Friends of the Rail Forum

A mineral railway and enlarged harbour were constructed in 1853/1854 with a first significant cargo of limestone leaving the Carnlough harbour for Scotland in mid-August 1854.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/04/23/th ... co-antrim/

The Railways of West Cumberland – Part 1 – An Introduction

The November 1954 issue of The Railway Magazine included an article by C. A. Knight about the railways between Sellafield and Maryport and inland as far as Cockermouth and Kelton Fell.

Reading Knight’s article encouraged me to begin a ...

Parliament and the Railways in 1858.

N. Caplan reviewed parliamentary activity relating to railways in 1858 in The Railway Magazine of December 1958. His aim was to encourage research into railway history through the various Acts of Parliament relating to railways.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026 ...

Part 1

Introduction and the Route of the Railway from Gällivare to Arvidsjaur

The featured image for this article is a picture of Swedish State Railways (Swedish: Statens Järnvägar) Locomotive No. 907 at Arvidsjaur Railway Station. The image is dated May 1935, (c) Public Domain. [60]

Known as ...

Part 1 - A Short History

The featured image for this article is a 4-4-0 Locomotive No. 694 – one of a class of 15 built by the North British Locomotive Company in Scotland for Egyptian State Railways in 1905-06, © Public Domain. [1]

Egyptian National Railways (Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah ...

The November 1954 edition of The Railway Magazine contained an article by Robert Legget about the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire. He was surprised to find that in 1954 it was claiming to be ‘the first mountain climbing railway in the world’.

It is beyond doubt that it is among the ...

Part 6 – The British Mandate and the Trust – The Years of British Rule including the approach of World War II

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/05/01/ra ... rld-war-ii

Part 5 – Tanga to Ruvu (and thence to Dar-es-Salaam)

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/04/29/ra ... -es-salaam

Following on from a couple of articles about the Tanat Valley Light Railway written some years back, I was reading some older rather tatty magazines and found an article entitled “Rails up the Tanat Valley” in an issue of the Ian Allan publication ‘Railway World‘ – the June 1990 edition.

The ...

The Railway Magazine of November 1954 reported that East African Railways & Harbours had begun to name its new ’60’ Class Beyer- Garratt locomotives. They chose to name them after past and present Governors. The ’60’ Class were then the most powerful Beyer-Garratt locomotives to be delivered to ...

Les Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France - Ligne du Littoral - St. Raphael -Toulon. (Chemins de Fer de Provence/Alpes-Maritimes No. 94)

This very short post returns to the coastal line between St. Raphael and Toulon. Two videos make use of historic photographs which have been given a treatment ...

600 mm Narrow Gauge Lines used during World War 1 in East Africa – Predominantly in what is now Tanzania

600 mm gauge trolley lines (often known as Feldbahnen or “field railways”) played a crucial role in the East African Campaign of the First World War, particularly in German East Africa (GEA ...

This short line originated from a proposal made by the stationmaster at Wendover. [1: p97]

The featured image for this short article is a photograph of a OO-Gauge model of Wendover Railway Station built by David Dan Givens and covered in the September 2018 edition of Hornby Magazine. The image ...

Part 10 – The Mkumbara to Neu Hornow Cableway/Ropeway, Usambara Hills, German East Africa/Tanganyika

The western Usambara Hills were characterised by precipitous cliffs and deep gorges. The provision of a rail link between Mkumbara and Neu Hornow was not considered practical.

A 9 km long ropeway ...

A number of different articles are under preparation, this is the next completed article:

Part 9 – Narrow-Gauge Industrial Lines

The featured image for this article shows a train on the Kihuhui Bridge on the Sigi Railway in Tanganyika.

Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) possessed a dense network ...