Police Office and Prisoner Cells on South African Trains

January 23, 2021

Regular contributor Peter Field from South Africa shared these interesting photos and story:

My layout is currently covered due to the transformer speed controller packing up and non-available here in Natal but have sourced two in Cape Town which is being sent up to me.

In 2010 with the World tournament soccer in South Africa, the police commissioned the railways to build I am told about 12 of these mobile charge offices that would be attached to certain passenger trains to convey people and fans between games in RSA. As they were expecting the hooligans to arrive from Europe and England. However, they put these charge offices on quite a few passenger trains operating then.

The charge office comprised of a charge office, counseling room, toilet, shower, and two to three-compartment for 5 to 6 officers who would be on duty for the duration of the journey, and yes 4 small lock-up cells at the rear of the coach with small fanlight windows. After the games, they were stored and recently brought to control crowds in the trains from Corona Virus with distancing, etc.

I have seen them on container trains as well as they are used to guard the containers on route to and from Durban harbor that were being broken into and items stolen.

Here is a picture of a charge office and some interior shots of the office.

My Kiwi (New Zealand) Diesel is doing well here amongst the South African Railways locos on my layout, as it is a lease and lend loco to the SAR fleet. Cheers for now and good running!

If you have a story or layout picture you would like to share, please make contact with the Blog Moderator by using the ASK A QUESTION link below.