from Volksrust to the Witwatersrand. In 1904, 50 4-8-0 "Hendrie B" locomotives were ordered from the
North British Locomotive Company, and in 1909, 30 4-8-2 "Henrie D" locomotives were purchased from the same manufacturer (David Anderson Hendrie was the locomotive engineer of the NGR). In 1909, the NGR diversified further with the purchase of 6
Mallet locomotives from the
American Locomotive Company. The Mallet locomotive was an articulated locomotive that could handle the sharp turns of the
Natal Midlands and the Drakensberg. After 1912, South African Railways bought more Mallet-type locomotives, but after 1920, they were replaced by steam-powered
Garratt locomotives or
electric locomotives. Between 1907 and 1911, of narrow-gauge lines were reopened - between Donnybrook and
Kelso and three smaller lines. All four lines used
4-6-2 locomotives. In 1905, NGR classified its locomotives as classes "A" to "I," "K," and "N." "K" was reserved for various locomotives that did not fit into the other classes, and "N" was reserved for all narrow-gauge (610 mm) locomotives. The following year, the letter "L" was assigned to the locomotives ordered by the
Central South African Railways. The classes are shown in the table below. == Business operations ==