Swakopmund – Windhoek railway line

Swakopmund – Windhoek original condition 1902–1911
Gauge :	originally 600 mm re- tracked to 1067 mm
Maximum slope :	45  ‰
Route
Legend Landing Bridge mole 0 Swakopmund 10 Nonidas 20th Richthofen 40 Rossing Khan river crossing (dam) 58 khan Steep ramp (4.5 ‰) in operation: train division 63 Wellwitsch 85 Gate 99 Jakalswater Water feeder 14km from Swakop 14th Swakop River 121 sphinx 147 Dorstrivier 153 Cuba's 165 Abbabis 179 Habis 194 Karibib main workshop Friedrichsfelde Johann-Albrechtshöhe / Ojimukoka 233 Vogelsang Kamunbonde Okasise 276 Kovatuerassane 300 Capenous Watershed 1496 m 310 Okahandja Osona Swakop Teufelsbach 346 Otjihavera 355 Okapuka 366 Brakwater 382 Windhoek 1654 m

The Swakopmund – Windhoek railway is a disused main line in South West Africa , today's Namibia . It was built from September 1897 and operated under this route name until 1990 (plus the extension to Walvis Bay built in 1914 ).

Today the line is operated by TransNamib - partly on a new route to the north of it - via Swakopmund to Walvis Bay under the names Windhoek – Kranzberg and Kranzberg – Walvis Bay railway in Cape Gauge . On a map from the time of German South West Africa , both the route described here, leading via Jakalswater, and the route leading north, past Jakalswater, are shown.

600 mm narrow-gauge railway

construction

Train hauled by a twin near Windhoek

Swakopmund railway station

Railway bridge over the Swakop near Okahandja, around 1910

Since the traffic system in German South West Africa collapsed in 1897 after a cattle plague, a 600 mm narrow-gauge railway was planned as a replacement with sufficient light rail material available in Germany . A railway was commissioned to build the line from the port of Swakopmund to the capital Windhoek of the former German South West Africa protected area . The work was under the direction of four officers and carried out by 290 soldiers and 800 local workers. Operation of the entire route began on June 19, 1902.

business

For the civil timetable, 34 locomotives had to be kept under steam every day, 20 more were in reserve. Some of the locomotives were coupled in pairs as twin locomotives. There was

• 7 1st class cars
• 2 2nd class cars
• 5 luggage carts
• 308 freight wagons (load weight: 5 tons)
• 83 water cars (as an additional tender for the steam locomotives )
• 50 work and track master cars

Swakopmund-Windhoek timetable in 1902

While the journey from Swakopmund to Windhoek took ten days before the railroad, it was shortened to three days by rail and later to two days. There was only daytime traffic. Travelers had to stay overnight in Karibib . The cruising speed was - without the overnight stay - just under 14 km / h.

Despite its relatively primitive technical equipment, the railway provided considerable transport services, especially during the suppression of the Herero and Nama uprisings in 1904–1905.

Initially, the railway was operated by the Imperial Railway Command , but on April 1, 1907, it was placed under the civil administration of the protected area . The central workshop was in Karibib.

Cape gauge railway

The old Jakalswater train station from a bird's eye view (2017)

In 1910/11 the Windhoek – Karibib section was re-gauged to Cape Gauge (1067 mm) after this gauge had previously been chosen for the Lüderitz Railway and the Windhoek – Keetmanshoop railway . The choice of this gauge was due to the relative proximity of the South African network that had been built in this gauge. When the Swakopmund-Windhoek railway line was re-gauged in the Windhoek-Karibib section, curve radii were softened and inclines flattened, making the route three kilometers longer but maintaining its general course. The cost of this conversion corresponded to the original new construction costs and could only be raised because the diamond finds since 1908 gave the protected area the necessary financial leeway. The section of the state railway from Swakopmund via Jakalswater to Karibib initially remained in the original 600 mm gauge and was only served twice a month in each direction. Regular traffic between Swakopmund and Windhoek was carried out between Swakopmund and Karibib on the Otavibahn , which is also 600 mm . In Karibib all travelers had to change trains and all goods had to be reloaded. From here it continued on the 1067 mm lane. This expansion made it possible for the first time to cover the distance between the coast and the capital (and vice versa) in one day with the express train of the Otavibahn and a corresponding express train of the state railway.

Remnants of the feeder railway on the route between Jakalswater and the Swakop-Rivier (2018)

An approximately 14 km long narrow-gauge railway ran from the Jakalswater railway station to the Swakop river bed , from where water for the steam locomotives could be brought to Jakalswater. The route of this feeder railway running from northwest to southeast can still be seen on satellite photos.

With the outbreak of World War I , the German protection force cleared the coast, withdrew inland and destroyed both the Otavibahn and the state railway line in the direction of Karibib to Rössing. The British immediately followed suit from their enclave Walvis Bay and rebuilt the Otavi Railway in the direction of Karibib in Cape Gauge, with the last section between Usakos and Karibib being re-routed. The Otavibahn network north of Usakos remained in 600 mm operation. The workshop for both types of operation was combined in Usakos, the one in Karibib closed. The old state railway line over Jakalswater was abandoned. Thus, there was now continuous traffic on the entire route between Swakopmund and Windhoek, now on 1067 mm track.

Web links

• Martin Wollmann: The State Railway Swakopmund - Windhoek

• Martin Wollmann: Map of the State Railways

See also

• List of German colonial railways
• Rail transport in Namibia

literature

• Walter Paschasius: "The Liberation of Okahandjas", a railway workers' story from the Herero uprising in 1904 , Windhoek 2014, ISBN 978-99916-872-9-2 .
• Franz Baltzer : The colonial railways with a special focus on Africa . Berlin 1916. Reprint, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 3-8262-0233-3 , p. 78 ff.
• Brenda Bravenboer, Walter Rusch: The First 100 Years of State Railways in Namibia . Windhoek 1997, ISBN 0-86976-401-2 .
• Helmut Schroeter: The railways of the former German protected areas in Africa and their vehicles (= The vehicles of the German railways. Volume 7). Frankfurt 1961.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See: Historical map with the railway line via Jakalswater
2. ↑ ^{a b} Andreas Knipping: Railways in the First World War , EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2004, ISBN 3-88255-691-9 , p. 25
3. ↑ The timetable is issued 2 km south-southeast of the Jakalswater train station on Farm Wüstenquell
4. ↑ Google Maps route of the feeder railway
5. ↑ Google Maps route of the feeder railway