Historic train preserved for posterity

A TWO-YEAR project to restore the train that has been a historical landmark at the Alte Feste in Windhoek was set into motion this week when it was moved to the Namibia Institute of Mining Technology (NIMT) outside Arandis.

Eckhard Mueller from NIMT and Antje Otto from the National Museum in Windhoek have been working together for the past two years on a plan to move and restore the train. With the help of Wesbank Transport and AWH Engineering, Rigging and Rentals, this became a reality on Monday.The locomotive, is a Henschel Hb 56, weighs close to 20 tons.The locomotive and its wagons were in use between Usakos and Tsumeb between 1906 and 1959. The South African Railways then donated it to the museum and in 1964 it was placed in front of the Alte Feste, but it was too close to the Reiterdenkmal and was moved in 1974 to the southern side. The train consists of the locomotive, a coal wagon, a closed goods wagon, a passenger coach for first and second class and a wagon in which the conductor travelled with the postbags, milk and cream cans that were picked up along the route. The passenger coach could transport 16 passengers. The first-class passengers could sit on upholstered seats while the second-class passengers sat on plain wooden benches. The two classes were divided by a small washroom. The conductor’s wagon was destroyed in 2007 when it was set alight by a homeless person who slept in the train and made a fire. Another open goods wagon in which livestock were transported is still parked at the old Camel Stables in Windhoek. The boilermaker and carpentry students at NIMT will renovate the train. ‘We will keep all the original components of the train, even if they are rusted or burnt, and they will be placed with the renovated train as they are part of its history,’ said Ralf Bussel, the principal of the engineering department at NIMT. The renovations will take about a year. It is not clear yet whether the train will be returned to the Alte Feste after its facelift.

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