Uganda Railways

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. Huochemi has commented on this and did so while I was working through what I could find on the internet.

As we have noted, there is very little in the main texts about the East African Railways to clarify what did happen to these locos. 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. Ultimately, you will find that it comes back to the points made by huochemi above.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/06/24/indo-china-to-yunnan-railway

 

Hi Roger, just to be clear, we know what happened to the Garratts. All six are shown on the 1948 roster for the Yunnan Railway, and five for the "1960s" (60 年代) (from Yunnan Province History - Railway History 云南省志 - 铁道志 published by the Yunnan People's Publishing House in 1994). My interest is how they came to be sold by the KUR to Yunnan. Incidentally, looking at your updated note, I cannot see anything in the ALCO Works List for 2-8-8-2s for Burma/China around 1941, and I wonder if it ever got as far as a firm order.

 

Hi huochemi,

Thank you. I appreciate the clarification. I can find no details in the African texts as to why the sale occurred.
I found looking at the various references really interesting and wanted to share my thought processes.
Best wishes
Roger

 

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

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.co...s-and-rolling-stock-part-c-steam-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/2018/06/29/uganda-railways-part-26-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-part-d-diesel-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/2018/07/03/uganda-railways-part-28-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-part-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/2018/07/04/uganda-railways-part-27-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-part-e-rolling-stock-1895-to-2018

 

I love this diagram, which expresses the regional requirement for big powerful bendy locos far better than words alone ever can!

This series of posts has been highly informative and a delight to read. Many thanks @Roger Farnworth.

 

Thank you!

 

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/2018/12/28/uganda-railways-part-29-the-railway-magazine-1950-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/uganda-railways-part-30-the-railway-magazine-1950-june-1950

 

I have been enjoying Adrian Garner's book "Monorails of the 19th Century." I discovered that the first rail link between what was at the time Port Kampala and Kampala itself was a monorail!

Rolling stock was propelled along the line by bullocks rather than any form of mechanical propulsion.

The line was less than 8 miles long and lasted no more than a few years.

These are the details:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/02/28/a-monorail-in-kampala

 

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/2020/12/1...-up-to-the-construction-of-the-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/the-uganda-railway-at-the-beginning-of-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/the-uganda-railway-during-the-first-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/the-uganda-railway-in-the-first-5-years-after-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/the-uganda-railway-the-gilded-years-1924-1928

 

The Great Depression and the Coming War ...

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/...rs-the-great-depression-and-years-of-argument

 

It has been very interesting to read about the Ugandan railway system. A Company I worked for (Turner Machinery, Leeds) supplied a turn key tannery project to Jinja in the late 1970's at the time of Idi Amin. Although I didn't visit Uganda, I did go to Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, S Afrika and others at that time. Some unusual memories!

 

Thank you Phil.