John R. Day wrote two volumes in the early 1960s about the railways of Africa. The first was about the southern area of the continent and entitled, unsurprisingly, ‘Railways of Southern Africa’. The second volume was entitled ‘Railways of Northern Africa’ and dealt with the remainder of the continent.
An on-line acquaintance very kindly sent me a copy of the chapter from that second volume which covers British East Africa. Today, the chapter title would give cause for concern for some people, but colonial attitudes still held sway in the 1960s.
Reading that chapter piqued my interest and I managed to pick up a secondhand copy of the book at a reasonable cost. ...
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/04/15/bri...st-africa/
This post follows on from a series of posts about the Uganda Railway and its successors which can be found earlier in this thread.
In April 2023 we were able to drop in at Belturbet Railway Station on our way to Co. Donegal. The Station Museum was open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12noon to 5pm throughout the Summer season. A small group of enthusiast's have turned a derelict site into a good museum and rescued the majority of rail related buildings on the site.
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/04/28/the...y-station/
This is a follow-on from a series of eight articles which can be found on this thread. The first of these was posted on 5th June 2019
In April 2023 we stayed close to Burtonport, adjacent to Loch Meela, in Co. Donegal. On the first full day of our stay, we walked the Burtonport Old Railway Walk. A 6km length of the Burtonport extension of the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway has been made into an accessible path. The weather was great and the walk very enjoyable. We were impressed by the investment in the walk made by the local community and Donegal County Council.
The original line ran from Derry to Letterkenny and was later extended to Burtonport. ...
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/04/28/the...ay-part-1/
This post follows on from earlier ones about the Railways of County Donegal and about the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Burtonport Extension.
The linked article hopefully gives a flavour of the Heritage Centre which is based in the old railway station in Donegal Town. It is worth a visit if you are in County Donegal. .....
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/04/30/the...age-centre
At the end of a fortnight's holiday in Co. Donegal my wife and I had 3 nights staying close to Dublin. We chose to stay in Howth as it was at the Northern end of the DART, but perhaps also because of its history and particularly for the Hill of Howth Tramway, or to give it it's formal title, "The Sutton and Howth Electric Tramway." The tramway should not be confused with the Clontaff and Hill of Howth Tramroad.
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/05/14/the...h-tramway/
Quote:The Tramway served Howth Head, near Dublin. The termini were at Sutton railway station, by the entrance to the peninsula, and Howth railway station by the village and harbour of Howth.
The tramway operated from 17th June 1901 to 31st May 1959 and was run by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (GNR(I)), which viewed it as a way to bring more customers to its railway stations at Sutton and Howth. The tramway replaced a horse bus service, which had run since 1867.
The Modern Tramway was the title of the journal of the Light Railway Transport League.
I picked up a small batch of copies of The Modern Tramway Journal which included volumes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s and have begun reading through them. The first Journal that I have is dated 15th July 1953. At the time of writing it is almost 70 years old.
Volume 16 No. 187 of July 1953 starts with an item entitled, “Tramways and the Press.” Starting with a specific instance of dubious reporting by the national dailies about tram parts being sent to Egypt, the article bemoans the way that tramways were increasingly being seen by the public, led by the press, as an outmoded form of transport.
http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/06/07/the...ay-part-1/