Six of the 56 locomotives that will bestride the Standard Gauge Railway yesterday roared to life at Port Reitz, Mombasa.
The co-joined six-two shunting diesel electric locomotives – four of them freight cars – were pulled off the new SGR marshalling yard in Port Reitz by Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia
The machine is a contradiction of terms. On the outside it cuts the image of the engines that blazed our meter gauge rail in the 1900s. But inside, it is a blend of the past and the present – modern AC system, a Central Circuit Television system, manual side mirrors and button telephone head-sets.
Behind the driver’s and co-driver’s seats are two other seats in the locomotive, two fire extinguishers, a coffee maker and a communication screen. The machines, we are told, are brand new. The polythene wrappings have not yet been peeled off the seats.
The front of the locomotives resembles the ‘Lunatic Express’, the mythical “third eye” in the middle and the two windscreens side bu side. The deep red and yellow colours are Jubilee – the administration that braved spirited opposition to build in three years what British colonialists took six years to complete.
The government is set to receive 50 more locomotives by May 2017, ahead of the commissioning of the Sh372 billion standard gauge railway (SGR) on June 1.
