The International Steam Pages |
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Steam on the EAR, 2011 |
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This account of the events in and around Nairobi in May 2011 was originally posted on the East Africa Yahoo newsgroup by Thomas Kautzor, it is unchanged except for correcting a few 'typos'. See also James Waite's report and Geoff Warren's insider comments on the same trip. Day 1 was to be a trip from Naivasha to Nairobi (111 km) behind 3020. The train consist was to comprise 4 goods wagons, 2 coaches and 1 caboose. The train turned out to be 2 goods wagons short of that, one of the two remaining being the notorious water tank wagon. The train had gone from Nairobi to Naivasha the previous day and was ready to depart on Thursday morning. It promptly did so after a couple of runpasts in the station. However, shortly thereafter we had to stop several times because of viscosity problems with the firing oil, and then to cross an UP goods train. Some of these unplanned delays were turned photo stops, however it resulted in us getting too late to the much-heralded photo location with Mt. Longonot and another volcano in the background for the loco to be in perfect light. However these were uncontrollable events and at the end of the day everyone seemed to be quiet happy. On Day 2 we were to have 5918 positioned at the West end of the train (10
wagons, 2 coaches, 1 restaurant car, 1 caboose) for some pictures at 07.00, before departing to Konza (75 km), from where we were to return in the afternoon
with photo stops between there and Athi River. The evening before we were told
that we would only be able to depart Nairobi after arrival of the last morning
commuter train from the East, but were told that we would use the time for some
more pictures within Nairobi station. When I got to the station at around 07.15,
5918 was nowhere to be seen, nor any smoke from it coming from the workshops. As
has been reported earlier, it only came out of the workshops at around 11.00 and
then went to stand on platform 1 to wait for the fuel truck. At first that truck
was to wait for us at Makadara, but then someone called for it to come to Nairobi station to fuel the loco there. As we were waiting for it we were told
that it was probably stuck in Nairobi's notorious traffic, but 4 hours to cover
the 5 km distance between Makadara and Nairobi would still appear to be a record. Once the truck finally appeared, the loco was fueled just in time to
clear track 1 for the afternoon commuter trains. By then it was already too late As a result of the precious day's events, Day 3's program (return trip to
Makadara with 5918 in the morning and 2409 in the afternoon) was shuffled around. We were to go to Makadara behind 2409 at daybreak (this was a Saturday
with no commuter trains to deal with) and make some photos in the morning light
while returning to Nairobi. Once there, we were to immediately leave to either
Konza or Stony Athi behind 5918, which we were assured would be kept ready for
us. As we got to the station in the morning, no sign of 2409, which appeared
late and we only departed for Makadara at 07.50. As a result of more delays The program for the tour was certainly kept very simple in order to increase chances for success, yet after Day 1 it still turned into a disaster. I sincerely hope that there is a future for steam tours to Kenya and that other tour operators will also be able to run tours there, however for this to happen lessons will have to be learned from the failures of this tour. |
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Rob Dickinson
Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk