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I have now managed to find a copy of the article which appeared in The Engineer of 16 January 1900



Here is a transcription of the text which showers praise on the Patent Shaft & Axletree Company and their workforce. It confirms they were responsible in 1900 for supplying 5 spans to rebuild the Colenso Bridge and two spans for the Frere Bridge. It also contains some interesting stats but the real nuggett, for me at least, is towards the end of the article. It shows the Patent Shaft & Axletree Company were also responsible for the 1877 spans!


THE NEW COLENSO AND FRERE BRIDGES
Our readers will remember that during the military operations in Natal the bridges over the Tugela River at Colenso and over the river at Frere have been destroyed by the Boers. With wonderful promptitude the Natal Government at once decided not only to give the order for reinstatement of both these bridges, but to make the new structures of a stronger and heavier type than the wrecked bridges, so that they could withstand the heavier weight of modern and increased traffic. Drawings for such bridges were fortunately in existence, and it remained only to entrust the manufacturer with their construction. With this object tenders were invited, both in this country and in America, and in the result the order for the the work was given to the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company of Wednesbury. This firm undertook to deliver the first shipment of one span in six weeks from the date of the order. The order was given on the 21st of December last, at a most inconvenient time, seeing how near it was to the Christmas holidays. The first span was, as a fact, finished last Saturday, the 13th inst., and deducting Christmas and Boxing days, and three Sundays, the work had actually occupied nineteen working days.
Our illustrations above and on page 66 show side and end views of one span, the photographs having been taken on Monday afternoon last, just after the structure had been taken over by the Natal Government officials. It will be observed that it had been entirely erected in the company’s works. This of course, represents time, several days at all events, and, as a comparison, we may mention that not only was this not done by the makers of the Atbara Bridge, but that the edges of the plates composing this bridge were not planed or finished. The planing involved in the span of the Tugela Bridge was no less than 7500ft. run. Moreover, this span, as will be the care with the whole of both bridges, was also painted with docker’s special “Hermator” oxide paint.
There are to be in all seven spans of 105ft. long each. Five of these spans are for the bridge at Colenso, the remaining two are for the river at Frere. Each span will weigh some 105 tons, exclusive of rivets, and there are 69,000 rivet holes to be drilled in each span. Sieman’s-Martin steel, manufactured at the company’s works, is used throughout. In an early issue we hope to give drawings of one of the spans, and shall then enter more minutely into detail than in the present instance. We may say here, however, that the bridges are both identical, saving in the number of spans, that they are 16ft. wide, and are intended to accommodate one line of 3ft. 6in. gauge, with space for pedestrians or horse traffic.
It will be interesting to go somewhat deeply into the manner in which the work was carried out in such an extraordinarily expeditious manner. We were enabled to gather the following information when we inspected the first span on Monday last:- The order was received at 9 a.m. on December 21st. By 5 p.m. the same day a considerable quantity of material - some 100 tons – had been rolled at the company’s works, tested and approved by the Natal Government engineer, and some of the plates were actually on the planning machines. About 100 men and boys, have been continuously at work on the order, but though these have worked late, there has practically been no night work. The quickness with which the first span was completed, and the remainder of the work taken in hand – for two spans are now completed and work begun on the third, fourth and fifth spans, while the whole of the material for the seven spans is rolled, cut to size, tested, and approved – is the result, so we are informed by the company’s officials, of the manner in which the workmen have responded to the calls made upon them. Every man and boy, from the manager of the bridges department, Mr Knowles, downwards, having done everything in his power to further the work. Nothing beyond ingots was in stock when the order was received. The firm had made the original Colenso and Frere bridges in 1877, but the new bridges are, as already mentioned, of different pattern. Hence new templates had to be made and the men in the template department voluntarily worked right through Christmas. The company is certainly to be congratulated on the promptitude with which the work has been completed, and on having such a staff of workpeople as to render this possible.

Note: The Atbara Bridge was built in Soudan in 1899. After competitive tender the contract was awarded to an American firm. Afterwards it leaked out that the tender specifications given to American firms was to a lower (and hence cheaper) standard than the specification given to British firms.

We know when the temporary deviation trestle bridge at Colenso came in to action as the Princess Christian Hospital Train was the first across and she arrived at Ladysmith on 22 March 1900.

One might expect that there would have been a bit of a fanfare in the British newspapers when the permanent solutions at Colenso & Frere came into action but I cannot find it despite scouring the papers from April 1900 to April 1901. However two letters home by anonymous soldiers are of help:-

The first, dated July 1900, stated “We slept part of the way, but managed to arouse ourselves just as we were about to cross the Colenso Bridge. It was still quite dark, but the broken bridge was brilliantly lighted up, and men were busily working on it. We steamed very slowly over the temporary bridge, so we got a very good view of it and the river below.”

The second, dated 5 November 1900, stated “A little further down the line we come to the Colenso Bridge which played such a prominent part in the early war. I see that the temporary wooden bridge has been replaced by a new iron one.”

So we can conclude that the new iron bridge at Colenso was brought into action by 5 November 1900 but not before July 1900.

The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company was in the news again in October 1900 as this article from the Newark Herald 20 October 1900 shows:

A NATIONAL DISGRACE
ARE WE GOING TO AMERICA FOR RAILWAY MATERIAL?
The news that Major Girouard is inviting estimates from American firms for the repairs of the South African railways has produced consternation and disgust among the large iron manufacturers of Birmingham.
Mr J P Lacey, the well known Unionist, and chairman of the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, builders of the Tugela Bridge, interviewed on Thursday, said that if the statement were true it was almost a national disgrace.
It would be a very great injustice if Americans and foreigners were to come in now and derive all the commercial benefits that ought to accrue to English manufacturers.
Mr Chamberlain would certainly be approached and if this was to be their reward for returning a strong Conservative Government to power, it would be a great disappointment to themselves and the country.
The sending of orders to America would place the iron trade in a worse position. They had been looking forward to the development of South Africa, and the benefit that would accrue from the extension of the railway from Cape to Cairo was an inducement held out to them.
Sir Benjamin Hingley, interviewed, said it was abominable and a fraud upon the British public. It was a pity that Parliament was not sitting, so that representations might be made, and the sending of orders publicly denounced.
Although the tests imposed upon British manufacturers were unduly stringent and severe, they could do all that sort of railway work as well as America.

I have no idea whether Chamberlain intervened but I doubt it as the Walsall Advertiser of 22 December 1900 carried the following short article:

STEEL WORKS CLOSED.
The steel department at Brunswick Works, Wednesbury, belonging to the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, has been closed. The company are among the largest manufacturers of steel and bridges in the country and the closing of the steel department throws several hundred men out of employment. The step was taken owing to the high price of coal and the increased competition in the United States and Germany.

So the workforce received a very nice thank you for their marvellous efforts a year earlier!