Africa,  Tanzania

MOSHI TRAIN STATION – Where Time Stopped

“Moshi has a train station?! But there are no trains here!”

2 weeks into my time in Moshi, a town in the north of Tanzania, I found out about the existence of a train station. And as it has turned out, it became my favorite place in Moshi. With the sumptuous Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, it is a place to sit in peace, a place where time stopped and where instead of people “watching time pass”, it is the Time that observes the people passing by and the goats eating the grass that grows in between the unused train rail.

The train station was built in 1911 as part of the first railway in what was then known as German East Africa (composed by Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi). As time went on, the railway became less and less used until it completely stopped around the 90’s.

Nowadays there is a little cafe serving hot drinks with plastic chairs in the platforms. To me, it was the perfect spot in Moshi to witness the quaint train station change into different illuminated shades of orange during the golden hour and join Time watching the people walking pass.

 

3 Comments

  • VICENT OISSO

    hi ! Andrei,

    On Your article about Moshi railway station.

    I would like to inform you that now in Moshi railway station there trains which makes journeys from Dar es salaam city to Arusha via Moshi railway station which were not working for almost more than three decades.

    Moshi railway station renewed it journeys in 2019 under the leadership of late president JOHN JOSEPH POMBE MAGUFULI.

    In addition to that, Tanzania Railways Company(TRC) has now expanded, Where now there is a Big project for construction of Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) which is more advanced than the presents ones which are used until now.

  • William Fraser

    Hi Andreia,

    Your article about Moshi railway station brings back a lot of memories for me.

    My father was an engineer with East African Railways & Harbours and in 1958 he was transferred from Nairobi to Moshi to be in charge of the locomotive maintenance depot and our (my father, my mother and me) accommodation was the upper part of the station building. During the day there was a few trains and at 8pm in the evening there was one train which arrived from Voi, on the Nairobi – Mombasa line in Kenya, and then there was a redistribution of some wagons from that train to make up another train to Arusha which left at 10pm, after which it was all peaceful and we had a good sleep!!

    After 2 years in Moshi my father was transferred to Morogoro for 2 years and then to Dar es Salaam, where he was for 18 years, eventually retiring and returning to Scotland.

    I myself qualified as an agricultural engineer and in this role I have been fortunate to return to various parts of Tanzania, including Moshi, and it is always interesting to see the changes.

    Regards

    Bill Fraser

    • Steve Albano

      Thanks for posting this, Andrea. I was just at the railway station this morning. There is a mechanical crane at the station with wording on it saying it was built in England in 1922, so must have been installed just after WW1 when the British took over Tanganyika from the Germans. Interesting spot.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: