The Railways of Sudan

[RogerFarnworth]

The latest issue of "The Narrow Gauge", the journal of the Narrow Gauge Society, carried an article by Iain Logie about the trams of Khartoum. The city was served by a narrow gauge steam tram network which was later replaced by Electric tram network.

This prompted some research into the railways of Sudan and first of Khartoum. The national system used trackwork set at a 3ft 6in gauge. There are plans to introduce standard gauge to Sudan, but in the meantime work to refurbish the present network is taking priority.

My first article centres on Khartoum and looks at the national network in the vicinity of the city. .....

The 3ft 6in (1067mm) gauge railways in and around Khartoum. ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2022/05/31...n-1067mm-gauge

[27vet]

Thanks for an interesting article. South Africa also uses the 3'6" gauge with the exception of the Gautrain

[RogerFarnworth]

You are welcome.

Yes, one suggestion for the same gauge being used in Sudan was the possibility of a Cape to Cairo Railway.

[DSY011]

Cecil John Roade's, who was responsible for setting up much of the Cape to Ciro line used the 3' 6" gauge through South Africa, Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Southern Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe) over the Victoria Falls and into Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and into the Belgium Congo, (now Zaire). Almost all of Southern Africa was run on the 3'6" gauge, though there were some other gauges used on small and or private railways. The Garratt's used in Southern Africa were 10' 6" wide although the track is only 3' 6" wide.

[27vet]

Rovos Rail used to run from Cape Town to Dar Es Salaam which is 3'6" all the way.

There are many interesting videos on Poo Tube, in the interests of avoiding spyware and Big Tech, I watch them on Invidious

Cape_Town_to_Dar_es_Salaam

Cape_Town_to_Cairo

[27vet]

Compare and contrast the two train journeys above. Two very different scenarios. I sense that things have changed for the worse. Hopefully they will come back to "the good old days".

[DSY011]

Thanks Ralph (27Vet). That brought back many memory's of train trips I have done through Southern Africa. I spent two years stationed at Thompson Junction (T.J.) and crossed the Victoria Falls Bridge, (both by day and night) regularly in to Livingstone from T.J. I was then posted to Dett and worked trains along the 72 mile Dett straight. The straight runs through the game reserve, so we saw loads of game and even hit an elephant one night. Most of the time we had Garratt's but also straight loco's. Working the other way, we ran down to T.J. then back to Dett which was mostly up hill and hard work.

[hereward]

I have said before there is a SA Garratt in the Manchester Museum of Industry. 10' 6" over 3' 6", unstable equilibrium to say the least.

[DSY011]

Some of the 15th class Garratt's were capable of 60 m.p.h. along the Dett Straight, which was quite an experience the first few times my driver did it. With loco's that were 10' 6" wide on 3' 6" track, the Garratt's would rock quite a bit. Just as well we never hit an elephant at that speed. On approach to a siding, we had to slow down to about 35 mph as we could be set onto a turn out. On the straight we could see a train approaching the other way at night due to their 250 watt head light. Of course, the crews all knew the route and would know that one of us would would be taking a turn out. We would see the approaching train turn out, or at night, the head light swing out, or we would get a caution with a small amber light showing that it would be us taking the turn out.
The best part of working the Dett Straight was that for 70 miles, we were running through a game reserve, and were often able to see wild life. As I have said on an earlier post, we did once hit an elephant, at a much lower speed, but even an elephant can't survive a hit from a Garratt. There was not much left of it.