Sierra Leone National Railway Museum

Saved-from-the-scrapyard collection of colonial-era locomotives in the original Cline Town workshop

This is one of the most unexpected museums in West Africa. The Sierra Leone Government Railway operated a narrow-gauge network across the country until it was closed in 1974 and forgotten. The locomotives sat in the original Cline Town workshop for thirty years until volunteers, with help from the UK's National Railway Museum in York, opened them to the public in 2005.

The collection includes British-built steam engines, a royal saloon used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1961, and an extraordinary array of colonial-era rolling stock that exists nowhere else. The hall is hot and dusty and a guide will probably appear to walk you through; tip generously. Easily combined with a walk along the Cline Town waterfront or a visit to Queen Elizabeth II Quay.

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A story
When Sierra Leone's narrow-gauge railway shut down in 1974, the locomotives were rolled into the back of the Cline Town workshop and forgotten about for thirty years. They survived only because nobody bothered to scrap them — and so the museum, opened in 2005 with help from the National Railway Museum in York, has a fleet of unique British colonial engines no longer found anywhere else, including the personal saloon car of Queen Elizabeth II from her 1961 royal visit.

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