Nairobi Railway Museum – Tracing history of railroad in Kenya

Want to know how Nairobi was brought into existence, the mystery behind its present location, and the various stages of city’s history? Then you surely need to make plans and book cheap flights to Nairobi to visit the capital city of Kenya soon. The city’s prime attraction Nairobi Railway Museum is the best place to acquaint with the history of the city as well as its railroad.

Situated in an old railway building, the Nairobi Railway Museum is devoted to the history of the railroad in Kenya and how the city came into existence at its present location. Various books and a 1996 film ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’ have dramatized the painstaking efforts leading to the construction of the railway that connected Mombasa with Kisumu town on Lake Victoria shores in the early 20th century. The film traced the history on how the laborers lost their lives confronting the tigers and how Nairobi was finally created, and later on Kenya itself. The 931 km railway took five-and-a-half years to be completed from May 1986 through December 1901 with 2,493 lives being lost during attacks by the tigers.

The Nairobi Railway Museum provides a fascinating insight into all these. The museum is a unique place to visit where you will get opportunity to see rolling stock and steam locomotives on display. A model of the German-built MV Liemba is also displayed. This is still being used along Lake Tanganyika. The yard of the museum also exhibits a carriage that was used during the hunting expedition for the Maneater of Kima in 1900. Photographs taken during the construction of the Uganda Railway are also among the major highlights at the museum. Come and visit Nairobi and be amazed by this railway museum.