Cape to Cairo Railway - From Cairo
While the southern arm of the great line pushed on energetically northwards from Cape Town, the northern limb descended almost as rapidly down the Valley of the Nile to the great interior, so that the heart of the continent was being eaten into spiritedly from both ends. The two branches had been built under totally different auspices. Whereas the southern section was carried out by private enterprise, the northern division was the work of Government effort.
In the north the railway made history rapidly, and its conquest was of a complex character. It placed a unique weapon in the hands of the Government, and it wrested a vast track of Africa, aggregating 950,000 square miles, from barbarity and religious fanaticism in the form of Mahdism. Owing to the impoverished condition of the country, the railway in Egypt experienced a very chequered career. It commenced its pacific invasion promisingly enough, but it was found to be a highly expensive settling influence for a land whose coffers had been depleted almost to the extent of emptiness.
The early lines, when laid, were neglected, and consequently fell into a sorry condition. The majority of people who had regard for their lives and limbs preferred other vehicles of transport. Everything in connection with the iron road was conducted in a haphazard manner. Trains started without any one having the faintest idea as to where they were going or what time they would reach some destination. Lord Cromer relates that when he first went to the Land of the Pharaohs all the lines were single track. No staff or block system of any kind was in vogue, and there were no signals. A train started from a station on the off-chance that another train was not coming in the opposite direction.
In the Sudan matters were even worse. The Khedive embarked upon a laudable enterprise when he decided to carry the iron highway southwards from Wadi Halfa. Khartoum was the objective, but nearly half a century passed before the iron horse appeared at the latter point, for when the Khedive's railway got so far as Sarras, 33 miles south, funds became exhausted and the scheme was abandoned. Another attempt was made in 1885-6, on the occasion of the Nile Expedition, to resuscitate the scheme, and by great effort another 53 miles were tacked on from Sarras to Akasha. The life of the second section was short, for when the British forces retired the track was pulled up by the dervishes, and Sarras reverted to its position as the southern terminus.
When Lord Kitchener was deputed to crush the Mahdi for once and for all, he found 1,200 miles of sandy desert between him in the north and the seat of the fanatic's power. The river was available for the movement of troops as in the previous campaign, but the latter had emphasised the disadvantages of that highway through hostile territory. He foresaw that only one agency would enable him to accomplish the desired end, and that was the railway.
The task was commenced in 1896, and railway construction was pushed forward with such spirited energy that Kerma, at the head of the cataracts, was gained in a short time. No great engineering difficulties were offered because the desert is tolerably level, and the sand provided a good foundation for the steel sleepers, or ties, with the minimum of ballasting. The greater question was to maintain the steady supply of requisite material southwards from Alexandria. Yet an average speed of two miles per day was maintained, the rails being laid for the most part by natives, assisted by both British and Egyptians, under the military engineers.
As the railway pushed its way towards Khartoum, the ranks of the laborers were swelled by large numbers of dervishes, who had grown disheartened at the result of their resistance to the British advance on the northern borders of the Mahdi's stronghold, had realised the impotency of their efforts, and consequently had decided to throw in their lot on the railway. The increased labour enabled the work to be prosecuted even more energetically, though a certain amount of time was lost in drilling this raw material into the mysteries of wielding the white man's tools.
By 1918 the countries surrounding Tanganyika, were tapped by the railway to Dar-es-Salaam and by the Belgian railway from Kabalo to Albertville. The regions north of Nyasa was tapped by the line from Kilossa. Traffic to and from Uganda and the regions surrounding Lake Victoria went to the east coast, to Mombasa. It was only when Lake Albert was passed and the Upper Nile reached that a railway running north would be the best line of communication, and even in this case most goods for the Upper Nile did not go via Alexandria, Cairo, or Port Said, but by the existing railway from Port Sudan on the western shores of the Red Sea.
Although the iron link stretched beyond Khartoum to the south, by 1911 Alexandria and Cairo were not in through railway communication with the capital of Sudan, 1,480 miles away. The Egyptian railways had their most southerly outpost at Shellal, just below Aswan, which was about 24 hours' journey from the Mediterranean seaboard by the White de luxe express. The terminal of the Sudan system was at Halfa, just south of the border between the two countries. The river Nile constituted the artery of communication between these two railway points, the steamer occupying about 40 hours. As late as 2010, a ferry link up on the Nile connected the railway from Egypt to Sudan, where it continues from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum.
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