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DYNA-MO Brooks locomotive #2725 built in 1896
This Locomotive was built by the Brooks Locomotive and Machinery Co, New York, USA.
It started its service life as number 1 at the Transvaal & Delagoa Bay Collieries Ltd. near Witbank.
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Brooks Locomotive Works -_Wikipedia
In 1891 Brooks built 226 locomotives. In 1894 total production fell to 90 locomotives. Prosperity did not return to the Brooks works until after the turn of the century, when it became part of the American Locomotive Company.
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It started its service life as number 1 at the Transvaal & Delagoa Bay Collieries Ltd. near Witbank.
At some stage the locomotive became the property of the City of Cape Town Corporation (City Council) and was used a shunter at the Dock Road and the Table Bay power stations on the Cape Town foreshore. The locomotive now got the name "DYNA-MO".
Further information courtesy of Speedstripe indicates that DYNA-MO was placed in the park in the early 1960 after it was retired from service. Previously it was painted maroon with yellow trim/pinstripe and prior to that it was yellow.
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This is where the Brooks locomotive worked at some stage of its life.
The Cape Town City Council had a power station in operation at [the old] Dock Road, which was opened on 14 April 1904. The first turbine driven alternators at the Council's Dock Road Power Station were installed in 1913 and 1914. It was decommissioned on 5 September 1961 and demolished during 1962.
The Dock Road power station stood approximately where Lower Long Street has been built and was adjacent to the Table Bay Power Station commissioned in 1939. |
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The very first trains were horse-drawn. But that all changed with the invention of steam, diesel and electric locomotive trains. Many a young child has been lured by the excitement of driving the older steam trains of yesteryear. To this day children of all ages love to play on trains.
The first successful steam train was built by Richard Trervithick in 1804. Steam trains did not take off straight away, and it was not until 1829 that George Stevenson designed a steam train called “The Rocket”, which played an important part in the Industrial revolution.
In 1890 a Frenchman by the name of Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine. Seven years later he built the first diesel train and called it “The Diesel Engine”. It took a further 25 years for the diesel engine to hit the rails but by the 1950’s they had virtually taken over from the steam trains.
Electricity has been around for centuries. As early as 600BC the Greeks discovered that rubbing a fossilized resin against a cloth would attract straw. In around 1600 Dr William Gilbert did experiments on this phenomenon for which he coined the term “electric”. Thomas Edison created the first practical DC generator in 1870. The German engineer Werner von Siemens developed the first practical electric train in 1879. It could carry 30 passengers on a short journey at 6.5 kph. Despite the obvious benefits of using electric trains, diesel trains remained more popular as electric trains required specific infrastructure along the entire rail route, which was not in place. In 1887 electric trams were introduced to carry people short distances around towns. It was only in the 1940’s that electric trains started replacing diesel trains.
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