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Umsindusi Railway Station - Msunduzi
Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal

Date:n.d. : 1901
Type:Railway Station
Status:Derelict
Street:Pentrich Rd

 


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Coordinates:
29°38?04.90?S 30°22?21.73?E

Umsindusi opened as a stopping place in December 1880 and served as a siding for staging loads. The timber and corrugated iron building at Umsindusi was replaced with a more substantial “salmon-red” brick building in 1901.

Its function as a station was short-lived: it became redundant upon the completion of a deviation in 1906 and was replaced with a new station a stone’s throw away. When the new station was opened in 1906 the name was changed to Pentrich.

Umsindusi station building of 1901 remained in use as a private residence well into the 1970s. Even the brick support wall forming the side of the raised platform survived under the front wire fence. After the rails and sleepers had been pulled up, the old main line formation was adapted as the roadway (Woods Drive). Woods Drive was closed in the early 1980s and the railway bridge removed when the flood plain was developed into an industrial estate and the river diverted into a canal.