1926 in South Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Incumbents
Events
- March
- 13 â The first commercial air route from South Africa is established when Alan Cobham does a return flight between London and Cape Town.
- October
- 8 â 124 coal miners die due to a methane explosion in the Durban Navigation Colliery disaster
- 10 â The South African National War Memorial next to Delville Wood outside Longueval, France is opened.
- 10 â The Sabie Game Reserve is renamed to Kruger National Park.
Births
- 23 May â Joe Slovo, politician in Obeliai, Lithuania (d. 1995)
- 11 September; Gerrit Viljoen, government minister (d. 2009)
- 24 December â Ronald Draper, cricketer (d. 2025)
Railways
.jpg)
Railway lines opened
- 18 January â Transvaal â Villiers, Free State to Grootvlei, 19 miles 39 chains (31.4 kilometres).[1]
- 7 June â Free State â Harrismith to Warden, 35 miles 33 chains (57.0 kilometres).[1]
- 18 August â Cape â Upington to Kakamas (Narrow gauge), 54 miles 63 chains (88.2 kilometres).[1]
- 1 September â Cape â Addo to Sunland, 6 miles 1 chain (9.7 kilometres).[1]
- 15 September â Natal â Mtubatuba to Candover, 110 miles 70 chains (178.4 kilometres).[1]
- 19 November â Cape â Katberg to Seymour (Narrow gauge), 9 miles 30 chains (15.1 kilometres).[1]
- 22 November â Transvaal â Citrus to Plaston, 17 miles 48 chains (28.3 kilometres).[1]
- 8 December â Cape â Klawer to Landplaas, 50 miles 37 chains (81.2 kilometres).[1]
Locomotives
Three Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
- The first twenty-three Class 15CA 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.[2][3]
- Four Class FD 2-6-2+2-6-2 Modified Fairlie articulated steam locomotives.[2][3]
- To address a shortage of suitable shunting locomotives, the first of twenty-one ex Natal Government Railways Class D1 4-8-2 tank locomotives are rebuilt to Class 17 4-8-0 tank-and-tender locomotives.[2][4]