Railways from Luanda to Ambaca (Angola): a pioneering case of technology transfer

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1 Railways from Luanda to Ambaca (Angola): a pioneering case of technology transfer Bruno J. Navarro Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT / FCT- UNL) 2012 FOZTUA International Conference RAILROADS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT CONSTRUCTION, COSTS AND CONSEQUENCES Foz Tua, October

2 Perhaps you don t believe there s a railway where trains only work during the day? Well there is, honestly! In Portuguese territory, it is easy to see. It s Ambaca s railway, which will extend through Africa. With the arrival of trains at some Train Stations-Inn at twilight, people would stop and spend the night there, to wake up in the early morning, get up, and continue their journey, slowly, to symbolize the progress of our overseas administration. The state of the rail track does not allow it any other way. Most of it never was ballasted; huge stretches, finished yesterday to build, need to be rebuilt; the conservation service is made by the rain. Suppose that in some part of the tracks a black man goes in the front of the locomotive seeing if it can move forward. Let s say that this fast traveling caricature is enough for the purpose for which is meant, and that it consists in forcing the Government to pay hundreds of Contos de reis of guarantees of interests. It doesn t transport passengers, almost doesn t transport goods, and the fees proudly repel the traffic. Native caravans that were loaded with coffee sacks, cut in front of the steam heavy carts, mocking them. (O Dia, March 14 th, 1900)

3 Very often the speed is the same as a passenger whose hat falls, goes down quietly to the track, picks it up, cleans it with the coat sleeve, puts it on, and goes up again to his seat. The derailments were almost never serious. In general in the trans African railway the train doesn t derail just lays down, and usually takes that position starting by the head, meaning: the machine (Vanguarda, September, 22th, 1907).

4 Meanwhile, what is that railway next to this one? The hill next to the mountain. This is a truly European work; the Matadi Railway, it s just an African work. However, the Belgians did much more noise with their railway, than we did and will do with ours (Joaquim de Almeida da Cunha, general-secretary of the province of Angola).

5 Railroad projects in Angola project of a railroad linking Luanda to Calumbo, presented by Pompílio Pompeu de Carpo, Silvano Francisco Luís Pereira e Eduardo Germak Possolo; 1857 project of na american line linking Luanda to Cassange (Zaire); José Baptista de Andrade, governor of the province of Angola ordered the first recognition of the territory; 1873 New contract for the construction of a railway linking Luanda to Ambaca; 1877 preliminaries and definitive recognitions of the territory;

6 Every epochs have their own civilizations: the current spirit orientation rejects the excessive regulation, to embrace and accept the miracles of the locomotive and telegraph; desires the propaganda of the trade and industry, and the useful practices stripped of sterile formulas, being the work prayer the one that approaches men to the providence that created him, and the one that moralizes him in a faster way and prepares him, through social conviviality, to catch the benefits of that influence (Geography Society of Lisbon, 1882).

7 Historic Context 19 century Emergency of a European imperialism, in Africa (the Scramble for Africa); Berlin Conference ( ) the imposition of an effective occupation of the colonial territories; The threat of England, Germany and Belgium in Angola;

8 The Luanda-Ambaca railway 363 kms; Adjudicated in 1885 to the Royal Company of Railways through Africa, chaired by the Oporto businessmen, Alexandre Peres; The contract predicted the construction of a railway in the province of Angola, which, leaving from Luanda and by following through Bengo valley, goes through Oeiras to Luce valley, to stop east of Pemba, on the right margin of Lucala, municipality of Ambaca ; Narrow gauge of 1m; maximum slopes of 25 millimeters; minimum curve radii of 150m; Supplement to the annual net income up to 6%, against the cost of 19,999$000 reis, per each kilometer of railway built (Santa Comba Dão and Viseu Railway: 22880$000; Viseu to Mirandela Railway: 37630$472);

9 Narrow Gauge The company proposal: 0,60m (inspired by the example of Railway (Wales); v The best solu@on for the specific characteris@cs of the railway in Angola, and the expected traffic volume; v More economic construc@on costs; v The best solu@on for crop in the adjoining land; Advisory Board of Public Works and Mines opinion: 1m v they could not confirm that the gauge of 0.60 would be cheaper than the one of 1m; v It was impossible to compare the Ffes@niog Railway with the Ambaca Railway;

10 It s therefore necessary that the main railway of Angola have the technical condition that its importance and purpose ask for without many exaggerations in every way. And it is hardly reasonable to build a railway of normal rail of 1.44m or 1.67m, when the ones of a 1m rail or of 0.90m can satisfy the traffic needs, probably for many years, and still other purposes that it is expected to fulfill, we should not exaggerate the other way, building a railway with only one rail of 0.60m width which has not even been adopted in the rest of the world for a district line, or a province line, or a State line, and to serve both goods and travelers (Advisory Board of Public Works and Mines)

11 The Luanda-Ambaca railway Construction work began on October 31, 1886; The development works followed the adopted orientation of the St. Petersburg Railway Congress the telescopy : In fact, in regions deprived of all kinds of communication links, and where waterways offer few guarantees because of their poor navigability, most of the transports had to be made by shippers, at an amazing price, the most rational and economic is to focus every way of action on the first stretches and provide the material transportation until the end of the rails, to guarantee the supply to the employed people for the construction of the following stretches ; The works were adjudicated by task, agreement contracts or monthly links; The work force was recruited mainly near the native population; Engineers, drivers and craftspeople arrived from Portugal;

12 Territory difficulties the torrential rains ; the material transportations to the construction areas; the unhealthy climate; the dangers of life in the tropical forest (animal attacks, lack of air circulation and water saturation); the dense bush; the water absence in several places of construction; the distrust and hostility of some native people

13 Construction difficulties Kms 253 to 316 the lowlands were often flooded; the marshy areas; in the cut ravines it was decided to circumvent the curves or the use of bridges, and pontoon, as well as uncovered, paved and vaulted aqueducts;

14 Zondo Valley (section of 7km) the valley is completely closed, forming a sort of funnel, and their slopes composed of so pronounced buttresses, and ravines, so deep, that it was absolutely impossible to develop the tracing in these craggy precipices ( ). To solve the problem we would choose one of these solutions: or building the path into the mountain, facilitating the passage of the ravine, using tunnels for the passage of the buttresses; or compressing all the difficulties in the ravine transposition, using metal viaducts. In Europe the intermediate solution would be preferable, but in a country as Africa (sic), truly new and devoid of suitable people for these jobs, would be multiplying the difficulties and raising the production costs. In view of a rapid pace of the working construction, the second option was taken into consideration using only metal viaducts ; 10 metal viaducts; 25 current works of art; landfill volume: m; stone works: 17000m construction of a temporary line; Construction of an inclined plane; Global cost of the 7kms: $138; cost per k: 86376$112

15 Ambaca Railway km of railway per each year - Minho line with Braga s extension: 13km; Douro line: 14km; Beira Baixa line: 28,500km; Mirandela line: 17km; Viseu line: 16km. The Ambaca railway compared with de Matadi Railway: Gauge: Ambaca 1m / Matadi 0.75m Radii of curve: Ambaca 150m / Matadi 40m Railway Stations: Ambaca 22 in 364km / Matadi 8 in 400km

22 A Estação Central de Maputo: Património histórico de Moçambique Bruno J. Navarro Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT / FCT- UNL) 3.º Encontro Nacional de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia Évora, 27 de Setembro de 1912

RAILROADS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

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