eGGSA Graves - Eastern Cape

Eastern Cape, ALIWAL-NORTH / MALETSWAI, Urban area / Eastern Cape, ALIWAL NORTH, Old cemetery (Orange River cemetery) / A - Surnames :: Vanne - A / (8 of 37 images)

Gaika's Loop Railway disaster 5 January 1911 The railway accident at Gaika's Loop by which 23 people were killed and a large number injured, was the worst disaster that has taken place in South Africa since that of Glencoe in 1895. A crowded trainload of people, chiefly women and children, was returning from a holiday at East London. The train had descended at a good speed a steep incline, and at midnight was traversing a curved embankment about 15ft high across a gulle 9 miles to the south of Cathcart, when 6 coaches toppled over the bottom of the embankment, through the couplings snapping. The engine and the post-office and guard's van at the rear remained on the metals. Source: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/128265427

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