Uganda Railways

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

 

The Sugar Factory Branches off the Kisumu Line

An on-line acquaintance has recently pointed out that the tenth article in this series about the Uganda Railway is incomplete in that it omits to cover two branch-lines which serve Sugar Cane Mills/Factories. I have returned to the trip along the Uganda Railway to complete the omitted part of the story - that of the Chemelil and Miwani Sugar Factory Branches. ........

On the final approaches to Kisumu the line passed through a significant sugar cane growing region. Sugar processing factories were set up in two locations along the line - Chemelil and Miwani. Both these locations were provided with short branch-line connections to the main Nakuru to Kisumu line.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/03/...ar-factory-branches-on-the-approach-to-kisumu

 

This is the last post based around the book by M.F. Hill which was published in 1949 just as the Tanganyika and Kenya/Uganda networks became one organisation. It cover the Second World War and the few years immediately after. .....

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/03/...s-and-harbours-the-second-world-war-and-after

 

This last post on the Micklehurst Loop completes the journey to Diggle and takes us to the mouths of the Standedge tunnels and Diggle Station.

We completed our walk in January but returned in April to take a few pictures at the site of what was once Diggle Station. ....

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/04/16/the-micklehurst-loop-part-4

 

John R. Day wrote two volumes in the early 1960s about the railways of Africa. The first was about the southern area of the continent and entitled, unsurprisingly, ‘Railways of Southern Africa’. The second volume was entitled ‘Railways of Northern Africa’ and dealt with the remainder of the continent.

An on-line acquaintance very kindly sent me a copy of the chapter from that second volume which covers British East Africa. Today, the chapter title would give cause for concern for some people, but colonial attitudes still held sway in the 1960s.

Reading that chapter piqued my interest and I managed to pick up a secondhand copy of the book at a reasonable cost. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/04/15/british-east-africa/