The first sod was turned on 31 March 1859 by Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape Colony from 1854 to 1861, but the planned railhead at Wellington was only reached on 4 November 1863, after the contractors, Messrs. E. & J. Pickering, had been dismissed in October 1861 and construction was taken over by the Company itself.

Since the full complement of engines arrived when the construction of the line to Wellington had barely begun, they were erected and placed on display for the public, while awaiting the completion of sufficient track to be useful.

[1][2] The public was allowed to ride for the first time on 26 December 1860, on the line which was only to reach Salt River on 8 February 1861, a distance of only 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 kilometres) which took the contractor nearly two years to complete.

This snail's pace led to a dispute between Cape Town Railway and Dock and the contractor, which eventually ended in sabotage in October 1861.

4 Wellington, into a culvert, with the result that it had to be sent to the newly established workshops at Salt River to have some serious damage repaired.

From Wellington, the only option for travellers who wished to go further inland was by road across the Bain's Kloof Pass, which had been completed in 1853.

[3] According to the plaque attached to the plinth base of the first locomotive in South Africa at Cape Town station, construction engine no.

9 Blackie had the honour, in 1865, to haul the official inaugural train of the company's Cape Town-Wellington Railway to Welling­ton.

The broad gauge track's 65 pounds per yard (32.2 kilograms per metre) iron rails were lifted and the track was relaid to Cape gauge as rapidly as possible, using 70 pounds per yard (34.7 kilograms per metre) steel rail sections on creosoted wooden sleepers.