Page 104 - Bulletin 17 2013

101

South Peninsula

Quarry Railways and Cableways

A number of small quarries operated in the south Peninsula around the turn of the century

and employed cables or railtracks to transport the dressed stone. At the Lakeview Quarry at
Lakeside a cableway ran from the excavation down to the top of Lincoln Road, and the

winding capstan at the top and rusting ropes are still visible. At the Delbridge Quarry on

Elsies Peak, Fish Hoek, a trolley track carried dressed stone down to a point near the present
circle at the intersection of Main and Simon’s Town – Kommetjie roads. From there it was

either removed by wagon for use locally or taken to rail trucks near Fish Hoek station for

wider distribution. (Cole, 2007).

The largest quarry was that of Sir John Jackson Co. Ltd. which operated between 1901 –
1910 on the slopes at Simon’s Town above the East Dockyard, then under construction. The

stone was brought down by rail trucks along a double 4’ 8” gauge track that passed via a deep
cutting at the Seaforth end of present Runciman Drive into a tunnel under Queens Road to the

crushers near the East Yard construction site. The bogeys were hauled by a steel cable

attached to a large drum driven by steam. (Figs. 2.19.) Unfortunately, on one occasion,
during an inspection by the General Manager and his assistants, the towing wire slipped the

drum killing all of them. (Read, 2003: 136.) An aerial ropeway was also in operation at the
quarry. (Fig. 2.20.)

Muizenberg’s Tourist Cableway

Early in 1904 the Wynberg Times carried brief reports of a proposed mountain railway and
mountain hotel at Muizenberg. A survey had been completed of the proposed route up Peck’s

Valley and plans were awaited. But circumstances in the post-war Depression were

unfavourable for ventures such as this and little further was heard of it until the 1920s.

On 1 February 1924 The Cape Argus carried an article on the proposed railway: