Bulawayo Railway Museum


Bulawayo Railway Museum is a railway museum located at Bulawayo railway station in Zimbabwe that houses several exhibitions on the history of the railway system in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. Its oldest exhibits date back to 1897, and include Cecil Rhodes' personal railway coach. The museum is owned by National Railways of Zimbabwe. Due to the severe shortage of rolling stock, some steam locomotives from the museum have, in the past, been refurbished and returned to service.

Exhibits

Main exhibits are grouped into seven different classes namely:
  1. Steam Locomotives
  2. Diesel Electric Locomotives
  3. Coaches and Saloons
  4. Wagons
  5. Trolleys
  6. Railway Cranes
  7. Other Miscellaneous Items

    Steam Locomotives

There are also a number of items and pieces of art related to the railway industry at the museum. These include pictures of the day the queen of England visited Rhodesia, pictures of the "white train", a chronicle of Rhodes' death with his furniture in his coach, typewriters, train ticketing machines, train tickets, train passes, train destination boards, models of locomotives and coaches.

Buildings

There are two key buildings at the Bulawayo Railway Museum. The first one, right by the entrance, is the Shamva Station and the other is the Main Hall which houses many of the special exhibits.

Shamva Station

This is a typical Rhodesian Railways station building, dismantled and moved from Shamva to the museum to serve as the main reception. It consists of a ticketing office with most of the notice boards and equipment a railway station was expected to have during Rhodesian Railway times.

Main Hall

This hall was once the mechanical workshop of the Bulawayo station. In it can be found much of the mechanical equipment used there and at the station. There is also a wall of fame of Chief Mechanical Engineers since the start of Rhodesia Railways until 2013. This hall houses the most important exhibits at the Museum.

Management and Ownership

The Museum is owned by National Railways of Zimbabwe, but before that it was owned and formed by Rhodesia Railways. It is managed by Mr Gordon Murray, a long serving member of the company but subsequently a pensioner.