File talk:Class 19C (4-8-2).jpg

Picture location

The contents of an email received from Rollo Dickson on 26 August 2014:
SAR-L Yahoogroup message no. 47732, 26 August 2014

From: "'R. Dickson' [sar-L]"
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 9:23 PM
To: <sar-L@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sar-L] 1935: SAR Class 19C 4-8-2

Andre -

Posting this on the List in the hope someone may have more clues than me:.

Your 19C photo ex Rly Circle ex P de Wet collection could not have been taken at Eersterivier in 1940 as the line there was not electrified until 1953.

On the other hand it doesn't look like Eersterivier even post-1953 for several reasons -

1. The electrification masts in the photo are the twin-rail-built type used for the 1933 electrification that ended at Bellville.

2. The 1953 electrification beyond Bellville was carried out with solid steel uprights.

3. The double track from Bellville ends (and had done since 1931) at Eersterivier. The signal in the photo suggests a junction splitting into two double lines. Prior to installation of electric signalling in the 1870s however, the junction split into two single lines at Eersterivier was conventionally signalled, ie by two route signal disc-arms on a single post.

Possibly the photo was taken at the eastern end of Bellville, the higher semaphore arm applying to the main-line to Paarl and the lower arm to the branch to Eersterivier (both these were double lines, the former from 1902, the latter from 1931.) Colour-light signalling had reached Bellville in the early thirties, but manually worked semaphores were retained at the eastern end of the station, including the Up outer homes and home signals. The date 1940 would fit, in fact any year after introduction of the 19C locos in 1935.

There's another signalling query however. By 1946, the Down semaphore platform starters had been replaced by colour lights with route indicators, ie superseding the bracket signal shown in the photo. If this replacement took place prior to 1040, either the date of the photo is wrong, or it isn't Bellville.

Anyone add anything?

Rollo