Friends of the Rail Forum

"I just spent a few days in Dar Es Salaam and went to see what the most recent
workings are with the local trains. there now 2 trains running on weekdays from
the Tazara station, one with about 6 chinese coaches and a chinese diesel which
runs to and from Mwakanga on the line that heads out to Zambia, the other is one
coach and a chinese diesel that goes out to Yombo, runs around and then heads to
Kurasini which is near the dar es salaam harbour. the trains run 3 times in the
morning and 3 times in the evening using locos DFH008 and DFH002 which appear
to have been overhauled and painted for this purpose. One of the staff said that
more coaches are being prepared and they intend to use bigger engines soon.
Another working which is proving popular is the Tanzania railways service from
city station near the zanzibar ferry terminal, this runs also 3 times in the
morning and evening as far as Ubungo using a Henschel diesel at one end and an
ex indian railways YDM4 at the other end. i will post copies of the current
timetables in the photos section."

TAZARA:
Mwakanga is km 18.1 on the TAZARA main line; the junction to the docks is at km
1.9, while Yombo is at km 3.0; from the junction to Kuraisina docks it is 11.0
km.

David has also posted photos of the detailed train timings:
Dar-Mwakanga 0445-0513 0640-0730 0845-0935 1600-1650 1805-1855 2010-2100;
Mwakanga-Dar 0525-0620 0740-0830 0945-1035 1700-1750 1905-1955 2110-2200;
(11 intermediate stops);
Dar-Kuraisini 0500-0543 0655-0737 0855-0937 1615-1657 1815-1857 2020-2100;
Kuraisini-Dar 0553-0638 0744-0840 0945-1025 1705-1800 1910-2005 2110-2210;
(9 intermediate stops).

There are also four pictures posted, including of DFH1 002 with it's 6-coach
train and DFH1 008 with it's 1 coach train.

TRC:
Ubungo is not on TRC's main line, but at the end of a long industrial branch to
the northwest. Ubungo is the site of University of Dar es Salam Faculty of
Science.

In the photo section is one picture taken at Dar-es-Salam station with YDM-4
7321 heading the train to Ubungo. This must have been a recently-restored
engine, as in 2011 no 73's were left in service. Is this a rebuild of one of the
original batch 7301-15 or could some of the RITES 73R's have been left behind
after the Indians' withdrawal?

According to an online article, these services started in 2012 shortly before
Nairobi's new Syokomau service.