In 1896 the British started building a meter-gauge railway from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean towards Uganda, “The Pearl of Africa”. Along the way they established Nairobi and realized that their colony of Kenya had just as much to offer. Hence, the Uganda Railway which became the East Africa Railway served as the artery of commerce through independence in 1963 and beyond. However, in the last few decades, trucks and other factors have led to the gradual decline including abandonment of several branch lines.

I’ve had the privilege of living in Kenya a total of eight years, spread over the last thirty. Most recently was a stint from 2016-21. The school my wife and I were teaching at was located on the escarpment of the Rift Valley bordered by the railway. Thirty years ago, a daily passenger train was visible from the rugby field, along with a handful of “goods” trains.

Steam in the Field

Last month, the Somerset Steam and Gas Engine Association held its “Pasture Party,” an annual gathering of historic agricultural equipment, with emphasis on steam powered tractors. It’s a couple of days of coal smoke, billowing steam and steam whistles echoing across the fields.

While steam power served the railroads for 120 years, steam powered tractors where short lived, and had been almost completely replaced by gas powered tractors and machinery by 1920. For a little more information on the history of steam powered tractors, check out this Editor’s Notebook column from 2016.

I have been going to and photographing the Somerset show nearly every year since 2009, and it is a challenge not to take the same photographs year after year. Here are a few photos from this year’s show.

In seeking to preserve railroad history, our efforts are most often focused on the physical aspects of the railroad and its infrastructure. But another, and sometimes neglected, element of history lives in the memories of those railroaders who lived that history as part of their day-to-day job.

In this episode of Living History, we talk with three retired locomotive engineers, who describe the ups and downs of life as an engineer on the railroad.

Edd Fuller, Editor

In this two minute video, we introduce Quick Takes, a short version of Talking Pictures where we look at a single work by a well know photographer. In this Quick Take, we look at “Meudon, 1928,” one of the best known photographs by André Kertész, which features a steam locomotive passing by high above a Paris street scene.

Edd Fuller, Editor