Classic Traction Tours

For many years Enthusiast Holidays has been organising first class trips around the world for railway enthusiasts.  But, until now these trips have always been directed at steam locomotive enthusiasts.  Now, at last, it is the turn of the classic traction fans to enjoy the Enthusiast Holidays treatment.

Enthusiast Holidays have recruited some expert help to identify where it may be possible to run Classic Traction Tours, and now we are putting in place our first trip –

Kenya

Here is the provisional itinerary for our diesel-hauled railtour –

Day 1                     Special train Nairobi – Naivasha – Nakuru (155kms) with Class 87.

Day 2                     Nakuru – Eldoret (155kms) with Class 71.

Day 3                     Eldoret – Kitale (70kms) and return with Class 71. Eldoret –Nakuru with Class 87.

Day 4                     Nakuru – Kisumu (195kms) with Class 87.

This map shows the lines we plan to travel over –

The Kitale branch is currently being relayed and the train will run once we know the line is again serviceable.

Kenya Railways Corporation have told us that they have a serious problem with track theft, which has prevented us from riding over some of the other branchlines on the map.

In addition to the railtour we shall visit the diesel depot/workshops and railway museum. We have requested that locomotives are positioned for photography.

Our traction

The railtour should give us four successive days of English Electric haulage.  However, it must be noted that in Kenya, as everywhere else, locomotives do fail and we cannot guarantee we get the locomotives we want on each day.

The Kenyan class 87 were first delivered to the East African Railways & Harbours in 1960. Powered by the well known English Electric 12CSVT engine the first ten of these powerful locomotives were built in the Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn works at Darlington; later examples were from Vulcan Foundry.[Picture David Mitchell]

For many years the class 71 were the mainstay of Kenyan branchlines.  Powered by an English Electric 8CSVT engine and built at Vulcan Foundry a run behind one of these locomotives is not to be missed.

Other classic traction

These English Electric locomotives are not the only British Classic Traction in Kenya.  When we visit the Nairobi diesel depot/workshops we should see some Swindon built diesel-hydraulics, including the last locomotive built in the famous ‘A’ shop at Swindon.

In March 1977 Hunslet Engine received an order from Kenya Railways for thirty-five heavy diesel-hydraulic shunters.  Two meet the contractual delivery dates Hunslet arranged for six locomotives to be erected in the Kilmarnock workshops of Andrew Barclay and twenty locomotives to be erected by BREL at Swindon.  4731, shown above, is a Swindon built example.  [Picture David Mitchell]

All the locomotives in this shed scene were built in Britain.  [Picture David Mitchell]

Having come all the way to Kenya we expect that you will want to stay for a few days after the railtour.  There are many options you could take.  For example, you could spend a few days riding the regular passenger trains in Kenya; you could take an animal safari, or spend some time on the beach.  Of course, there is also the Enthusiasts Holidays steam tour of Kenya which runs right after the Classic Traction Tour.  To find out what is available and, most importantly the price, send us an email at info@enthusiasthols.com

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Rust in Pieces

Detailed planning for the Classic Traction Tours visit to Kenya started in the summer of 2010, when we first made contact to request a diesel-hauled railtour.

We knew that there was no prospect of “Explorer” hauling our train, but we wanted to have it positioned for photography.

It is with deep sadness that we have learned that AFTER we had recognised the importance of “Explorer” the locomotive was scrapped.

“Explorer” was originally built as a demonstrator in 1957 and was purchased by East African Railways in 1962.

The following images are our tribute to this unique locomotive.

  [Picture David Mitchell]

As well as the “Explorer” the scrap merchants have taken from us 8701, the first of the English Electric locomotives built for East African Railways.

They also destroyed a John Fowler shunting locomotive that had been reserved for the museum.

Our picture shows East African Railways 8004, built by John Fowler of Leeds in 1950.

Kenya has some wonderful diesel locomotives but it is clear that the authorities do not understand the significance of the locomotives in their care.

By running a successful diesel-hauled railtour we hope to demonstrate the interest in these locomotives and help ensure they remain, not just in the museum, but available to work passenger trains.

You can help !

Classic Traction Archive

Here are some pictures from our archives, which we are presenting for your enjoyment.  They will give you an idea as to what you would have seen if our trip had been run in the last Century

The above picture is a reminder that the East African Railways had a most diverse collection of British built diesel shunting locomotives.

We have been pleasantly surprised to find out how much interest there is in these shunting locomotives so here are some more images from our collection.

Have you ever wondered what a British Rail Drewry class 04 would look like on the metre gauge?

This picture of an East African class 81 should give you a pretty good idea.

The Hunslet Class 82 used to work in Tanganyika. Do any remain in Tanzania ?

There are of course Hunslet built locos in Kenya, but they do not look like this.

There are very few places where it is still possible to see diesel locomotives designed by North British in Glasgow.

Andrew Barclay produced fifteen class 35 for East African Railways with classic North British features – Paxman engine / Voith transmission.

One of these is in the museum in Nairobi.

The Andrew Barclay works in Kilmarnock is still in business (as part of Wabtec) but you may never have seen anything like the East African class 86 before.

There are of course Andrew Barclay built locos in use in Kenya.

We would like to thank David Mitchell for letting us use some of his images.

Do you have pictures of classic traction working in Kenya or elsewhere?  Have you ideas as to where you would like Enthusiast Holidays to organise Classic Traction Tours?  If so, we would love to hear from you at info@enthusiasthols.com