Commer's Web

In conjunction with Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk, the Joburg Photowalkers held a photowalk at Modderfontein. Here at Modderfontein explosives were manufactured for the gold mining industry from 1894 and it is at The Dynamite Company Museum in Modderfontein that I stumbled upon this Commer lorry used by James Sydney Transort (PTY.) Ltd. to carry explosives from the Modderfontein Dynamite factory to the mines. The lorries replaced the ox wagons drawn by a span of 14 to 16 oxen in 1925 but I am not sure which year is this Commer Explosives Carrier.

The Commer lorry was interesting to me and brought back so many memories as our family owned a Morris Commercial lorry which I used to drive. Although the Commer is much larger than the Morris there was some similarities which why the memories. The Morris had a split bonnet but under it were a very similar straight 6 diesel engine, and the sound of the motor came flooding back. The wind wiper motor design was exactly the same but in different positions and even in this spider web photograph the hooter stork off the steering column is exactly the same.

I can still picture driving that old girl down from Nelspruit all the way to Durban to bring my merger belongings up to the Slowveldt. Ahh some memories will never fade.