Friends of the Rail Forum

Kampala also has its fair share of dead diesels

Photos taken in 1996 or '97 by John Ashworth

English units - GE? The top ones that is.

But the units in the bottom photo?????

A lot of these got to stand in the Amin era. I remember visiting a friend and he was the last and only person left in Kampala with any engineering expertise. Single handedly (with a crew of inexperienced locals) he was maintaining the infra-structure at the hospital, Kampala yards and the airport. People had just abandoned stuff left right and center and it then stood and rotted away. I remember looking at aircraft that had shared this fate. It was a losing battle and one morning he just got up, got in his vehicle and drove to Nairobi, never to return!

I have no idea exactly what they are, but the top two have the look of English Electric, formerly the Vulcan Works, in north west England. They remind me a bit of some Sudanese diesels which I know were built there.

I was there during Idi Amin's time - difficult years for everyone.