Safari Steam

The railway is named after the coastal town, Benguela, from which the line heads inland for over one thousand kilometres to the Zaire border. The line actually terminates at Lobito, an ideal natural harbour some way north. This fine oil lamp adorned the station on 25th September 1974. Since this picture was taken the country has suffered an almost incessant civil war in which the Benguela Railway has been a constant target of anti-Government forces. For most of this time services have been suspended bar local working along the coast and the steam locomotives shown here in all their glory are largely history although persistent stories of a nucleus of serviceable Garratts surface from time to time. (PM)