Namibia - Visit Reports
6 - 16 January 2024
Visit report by Miika Nicholson
TransNamib (Namibia)
Saturday 6th January
Finished my driving shift at 06:23 at Old Oak Common Depot and headed straight to St Pancras. Got 1.5 hours sleep on the Eurostar.
EST9116 London St Pancras 09:01 to Brussels Midi 12:05. Set 4034 at rear (front?)
A few moves made in the Brussels area finishing off with a train to Zaventem. From Zaventem it was about a 25 minute walk to the airport. This was to save 6.40 euro which is the supplement fee applied to all tickets to Brussels Airport inc FIP coupons. The walk was easy enough.
FLIGHT: Brussels 19:15 to Frankfurt 20:15. Operated by Brussels Airlines. FLIGHT: Frankfurt 21:55 to Windhoek 09:15(+1). Operated by Discovery. £320 one-way
Sunday 7th January
1 GBP = 23.80 NAD (Namibian Dollar). South African Rand's are accepted in Namibia at a rate of 1 Rand = 1 Dollar (but not the other way around).
Arrived on time. Airport taxi appears to be pretty much a set rate of 400 NAD. But I refused in true fashion and threatened to hitchhike. The taxi drivers said it's unsafe and eventually dropped the price to 250 NAD. There is no public transport from the airport and I couldn't even locate the shared minibuses.
First stop was Windhoek station. All locked up but outside was 32-001 plinthed. The Dessert Express coaches were also parked outside with the paint fading away from the sun.
Made some online enquiries on the unofficial TransNamib Facebook group and got given 2 numbers - Gidion Eiseb (Ops Director +264811226034) and Elgiva (Passenger Services +264812296392). Both numbers visible to all group members. I made arrangements to meet Gidion at 7am.
Stayed at Chameleon Backpacker Hostel - about 20-25 minute walk from the station.
Monday 8th January
Back at station for 07:00. Bought a return ticket. 280 NAD each way for a bed in a shared compartment and met Gidion. Gidion said I was free to wander around the station.
I probably took that a bit too far, but I ventured off along the track towards the depot. I had second thoughts about half way, momentarily turned back, but then continued anyway. Eventually I came across a small security hut at the entrance to the marshalling / goods yard. The woman inside asked what I was doing. I said looking for the headquarters, to which she pointed me back towards the station. I then corrected myself, and said the Locomotive Depot office - she pointed me the opposite way (which I already knew and was walking towards before she stopped me).
051 was shunting in the goods yard.
When I got to the Depot offices, it looked like there was an important meeting going on (it was Monday morning and about 09:00 after all) - some things never change! So I just continued to walk around.
Locomotives noted (definitely non-operational): SDD6 0001, 0004, 0006, 0007, 0009 405, 435, 504, 508, 510, TD602
I have never in my life seen so many crash damaged locomotives in a working depot before. And over the next 4 days I heard a lot about how these accidents had happened, and saw the remnants of the most recent one, which happened very recently. I won't go into details on this email about these accidents as I will treat the info I was given with a degree of confidentiality.
Locomotives (in the maintenance shed): SDD6-0008, TD606, 417, 457 501 - in the bogie drop area
Locomotive (operational): 447, TD605 017 - shunting coaches for Windhoek - Oshikango service 051 - shunting wagons
Some locos I failed to identify from my photos (I use my photos afterwards rather than pen and paper at the time) and some had no numbers on at all.
After a short cab ride on 017 whilst performing the in depot shunting duties, I walked back to the station. Here I watched 017 once again perform several shunts to get the coaching stock in the right order. I really don't understand why the order was that important as the majority of the carriages were 3rd class berth compartments.
At around 13:30 I went for lunch, a small sightseeing tour of Windhoek, followed by beer and a BBQ for dinner.
Tuesday 9th January
At some point since I left yesterday, a further 4 coaches had been added (ex Inara Express) painted in beige and brown. These included a restaurant, a lounge, a generator/baggage and crew compartments & kitchen coaches. In total the train consisted of 10 StarLine blue coaches, 4 ex-Inara Express coaches and 1 parcel wagon.
Out the 10 blue coaches, 1 one was 2nd class, 1 was seated and the rest were 3rd class. I was given a 2 bed compartment in the 2nd class coach. I had the shower next door to me. This would remain as my compartment (without any sharing from Windhoek to Oshikango, and back to Krazenberg). There were a total of 4 passengers departing from Windhoek.
The departure time was scheduled for 12:00. The locomotive, number 008 was attached at approximately 12:10, and we departed at 13:45.
Several stops were made along the way to Krazenberg, where the portion from Walvis Bay was attached. It was dark by the time this occured (after 20:30) and I had already retired to my room. Also had a short cab ride from a passing loop to Krazenberg station.
Side note - I was treated like a member of staff on this train. The kindness of the TransNamib staff was amazing, and the food that I got for 250 NAD total was truly unbelievable (3x breakfast, 3x lunch, 3x dinner). One meal of nothing special can easily cost 60-100 NAD here.
Wednesday 10th January
The train consist was now 12 StarLine coaches, 2 parcel vans and 4 ex-Inara Express coaches.
Spent the whole day on the train including a short cab ride from Tsumeb station to a bush somewhere in Namibia. Basically the driver got a call on the radio to say my lunch was ready, so he stopped the train alongside a bush and let me walk back.
Arrival into Oshikango was at 22:00. Spent the evening with some of the crew having a few drinks. A slightly earlier arrival would've meant a BBQ.
Thankfully, as I was being treated as a member of staff, I could sleep on the train and not worry about finding a hotel in town.
Thursday 11th January
We departed Oshikango pretty much on time at 12:08 (scheduled for 12:00). The delay was caused by a mother sending her kids to a shop in town. The majority of the passengers were picked up at Ondangwa. And the train ran in reverse formation until Tsumeb. They always run locos cab end first and most stations have a triangle for this purpose. The train was perhaps 20% occupied, with a high percentage of that being kids returning to school.
Not much more to add!
Friday 12th January
15km before arrival into Krazenberg we stopped short of a passing loop (Ounguati). Here Locomotive No. TD605 was taken off a freight which was double headed and added onto our train. So for the last 15km into Krazenberg, we had 008 and TD605.
At Krazenberg, both of these locos were detached (they would most likely work the rear portion to Windhoek). 489 was attached onto the front, and the 2 parcel wagons and 3 StarLine coaches went forward to Swakopmund. We made two stops. The first was alongside the main road so that those that needed dinner could nip to the petrol station (we had now lost the restaurant coach and shop), and the second stop was awaiting clearance at Arandis (I was allowed out to photograph the train).
Arrival into Swakopmund was at 21:10, running some 4.5 hours behind schedule. I walked to Skeleton Beach Hostel for a well deserved beer.
