CAPITAL PARK

For Rovos Rail passengers, a highlight of their journey is a visit to the private station at Capital Park, Pretoria. The once bustling hub of steam locomotion in the old Transvaal is now the headquarters for Rovos Rail.

The gracious colonial-style railway station serves as the new departure or arrival point for all train journeys except the Garden Route. The home of Rovos Rail boasts a small railway museum in addition to its other comprehensive facilities and will, with the addition of semaphore signals and a footbridge, recreate the atmosphere of a fully fledged railway system. It is intended that, with time, this facility should become the foremost working train museum in the world.

The eyes of rail enthusiasts will be drawn to the vast carriage and loco sheds where teams of dedicated personnel keep the rolling stock in perfect order. This roofed workshop of 10 000 sq metres straddles 15 railway lines with concrete inspection pits below, and is the ultimate repair and maintenance facility for any train operation. The low, red-bricked buildings alongside the new 300-metre platform house laundries, gleaming stainless-steel kitchens and well-stocked storerooms. This is the busy hub of a provisioning operation, which rivals that of a world-class hotel in terms of efficiency and attention to detail.