Kenya motive power update

[John Ashworth]

Posted on the East_Africa_Steam Yahoo group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/E ... ssage/3231

A brief stopover in Nairobi saw the following on commuter trains.

Monday 27th August (evening)

9214 (MLW MX624) 17:35 Ruiru commuter
8742 (EE 12CSVT) 17:40 Kikuyi commuter
8720 (EE 12CSVT) 17:50 Athi River commuter
6255 (Henschel) 18:05 Embakasi Village commuter
9208 (MLW MX624) 18:10 Kahawa commuter

Times are as published by Geoff Warren and (with one exception - the morning Dandora turn) seemed to be spot on. We did a move on both the MLWs and whilst we eventually managed to get transport back to Nairobi from Kahawa, it was probably not the safest move we've ever done and I wouldn't recommend it.

Tuesday 28th August

All engines worked the corresponding morning trains back into Nairobi and 9208 worked the 06:45 Nairobi - Dandora (which sits at Makadara to let 3 other trains arrive) and 08:15 Dandora - Nairobi. This is the only out and back move other than the Embakasi Village turn.

8723 was seen about midday being readied to work a freight towards Nakuru.

In the evening all engines worked the same services as above.

Work is underway raising the platform at Nairobi and new booking offices etc for the "Syokimau metro" service that should start in October - 9324/25 are apparently the locos dedicated to this and were in the works being prepped.

Long distance

The Kisumu passenger service apparently restarted on 13th August once a week but has already been suspended again due to "unforseen circumstances". The Mombassa service is running three times a week (MWFO ex Nairobi and SuTThO ex Mombasa) with a 1900 departure - 1000 arrival next morning.

A trip around the works was organised through the Nairobi Railway Museum and the following were identified:

Dumped
8735/36/39/43
9202/03/04/05/07/15
Plus several unidentifiable 71/72/87s and numerous 47/62s - we didn't have long enough to do a thorough job.

Pending work (possibly awaiting parts)
8740/41

In works
9213
9301/08/09/15/20/22/24/25
9404/08

Photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/youthwith/ ... 575095103/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125487@N ... 574477931/