Model Railway Forum

The Kampala to Bombo Narrow Gauge Railway - A Stronach-Dutton Roadrail Railway in Uganda in the 1920s.

At the insistence of the Governor of Uganda an independent novel rail system was tried out in the early 1920s. The trial resulted in the building of a line between Kampala and Bombo which operated during the middle years of that decade. Ultimately, the system failed and it was closed well before the end of the decade.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/04/03/t ... bo-railway

This was a project run by the Direct Works department of the protectorate/colony and was not part of the much wider network of "The Uganda Railway" which stretched from Mombasa on the coast of Kenya to Kampala and eventually on the Kasese in the West of Uganda. Articles about the Uganda Railway network can be found on this link:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3444

I discovered this line when I came across it in an article by Henry Lubega. I have discovered quite a bit more about the design philosophy since then. The system used for the line, the Stronagh-Dutton Roadrail System, is referred to elsewhere – particularly in “Narrow Gauge Steam … and other railway curiosities, Volume 1,” a ‘bookazene’ published by Kelsey Publishing and in a relatively short publication by the Narrow Gauge Society.

At first look, it seems quite an ingenious idea – removing the weight of the locomotive from the rails enabled much lighter rails to be used. In practice, however a whole series of factors rendered the idea impracticable.

I'm going to have mark this for when I have time to give it a proper reading. Railways of Uganda is about as remote to my knowledge base as
it comes, and in two foot gauge, too boot. This will make for a most interesting read. It is also interesting that this line was going into
operation about the same time that two foot gauge was becoming fairly popular in the remote and largely agrarian State of Maine, here in the
USA. The conventional wisdom was that two foot had to be about half the cost of four feet, eight and one half inches. In point of fact, it was often more costly to operate than conventional gauge because the locomotives and rolling stock required special construction and the the cost of trans-loading from narrow gauge wagons to conventional gauge wagons was labor intensive, at best. In Maine, additional costs were that of Spring floods, heat kinks in summer, and Homeric snow storms capturing entire trains. This will make a very interesting read. Tragic politics of the 1970's not withstanding, Uganda, as you know, was once the "Pearl of Africa."

Yes Chops, the Pearl of Africa. And in many ways that is still true. It is a surprisingly green land with some large areas at an altitude that means that for much of the year the climate is not unbearable!