Simons Town Station

[allanroy]

Picture on the left taken in 1902 and the one on the right 2010

[Dylan Knott]

Somerset West and Sir Lowrys Pass station buildings are identical to Simons Town Station.

[Andreas Umnus]

There are not too much changes between the two pictures. Some windows changed, one became a door (at the main building), the chimney is a litle bit different, what was closed building in 1902 is now a open building for people to wait.

I think the biggest difference between both pictures is the electrification of the line.
Otherwise there are no big changes at the buildings over all the years.

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

[Luca Lategan]

It's amazing how many stations on the simonstown line doesn't look that different at all from the early 1900's. There's a lot of pictures from that era in the book: Postcard Railway journeys, or something in that line.

[allanroy]

Simons Town station has not seen a train all year with the track been closed. Noone is even keeping the tracks clear of sand which is slowly taking over.







The wall around the station is 2 meters high, as you can see the sand is nearly at the top of the wall. The fire hydrant is deep under the sand

[allanroy]

Simons Town around 1900. You can see the steam shed and water tower.

I was sent this photo and have no idea who has the copyright, if is a problem I will remove the image

[Steve Appleton]

It always seems strange to me that, although the Simonstown station is just fine being a little way out of town, that the railway itself was never extended via a siding into the dockyards. Railways and dockyards go together, especially some years ago, and that would have provided a source/destination for freight on the line.

[Dylan Knott]

The dockyards had their own 3' 6" railway until after World War 2. Operated by tank locos. A few remains can still be seen and a very small section is still used in one of the shops.

[Steve Appleton]

Hi Dylan, Thanks. Was that dockyard railway connected to the Simonstown line?

[Dylan Knott]

No, there was never a connection. What did happen though was a connection was laid to the nearby quarry.
Today some of the tracks were used for the dock cranes.
It would be very difficult to install a siding to the docks today, but not impossible.