Uganda Railways -Metre Gauge
 

My wife and I are in Uganda at the moment (9th May 2018), I have been here a number of times before. The national railway system is metre-gauge. I hope this first post is of interest to members of this forum.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...ailways-part-1

Other posts about the trip, but not railway related, can be found on this link:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/category/uganda

This second post provides some more information about the history of what is often called 'The Lunatic Line'.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...ailways-part-2

This third post in the series starts the journey along the 'Lunatic Line'.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...ailways-part-3

Thanks, good to see some pictures of Garratt's (not Barratt's) in Africa again Roger. I was a fireman on Garratt's in Rhodesia back in the 60's. The 59's were the largest Garratt's in Africa and our class 20A's were the next. We also had 14,14A,15,15A,16, 16A,20 and 20A class Garratt's. The only ones I never fired was the 16 and 16A class. The East African Railways had oil fired loco's, but all the Rhodesian Railways loco's were coal fired. Only the 20, 20A classes had a worm and steam jet firing system.

Hi DSY011
I kept correcting the autospell function. I must have missed some .... my apologies!

I have now been through Post 3 and corrected the misspelling! Thanks for pointing it out.
Roger

The 4th post in a series about Uganda Railways. This post covers the journey along the original Uganda Railway from Mazeras to Voi.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...mazeras-to-voi

I have just returned from a trip to Africa, staying in south-western Uganda. This is the 5th part of my story of the Uganda Railway. It covers the length from Voi to Ulu in Kenya.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...t-5-voi-to-ulu

Our journey along the 'Uganda Railway' continues. In this post we travel from Ulu into Nairobi and notice two branch-lines on the way.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...ulu-to-nairobi

This next post focusses on the station at Nairobi and its immediate environment.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...railway-museum

We are gradually getting closer to the eastern border of Uganda! This is the next post in the series and covers the strech of the line from Nairobi to Lake Naivasha .....

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...bi-to-naivasha

Another leg of the journey on the Uganda Railway.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...asha_to_nakuru

The next two posts cover the length of the old Uganda Railway to Kisumu and Butere. Originally, this line was of significant strategic importance. Trains along the line provided access to Lake Victoria and the inland steamers that then provided access to the Great Lakes region and to Kampala via Port Bell.

The construction of the line from Nakuru to Kampala and beyond changed thing significantly and the old main line became a branch-line and has seen little traffic over recent years.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...line-to-kisumu

Before we return to Nakuru to follow the main line towards Kampala, one further post about the Kisumu line. There was a short branch which left the Kisumu to Nakuru line within the confines of Kisumu city. This post focusses on that line.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...sumu-to-butere

Back at Nakuru, we prepare ourselves to travel on to Kampala. This post takes us to Eldoret.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...uru-to-eldoret

Eldoret is a junction station. The branch-line service to Kitale set off from Eldoret. We follow its route.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...oret-to-kitale

We really are now almost in Uganda! The is the last post focussing on the Uganda Railway in Kenya. It takes us from Eldoret to the border with Uganda at Malaba.

Sadly, in this post there is little evidence of locomotives. The line has seen little use over the years. I was very fortunate to be able to travel 1st Class all the way from Mombasa to Kampala in 1994. I had no idea at the time how fragile that service was.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...oret-to-malaba

With this post we have crossed the border between Kenya and Uganda. Just across the border in Tororo the mainline divides to give a Kampala/Kasese route via Jinja, and a Pakwach and Aria route via Soroti. The more northerly route through Soroti was perceived as the branch but it has been the route which has been refurbished first (in 2013).

We will follow the branch first.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...laba-to-soroti.

Two more posts about the branch-line to Gulu and Arua. The first takes us from Soroti to Gulu.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...soroti-to-gulu

The second covers the length to the end of the branch-line.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...7-gulu-to-arua

We have now returned to the mainline at Tororo and are heading on toward Kampala.

The story continues .... "We leave Tororo is a north-westerly direction following the contours on the north side of the Nagongera Road as far as Achilet (about 5 kilometres outside of Tororo). For the next 10 kilometres the railway stays north of the road until reaching Nagongera, or Nagongora, .............."

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...ororo-to-jinja

Of interest is the number of railway lines on the map between Tororo and Jinja. There is by far the greatest density of lines in Uganda.

The journey continues from Jinja to Kampala .......

“The Nile River Bridge at Jinja was built in the late 1920s. It is perhaps the iconic structure for the whole of the metre-gauge railway system from Mombasa to Kasese.

The first railway in Uganda ran from Jinja to Namasagali on the Victoria Nile where a steamer service ran on to Masindi Port. From there passengers travelled by road through Masindi to Butiaba on Lake Albert. From there they could travel on by steamer to the Belgian Congo or north to Juba in the Sudan.

Train passengers from Kenya reached Uganda by steamer from the railhead at Kisumu and across Lake Victoria to Entebbe or Port Bell. In the mid 1920s the main line in Kenya was extended from Nakuru through Eldoret, and Tororo to Mbulamuti where it met up with the original Jinja to Namasagali line. The new line to Kampala then crossed the Nile at Jinja by a bridge carrying both the railway and a roadway underneath.”

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...nja-to-kampala

The last part of my own journey to Kampala by train in 1994 commenced once a derailed freight train had been rerailed ahead of us and the passenger train was ‘given the road'. We had waited for over 6 hours at Jinja Railway Station. Travelling by rail was unreliable but really enjoyable!!

We are now in Kampala and preparing to travel on to Kasese.

This post (below) is the penultimate post on the direct route from Mombasa to Kasese. After this there will be three further posts. One to complete the line to Kasese, one to review an old and defunct branch line running north from Jinja and a final post which will seek to cover the locomotives and rolling stock on the Uganda Railway .....

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...art-20-kampala

This next post relates to the western extension of the Uganda Railway through to Kasese and the Kilembe Mines. (I am expecting to post twice more about the Uganda Railway. There is one branchline which I have to follow and then I plan to write about the locomotives and rolling stock on the line.)

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...pala-to-kasese

This is the last post relating directly to the lines of the Uganda Railway and covers the first railway built in Uganda. The last post on the Uganda Railway will cover the locomotives and rolling stock on the network.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...-to-namasagali

There is much to explore in the Great Lakes region in Africa! This series of posts relates only to the railways providing access to Uganda but there were a whole variety of different transport services in the area which would warrant further study!

My original plan was to provide details of locomotives and rolling stock on the Railway in a single post. This has become a little unwieldy so further posts will follow this one ...

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...g-stock-part-a

The first of these posts about locomotives and rolling stock on the railways of Uganda and Kenya covered locomotives used by the Uganda Railway. This second post primarily covers locomotives introduced by the Kenya Uganda Railway up until it handed over to the East African Railways Corporation in 1948.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...-b-1927-to-19/

The Kenya Uganda Railway introduced Beyer Garratt locomotives to the network. These were massive machines with huge pulling power which suited the lightly constructed lines on which they ran.

One of the small snippets of information I have encountered while writing the series of posts on the Uganda Railway and its successors is an almost passing comment made in a number of texts about the Kenya Uganda Railway Beyer-Garratts numbered 41-44, 51 and 53. These comments refer to these locomotives being sold to Indo-China.

Someone asked me whether there was any information about what happened to these locos in any of the main texts about the metre-gauge lines in East Africa. The only specific reference appears to relate to the locos going to the 'Yunnan Railway'.

It might be that others can shed more light on this, but I thought that it was worth following up. The post below is the result of this.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...yunnan-railway

This is the third post about Locomotives and Rolling Stock on the network of lines in Uganda and Kenya.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...m-1948-to-1977

Very sadly, so very few of these locomotives have survived in any form, let alone in a condition to continue to run on the network.

The East African Railways and Harbours Corporation began to look at replacing its steam locomotives with more modern power units. This next post is part of that story.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...l-1948-to-1977

Two posts remain to complete the story of the line. This is the first of these. It brings the story of the line up to date (to 2018).

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...f-1977-to-2018

Very sadly, at least from a heritage perspective, the metre-gauge line and its trains have largely been replaced between Nairobi and Mombasa. No doubt the new trains are infinitely better. But their advent has brought to an end the real sense of adventure that travelling the metre-gauge line from Mombasa to Nairobi evoked!

I anticipate that this is the final post in this series about Uganda Railway and its successors. I trust that you have enjoyed these posts. If you have, then I have been posting about metre-gauge lines in France and you might wish to look at those posts in due course!

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...k-1895-to-2018

Over Christmas 2018, I have taken some time to look through older Railway Magazines which have been waiting for my attention for months. I have enjoyed looking at copies of The Railway Magazine from 1950 and found a complete copy of an article about the Kenya-Uganda Railway in the April 1950 edition of the magazine.

I thought the full article may be of interest here. Please follow this link:

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/12/2...950-april-1950

Continuing to read through the 1950 editions of The Railway Magazine, I came across this article in the June issue:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/01/01...1950-june-1950

It is a while since I completed this thread about The Uganda Railway. Or at least thought I had completed it.

In the autumn of 2020, someone kindly pointed out that I had not referenced the official history of the line which was published in 1949.

At the end of 2020 I acquired copies of the 2 volume series compiled by M.F.Hill entitled 'Permanent Way'. These two books were produced for the East African Railways and Harbours, Nairobi, Kenya and, while being focussed on the Uganda Railway were as much a social and economic history of East Africa.

This link will take you to some preliminary reflections which come from reading Hill's book and which I hope are not seen as being too far off topic:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/12/18...uganda-railway

The Uganda Railway at the beginning of 20th century.

Further reflections on the Uganda Railway and the book, "Permanent Way" written by M.F. Hill.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/12/26...f-20th-century

The Uganda Railway during the Great War. ...

"The Uganda Railway" was essential to the sustenance of the East Africa Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate during WW1. It suffered greatly from lack of maintenance during those critical years:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/12/28...irst-world-war

The Uganda Railway after WW1. .....

In the years immediately after WW1, further European settlement was encouraged and 'European' electoral areas were set up. By 1921, the Census revealed the European population of the EAP to be 9,651 and the Indian population to be 22,822. ..........

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/01/08...er-world-war-1

The Uganda Railway and it's Gilded Years - 1924-1929

The railway saw significant increases in turnover and working profit in the years prior to the Great Depression

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/06...ears-1924-1928

Isn’t that an amazing amount of profit. I recall when a kid an uncle (more of a brother) worked on the railway, he said they were recruiting staff in East Africa; he talked about us going and the exotic birds we could watch, he was just dreaming, I think.

Hi, yes, large working profits in the years 1924 to 1929 made up for gross underfunding over many years. All of the working profit was plugged back into the railway and Harbours.

The story in the following years was of dramatic reductions from these levels. Christian Felling was an excellent manager, his early death in 1929 was a great loss to the railway.