Friends of the Rail Forum

Following on from a couple of articles about the Tanat Valley Light Railway written some years back, I was reading some older rather tatty magazines and found an article entitled “Rails up the Tanat Valley” in an issue of the Ian Allan publication ‘Railway World‘ – the June 1990 edition.

The ...

The Railway Magazine of November 1954 reported that East African Railways & Harbours had begun to name its new ’60’ Class Beyer- Garratt locomotives. They chose to name them after past and present Governors. The ’60’ Class were then the most powerful Beyer-Garratt locomotives to be delivered to ...

Les Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France - Ligne du Littoral - St. Raphael -Toulon. (Chemins de Fer de Provence/Alpes-Maritimes No. 94)

This very short post returns to the coastal line between St. Raphael and Toulon. Two videos make use of historic photographs which have been given a treatment ...

600 mm Narrow Gauge Lines used during World War 1 in East Africa – Predominantly in what is now Tanzania

600 mm gauge trolley lines (often known as Feldbahnen or “field railways”) played a crucial role in the East African Campaign of the First World War, particularly in German East Africa (GEA ...

This short line originated from a proposal made by the stationmaster at Wendover. [1: p97]

The featured image for this short article is a photograph of a OO-Gauge model of Wendover Railway Station built by David Dan Givens and covered in the September 2018 edition of Hornby Magazine. The image ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

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 ...

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

Over recent years, I have reported events relating to the railways of Kenya and Uganda but have singularly failed to do so in relation to the railway network in Tanzania. This has probably been ...

The featured image in the linked article shows a horse-drawn/mule-drawn tram in Zanzibar before the turn of the 20th century.

Zanzibar hosted two early rail systems, with a mule-drawn tramway operating from 1879 to 1888 between Stone Town and Chukwani, which later used a steam locomotive. A second ...

February 2026 – Kenya and Uganda Railways – Latest News

I spent 3 weeks in Uganda in February 2026. This short article picks up on local news reports about developments relating to railways in East Africa early in 2026. …. This article follows on from one published early in December 2025.

The ...

Shoeburyness History, Standard-Gauge Military Tramway, and other Narrow-Gauge Tramways

Shoeburyness was once a fortified place guarding the Northern flank of the Thames Estuary. It appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 894 CE, and it was assumed for many years to have been built as a ‘Danish ...

Barrow-in-Furness Steam Tramway

The Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company operated a steam-powered tram service from 11th July 1885 until electrification in 1904. Using a 4 ft (1.219 m) gauge, the tramway reached Ramsden Dock by 1886 and continued expanding through the electric era to locations such ...