Swakopmund Railway Station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former station building of Swakopmund, now serving as a hotel.

Swakopmund Railway Station (German: Bahnhof Swakopmund) is a railway station serving the town of Swakopmund in Namibia. It is part of the TransNamib railway network.

Swakopmund was the starting point of the first state railway line in German South West Africa. This line was built in 1902 during Imperial Germany's colonial rule, and connected Swakopmund to Windhoek. In 1914 the extension to Walvis Bay was completed, with a railtrack very close to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1980 this extension was replaced by an alternative route behind the dunes that allowed for higher axle load.[1]

The station building today serves as a hotel and casino; trains stop outside town. There is another former station building in Swakopmund, the O.M.E.G. Bahnhof of the private mining company Otavi Minen und Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, today housing a museum.

See also

References

Coordinates: 22°40′25″S 14°32′7″E / 22.67361°S 14.53528°E / -22.67361; 14.53528


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.