Mark Torkington wrote:CDN
CDN run the Northern section of CFM from Nacala on the Indian Ocean coast to Cuamba, Lichinga and on into Malawi. Having crossed over the border from Malawi at Nayuchi / Entre Lagos we took the back of a pick up truck to Cuamba for the daily passenger train to Nampula. These trains have 3rd class, 2nd class compartments and a buffet, are relatively fast, comfortable and highly recommended, but best of all; they're usually entrusted to Indian Railways YDM4s. Be warned - despite what is on the net, it's 0530 ex Cuamba but is now 0500 ex Nampula - we were bowled out by that! It takes about 10 and a half hours to cover the 333km.
They have 6 ex Indian YDM4s and the status on 8th September was:
C101 - in service on freight paired with C103
C102 - in service on passenger
C103 - in service on freight paired with C101
C104 - in service on passenger
C105 - under overhaul at Nampula
C106 - crash damaged - to be scrapped
Freight services to Lichinga apparently rarely run and the last one took two weeks to cover the 226km due to many derailments and appalling state of the track, but freight services run to the Malawi border (and on to Liwonde) regularly and C106 was irreparably damaged in a head on crash with a wagon in Malawi.
GEs D126 & D127 were both seen on freight duties and D01(a U9 or U10) was seen at Nampula. Sheltam engine #12 (thought to be ex SAR 33-215) was also seen working freight - complete with a Sheltam staff coach (a portakabin on a low loader), a South African driver and a local pilotman. The driver said it was one of two such locos based up there for hire work and occasionally helping out with the passenger turns.
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CFM Beira
We were taken on a very brief visit to the CFM shed and works and the following were seen:
3016/19/20 Sheltam GE C30 - 16 and 20 were badly crash damaged
Riversdale RML001/04 (new build Gredelj GT26)
Rio Tinto Coal Moz RTCM010/11 (new build Gredelj GT26)
RITES D150 (DLW 2,300hp prototype - ex KTM 6800 and to be shipped back to India soon).
RITES 004/5 (ex IR YDM4)
IRCON 6331/47/51 (ex IR YDM4)
Unbeknown to us, CFM here have a fleet of GT22s:
D305/10 in service
D301/3/7/8 under repair or awaiting parts
D306 scrapped (severely crash damaged)
D121 under repair (big GE)
Bayer-Garrett 952 was in the works thought to be earmarked for the national railway museum project at Maputo.
VALE have their own shed at Beira and we had a fleeting view of it from the road transport and this was full of EMD power, either 2xxxx or D2xx of the GT26 family and one loco numbered 102 which looked like a HZ 2062 to us.
Passenger wise they operate a daily commuter train to Dondo at 17:55 which was worked by GT22 D305 with YDM4 004 DIT on 10th September but didn't appear to run on the 11th.
They also operate a weekly service to Moatize (very close to the city of Tete) and this was worked by GT22 D310 on 11th September - much to our disappointment. The train was load 10 with several wagons and the 2nd class coach was rather old and tatty but comfortable, it was just a shame about the motive power! The timetable for this is at
http://flic.kr/p/ddXbGi and Samuel's fahrplan site has the times for the weekly (sat/sun) train to Marromeu.
Out on the line 3012+3013 (Sheltam) and YDM4 D601 were seen on freights along with numerous pairs of VALE / Riversdale / Rio Tinto engines on big coal loads.
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CFM Maputo
Passenger services here were a mix of ALCO / GE and EMD power with the following seen (in no particular pattern):
33.01/4 (RRL Grindod U20)
D51/82/105/130 (CFM U20)
35.07 (RRL Grindod GT22)
D601/7 (YDM4)
The long distance timetable can be seen
http://flic.kr/p/ddXc5o but below is a summary of the M-F trains from Maputo:
17:30 Matola Gare and 18:15 return (vice unit)
17:45 Mahica (returns approx 03:30 next morning)
18:00 Goba (returns approx 03:00 next morning)
18:15 Ressano Garcia (returns approx 03:00)
06:00 Matola Gare (returns 06:45)
07:45 Ressano Garcia (returns 12:20)
The Chicualacuala train ran out on the Saturday at 09:55 and returned on Monday morning whilst there was one ex CP railbus in service which worked a daytime train to Chowke on Saturday morning.
Having seen the daytime Ressano Garcia turn with 35.07 on the Thursday, we took advantage of it being GE D82 on Friday 14th September, only for it to fail at the 34.7KM post and 35.07 come to the rescue with us running 4 hours late. Luckily the next morning we found D607 working the train and despite the rancid and unseasonable cold weather it was a decent trip.
Thanks to Jonathan Lee for the sightings on Monday 17th – by that point me and Flossy had had enough and went to the beach!
Photos are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/youthwith/ ... 615966313/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125487@N04/
PS As an aside – we found Neil Robinson’s World Rail Atlas (North, Central and Eastern Africa) invaluable for this trip with accurate KMs and good maps of all the areas visited. Highly recommended.
