The branch line between George and Knysna traversed some of the most spectacular railway scenery in the world. Leaving George, trains descended to Victoria Bay before crossing the Kaaimans River Bridge -- an arched stone viaduct that became, by some accounts, the most photographed railway bridge on the planet. From there, the route hugged the coast through Wilderness, passing lakes, lagoons, and indigenous forest before reaching Sedgefield and the Goukamma valley. The final stretch crossed the Knysna Lagoon on a low bridge, arriving at a station adjacent to the town's waterfront. The journey took roughly two and a half hours, and passengers who had booked it as a tourist novelty often found themselves unexpectedly moved by the landscape unfolding outside the carriage windows.

The line's heritage value was formally recognized in 1992, when it was declared an officially preserved railway. By the early 2000s, passenger numbers had tripled from 40,000 to 115,000 per year, with 70 percent of riders being foreign tourists. The trains were typically hauled by SAR Class 19D steam locomotives -- powerful 4-8-2 engines with distinctive Vanderbilt-style torpedo tenders. Class 24 locomotives were occasionally substituted, and during dry summer months, when wildfire risk was highest, SAR Class 32 diesel engines replaced the steamers to eliminate the danger of sparks igniting the fynbos-covered hillsides. Then, in August 2006, heavy floods tore through the region and damaged sections of the track. The service was temporarily rerouted to run between George and Mossel Bay, but the original route was never restored.

The Outeniqua Choo Tjoe made its final run on September 17, 2010. Transnet, the state-owned transport company that owned the line, declared the train outside its core business and sought new operators through a tender process. Years of negotiations with private companies, including Classic Rail, produced no agreement. The track deteriorated. Slopes collapsed in the Goukamma valley, leaving rails suspended in midair. Sleepers rotted or were scavenged. Trees grew between the rails, roots splitting the ballast. The railway that had once carried more than a hundred thousand passengers a year was being slowly consumed by the forest it had run through. Meanwhile, the communities along the route -- Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna -- lost both a transport link and a tourist attraction that had drawn visitors from around the world.

On October 6, 2025, Classic Rail announced it had secured the contracts and funding to rehabilitate the George-Knysna line and relaunch the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe as a tourist service. The plan calls for two phases: Knysna to Sedgefield first, followed by Sedgefield to George, with the first phase estimated at approximately twelve months. The challenges are substantial. A 2025 inspection of the line revealed the full extent of fifteen years of neglect -- collapsed embankments, missing sleepers, vegetation that would need to be cleared kilometer by kilometer. But the train has a cultural weight that transcends its commercial value. It appeared in a 2008 Stella Artois television advertisement, its image sells postcards in every Garden Route gift shop, and its absence has been felt by every town along its route. If the revival succeeds, the Kaaimans River Bridge will carry a steam whistle again for the first time in nearly two decades.