THE LUNATIC EXPRESS Known colloquially as The Lunatic Express, the Uganda Railways is a historical railway network linking the interiors of Uganda to her East African neighbours, Kenya to the Indian Ocean at port city of Mombasa in Kenya. Built by the British Government under the supervision of chief engineer George Whitehouse at the start of the period when Britain maintained colonial control of the region as British East Africa, Whitehouse wanted to put to an end to the era of donkeys, sluggish carts, walks, and other ineffective modes of transport that caused delays but were relatively common to many East Africans. Construction of the famous line commenced at Mombasa in on May 30, 1896 and reached Kisumu, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, in 1901. However, the ride was not easy as challenges were encountered, one after another. From insufficient budgets to man-eating lions in the Tsavo, hostile communities, massive floods washed away the lines, termites feasted on the sleepers, sleeping sickness, a great number of workers fell ill mainly with malaria, amoebic dysentery, jungle sores and pneumonia. In Tsavo in particular, the Colonel in charge at Tsavo, J.H. Patterson, who shot the man-eaters (and later wrote the book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo) was told by the Indians minutes before they jumped on a train and ran away, "We will remain at Tsavo no longer for anything or anybody. We have come from India on an agreement to work for the Government, not to supply food for either lions or devils!" And although far removed from the European theatre of war during the First World War in 1914, further rail construction and improvement work ceased in the region, as British and German troops fought occasion set battles. The railway was a major target and the British military authorities had been given orders that all locomotives operating between Nakuru and Kisumu be concentrated in Nakuru, while those between Nairobi and Mombasa should remain in Nairobi. The German troops marshalled hit-and-run raids on the exposed parts of the Uganda Railways, planting mines and blowing up bridges. Had it not been for the large amount of military traffic, the railways would have suffered disastrous losses during the war years. However, this and many other challenges that were to be encountered by the engineers did not discourage them and they always sought for solutions. By the 1920s the railway could hardly sustain the high demands placed on it. Again, a solution was still found as the authorities decided to lay heavier rails on the main line. By 1931 it was extended to Uganda’s capital, Kampala. The original purpose of constructing the railway line was to provide a modern transportation link to carry raw materials out of the Uganda colony and to carry manufactured British goods back in.
Page 1 of 21