Had it not been for my RAF training as a Flight Engineer, East African Railways
might not have selected me for special training in diesel electric traction, first at
English Electric in Preston, then Napiers in Liverpool, Brown Boveri in Switzerland,
British Railways Staff College in Derby, and Nairobi Polytechnic. This augmented ten
years experience in various steam locomotive depots in East Africa, and with my name
listed on 27 March 1959 in the register of the Institute of Locomotive Engineers in
London as No.4398 D J Owens, A.M.I.Loco.E., my transition from the steam to the
diesel locomotive age was clinched in the mid 1960's with my promotion from
Shedmaster to Diesel Motive Power Superintendent.
In 1961/63, Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya gained independence and each country
took over their portion of the railway system and named their railways TR, UR and KR
respectively. Motive power and rolling stock in Uganda once again bore the UR letters
of the original 1896 railway. Expatriates were induced to stay and it suited me to remain
with the new KR for a further ten years. During this time new diesel locomotives of
various types gradually supplanted a steam fleet on a railway which had an interesting
growth.
Kenya Colony was created in the 1920's out of undeveloped country through which
the UR tracks led to Uganda and the railway was renamed the KUR & H. Then in 1948
when the railway, road and marine services in Tanganyika were taken into the fold,
the whole new system was named the EAR & H. This resulted in the need to reclassify
and renumber the locomotives in each of the three territories, which presented some
difficulties for many non-English speaking African drivers. For example, KUR & H
locomotive No 162, stabled by its crew for overnight maintenance, was stripped of its
former identity and fitted with the new railroad letters and number plates, making EAR
& H No 2401. Imagine the crew's consternation when they signed on for duty next
morning to find they were rostered to work 2401, and exclaimed "Bwana, wapi gari yetu
namba mia moja sitini na mbili?" Swahili for "Sir, where is our loco number 1627'. As
locomotive letter and renumbering progressed over the next few months, many African
crews resorted to wrapping coloured rags around the boiler handrails to enable them to
recognise their locomotive on renumbering.
Locomotive maintenance and boiler washouts, entailing a 16 to 20 hour period on
shed, matched crew rest periods. This enabled us to allocate crews to locomotives on a permanent basis. Crews took great pride in their locomotives. The driver's cab would be
scrubbed clean, copper pipes, brass control valves, and gauges would be highly
burnished. The mechanical condition and external cleanliness of locomotives reflected
the pride of the Shedmaster and his staff. A friendly inter-shed competitive spirit existed
between the sheds at Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kampala, Kisumu, Tororo and
Voi (Kenya and Uganda sheds listed in order of fleet size).
The long distance 'Top Link' trains carried two crews, one drove while the other
rested in a specially fitted 'Caboose', which had bunk beds, showers and kitchen
facilities. Crews were usually European or Asian drivers with African firemen but
gradually a few of the best African drivers got on the 'Top Link' work. After some six
hours driving, the crews changed over, but to ensure all was well both crews would
remain on the locomotive for some 15 to 20 miles to the next station stop. On the 40
hour Uganda Mail round trip between Eldoret and Kampala there were two drivers who
fell out with every driver they partnered, but I settled matters by rostering them to work
together permanently as a team. I think they were scared of each other for they caused no
further trouble.
Throughout the world there are many different gauge railway systems. America,
Britain, Canada, most of Europe, Mexico and many other countries operate on standard
gauge 1435mm track. In the north and south of Africa they have a narrower 1065mm
gauge system which cannot be linked up with the even narrower 1000mm gauge systems
of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika - a major snag for Cecil Rhodes' dream of a Cape to
Cairo Railway.
The terrain and rail gauges dictated the type of steam, diesel electric or electric
locomotives best suited to the railway operators' requirements. On railways where there
were no significant gradients, high speeds were achieved by conventional steam
locomotives fitted with large diameter driving wheels. The UK railway races of the
1890's were won by locomotives with single 7 foot driving wheels, but for heavy loads
maximum tractive effort required locomotives with four, six or eight driving wheels.
Trains needed assistance on the famous Lickey Incline in the English Midlands,
provided by a Banking (Pusher) locomotive with ten driving wheels of small diameter.
The record for steam traction was 126.25mph by the L.N.E.R.'s 4-6-2 locomotive
'"MALLARD" in 1937. This locomotive had six driving wheels of 6'8" diameter.
In the UK high-speed trains had difficulty climbing up to the British rail summits of
Shap (1015 feet), Slochd (1315 feet), and Druimuachter (1484 feet), where their trailing
loads of eight to ten coaches would pull their speeds down to 25 to 30mph on the
gradients. These UK summits are mere mole hills when compared with the Kenya line's
8322 feet Mau Summit and 9136 feet Timboroa Summit (highest altitude reached by any
railway in Britain's former Colonial Empire), the former 495 miles and the latter 524
miles from sea level at Mombasa. Nairobi itself at 5453 feet is 330 miles from
Mombasa. To master the gradients on East Africa's metre gauge railway system
articulated Beyer Garratt locomotives with a tractive effort of 40252 Ibs and a weight of
138 tons were introduced in 1926. In subsequent years as traffic built up and the need for
greater power arose, more powerful Garratt locomotives were introduced between 1939
and 1957, by which latter date the railway was operating 252-ton locomotives with a
tractive effort of 73500 lbs. Designated the 59 class, they were the largest in the world to
operate on track gauges up to 1065mm, and all 34 in the class were named after
mountains in East Africa. They had a water capacity of 8600 gallons and a furnace oil
capacity of 2700 gallons.
A magnificent train was turned out for the use of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother for her railway tour of Kenya in 1959. The special "Governor's Train" coaches
had been refurbished in the railway's Nairobi Workshops, and as the train would be
operating in the Nakuru and Eldoret Districts Nakuru Shed had the honour of providing
the motive power for the train.
Two 170-ton 60 class 4-8-2 + 2-8-4 Beyer Garratt locomotives provided the doubleheaded
motive power for the Royal Train. They were locomotives 6020 and 6019 driven
by 'Top Link' drivers, Ken MacNaughton and Peter Harrison. Line safety was assured
by running a special train designated "Royal Pilot" twenty minutes ahead of the Royal
Train. This special was powered by 2-8-4 locomotive number 3132 driven by driver
Jimmy Sloan.
There were lots of Big Game incidents on the East African Railways. Two of many
which occurred in my time as Shedmaster at Nakuru may be of interest. The first was
circa 1955 and involved a lumbering old 52 class Garratt on the climb from Rongai to
Visoi (rhino country). With a maximum trailing load the locomotive was struggling up the gradient at a steady 12 to 15mph, impaired in its efforts by a leaking piston gland on
the right hand lead engine which was emitting a periodic snorting squirt of steam with
every revolution of the wheels. This noise attracted the attention of a rhino which
charged out of the bush and followed the locomotive for almost a quarter of a mile,
desperately lunging at the offending piston gland, until eventually tired and bleeding
from the base of its horn, it gave up the fight.
The second incident circa 1956 took place on the down Uganda Mail en route Nakuru
to Nairobi along the floor of the Great Rift Valley (giraffe country). I was on the
footplate of the locomotive driven by the late Pete Harrison who invited me to take over
for the next 20 mile section of line. We were doing about 45mph when two groups of
giraffe emerged from the acacia trees where they had been browsing on either side of the
line. Inevitably one group decides to amble across the rails to join the others, completely
disregarding the speed of the approaching train. If Pete had been driving he would have
made a gradual brake application, mowing through them as he brought the train to a
gradual stop. (Game Department laws required locomotive crews to report all giraffe
deaths on the line and produce evidence by cutting the tails off all dead giraffes). But
Pete was not driving, and yours truly slammed the steam regulator shut and threw on a
full emergency application of the brakes. I stopped the train without killing any of the
animals, but I cannot commit Pete's language to print as he mentioned something about
it being lunch time and my sudden stop would have the soup course sliding off the tables
in the dining car and on to the laps of an irate bunch of passengers.
In the early 1960's the massive 252-ton 59 class locomotives ceased to work
Mombasa/Nalrobi/Nakuru trains, which were taken over by the newly arrived 1800 HP
Diesel Electric locomotives built by English Electric in the Dick Kerr and Vulcan works
in Lancashire.
These new D/E locomotives, designated the 90 class, were vulnerable to head-on
contact with big game - giraffe, elephant and eland - and impact at speed with any of
those would dent the front nose compartment, breaking internal air pipes, electric
conduits and severing control circuit wires. This resulted in a total failure of the
locomotive, and the all important passenger train having to be rescued by
commandeering a locomotive from the nearest freight train. This problem was overcome
when the locos were fitted with the Owens designed giraffe guards, formed from .5 inch
steel plate. Kenya trains killed big game at the average rate of a giraffe every six weeks,
an elephant every six months, and the rarer eland once a year. Smaller game kills were
not reported. These were the statistics prior to poachers decimating herds, but still
current in 1973 when after 25 years service, I opted for premature retirement on offer to
all designated officers of HMOCS, and took up an appointment with Bombardier/MLW
in Montreal (leading to other assignments in the railways of Jamaica, Greece, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Canada).
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