Southern Province Railway
Mtwara – Nachingwea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Route length: | 211 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gauge : | 610 mm ( 2 foot track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Southern Province Railway was a railway network in Tanzania that - only a few years - was in operation in the mid-20th century. It ultimately comprised around 275 km with a track width of 610 mm. The main line of the network was the Mtwara - Nachingwea railway line . The network represented an island operation without a connection to another railway.
The trigger for the construction of the railway was the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme , a development project promoted by the then colonial power Great Britain but ultimately failed, the central component of which was peanut cultivation on a gigantic scale. In order to be able to transport the harvest away, the Overseas Food Cooperation opened a line from Ruo to Nachingwea in 1949 and extended it to Lindi on the Indian Ocean a year later . This extension also took the route of around 1921 opened an 18-km light railway mm in the gauge 600 by a sisal - plantation in Lindi to Narunyu ran.
When the Overseas Food Cooperation got into financial difficulties in 1952, the railway was initially taken over by East African Railways and further expanded into a network. In 1954, the newly built port of Mikindani and the port city of Mtwara were connected. In 1958 the Chilungula - Masasi line followed .
Both steam (the RV / 21, G and NZ series) and diesel locomotives (the 80 and 81 series) were used. Passenger traffic existed between Mtwara and Nachingwea. A rearranged diesel multiple unit from the former Kenya and Uganda Railways was used for this. After the failure of the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme, the railway system lost its economic basis. After Tanzania gained independence, it was given up and operations ceased in February 1963.
literature
- Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Volume 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009. ISBN 9789549218435
- Helmut Schroeter; Roel Ramaer: The railways in the formerly German protected areas then and now / German Colonial Railways then and now. Röhr-Verlag: Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3884901842
Movie
- East African Railways and Harbors : Cashew Nut Line . East Africa 1959. 16 mm color film, 15 minutes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the railway infrastructure according to Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Volume 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009. ISBN 9789549218435 , pp. 71 f. and plate 53.
- ↑ Illustration of this train by Helmut Schroeter; Roel Ramaer: The railways in the formerly German protected areas then and now / German Colonial Railways then and now . Röhr-Verlag: Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3884901842 , p. 50.
- ↑ Helmut Schroeter; Roel Ramaer: The railways in the formerly German protected areas then and now / German Colonial Railways then and now . Röhr-Verlag: Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3884901842 , p. 57.
- ↑ Helmut Schroeter; Roel Ramaer: The railways in the formerly German protected areas then and now / German Colonial Railways then and now . Röhr-Verlag: Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3884901842 , p. 57; Illustration: p. 50.
- ^ After John Huntley: Railways in the Cinema . London 1969, p. 119.