If ever a place deserved to rise from the ashes, then it is Sierra Leone’s National Railway Museum (SLNRM). Nicola Fox tells the fascinating history of a museum, whose locomotives were less than a week from being scrapped, plus its on-going British connections.
On the western coast of Africa lies a small country with a fascinating but turbulent past. The last 200 years have seen Sierra Leone established as a colony for freed slaves, taken under British protection in the colonial era, achieve independence in the 1960s, survive a brutal civil war, and emerge as nation eager to move forwards.
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Sierra Leone may be small relative to the vastness of the African continent (in excess of 30million square kilometres), but with a similar land mass to that of Scotland and a larger,
fast-growing population, this African nation is worthy of note, not least for its railway story.
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The earliest railway proposal dates back to 1872 when Sierra Leone was a British colony and protectorate. However, it wasn’t until 1893 that a suitable proposal was accepted and work could begin.
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The line began in Freetown on the coast and headed in a largely south-eastern direction, stopping just short of the border with Liberia and, including branch lines, it stretched for 300 miles. Unusually for a line of this length, the gauge was set at 2ft 6 in, and never altered.
There were a number of notable viaducts, including the Orugu Bridge, a steel trestle built on a curve outside Freetown, a spectacular sight that sadly recently fell prey to scrap metal thieves. Unsurprisingly for a line built under British rule, everything required for it was built in Britain and shipped overseas for construction.
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The line was known as the Sierra Leone Government Railway (SLGR).
Delivered in 1897, ahead of the March opening date, the railway’s first two locomotives were Hunslet 0-6-0 tank engines, which were followed by 2-6-2Ts also from Hunslet.
This later design proved so successful they were still being supplied to the railway as late as 1954. Manning, Wardle & Company also provided an 0-4-0ST in 1915, which became known as ‘Nellie the engine’!
Read more and view more images in the March 2019 issue of The RM – on sale now!