Roger Farnworth Railways

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

Eldoret is a junction station. The branch-line service to Kitale set off from Eldoret. We follow its route.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...-to-kitale

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again...

We really are now almost in Uganda! The is the last post focussing on the Uganda Railway in Kenya. It takes us from Eldoret to the border with Uganda at Malaba.

Sadly, in this post there is little evidence of locomotives. The line has seen little use over the years. I was very fortunate to be able to travel 1st Class all the way from Mombasa to Kampala in 1994. I had no idea at the time how fragile that service was.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...-to-malaba

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again ...

With this post we have crossed the border between Kenya and Uganda. Just across the border in Tororo the mainline divides to give a Kampala/Kasese route via Jinja, and a Pakwach and Aria route via Soroti. The more northerly route through Soroti was perceived as the branch but it has been the route which has been refurbished first (in 2013).

We will follow the branch first.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...to-soroti.

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
Bicester Miltary Railway - Book Review

Very recently, I have been reading a book about the Bicester Military Railway which was published in 1992. It was published by the Oxford Publishing Company and is widely available to but second-hand. It is worth a read. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/10/12/bic...ook-review

Quote:The Bicester Military Railway. ...

This book, written by E.R. Lawton and Major M.W. Sackett in 1992, [1] gives a comprehensive history of the Bicester site which extends from the original concept to the date of publication of the book.

In the 21st century, large areas of the complex have been given over to civilian use.

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

Two more posts about the branch-line to Gulu and Arua. The first takes us from Soroti to Gulu.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...ti-to-gulu

The second covers the length to the end of the branch-line.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...lu-to-arua

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

We have now returned to the mainline at Tororo and are heading on toward Kampala.

The story continues ....

Quote: "We leave Tororo is a north-westerly direction following the contours on the north side of the Nagongera Road as far as Achilet (about 5 kilometres outside of Tororo). For the next 10 kilometres the railway stays north of the road until reaching Nagongera, or Nagongora, .............."

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...o-to-jinja

Of interest is the number of railway lines on the map between Tororo and Jinja. There is by far the greatest density of lines in Uganda.

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

The journey continues from Jinja to Kampala .......

Quote:“The Nile River Bridge at Jinja was built in the late 1920s. It is perhaps the iconic structure for the whole of the metre-gauge railway system from Mombasa to Kasese.

The first railway in Uganda ran from Jinja to Namasagali on the Victoria Nile where a steamer service ran on to Masindi Port. From there passengers travelled by road through Masindi to Butiaba on Lake Albert. From there they could travel on by steamer to the Belgian Congo or north to Juba in the Sudan.

Train passengers from Kenya reached Uganda by steamer from the railhead at Kisumu and across Lake Victoria to Entebbe or Port Bell. In the mid 1920s the main line in Kenya was extended from Nakuru through Eldoret, and Tororo to Mbulamuti where it met up with the original Jinja to Namasagali line. The new line to Kampala then crossed the Nile at Jinja by a bridge carrying both the railway and a roadway underneath.”

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...to-kampala

The last part of my own journey to Kampala by train in 1994 commenced once a derailed freight train had been rerailed ahead of us and the passenger train was ‘given the road'. We had waited for over 6 hours at Jinja Railway Station. Travelling by rail was unreliable but really enjoyable!!

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

We are now in Kampala and preparing to travel on to Kasese.

Quote: In 1994, I attempted to travel to Kasese and I might have been able to do so if I was prepared to wait in Kampala for the possiblity that a train migth run. In the end my trip to the South West of Uganda was much better served by a road journey via Masaka, Mbarara and Kabale.

Before we take one of those intermittent passenger services from the last century, we take a good look round Kampala Railway Station.

This post (below) is the penultimate post on the direct route from Mombasa to Kasese. After this there will be further posts. One to complete the line to Kasese, one to review an old and defunct branch line running north from Jinja and then a series of posts which will seek to cover the locomotives and rolling stock on the Uganda Railway .....

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...20-kampala

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Uganda Railway again. ...

This is the last post relating directly to the lines of the Uganda Railway and covers the first railway built in Uganda. The last post on the Uganda Railway will cover the locomotives and rolling stock on the network.

"There were two very early railway lines in Uganda. Port Bell to Kampala was one. The other was an earlier line from Jinja to Namasagali via Mbulamuti. We encountered this line as we travelled from Tororo to Jinja earlier in this series of posts. Indeed the original line from Tororo travelled to Mbulamuti to meet the older line from Jinja to Namasagali. At that time there was a good justification for this. Namagali was a significant point on an 'overland' journey from Mombasa to Cairo! Meeting the line from Jinja to Namasagali at its mid-pint allowed easy access to both significant destinations and beyond them to the Nile and to Lake Victoria."

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/201...namasagali

There is much to explore in the Great Lakes region in Africa! This series of posts relates only to the railways providing access to Uganda but there were a whole variety of different transport services in the area which would warrant further study!

[rogerfarnworth]

RE: Roger Farnworth Railways
The Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway.

It appears that when posting earlier about this line I missed out one of the posts. The first one. ......

I was challenged by someone who read my posts about the Bicester Military Railway and about MoD Kineton to look at the Nescliffe Camp.

I have started by looking at the feeder railway which was commandeered by the military and this has become a post in its own right. I will get round to the military areas in the next post in the series.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/18/the...pot-part-1