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The South Western Railway Co. Ltd., Also called Knysna Forest Railway, was a narrow gauge forest railway in the southern Cape Province in South Africa. The line connected the port of Knysna with sawmills in the Tsitsikamma Forest and had a length of 31 kilometers. The railway was in operation between 1907 and 1949. ==History== In the late 19th Century, during the Second Boer War the timber transport with the help of mules and oxen reached its capacity limit, as many mules and their drivers had been drafted into military service. The 1898 replacing attempt using a steam tractor failed because the machine sank in the muddy roads. For this reason it was decided to build a railway. The Government and the Cape Government Railways supported the project because the wood of the region was used, among other things, for the production of railway sleepers. Also a connection to Avontuur, the terminus of the narrow gauge Avontuur Railway to Port Elizabeth was considered, and although only 31 km apart, no money was provided for it at this time. The project was also not pursued because the Tsitsikamma Mountains would have made a connection very time-consuming. The construction of the line lasted from 1904 to 1907. It was completed 20 years before the Cape gauge route from George reached Knysna, until then it was completely isolated from the rest of South Africa's rail network. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「South Western Railway (South Africa)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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