General Buller referred in complimentary terms to the splendid work performed by the Natal Government Railways during the War; and an abridged statement of the extent and character of that work, which appeared in the Natal Mercury should prove interesting:-
     "The lines of the Natal Government Railways chiefly employed in connection with the military operations total in length over 500 miles, and as the mileage now open is slightly within 600 miles, it can be seen that five-sixths of the entire system was, during the war, at the disposal of the military. The sections employed comprised the main line from the Point to Charlestown, 307 miles; Ladysmith to Harrismith, 60 miles; North Coast line, Durban to the Lower Tugela, 70 miles ; and the Greytown branch from Maritzburgh, 65 miles. As is well-known, the line is of single gauge except for a short stretch from Durban to South Coast Junction, and the special features of the railway are the steep gradients and sharp curves; and it should be known in order to realise to the full the work devolving upon the department that the aggregate of ascents between Durban and Charlestown represent a vertical rise of 2½ miles. The matter of trainloads over our line is therefore an exceptionally difficult problem, and in normal working it is found necessary to alter the trainload no less than 13 times between Durban and Charlestown. The whole of the arrangements for the handling of the enormous traffic and the carrying of it up-country have been organised and carried out from the head offices in Durban. The General Manager (Mr. D. Hunter, C.M.G.), the Assistant Manager (Mr. Jas. Hunter), and the Traffic Superintendent (Mr. D. Downie) have been in constant touch with the authorities day and night, with the result that the military have never experienced the least delay in the fulfilling of their requirements. When the original arrangements were made with the military authorities, it was expressly laid down 'that the control of arrangements of the railway should remain in the hands the civil administration, and it would be no part of the railway staff officer's duty to interfere in any way with the working of the railway or its civilian staff.' This arrangement has been cordially adhered to throughout the war, with admirable results, and a large and frequently emergent traffic had been conducted throughout the campaign without a hitch.
     The first troops to supplement the ordinary garrisons of the colony were the Manchester Regiment, which landed here on the 20th of September, 1899, by the S.S. Gaul. The vessel came alongside the wharf and the whole regiment was disembarked and despatched within three hours after the ship was moored. The same time was occupied in dealing with other infantry regiments as they arrived, while batteries of artillery and field hospitals, and the various branches of the army whose material required the use of cranes, were dealt with, on an average, in about six hours from the time the steamer came along-side the wharf. The Natal volunteers, to the number of nearly 1,700 officers and men were called out on the 29th of September, and on the 2nd of October they had been conveyed by rail 200 miles, the perfect railway arrangements being remarked upon by the late Major-General Penn Symons. What is known as the Indian contingent consisting of 8,311 officers and men, 2,792 horses, 29 guns, 1,500 native attendants, stores, ammunition and equipment requiring the employment of 27 transports, commenced to arrive here on the 3rd of October, 1899, continuing till the 27th of October. As illustrating the dispatch given to the troops, it may be mentioned that on the 5th of October five transports arrived, and from the time of their coming alongside the wharf the men were all landed in Ladysmith - 191 miles distant - in less than 24 hours.
     A summary of the troops, equipment, and stores carried over the railways between the 20th of September, 1899, and the 22nd of October, 1900, gives the following interesting figures:-Officers and men, 174,705; natives and Indians, 11,549; horses and mules, 48,596; oxen and sheep, 21,719; vehicles, 1,682; guns, 269; boxes of ammunition, 9,385 ; stores and baggage (tons), 6,784; pontoons, 39 ; traction engines and carriages, 80 ; women and children, 484.
     The number of troops despatched by rail from the Point and Durban between the 20th of September, 1899, and the 31st of August, 1900, are tabulated as under:-

     The resources of the Railway Department in the matter of engines and rolling stock were very heavily drawn upon during the campaign. The total number of waggons belonging to the department is 2,113, of which 1,380 are eight-wheeled, 541 six-wheeled, and 192 four wheeled. These are classified as follows:-High-sided 1,647, low-sided (ballast) 347, cattle 77, insulated meat trucks 40, refrigerators 3. Of these 1,000 waggons are in use for general military traffic, 23 of the insulating trucks and refrigerators are being used for the conveyance of chilled meat for the troops, 246 engaged in ballasting, re-laying re-construction, and store traffic, 139 are in the hands of the enemy, 100 are in the shops undergoing repairs and reconstruction for contemplated military purposes; 192 (of the old-type four-wheeled wagons) are unfit for the main line, and 64 are unfit for general traffic. This accounts for 1,764, and leaves a balance of only 349 available for civil traffic of all kinds over 600 miles of line. As the result of orders given for additional engines and rolling stock previous to the war, these began to arrive soon after its commencement, and helped to supply the deficiencies brought about by the captures of the enemy at Dundee. The co-operation of the railway with Colonel Morgan, the director of supplies, enabled that officer to work out with accuracy his highly successful plans for the feeding of the forces, with the result as it is believed, that the forces in Natal have never been on short rations, and have always been well fed - a point upon which General Buller was always most solicitous. The feeding of the army in Natal, indeed, has evoked the highest expressions of approbation from all who had opportunity of judging of the commissariat, and for this eminently satisfactory side of the campaign the efforts of the Natal railway authorities are in no slight sense responsible.      The quantity of military stores and live-stock conveyed over the Natal line from September 20, 1899, to September 30, 1900, is as appended:-

     As bearing on the health and well-being of the troops, mention should be made of the water supplies which were forwarded by the Railway Department. The method adopted was to erect on the side of the line, adjacent to the camps, cylindrical tanks of galvanised iron, which were filled from clusters of tanks fitted on railway wagons, and brought by train from the pumping stations, distant some 20 to 25 miles. During the period of the concentration of troops before Colenso, the whole of General Buller's forces were supplied with water in this way, while throughout the four months of the Ladysmith siege, when the town water supply was cut off, the plant employed for supplying condensed water from the river for the 20,000 persons shut up in the beleagured town was provided by the Railway Department, and 1000 tons of coal, which had been laid in by the Department as a precautionary measure, was used for the most part in these important operations.

     The destruction by the enemy of bridges, culverts, permanent way, water tanks, and works has naturally added greatly to the difficulties of the department and called for stupendous effort on the part of the maintenance department, under Mr. J. W. Shores, engineer-in-chief. In reconstructing, the aim was (1) to get a temporary road of whatever kind was practicable over which wagons could be passed, (2) to make a semi-permanent structure which would restore the line for the time to nearly its former level, and (3) to restore the permanent structures. Over stretches of the line where the rails had been torn up, new rails and sleepers had to be obtained and replaced, while in the many bridges and culverts the damaged portions had to be removed, trestle bridges, frequently on sleeper cribbs, had to be erected and the line deviated, while the masonry was rebuilt and the ironwork and girders re-erected.
     It is impossible in an article of this character to enumerate the whole of the details of the repairing work undertaken by the maintenance department, but among, the principal damages which have had to be repaired are the following:-

     "This gives no account of the innumerable culverts which were destroyed, or of the stretches of line which were torn up, all of which entailed considerable labor on the part of the railway staff. These operations, and the crippled condition of the line, naturally lessened the carrying power of the department, and absorbed by load reductions and otherwise, a large amount of additional engine power. When the Natal forces reached the border on the 13th June, it was found that every engine, truck, and tool had been cleared away from the Netherlands base station. The Natal Railway Department immediately commenced the work of repairing the Netherlands line behind the army. That line was also staffed and worked by the N.G.R. up to Vlaklaagte until met by the Imperial Railway Administration from the other side. The men of the Natal railway staff employed then to work the line in the Transvaal were invited by the General Manager to transfer their services to the Imperial Military Administration, and in all 115 men in the traffic, locomotive, and maintenance department took up positions under the new administration.

     The carriage of sick and wounded and the conveyance of stores and comforts to the various hospitals along the main line was in itself a considerable undertaking. The base medical stores were established in Durban, on November 6, under the charge of Major McCormack, R.A.M.C., and a portion of one of the railway goods sheds was partitioned off, electrically lighted, and arranged for the purpose of offices and store-rooms. Subsequently two vans were fitted up for the purpose of following the army with reserve supplies, and were employed, when the military operations necessitated their use, with great advantage. There are 24 hospitals existing in Natal, and to cope with the traffic in connection with these hospitals, two ambulance trains were fitted up in the Durban workshops of the N.G.R. coaching stock. No. 1. ambulance train, which was placed on traffic on October 10, 1899, was composed of two first-class and four second-class corridor carriages, a covered truck for kitchen car, and a van for electric installation. No. 2 hospital train, which was placed on traffic on December 9, was composed of two first-class saloons, one first-class corridor carriage, one first and second-class lavatory carriage, and two second-class corridor carriages, with a van for kitchen and another for electric storage battery. The material for the Princess Christian Hospital Train, which is composed of seven vehicles, were put together in the N.G.R. workshops at Durban. The first portion of the train material was landed from the "Raglan Castle" on March 6, and the last on March 13, while the complete train left Durban on the trial trip on March 17 for Pinetown, and, everything being found to be satisfactory it left for Ladysmith on Sunday, March 18, being the first train to cross the Tugela River and enter the town after the siege. Thence it commenced to convey sick and wounded from Ladysmith to Pinetown or Durban. The repairs of the hospital trains, the recharging of the accumulators for electric light, and the replacing of the bedding were carried out by the Railway Department when necessary. The number of sick and wopunded conveyed since the commencement of the campaign by these three trains, supplemented by ordinary trains, to the end of August was over 30,000 officers and men. Every consideration was given to the well-being and comfort of the sick and wounded. The train drivers were adjured to exercise the greatest care in the working of the ambulance trains, and the greatest pains were taken to ensure the absence of bustle and pressure. The conveyance of stores and comforts to various hospitals was also a matter which received every attention, the large quantity of articles consigned by the Royal Army Medical Corps, the Red Cross Society, the Ladies' Patriotic League, and other organisations being despatched to their destinations without the least hitch.
     Mention must also be made of the fitting up in the N.G.R. workshops of the gun carriages for the 47 quick-firers landed from H.M.S. "Powerful." The wheels for the carriages were made by the railway workmen to the designs of Capt. Percy Scott and sent up country to be in time for the defence of Ladysmith. Subsequently other guns were similarly mounted and accompanied the relief force, while the fitting out of an electric search light for flashing messages into the besieged town was accomplished in the Durban shops. The efforts of all departments of the railway have been directed towards the assistance of the army and, while they have given every possible despatch to the emergency requirements of the iry, the ordinary passenger traffic, particularly the large and growing suburban traffic, has been continued without interruption or delay."