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.
7 Comments
Eric Hayman
II was a soldier in the Royal Engineers from 1958 to 1964. I was in Aden from 1962 to 1964, and spent three lots of leave in east Africa during that time. I travelled by train from Nairobi to Nanyuki and back; from Mombasa through to Uganda, to Kasese; and from Mwanza to Dar es Salaam. The final part of my last leave was from Dar to Voi, and back to Nairobi via Mombasa.
My intended passenger train from Dar was due to leave mid-afternoon, but had been rescheduled to depart in the morning, so as to pass during daylight hours through a section that had had derailments. The next passenger service was two days away. So I caught a goods train, travelling either with the guard or on the footplate of the giant Manchester-built Beyer Garratt steam locomotive. It took me only as far as Moshi, where I arrived in the dark. The stationmaster opened up the Edwardian-era first class waiting room for me; and I slept the night on a sumptuous settee.
In the morning I went to a hotel in the town for a wash, shave and breakfast, before returning to the railway station – to await the departure of another goods train to take me to Voi.
Moshi station was built by the Germans when it was in German East Africa. After the end of the First World War, GEA became British and was named Tanganyika. Thanks to the Germans and the British both having chosen the metre gauge for their separate railways in east Africa, it was possible to join the two parts of what had become East African Railways. Thus I found myself staying the night and changing goods trains at Moshi in 1964.
The three newly independent countries were handed a fully functioning, well-coordinated railway.
But they failed to keep it running as a whole. Independence replaced co-dependence. That is why Moshi station is how it is today.
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Susan Goldstein
We will be in Moshi August 2024. Will they still allow us to go upstairs at the train station for pics of Mt Kilimanjaro? Is the correct street Station Road? Wll we need an escort since we are tourists? Thank you so much.
Pramila Borkhataria
I took a train from moshi to dar es salaam n back in 1991.. I haven’t been back home since may 1991. Miss n home town but it change with time like this train station..
My dad use to bring me n my sibling here to watch tain passing at 7pm..
I was wondering it happens to the station n if someone took over the cantee to make it in to a restaurant to bring some life it the old building.. it’s a landmark of moshi like library post office old moshi airport n old bridge over karanga river er
Uhuru park..I guess both cinema are closed now..
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.