Natal Government Railways: Rules and Regulations

16mo (106mm X 171mm) hardcover book in the original red cloth binding 50 preliminary pages including the index, plus 221 pages of text, including seven appendices; two additional, separately numbered and a supplement to appendix 10, are bound in at the end. A book that must have frequently been consulted, bearing some stains of coffee or tea and which had additions faithfully glued in. Therefore somewhat grubby but still well bound.

A fascinating little book which shows the working of the official mind at the beginning of the 20th century. Although these rules were for use on the Natal Government Railways, they were printed by the Central South African Railways which was started during the Anglo-Boer war. As British forces moved into the territory of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, the Orange Free State Government Railways, the Netherlands-South African Railway Company and the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway were taken over by the Imperial Military Railways under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Girouard. At the end of the war the Imperial Military Railways became the Central South African Railways (CSAR). With the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the CSAR was merged with the Cape Government Railways and the Natal Government Railways to form the South African Railways. This copy probably came from the office of a Station Master or some other official.