Outeniqua Transport Museum, Railway museum in George, South Africa
The Outeniqua Transport Museum is a railway museum in George, South Africa, housed in a converted goods warehouse on the grounds of the old George station. The collection brings together steam locomotives, passenger coaches, and other rolling stock from different periods of South African rail history.
The museum opened on 24 September 1998 in the former PX goods shed in George, as one of two transport museums in the Transnet Heritage Assets and Preservation Portfolio, the other being in Kimberley. Its collection grew to 21 steam locomotives and 22 coaches, among other vehicles. It also holds S-scale models of South African Railways trains built by Captain John Baxter, a former Clan Line master who began modelling SAR prototypes on 16.5 mm gauge in the late 1950s.
The museum holds private coaches built for South African railway officials. Coach No 14, Constantia, entered service in 1896 and was later allocated to the Minister of Railways; Coach No 18, Middleburg, dates from 1897 and was the saloon of C.A.A. Middelberg, director of the Nederlandsche Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij. Coach No 5, Tafelberg, entered service in 1903 with places for six people and an attendant.
The museum occupies the former PX goods shed in George, one of two transport museums in the Transnet Heritage Assets and Preservation Portfolio, the other being in Kimberley. The collection is indoors, with 21 steam locomotives and 22 coaches plus other vehicles, so plan time to walk between the exhibits.
Captain John Baxter, a former South African Navy officer and Clan Line master, built S-scale models of SAR locomotives and rolling stock from the late 1950s; his trains were required for the Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Exhibition in Cape Town. A signwriter at his Poole model railway club, working from a photo of the Afrikaans side of a guards van, lettered "Blankes" and "Nie blankes" as "Smoking" and "Non smoking".
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