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Twenty-five years ago, I made the speculative purchase of two brass numbers, reputedly taken from a railway locomotive during the Siege of Ladysmith. On the reverse of each is crudely scratched "TAKEN OFF / LOCOMOTIVE / SEIGE [sic] OF / LADYSMITH / BOER WAR". I was at the time informed that the two numbers had been acquired from the grandson of a veteran who had served through the siege, and who subsequently emigrated to Toronto, Canada.

Aspects of this story didn’t seem to add up. Would the authorities really have allowed someone to nick the numbers off one of the Natal Government Railways engines incarcerated in Ladysmith during the siege?
Also, to me, the inscriptions looked relatively recent. So, without strong provenance the plaques were consigned to the back of a cupboard, where they languished for nearly quarter of a century.

Then, a few months back, while scanning a group of 6 x 8-in photographs, I stumbled across an image which immediately reminded me of the two forgotten, unloved brasses. The picture showed a small NZASM locomotive “posing” on top of a recently repaired railway bridge. On its side was the number plate “15”.




NZASM 19-tonner tank engine, photographed on top of a repaired railway bridge. Further research seems to suggest this locomotive was captured by the British on or about the 6th March 1900. The caption in the negative incorrectly gives the location as Modder Spruit. Modder Spruit bridge was much longer, with three spans.


I vaguely remembered the “discarded” numbers being in the same distinctive typeface, and when I checked my database, I was startled to find they were the same two digits, a one and a five. Could these really have come from the same locomotive?

After searching high and low for the brasses, I eventually stumbled across them several months later. The rediscovery allowed me to take photographs of the numbers and to superimpose these onto the “15” on the side of the engine in the ABW image. This revealed that the two pairs of numerals were identical.







The next task was to establish a location for the bridge in the photograph. The caption in the negative reads “Modderspruit Railway Bridge”, but that structure was, and still is, much longer, with three spans. After many hours of browsing, I eventually found an image in the 19th May 1900 edition of The Sphere, which shows the same structure, albeit with a different form of repair. The caption reads “Davals [sic] Spruit Bridge, Near Pieters Hill”. Coincidentally, I know Davel’s Spruit well, as I witnessed four exhumations at Davel’s Hoek in 1978. It is about 7 miles southeast of Ladysmith. The Sphere photograph shows a trestle construction, which postdates the temporary arrangement of stacked beams in the locomotive picture. This indicates that the latter shot was taken before the end of April 1900 (assuming the negatives for the Sphere photographs took 3 weeks to arrive from the Cape). The Colenso to Ladysmith line reopened to traffic on 19 March.




Photographs of Davel’s Spruit and Modder Spruit railway bridges, both published in The Sphere, 19 May 1900. Checking Google Maps, these captions appear to be correct, while that in the negative of the locomotive image is not. Both bridges were rebuilt after the war.




Field Intelligence map, showing the location of Davel’s Spruit bridge in relation to Ladysmith. The railway has since been deviated through a tunnel to the west (see below).






1:50,000 Map of South Africa, Sheet 2829DB (Ladysmith), 1994

Location of Davel’s Spruit railway bridge, with Intombi Cemetery to the northwest. This map shows the 1957 re-routed line, passing through a tunnel to Umbulwana Station. It no longer crosses the bridge shown in the photographs above.



It was now clear that the engine in the photograph had been in the close vicinity of Ladysmith. On top of this, it was a Boer “Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij” locomotive, so the numbers would probably have been seen as fair game for souvenir hunters. Indeed, the posed nature of the Davel’s Spruit image suggests that engine No 15 was considered a trophy. Further research reveals that two Netherlands’ Railway engines were captured on the Harrismith line, on or about the 6th March 1900, just six days after the lifting of the siege. This seems to explain why a ZAR railway engine was photographed near Ladysmith so soon after the Boers had retreated. This discovery also makes the “Siege of Ladysmith” inscriptions on the backs of the plaques look less problematic. [Ed. A passage from The Netherlands South African Railway Company and the Transvaal War, provided by ResearchRescue, suggests that this photograph was taken while the Tugela to Nelthorpe stretch of line was still in Boer hands. It may have been taken to celebrate the reopening of the line by the Boers on 3rd January 1900. See later posts].





Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 7th March 1900

RECONNAISSANCE FROM LADYSMITH.

No Boers to the West.

RAILWAY TRAINS RUNNING.

TWO LOCOMOTIVES CAPTURED.

A Central News telegram, despatched from Ladysmith yesterday, states that General Buller has pushed forward a combined force along the Harrismith Railway Line toward Van Reenen’s Pass. Our mounted men report no Boers on this side of the Pass. Railway trains are now running from Ladysmith toward Van Reenen’s Pass, carrying stores. Our scouts have succeeded in capturing two Netherlands’ Railway engines upon this line. They are proving very useful for the work of local transport.





The locomotive in the photograph is one of six 19-tonner (0-4-2T) tank engines, built for the ZAR by Breda Engineering Works (Machinefabriek Breda) in 1891. The NZASM had a total of 24 of these locomotives, built between 1890 and 1892 by two different engineering works. It seems that only six of these carried the style of number found on the two plaques (Nos 15 to 20).

One question remains. How is it that the image shows the train with the number “15” still in position? Could it be that the plates on the other side are missing, or were they removed at a later date?




NZASM 19-tonner No 34. One of the third batch of eight locomotives that was built by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen in 1892. Note the different style of numbering. It seems that only Nos 15 to 20 carried the separate brass numerals (those built by Machinefabriek Breda).


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Neville, fascinating story. I would have taken the scratched indications at face value; there is no upside in going through the trouble of faking such things. Because it is mentioned that the trains were put to use for the British, it also seems likely that the British had the NZASM and number removed to put their own markings on.

Fantastic detective work and a great outcome as a result Neville.

You are certainly able to conjure up some marvellous photographs with amazing clarity.

Thank you Everhard,

I have checked the numbering sequence for the twenty-four NZASM 19-tonners while in the service of the Imperial Military Railways, and find they were allocated new numbers in the range 612 to 635. So, the old plates were indeed removed by the British authorities during the war, explaining how they ended up as souvenirs.

Neville

Hello Neville

Taken from NETHERLANDS SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAY COMPANY AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR - An account by the Secretary TH Steinmetz dated April 1900





Regards

Fascinating, and extremely informative.

This indicates that the photograph of No 15 on the repaired Davel's Spruit bridge (the damaged "small bridge near Nelthorpe") was almost certainly taken before the Relief of Ladysmith, while the line was still in Boer hands. This would explain the different methods of bridge construction (stacked beams vs trestles) in the two images. The feat described, in terms of the difficulties encountered getting the two locomotives from Johannesburg to Pieters, along with the reopening of the line, would certainly have warranted a celebratory photograph.

If these are the two engines reported to have been captured on or about the 6th of March, the location of the event, on the Ladysmith to Harrismith line, is clearly an error. Indeed, on the relief of Ladysmith, the two Boer locomotives working the Harrismith line were, according to Steinmetz, "removed out of the reach of the English in good time".


Transcription of the above (with thanks to ResearchRescue) :

NETHERLANDS SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAY COMPANY AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR - An account by the Secretary TH Steinmetz dated April 1900, p. 91

As the wagon road was extraordinarily bad, the Commandant-General intended to improve the communication with the Tugela positions by taking into use the piece of railway from Nelthorpe via Pieters Station to the foot bridge on the Tugela; an order to this effect was given on 17th November.
This piece of line, about 11 kilometres long, was very little damaged; only a small bridge near Nelthorpe required repair. There were some open goods trucks of the Natal Railway left behind on it, which were sufficient for the purpose, but there were no locomotives. These could only br brought from Modderspruit, more than 20 kilometres off, by very bad road.
The two 19-ton locomotives were partly dismantled at Johannesburg. The boiler was loaded on one very strong lorry, such as is used to move boilers, the under carriage on another, and they were placed, lorries and all, on railway trucks.
The transport over the wagon road was very troublesome, on account of the hills, mud drifts, and high water. But both engines got to Pieters on the 28th December, and the 30th December were ready for service.
The piece of line was opened to traffic on 3rd January. The line was naturally not very much used, its very short length hardly made the saving in transport over a bad road worth the trouble and loss caused by two extra loadings and unloadings.
In the last days of February, when the Colenso position and Ladysmith were abandoned, the two locomotives were left behind, after they had been disabled by removing the connecting rods.
In the same manner as above described, a locomotive was transported from Modderspruit to Smith’s Crossing, a ferry on the Ladysmith-Harrismith line, in order to work the line on which only one locomotive had been left behind.
On the relief of Ladysmith, both these locomotives were removed out of the reach of the English in good time.


Neville