Here's a bunch of photos i've taken over the first half of January 2009, whilst staying and working in the agricultural town
of Mariental, which is some 270kms south of the Capital, Windhoek. I was staying at the Mariental Hotel, which is a perfect
base for a railfan as your directly across the main street from the Railway Station and yard. You can clearly hear the trains
rolling into town at their usual times of 7pm (Goods train from the south), 8 or 9pm (goods train from the north) and then
again at 1130pm, with the north bound mixed passenger and goods, then around 230am, the south bound goods and pax
mixed train and again another train at around 6am. These photos below are just of the 7pm and 8-9pm Goods, as at the
time with daylight savings you could still get a few shots in good light before it became too dark and then you need to switch
over to video. Video is pretty good in Mariental as plenty of shunting takes place, the yard is quite wide and open as well as
adequately lit with floodlights. The drivers are always friendly and I have never had any problems photographing or filming in
the yard at Mariental... but i have had some weird looks...
The main items delievered to and picked up from Mariental are... cement being unloaded at the yard and
bricks being picked up by the goods trains, as there are two Brick factories in the area. As mentioned before, the Mariental
area is known for it's great fruit and vegies in Namibia and this may be what is loaded into containers which are also shunted from
the goods shed on to the various goods trains.
From the time tables the journey from Windhoek to Mariental is around 7 hours and
from Mariental to Keetmanshoop in the south (where the mixed pax and goods train terminates at usually), it's a 5 hour trip.
Back to the Namibian Index Page