Durban - Both hope and despair are at home along railway tracks in the suburbs.
The quaint Gillitts station, a heritage building wedged between the line used by tourist trains and the R103, is earmarked for a lifestyle centre in a R20-million development.
“It is our dream to create a restaurant and lifestyle precinct. A vibrant and trendy destination that attracts food lovers, cycling community and all members of the family,” said Nipho Mthembu.
He, along with his wife and business partner in the Gillitts project, Nomfundo, is a partner of Cubana Latino Café Richards Bay, and have an entertainment background.
“The development will certainly save and add value to the train station. We believe that preserving culture encourages others to experience it. The station is a living monument and gives not only the Gillitts community but the entire Upper Highway area a sense of identity,” said Nipho.
“Every historical building has a story to tell, it’s our connection to the past. While reasonable accommodation should be made for some changes and improvements, the dignity of the station will be upheld against interventions that may compromise this significant site.
“We are introducing a modern twist while respecting the culture and heritage.”
He said his venture would create 88 permanent jobs.
“The Highway Heritage Society, Umgeni Steam Railway NPC and the KZN Railway History Society are supportive of his undertaking, as he has agreed to refurbish the building to its original state which will be appreciated by people living in the area,” said Adrian Rowe of the Umgeni Steam Railway.
Then there’s the despair, on the stretch of line past Bellair Station, also a heritage building, that fell into disuse and was substituted by crush structure metres and small modern buildings a few metres down the platform until the line itself fell into disuse.
This regression has left veteran heritage architect Robert Brusse, who is also a local in the area, livid: “It (the original station building) can be restored and turned into a railway station. It can be a place where people can get on to a train in dignity, rather than be shunted along like cattle. Why should the trains be made to run in the Cape and not in KZN?
“There are hundreds of people in historically disadvantaged backgrounds (who could use it). Some have to come down the other line, to Rossburgh, and then come here to come to work again.
“It is an economic necessity that the railways are put back into operation, that they are properly protected, that there is security on every station.
“They shoved people through this cattle crush as the train stopped in the sun and rain while the platform at the station building metres away was actually covered,” said Brusse who lashed out at the provincial heritage resources authority, Amafa, for allowing the building to get into the state that it is in.
He was equally scathing of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) for its mismanagement of the railway system with the result that millions of rand of infrastructure on the line cannot be used.
“Presumably the only thing we can do is go to the police station and lay a charge against the State.”
Prasa spokesperson Zama Nomnganga said Bellair Station was not functional following train services having been affected by the hard lockdown.
“The station was, unfortunately, hit hard by vandalism and theft of infrastructure during this time. As a result of this, Prasa was unable to reopen the line when normal services resumed.
“We are, however, working on a plan to beef up our security at stations that are not operational, as the absence of passengers and staff leaves room for unlawful occupation on our premises.”
Nomnganga added that Prasa was looking into restoring the service in all affected areas as soon as repairs to infrastructure had been completed.
Amafa did not respond to requests for comment.
Bellair Railway Station, after Durban central station, was arguably once the grandest of the lot designed by the office of architectural guru Robert Sellers-Upton, all the way up the line to Ladysmith.
“That may have something to do with the fact that if you take this road straight up to Kenmere Avenue, it comes up to the gates of a farmhouse Trevean, which was occupied by Captain (Charles) Hitchens,” explained Brusse, who has long campaigned for the woeful state of Bellair Station to be turned around.
“Hitchens was at that stage involved with railways in the Natal Legislature. And I think it’s more coincidental that the nicer station, other than the main station, was just down the road from his home. It’s said that he used to be taken by his carriage to the station here, get on and go to town.”
Today, the 123-year-old station is a run-down eyesore.
The cupola that once stood grandly above it has collapsed through the roof. Offices look ransacked, flimsy wire substitutes proper locks, damaged burglar guards have not been repaired and even the plaque declaring it a provincial monument has been ripped off the wall, probably to be sold as scrap metal.
Bellair, back in the day, was where many posh families lived. They would have drunk milk brought to the station from the nearby Stainbank farm, Coedemore, on the other side of the Umhlatuzana River.
In the vicinity of the station there was a church and two chapels, a hotel, a troop of mounted volunteers, a rifle association, political and sporting clubs, library and a volunteer drill hall. Bellair School, which dates back to 1872, was located above the station, according to heritage enthusiast Paul Raw.
“Bellair Railway Station shows a distinctive building style well suited to the regional setting at the time, between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, on the Old Main line.”
It is a single-story building with a corrugated iron roof with notable Victorian details such as an articulated, wraparound veranda to three sides, which is cantilevered, and a large veranda roof to the platform side. There are two brick chimney stacks, one positioned on the street side of the building with the other in the middle which appears to provide a fireplace for the general office and station master’s office.
“Oregon pine timber-framed sliding sash windows and timber and glazed doors with glazed fanlight are in a pleasing proportion and add a touch of charm to the building,” Raw said.
“The various rooms are artistically sign posted on the half-glazed doors with the respective room name function - STATION MASTER OFFICE. The waiting room contained a handsome period fireplace with mounted mirror above the mantel-place. The floor appears to be quarry tiles.
“The platform veranda is supported by six ornate cast-iron columns composed of acanthus leaves, fern heads and vines and painted cherries. These were imported from Scotland and were manufactured by the firm W Macfarlane and Co.
“The building has red brick wall with polychromous plastered bands and heavy key-stone decorations to the arched windows and doors. The roof supported a central cupola (before it collapsed) and domer ventilators which provide an efficient ventilation system with hot air collected in the roof space rising and cooler air being drawn in through the ventilators.
“During the Boer War Bellair station saw many troops and prisoners of war passing through.”
Raw explained that during that era the station master was held in high esteem.
“He had a railway house in the immediate vicinity, within short walking distance from the station. The station provided a 24-hour service. Most stations had three railway houses, the other two for the foreman and ganger. As was the strict company policy he was required to always be neatly attired in the full uniform of his rank, including shining silver buttons, as well as a cap.”
The Natal Government Railway encouraged station masters to improve the "horticultural appearance“ of station buildings and embankments along the line and were able to supply a variety of plants from their NGR Nurseries at Inchanga for this purpose, Raw added.
“Bellair Railway Station had a neatly laid out garden with shrubs and between the 70s and 80s often won the National Railways Garden competition for the best station garden. During the 80s I recall that the Station Master had successfully grown coffee trees in the station gardens.”
Today, the closest thing to a station garden is the overgrowth of weeds that is evidence of no train having passed through there recently.
Local unemployed people idle their days away in the shade of the old building.
Alan Deysel lamented the demise of the area.
“I don’t know what they did to this,” he said, pointing at the ’scar’ where the plaque was once attached to the wall.
“They totally messed this place up. Big time.”
The Independent on Saturday