The post-war new station

Not even the best planner could have foreseen the phenomenal growth of Johannesburg after the Great Depression of 1933. In less than ten years the train, parcels, goods and passenger traffic outstripped all of the facilities installed in 1932. Although the previous station was planned as best as circumstances allowed, it had defects which soon showed up when the pressure of rapid economic expansion became intense. Banked from Braamfontein, steam locomotives with heavy goods loads were still battling the gradients on both sides of the station, causing extreme traffic congestion. Even before the 1932 station was declared open, the public was complaining of delays, lost baggage and exhausting walks.

If this was not enough, the problems in the Braamfontein marshalling yards reached crisis point. There the coaching stock had to be cleaned and serviced before shunting into the station, but it was also the yard which controlled all of Johannesburg's goods traffic arriving from all over South Africa and abroad. This included livestock for the Newtown abattoir, vast tonnages of coal for the power station and gas works, perishable products for the market and other heavy traffic such as steel, cement and sand. Only a gigantic effort could solve this chaos.

However, before any major work could be undertaken, South Africa was again plunged into a war in far-off Europe.

In September 1939 the Second World War broke out. Prime Minister General Jan Smuts lead the Union of South Africa into war. Ordinary men and women enlisted and Park Station came alive with scenes of departing soldiers. In his diary Joshua 'Sticky' Furman, post office worker in the Free State who joined the 2nd Transvaal Scottish early in 1940, wrote:

'We all gathered outside the Drill Hall in the rain, ready to move …… There was great confusion: two hundred men all searching for their kit-bags, changing into battledress and cursing loudly. The Drill Hall was like an Indian bazaar….. One section was bundled into army vehicles and were off to 'do a job of work'…… Meanwhile the rest of us were marched through the streets to Park Station. When we got into our train a multitude of people gathered to wave us goodbye. Mothers and sweethearts were a pitiful sight with tears flowing down their cheeks. We were surrounded by civilians wishing us luck, waving Union Jacks patriotically…. Amid cheering and singing we left Jo'burg for Zonderwater. The train pulled out about 11 am. It was cold and rainy.'

The strain of this war (like the one just over 20 years previously) placed an almost impossible burden on the SAR and towards the end, in 1945, the entire railway system had reached the point of exhaustion. In a climate of shortages of just about everything - men, machines and materials - caught up in a surge of post war economic growth, the railways found itself incapable of accepting and handling the traffic. In Johannesburg the burning issue was a new, enlarged station; but on this the citizens were divided.

The only logical expansion was north - which meant engulfing the Wanderers Sports Grounds and virtually the last piece of open space of any considerable size near the station or close to the city. What was more important? Meetings, angry letters, petitions and even a Supreme Court case were part of the highly emotional debate. A strong case was made for removing the station altogether by placing it at the bottom or south end of the city.

In the end common sense prevailed: Johannesburg would have its station, Wanderers would be relocated to the north and the city, cut in half by the tracks, would get all the bridges necessary to restore the hiatus.

If the 1927 station was a masterpiece of architectural beauty (the concourse at least), the new one was the seventh wonder of civil engineering. Never before had a project been undertaken on such a large scale and with so many unique challenges. Park Station was practically duplicated on the old Wanderers Ground on a level three metres below the existing station. Once this was completed the previous old station was dismantled, excavated to the level of the new station and remodelled. Throughout, not once was the traffic interrupted.

In the planning of the new station all the previous inconveniences were to be eliminated. This time a definite separation was made between passengers (suburban and mainline) and baggage and parcels.

Above the entire track layout and parcels depot to the north a concrete slab was constructed at about city street level. This slab ultimately became the foundation for all the normal station amenities, as well as carrying the Rissik Street Bridge. On the space where the tiny wood and iron halt stood in 1890, there now arose a modern underground railway station comparable to the best in the world. How long did it take? The station was built and opened in stages. Long before the opening of the Railway Headquarters building on 6 October 1965 the station had already undergone a series of minor changes.

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