ANGOLA Extreme
top
left,
:
Extreme
below:
left,
Rack Railway
Left
la mans steel-arched bridge at
The
n land Falls an the
I
(.'.ape
An
la
Cairn Railway.
'open air' train on Monte
at Funchal,
Madeira.
One of the powerful narrow-gauge Garratt
:
locomotives in use on Algeria Railways during
French
PLM
rule.
The locomotive
Below
left
:
A
Below:
in
1939 their operation was finally nation-
Before
World War
achieved, standard
and Independence in 1962 had only temporary effects on the rail network. Since then some narrow-gauge mileage has been converted to standard, but 750 miles still remain out of a total of 2400. alized.
II
Locomotive Landmarks The stearn locomotive fleet was all based on and many were actual examples of current French designs, particularly the distinctive machinery of the PLM. A notable but somewhat brief episode was the introduction in 934 of high-speed Garratts to work the Oran 1
Algiers -Constantine expresses.
The
Garratt
reliable
The huge
US
Steam was eliminated
had been were imported.
designs
diesels
as early as 1955
Electrification of iron-ore hauling lines in
now extends 180 miles. At the present time, on the standard gauge, forty electric and 137 diesel locomotives haul 400 passenger carriages and 10,000 wagons. The corresponding figures for the 3ft 5',in gauge are o, 24, 33 and 1000 respectively. 1932 and
About
3.5 million passengers travel annually
and 4.2 million tons of
freight are hauled an
average distance of 120 miles. Expenses are 99 percent of receipts.
of articulated
29 4-6-2
+ 2-6-4S
on the one-in-fifty grades as well as 75mph on the level sections. Alas, the designers could not resist adding complications, such as an electrically worked reversing gear. This and a few other novel but unnecessary features proved to be the Achilles heel of these remarkable locomotives when, under wartime conditions, maintenance left a good
up
Desert conditions a
in Algeria
made
the rail-
natural case for dieselization.
with a
+ 2-8-4
at
Huambo (Nova
Lisboa)
diesel-hauled train on the Benguela
at
Canocha
in
Angola.
BENGUELA RAILWAY COMPANY Chi da Caminho de Ferro de Benguela,
PO
lim J 2,
Lobito,
ingola.
See
map on
Benguela
The
Vugust 192X.
provide
Railway was opened on 28 principal raison d'etre was to
Its
a direct outlet
to the sea for copper,
what is now Zaire and Zambia, lor passengers from Europe to such places as Bulawayo or Salisbury, in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, it saved three days in travel time com-
mined
in
pared to the route via Cape
Town. Through
the gauge was the normal were run Southern African one of 3ft 6in. An Englishman called Robert Williams had obtained a 99-year concession from the Portuguese government in 1902 (a station on the railway is named after him) and accordingly the line was trains
built with British capital. In theory at least, still
pages 226-227.
belongs to
a British
it
company.
Like most long-distance mineral hauling railways
to
deal to be desired.
wavs there
Angola
could unassisted handle-
trains
travel at
+ 2-8-4
the east, based at the port of Annaba, began in
steam locomotive was generally built as a low-speed mountain climbing big puller, but its geometry, unlike that of other articulated types such as the Mallet, was eminently suited to high speed. type
French
4-8-2
1974.
Railway
and
a
Benguela Railway woodburmng Beyer
Garratt 4-8-2 in
is
number.
it
has been financially successful
in
Angola was a Portuguese colony dating from the sixteenth century, which achieved independence in 1976. Civil war broke out immediately afterwards and in 1977 the Communist side achieved control, although there is thought to be still some opposition outside main centres. There are three significant railway systems of which the principal was called the Benguela
The line runs inland due east from the port of Lobito, a distance of 840 miles to join the Zaire railways at Dilolo. The principal opera-
Railway.
ting
some recent years expenses have been
as low
56 percent of receipts' and the system has been maintained in top condition. This was, of
as
course, before the recent war put
it
out of
action.
problem was the climb from the coast
to
215