East African Garratt

The East African Railways were formed in 1948 when the former Kenya & Uganda Railway amalgamated with the Tanganyika Railway. The resulting meter-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 started on the Indian Ocean at Mombasa, climbed inland to Nairobi, and finally achieved 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 was 1 in 60, and there were many sharp curves. To work traffic on this difficult route the E.A.R. operated 11 variety of Beyer-Garratt locomotives, including the. largest and most powerful meter-gauge locomotives in the world. Built by Beyer-Peacock, the first of these superb Class ' 59' engines was delivered in 1955.

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 were designed for conversion to 3 ft. 6 in. gauge if the planned link with the Rhodesia Railways was ever carried out. Our picture shows No. 5914 crossing the Makupa Causeway which linked Mumbasa Island to the mainland.