Steam Trains and Engines

The East African Railways were formed in 1948 when the former Kenya & Uganda Railway amalgamated with the Tanganyika Railway. The resulting metre-gauge network is thus of great interest in embodying both British and German practice, since the main line of the former Tanganyika system from Dares-Salaam to Kigoma was built when this part of East Africa was included in the German Empire.

The Kenya-Uganda line itself starts on the Indian Ocean at Mombasa, climbs inland to Nairobi, and finally achieves a height of 9,288 ft. before reaching the foothills of the ' Mountains of the Moon.' Even over the 327-mile main line between Mombasa and Nairobi the ruling gradient is 1 in 60, and there are many sharp curves. To work traffic on this difficult route the E.A.R. operates 11 variety of Beyer-Garratt locomotives, including the. largest and most powerful metre-gauge locomotives in the world. Built by Beyer-Peacock, the first of these superb Class ' 59' engines was delivered in 1955 and thirty-four are now in service.

Of 4-8-2+2-8-4 wheel arrangement, and weighing 248 tons, the ‘59' class engines have four 20 in.* 28 in cylinders, develop over 83,000 lb> tractive effort and are allowed to work trains of 1,200 tons between Mombasa and Nairobi. They are designed for conversion to 3 ft. 6 in. gauge if the planned link with the Rhodesia Railways is ever carried out. Our picture shows No. 5914 crossing the Makupa Causeway which links Mumbasa Island to the mainland.