The South African Railways: Historical Survey – Commemorative – George Hart

The South African Railways: Historical Survey is a 40-page commemorative book edited by George Hart and sponsored by Dorbyl. Published in 1978 by Thomson Publications, it serves as a highly collectible, concise visual record of the sweeping development of South Africa’s national railway networks.

The book acts as a brief homage to the evolution of rail travel in Southern Africa. Historically, the railways grew from short, localized lines—such as the 1860 Durban-to-Point line—into a vast national network driven largely by the diamond and gold rushes. When the Union of South Africa formed in 1910, these disparate colonial lines merged to form the South African Railways (SAR). [1, 2, 3]