Camrail - The Cameroon railways

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The Cameroonian railways

This page is not an official website of Camrail, but has been privately written and published on the web by the Webmaster

Attention:
If you want to photography the railways (or anything else) in Cameroon, please read that WARNING first !

Would you like to see how Cameroon looks like where there are no railways? Click here!

Summary:
- Lines
- Motive power
- Liveries
- Picture gallery
- Desktop wallpapers
- Thanks
- Links

Lines, traffic situation:
(State: September 2004)

Douala-Yaoundé, Central line:
THE main line of the Camrail. The first part as far as Eséka has been built by the german colonial administration, the rest to Yaoundé has been finished by the french administration. Quite few passenger traffic (daily 3 trains, the ICs have usually only 3-4 coaches, and the "Shuttle" only one coach plus 2-3 covered goods vans) because of the totally uncontrolled concurrence of lots of bus companies, running oftly and faster (but also with much accidents!). The goods traffic is important, around 5 to 10 heavy trains daily.

Yaoundé-Ngaoundéré, Northern line:
As the road network is much fewer developed north of Yaoundé, the passenger trains to Ngaoundéré are much heavier than in direction of Douala (10-12 coaches) There are local trains on Yaoundé-Bélabo. Goods traffic like Yaoundé-Douala.

Otélé-Mbalmayo:
Traffic suspended.

Douala-Mbanga-Nkongsamba, Ligne de l'Ouest:
Line opened in 1911 by the german colonial administration ("Manegubahn", initially only Bonabéri - Nkongsamba). Only Douala - Mbanga is in service, with very few traffic (mainly because of the bad state of the combined road-rail bridge over the Wouri river, in Douala).

On older maps drawn before 1918, there is a non realised project showing this line prolongated in northern direction to Bafoussam, Foumban, Banyo and Garoua.

Mbanga-Kumba:
Line opened in 1969 to link the english-speaking regions of the country. Now 7 passenger trains daily (Emergency shuttle after the collapse of the Mungo river bridge, on the main road Douala-Limbé)

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Motive power:
(State: 11.8.2004)

ZE 501 - 505 "Modules":

ZE 504 M + ZE 505 R, Engine shed of Bessengué 11.8.2004
DMUs built by Alsthom in 1976 for the protuguise railways CP (type 9600) and bought 2nd-hand by Camrail. They are foreseen for rapid services between Yaoundé and Douala, but must first be altered because of their motorisation is too weak for the ramps (8 / 1000) between Eséka and Makak. They are attended to enter in service in february 2005.

BB 1009, 1037, 1039:

BB 1037, Engine shed of Bessengué 12.8.2004
Shunters built by Moyse. 3 remaining (1009, 1037, 1039) with only one in service (1039, shunting in Douala)

BB 1102-1118, 1120:

BB 1102, Yaoundé 16.7.2004
Locomotives built by Alsthom / MTE, used for shunting and light passenger trains on Douala - Yaoundé and Yaoundé - Bélabo.

BB 1203-1205, 1207, 1210:

BB 1210, Yaoundé 20.7.2004
Locomotives Alsthom, quite similar to those delivered around 1960 to some "colonial" railways and also to the netherland state railways (type 6500 NS). 3 remain in service: 1203 (green livery), 1204 (red livery) and 1210 (original brown livery)

CC 2204-2210, 2212-2215, 2217-2222, 2224-2228, 2230 "Bombardier":

CC 2228, Yaoundé 17.7.2004
Locomotives built Bombardier (Canada), type MLW MX 620, used for the goods traffic on Douala - Yaoundé - Ngaoundéré, plus passenger traffic on Yaoundé - Ngaoundéré.

CC 2601-2605:

CC 2605, Yaoundé 17.7.2004
5 locomotives built EMD, type GT26M2C, bought 2nd-hand from the south african railways Spoornet (Former immatriculation: type 35 of Spoornet). Same services like the CC 2200s.

A picture of the delivery of the future CC 2600, still with south african immatriculation (With the kindly autorisation of the french embassy in Yaoundé)

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Liveries of the motive power:

Brown:

BB 1210, Eséka 20.7.2004
In my knowledge, only BB 1210 still wears this livery.

Green, with or without yellow stripes:

CC 2228, Yaoundé 17.7.2004
Former standard livery of the RNCF. Worn by most of the locomotives, excepted the CC 2600s (red)

Yellow / Red:

CC 2209, Edéa 1.8.2004
Experimental sheme, only CC 2209 wears this livery.

Red:

CC 2213, Yaoundé 18.7.2004
New standard livery of the Camrail. Worn by some BB 1100s (Actual 1107 and 1120), BB 1204, some CC 2200s and all CC 2600s.

Red / light grey:

ZE 504 M + ZE 505 R, Engine shed of Bessengué 11.8.2004
Standard livery of the passenger coaches, also applied to the DMUs type ZE 500

Yellow:

DC 64 CE, Edéa 1.8.2004
Tractors and service engines.

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Picture gallery:

Do you know that in Cameroon, for 10'000,- FCFA (= around 25 swiss Francs, or 15 Euros) you can get a french electric engine in your pocket? To see how, click here!

The biggest railway company logo I've ever seen: the former "macaron" of the RNCF, in the main hall of the station Bessengué (Douala)

Yaoundé, main station, 6.7.2004

BB 1102
CC 2218

Yaoundé, goods station, 17.7.2004

CC 2605		Grue 69001
CC 2228
CC 2228, drivers post R	CC 2228, drivers post L
BB 1117
BB 1117

Yaoundé main station, 18.7.2004
Shunting of the night train to Ngaoundéré

CC 2213		BB 1109
CC 2213

Line Yaoundé-Douala, 20.7,2004

BB 1210, Yaoundé
CC 2222, Yaoundé	CC 2228, Makak
BB 1210, Eséka		BB 1107, Eséka
BB 1107, Eséka	BB 1102, Loungahé

Yaoundé, main station, 31.7.2004
Local train to Bélabo, and arrival of the IC train from Douala

BB 1120
	BB 1120 + BB 1117	BB 1117
BB 1117
BB 1117		BB 1109
BB 1117 + BB 1109	BB 1109	BB 1117 + BB 1109

Edéa, 1.8.2004

DC 64 CE		Ready to shoot...
CC 2209		CC 2213 + BB 1210

Douala (Main station Bessengué), 2.8.2004
Arrival of the IC train from Yaoundé

BB 1116	BB 1210

DC 64 CE		BB 1210

Yaoundé, main station, 10.8.2004

BB 1116, with Cheikh Djibring, station master of Yaoundé		BB 1116
BB 1116	BB 1108
BB 1108

Douala 11.8.2004
Main workshops of Bassa and engine shed of Bessengué

ZE 501 M	ZE 501 R	CC 2211
BB 1113	CC 2605 being hauled	CC 2223

BB 1037
General view of the shed	ZE 504 M + ZE 505 R	ZE 504 M + ZE 505 R
ZE 505 M + ZE 504 R	ZE 505 R + ZE 504 M	ZE 502 R
CC 2215	ZE 504 R + ZE 505 M	CC 2215

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Desktop wallpapers:

CC 2228, Yaoundé 17.07.2004	Format 800 x 600
	Format 1024 x 768
	Format 1280 x 1024

CC 2209, Edéa 01.08.2004	Format 800 x 600
	Format 1024 x 768
	Format 1280 x 1024

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Thanks:

I would like to thank the railwaymen of the Camrail who really helped me, and among them more particularly:

	Mr Athanase Esso (Right on the picture, with the orange helmet), manager of the communication department of the Camrail, who first purchased my photographying autorisation (signed by the Camrail CEO, Mr Patrick Claes himself!), and then did all to organise for me a complete guided visit of the main workshops of Douala - Bassa.
	Cheikh Oumarou Malam Djibring, station master of Yaoundé-Voyageurs, who welcomed me very friendly and was a big help to obtain the photographying autorisation in time, even with the disfunctions of the cameroonian posteal services...

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Links:
The Camrail is (alas!) almost totally absent on the Web. Here all that I found (in french):
http://www.camnet.cm/investir/transpor/regie/regie.htm
http://www.ambafrance-cm.org/html/camero/transpo/camrai.htm
http://www.comazar.com/camrail.htm

2 interessant articles found on allafrica.com (in french):
http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200408030231.html
http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200407300390.html

One article of Cameroon Tribune about the delivery of the "Modules" ZE 501-505 (en anglais):
http://www.marineafric.com/english/news/reg-int-news/regint0079.htm

Timetables found on http://www.fahrplancenter.com/ (S. Rachdi's private website):
http://www.fahrplancenter.com/KamerunEntry04.html

A page (in german) about the german dominion of "Kamerun", and the railways built in Africa by the german colonial administration(s) until 1918:
http://www.jaduland.de/kolonien/afrika/kamerun/index.html
http://www.jaduland.de/kolonien/afrika/text/eisenbahn.html

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Tous les contenus et photos de ce site / Alle Inhalte und Bilder dieser Website / All contents and pictures of this website:
(C) Pierre-Noël Rietsch, Hinwil (CH) 1980-2004

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