The Mulobezi Railway (once known as the Zambezi Sawmills Railway) was constructed to carry

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

from

Mulobezi Mulobezi is a small town in the Western Province of Zambia, and the centre of its timber industry. Timber extends into Southern Province with which the town is economically linked. Extensive forests of Zambian Teak grow on the sandy soils of th ...

to Livingstone in the Southern Province of

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, when the country was

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in Southern Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North ...

. The line uses the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

, also known as '

Cape gauge A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

', shared by all main line railways in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

Zambezi Sawmills

The first railway had been built in the country in 1904-5 between Livingstone and Kalomo and was connected to

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

via the

Victoria Falls Bridge The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls. As the river forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries and has border post ...

, opened in 1905. The Zambezi Sawmills company was founded in 1916 to exploit forests of

Rhodesian Teak ''Baikiaea plurijuga'', known as African teak, Mukusi, Rhodesian teak, Zambian teak, or Zambesi redwood, is a species of Afrotropical tree from the legume family, the Fabaceae from southern Africa. The genus is named for William Balfour Baikie ( ...

on the north bank of the

Zambezi The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

above Livingstone. The timber is hard and strong and termite-resistant and found a ready market for

railway sleepers Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

parquet floor Parquet (; French for "a small compartment") is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring. Parquet patterns are often entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges—but may contain curves. T ...

s and

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...

and window frames in all parts of Britain's Rhodesian

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

(including what is now

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

). The timber was dragged to the river by

oxen An ox (: oxen), also known as a bullock (in BrE, British, AusE, Australian, and IndE, Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castration, castrated adult male cattle, because castration i ...

and transported by

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

downstream to a point near Livingstone from where it was hauled the few kilometres to the town in wagons running on wooden rails drawn by

traction engine A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any ...

s modified so that the front wheels ran on the tracks and the large power wheels ran outside them.

Construction of the line

By the early 1920s the forests near the river were used up. They extended three hundred kilometres north-west and so the railway was constructed into them from 1923 or 1924 onwards using wrought iron rails which had originally been used for the first railway in southern Africa, the 1861 Cape Town–Wellington line. From Livingstone, where it branches off the

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

–Livingstone–

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

main line, the branch line extends about 166 km northwest to Mulobezi.

Rolling stock

British-built steam locomotives were purchased from

Rhodesia Railways The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), formerly Rhodesia Railways (RR), is a Bulawayo headquartered state-owned enterprise that operates the country's national railway system. It was established in 1893 and is governed by an Act of Parliament ...

(4-8-0 Class VII, VIII and X) in 1924–6. They were converted to burn sawmill waste. As well as wagons to carry the timber, some passenger coaches were built to carry employees and their families.

Extension to Kataba

The line was extended 120 km beyond Mulobezi to Kataba, with many branches into the logging areas, so that all together the railway was claimed to be the longest private railway in the world.

Operations

Steam era

From the 1930s to the 1960s, one train per day ran in each direction, every day except Sundays. Journey time was 8 hours Livingstone to Mulobezi and 7 hours Mulobezi to Kataba.Dick Hobson: "The Oldest Railway Engines" in ''The Northern Rhodesia Journal'', Vol IV No 5 pp488 (1961).
/ref>

Present day

Currently, one mixed train (carriages and wagons) runs per week. The railway is listed on th

as operational between Livingstone and Mulobezi, with 9 intermediate stations. In Livingstone it connects to the

Zambia Railways Zambia Railways (ZR) is the national railway company of Zambia and one of the two major railway organisations in Zambia. The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi and provides a li ...

network. Furthermore, a working train is visible on the line o
Google Earth
— see the reference for coordinates. According to an early 2012 report, it takes about 2 days for a train to make the 163 km distance from Livingstone to Mulobezi. Due to the track conditions, the speed limit on the line is 15 km an hour. About 200 passengers, as well as some livestock travel on an average train. Despite the low speed, the rail service was still in demand by the local residents, especially during the rainy season, when local roads are impassable.

David Shepherd

The British artist and conservationist David Shepherd made a well-known painting of a Mulobezi steam locomotive and when the railway ceased working in the early seventies,

Kenneth Kaunda Kenneth Kaunda (28 April 1924 – 17 June 2021), also known as KK, was a Zambian politician who served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991. He was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from Northern Rhodesia, British ...

, then President of Zambia, gave two of the locomotives to him. One of those, the ''Mulobezi Princess'' is kept at the Railway Museum, Livingstone where it has been restored to working order. The other locomotive Shepherd transported, together with a passenger coach, to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and a documentary film of that journey was broadcast in 1976 by

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

, called ''Last Train to Mulobezi''.British Film Institute Website
accessed 16 February 2007 He donated the passenger car to the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York, England, forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historical ...

, the world's largest, in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. Other steam locomotives and old rolling stock lie rusting away at Mulobezi.

References

{{reflist Railway lines in Zambia 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Zambia Southern Province, Zambia