It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:41 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 37 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 7:50 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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/20 ... -to-soroti.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:03 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
Two more posts about the branch-line to Gulu and Arua. The first takes us from Soroti to Gulu.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... ti-to-gulu

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

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... lu-to-arua


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:04 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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/20 ... o-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.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:05 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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/20 ... 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!!


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:55 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
This next post relates to the western extension of the Uganda Railway through to Kasese and the Kilembe Mines.

The Western Extension, as it was known, was built and opened in the mid-1950s, its main target was to reach the Kilembe Copper Mines in the west of Uganda. Kasese was built alongside the Mines and has grown since then into a reasonable size town with industry and tourism building its economy.

Official sanction for building the railway to Mityana was given in 1951, and for the continuation to Kasese in 1952. The decision rested upon a guaranteed source of traffic at Kilembe, and was prompted by the fact that mining development was dependent on some positive step to improve communications. There seemed little doubt that the line would attract some Congo traffic, which would provide new revenue for E.A.R. & H., while the Uganda Government was much encouraged by the very favourable report of an Economic Survey Committee. The concluding sentence of the report reflects the tone of the whole: ‘The committee desires to record its firm conviction that this project will prove eminently successful. and contribute materially to the welfare and prosperity of the people of Uganda”. The capital cost of the extension was £5.25 million, and the Uganda Government provided the Railway Administration with a loan to cover this.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... -to-kasese


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:55 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
It was my intention, before starting this exercise, to cover all locomotives and rolling stock on the railways in Kenya and Uganda in a single post. As I began to review the available information in books and on the internet, it seemed that there was enough material to justify more than one post. This and the following posts will not be fully comprehensive in nature but I hope that they provide some insights that are valuable.

Probably, along with many other people, my attention is primarily drawn to the Garratt locomotives on these lines. However, I will attempt to reflect the full range of motive power and rolling stock on the line, references are given where ever possible. Everything in this first post predates the arrival of the Garratt locomotives.

Early Locomotives on the Uganda Railway (1896-1926)

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... ock-part-a


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:47 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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.

Locomotives on the Kenya and Uganda Railway and Harbours Lines (1927- 1948)

In 1926/27 the Uganda Railway was replaced first by the Kenya and Uganda Railways in 1926 and then by the Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (KURH) Corporation in 1927, when the powers-that-be placed Mombasa Harbour into the same company as the railways.

Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (KURH) ran harbours, railways and lake and river ferries in Kenya Colony and the UgandaProtectorate until 1948. It included the Uganda Railway, which it extended from Nakuru to Kampala in 1931. In the same year it built a branch line to Mount Kenya.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... 927-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.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 3:13 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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/20 ... an-railway

Research suggests that there are two possible locations for these locos operations after leaving East Africa. The first, initially seeming the most likely, is the Burma-Yunnan Railway which was a British project. The second was a French project. We spend a little time focussing on each project before some final observations are made at the end of this post


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 3:34 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
This is the third post about Locomotives and Rolling Stock on the network of lines in Uganda and Kenya.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... 48-to-1977

The network continued to make use of the best of the locomotives purchased by both the Uganda Railway and the Kenya Uganda Railways and Harbours Corporation. The EAR&H renumbered all of the older locomotives into a consistent numbering system. The first two digits of four referred to the class of locomotive and the second two digits to the number in the class. Before we move on to the new purchases, here are a few images of the older locomotives on the system, further information about these classes can be found in the previous posts in this series.

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.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:28 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
This post brings the story of the line up to date (to 2018).

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... 77-to-2018

In 1977 the East African Railways Corporation (EARC), formerly the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) was broken up. The three countries which made up the East African Community were unable to agree about many things and it became necessary for them to go their own ways. Three railway companies were formed: Kenya Railways Corporation; Uganda Railways Corporation; and Tanzania Railways Corporation. In this post we will focus on the first two of these and on later arrangements with Rift Valley Railways which ended in 2017 when the two Corporations were reformed. At the end of the post, which is essentially about narrow-gauge railways we will highlight developments relating to the new standard-gauge lines which may well dominate the future in Kenya and Uganda.

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!


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 4:36 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
Metre-Gauge Railways in East Africa - Rolling Stock

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... 95-to-2018

This post provides a short survey of carriages, goods wagons and brake vans/cabooses on the network in Kenya and Uganda from the inception of the Uganda Railway in the 19th Century to through the demise of the East African Railways Corporation in 1977 on to 2018 when this post is being written. The approach is eclectic rather than structured and the post includes some interesting vehicles.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:42 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
Over Christmas 2018, I took some time to look through older Railway Magazines which had been waiting for my attention for months. I 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/2018/12/28/u ... april-1950


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:43 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
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/ug ... -june-1950


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:43 pm 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
Hidden behind Nairobi Railway Museum are a large number of old railway carriages. They have been given to a community arts project. ...............

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48906331


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: The Uganda Railway, East Africa
PostPosted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:42 am 

Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:25 am
Posts: 337
A while back I started this thread to cover the Uganda Railway, its construction and history, as well as surveying the length of the line through Kenya and Uganda.

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/ug ... da-railway

In order to provide the context for the construction of the Uganda Railway, M.F. Hill saw it as imperative in his book to provide a social and economic history of the East African region. It is impossible for me to judge the veracity of what he writes, but it clearly is written from a British Colonial perspective. In addition to covering the strife between the European powers who sought to increase their influence in the Great Lakes region of the continent of Africa, Hill provides extensive quotes from leading British figures in the region about the Uganda that they knew before the coming of the railway.


Offline
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 37 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


 Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: