This thread is meant to cover all the railways of Tanzania, starting with the old metre-gauge lines.



First, a look at the history of the various lines in Tanzania.

The linked article focusses on the history of the Usambara Railway (Usambarabahn) in the north of Tanzania.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/03/16/ra ... -tanzania/

Part 2 - The Route of the Usambarabahn

The Route of the Usambara Railway – Tanga to Moshi

In 2018, the Government of Tanzania invested 5.7 billion Tanzanian shillings to rehabilitate the line. As of July 2019, diesel powered cargo trains were leaving Tanga Railway Station again. Passenger transport between Tanga and Arusha was planned to start in September 2019, but has not been commenced as yet. [6]

The line has its terminus in the Port of Tanga. It leaves the Port of Tanga (Hafen von Tanga) to run towards Tanga station and from there on to Moshi.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/04/01/ra ... a-to-moshi

Part 3 - The Railway Line from Voi to Kahe

The majority of this line was in Kenya, built to support the war effort in the First World War.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/04/09/ra ... i-tanzania

Railways of Tanzania – Part 4 – Moshi to Arusha

The featured image in the linked post is a photograph of East African Railways (EAR) 29 class steam locomotive no. 2904 at Moshi depot, Tanzania, © Basil Roberts and licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Moshi-Arusha railway line is a 86 km extension of the Usambara Railway (Usambarabahn) in northern Tanzania, It was initially built between 1911 and 1929 and rehabilitated in 2018–2019, the metre-gauge line connects the Northern zone to the port of Tanga, and mainly serves as a freight corridor for agriculture and industrial goods.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/04/15/ra ... to-arusha/

A number of different articles are under preparation, this is the next completed article:

Part 9 – Narrow-Gauge Industrial Lines

The featured image for this article shows a train on the Kihuhui Bridge on the Sigi Railway in Tanganyika.

Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) possessed a dense network of industrial narrow-gauge railways, primarily developed during the German colonial era (German East Africa) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to support plantation agriculture and forestry. While the main lines (Central Line and Usambara Railway) were built to 1,000 mm (metre) gauge, industrial, plantation, and forestry lines often used 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) or 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) gauge.

Following World War I, the British administration deemed many of the 600 mm “light railways” to be economically inefficient compared to the, at the time, more efficient 1,000 mm metre-gauge lines, leading to a shift away from developing these smaller lines.

Early Industrial Narrow Gauge lines included: the Sigi Railway; and the Sisal Plantation Railways. Later industrial lines included: the Southern Province Railway, the Port of Bujumbura Railway, and Narrow Gauge Railways near Moshi.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/03/04/na ... a-tanzania

Part 10 – The Mkumbara to Neu Hornow Cableway/Ropeway, Usambara Hills, German East Africa/Tanganyika

The western Usambara Hills were characterised by precipitous cliffs and deep gorges. The provision of a rail link between Mkumbara and Neu Hornow was not considered practical.

A 9 km long ropeway was constructed, under the ownership of “the firm of Wilkens and Wiese, and designed to carry cedar from the Shume plateau to the railway, an enterprise that was never an economic success. The longest span of the ropeway, 907 metres, was said to be the longest in the world when it was built in the years 1910-1911.” [1: p75] Wood was transported via the Goatal/Ngoha Valley in the Schumewald/Shume Forest. [2]

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/03/08/th ... tanganyika

Railways of Tanzania – Part 7 – The Central Line – An Introductory History and the Length of Line from Dar-es-Salaam to Mikese

The featured image for this article is a photograph of East African Railways (EAR) Class 30 steam locomotive No. 3019 ‘Nyamwezi’ at Tabora depot on the Central Line, Tanzania in 1968. Class 30 locomotives were oil-burning 2-8-4 steam locomotives. Built in the 1950s by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, the 26 engines in the Class were named after indigenous tribes across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). They were known as the ‘Tribal Class’ of locomotives, (c) Basil Roberts and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). [44]

The line from Dar-es-Salaam to Kigoma. was known during the German Protectorate as the Mittelland Bahn. Under British colonial control it was the Central Line.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/06/04/ra ... salaam-to/