Information regarding the now-abandoned cableway between Barberton and the old Havelock asbestos mine was recently published here.

The cableway was constructed between 1936 and 1939 and was completed before the outbreak of the Second World War, just in time for the German engineers to get safely to their motherland.

For the Allied forces this was just in time to obtain access to the much-needed asbestos fibre needed as isolation and protection against heat and fire for armoured vehicles.

Adolf Bleichert & Co was a famous German engineering company from Lipsia (Saxony). It soon became the world’s leading cablecar and ropeway constructions enterprise, both for material cablecars and for person transportation ropeways.

Although it does not exist as a company any longer, it is still considered, from a historic industrial point of view, to be the founder of the modern cableway system, and inventor and deliverer of the most important wire ropeways throughout the world.

More than 5 000 wire ropeways have been ordered, built and delivered to many countries during the existence and growth of Bleichert company, starting from its establishment in 1874 until 1994, passing through many decades of history.