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The Blue Train, for decades one of the world's most renowned passenger trains,
owes its origins to the Union Limited and the Union Express, which - from
1923
- linked
Johannesburg
with
the mailships
departing
from Cape
Town for England. 
Ordinary coaches were used until 1927, when articulated saloons
were imported. The two Union trains travelled the distance in 30 hours and
introduced a new standard of luxury.
In July 1937 it was announced that twelve air-conditioned,
all-steel sleeping coaches had been ordered from the Birmingham
firm of
Metro-Cammell at a cost
of some R19 000 each. A later order called for all-steel lounge coaches and
dining cars, kitchen-cars and a baggage van.
The coaches were delivered
at
the start of the Second World War, but
the service was suspended in 1942 and was only resumed in February 1946,
from which year it formally bore the name "Blue Train". During
this period it was used for a few State journeys.
In 1997 a new Blue Train was introduced and its traditional route between
Cape Town and Pretoria was extended northwards to the Victoria Falls. In
the following
year, a second identical train came into service, allowing the Blue
Train to add to its destinations Hoedspruit on the western edge of the Kruger
National Park, and Port Elizabeth at the eastern end of South Africa's
Garden Route.
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