“Champagne in a train with a crane,” my friend declared. She wasn’t referring to the most prominent skyline features of the Cape Town docks, where we boarded a Ceres Rail train early on a Saturday for a day trip through the Hottentots Holland Mountains to the Elgin Valley.
Her remark came about an hour into our journey as we churned past splashes of wetland in the northern suburbs, carried away by the click-clack of wheels and the sway of the refurbished wood-panelled carriage.
There is a particular sort of freedom in travelling by train for leisure, a thundering transience that inspires people beside the tracks to wave and evokes an irresistible urge to wave back. Perhaps it’s the majesty of steam trains, though today we are being pulled by diesel engines while steam locomotives Clare and the Red Devil are being repaired.
It’s a strange liberation to be locked in a particular set of tracks bound for a particular place with not a centimetre of deviation and yet feel reassured that there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. It’s a seamless, stressless way to travel — and I needed it.
Early in the week Ceres Rail had supplied directions to the departure point, but I decided to check out the lie of the land in person while I was in the vicinity. To balance the fairly ridiculous air of overpreparation, I told myself I’d just drive into the V&A Waterfront and wing it from there. It should be fine.
Traffic may not move quickly in Seagull Sandton but it is relentless and determined: financial services, gym, rooftop bar, construction, more fintech, petrol station, U-turns and traffic circles in Dock Road but no sign of Dockrail Road.
The ubiquitous driving app brings out the teenager in me: I clearly need it but am also deeply sceptical, which makes me rebellious. Also, like a teenager, I am figuratively churning in mud at this point, so I relent and turn on the app. It efficiently feeds me back onto the elevated freeway and into a stream of SUVs, trucks and minibuses, and as we all rise majestically above the Foreshore, eye-level with fourth-floor office workers, the app voice takes on a homicidal tone: “Turn left.” “Turn left.”
Both it and I had been confused by the simple concept that some roads are higher than others. After a delayed but safer exit from the highway, it takes me below the overpasses to the exact point where Ceres Rail should be: glass buildings on one side, rail line on the other. There is no signage or office, though the app insists this is my destination.
I ask a security guard, who radios a colleague, while a more senior guard walks up. Between us we cannot locate Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, but I do know where to park. That night Ceres Rail sends me directions down to the last metre, with a video drive-through. From the outset it is clear that communication is consistent and excellent, and I really should relax.
Dockrail Road is secluded with a name reminiscent of an English village, small on a scale that would delight a child, and the train’s dimensions are similarly pleasing. It’s a standard gauge but feels narrower than a modern train, perhaps because the seating booths create a cozy atmosphere.
The Ceres Rail website describes the set-up as typical of a suburban commuter coach used from the 1960s to the 1980s. The springbok head etched on each window reminds me of long trips to boarding school — as do the open-drop toilets and stainless steel wash basins, which are seemingly in high demand among collectors. (There are “proper” toilets on the train as well.)
We are in a convivial open carriage, but there are also two- and four-berth sleepers, and coaches for a lounge, bar and coffee shop.
The end of the line for us is the beautifully restored Elgin Railway Market near Grabouw but we have a lot of ground to cover first. The train takes us along the dolosse-piled edge of Table Bay and Paarden Eiland to the northern suburbs. By the time we reach the first stretch of wetland, we have sparkling wine in an ice bucket, glasses in hand and my friend is bird spotting — red and yellow bishops and the regal lines of a blue crane — when she makes her Seuss-like observation. A woman nearby raises her glass at my whoop of laughter.
The line was built by Cape Government Railways and began operating in 1912 to transport fruit from apple country to the harbours. It was closed in the early 2000s after years of neglect before being restored by history lovers and rail enthusiasts. Thanks to them we have the novelty of peeking in on hundreds of lives and everyday rhythms as we are carried along through suburbia and industria before we start the climb into the mountains.
On one side, far below us, the N2 loops up Sir Lowry’s Pass, and beyond that the magnificent False Bay. The train pauses briefly for us to take it all in. Then onward and upward through the narrowest of defiles cut into the rock, with ferns and moss and clutching tree roots within touching distance before we rise up to mountain meadows bright yellow with spring flowers.
The immediacy of the landscape heightens the senses, and the tracks take us into serene heights that set free the imagination, far out of reach of the most adventurous SUV.
As the sunlit uplands flatten out, fynbos gives way to Monterey pines, then apple orchards, oaks and willows. Elgin is renowned for being cooler and wetter than the rest of the province, and it feels as if we have passed into a different land and a different time as we pull up at the village station.
The market is a renovated fruit warehouse originally built by Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s and now restored to functional elegance. It is a feast for the eyes and a tantalising buffet of flavours.
It had been a long time since breakfast and I was never going to resist a plate of Mozambican prawns and a side of oysters — both excellent value for money — while my companion was drawn to the Thai stand, but it’s worth checking out the nooks and crannies before making your decisions.
The stopover is about two-and-a-half hours, which sounds like plenty of time on arrival, but it flies by as we browse the stalls. The building alone is worth hours of contemplation with beer or cool-climate wine in hand. The architect and builders have added the graceful curves of the staircase balustrade, struts and filigree to the bare bones of raw finishes and concrete. It looks to me like late Art Nouveau, which sits perfectly with the origins of the rail line.
The steampunk aesthetic is expressed in the airplane propeller-like overhead fans and the soaring clock mechanism and in smaller details of rivets and gears. “The idea was that everywhere you look, your eye would see something it has never seen before,” industrial designer Corban Warrington told Visi magazine.
We resume our seats onboard, satisfied with purchases of handmade chocolates, a leather bag and shoes, a ferociously sharp kitchen knife and an ingenious folding wooden egg holder shaped like a chicken. The chocolates alone are worth a return visit.
Once we are back at sea level, the afternoon drags slightly and it would have been smart to pre-book a shoulder massage with Liesel and Natalie in the spa compartment. But time passes in a drowsy, satiated way with books and coffee until Table Bay makes a dramatic reappearance with glorious backlighting.
There was a shortish stop to give way to the Prasa suburban trains — and social media does draw attention to longer delays at other times — but the coach co-ordinator explains the problem to each of us. What is remarkable is not that trains are sometimes delayed but the directness with which the company communicates and the professionalism of the staff.
The trains can carry about 240 people when fully booked and yet all the passengers are funnelled quickly and efficiently onboard and off — all cashless, paperless and painless, even for those of us who overthink the directions. It is a promising sign that about four years ago the company relaunched a freight service between Wolseley, Ceres and Prince Alfred Hamlet with Transnet Freight Rail to carry fruit and frozen fruit concentrate.
Ceres Rail is running 10 trips to Elgin in the run-up to New Year, and it is adding to its itinerary for 2026, with longer excursions to Matjiesfontein and Mossel Bay planned.
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