"The railway carriage that housed a Government" Top 5 Page for this destination Pretoria Things to Do Tip by CatherineReichardt

South African history has more than its fair share of unlikely tales to share, but few as bizarre as the fact that for a brief period during the Anglo Boer war, the Transvaal Government was housed in a carriage parked in a railway siding!

Machadodorp - a sleepy dorpie just off the main road to Nelspruit - bizarrely became the nation's capital for a three week period in 1900. After the fall of Pretoria to the British, the Transvaal Volksraad (the Boer forces) made the town their temporary base and reestablished the seat of government (and, importantly, the mint) in railway carriages parked in a siding at the Machadodorp station.

After the battle of Bergendal (just outside Machadodorp), the ailing and aged Kruger fled to Mozambique, from where he travelled to Europe to try and raise support for the Boer Republic. The rest of the Boer forces dissipated to wage a gruelling and highly effective guerilla campaign on the British for the remainder of the war.

The railway carriage has now been permanently installed in the grounds of Paul Kruger House. Entry to the interior of the carriage is not permitted, but it is possible to peer through the windows and imagine the unlikely events that must have unfolded inside.