Usambara Railway
The Usambara Railway (German: Usambarabahn) was the first railway to be built in German East Africa and what is today Tanzania.
A railway company was created in 1891 with the aim, to connect the port of Tanga at the Indian Ocean with the Lake Victoria by passing south of the Usambara Mountains. 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge was chosen. Since June 1893 the line advanced from Tanga inland. Due to undercapitalization the company had to be taken over by the state in 1899. Thereafter the line was run by the Ostafrikanische Eisenbahngesellschaft (East African Railway Cooperation), a company which had been created to build and operate the Tanganyika Central Line (Zentralbahn) from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma. Between Pongwe and Ngommi on the Usambara Railway there was a double hairpin turn. Around 1910, a cable spur (the Seilbahn) was constructed to connect the line with the sawmills at Neu-Hornow.
On 26 September 1911 the track reached Moshi at Mount Kilimanjaro after 351.4 km (218.3 mi). Traffic on the whole line commenced on 4 October 1911, the official inauguration took place on 7 February 1912. In 1914 one train ran from Tanga to Buiko and back daily and on two days of the week the service continued to and from Moshi. The trip over the entire distance took 14 hours 40 minutes.
From the station Tengeni to the town of Sigi there was a branch-line of 23.3 km (14.5 mi) constructed with 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) gauge possessing four hairpin turns on its course.
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