Sierra Leone National Railway Museum In Clinetown

My money supply tight, and being a technology geek who actually has read and enjoyed History of the American Locomotive by Smithsonian Railroad Curator John C. White, I had to head to Clinetown to check out the "free admission" National Railway Museum. Lonely Planet says it opens at 10am. I headed out a bit early. Clinetown is at the far east end of Freetown way down at the other end of Kissy Road. Kissy Road is the road I came into Freetown on. It is an amazing flow of people, goods, vehicles, and energy. You can't help but smile as you walk along this pulsating avenue.

I wanted to go left on College Street but when I got to the roundabout, I found I was block beyond on Ross Street. At least I knew where I was and they connect down by the museum anyway. So I went left and entered Clinetown. Along the way I saw a cafe called Prinvic Cafe. I figured it might have something nice to eat and drink. I passed it thinking maybe I'd find something better. I got to another roundabout with all sorts of signs pointing in various directions labeling the streets. The signs weren't entirely accurate and I went a ways on the wrong street for a while before turning back and finding the real Cline Street. This is a slightly scary part of town. People were begging and calling out to me. I found the museum, but it wouldn't open until 10:30 (another Lonely Planet error-but see below). Since it wasn't open and I didn't see anything that looked better than the Prinvic Cafe, I decided to go back.

The Prinvic has a lace curtain you go through and there about 6 tables with 3 chairs each. I walked in and asked the three ladies sitting in the back if they were open. They looked at me as if I were the only white person ever to set foot into their cafe. She had me take a seat. She had Coca-Cola and a bottled water. I got a Coke. Then she asked me if I wanted her to make me a salad for Le7000 (US$2.66). Sure. It was an interesting salad. A chicken drumstick (cold), lettuce, sliced cucumbers, a sliced hard boiled egg, chunks of some sort of julienned processed meat, white beans, and covered in mayonnaise and ketchup. Despite the odd ingredients, it was pretty tasty. The ketchup, mayo, and beans combined to takes just like baked beans. And the chicken, beans, and canned meat meant it was going to keep my hunger at bay for a while. The Coke was Le2000. With a Le1000 tip, that came to Le10000 or US$3.33. Not bad. The lady was excited to have had me as a customer. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was leaving Sierra Leone at 5am the next day.

Since it was still early, I decided to check out the ruins of the Old Fourah Bay College building built in 1848--the same year my home state Wisconsin became a state. The shell of the old building is still there in a large walled enclosure. It is surrounded by a little community within the enclosure. The building has no roof and is empty of all but rubble. Its condition is not too dissimilar from the Gembaku Dome--the building that housed the Hiroshima Agency for the Promotion of Trade and Industry until the morning of August 6, 1945. It would be nice for the Old Fourah College building to be restored, though, while the Gembaku Dome must forever remain as it is.

Then it was a little before 10am. I headed to the Railroad Museum. When I got there, the guy told me not to worry about the opening time. He would be happy to give me a tour. He explained how it works, He give me a tour, then at the end I can make a donation and sign the guest book. OK. So we went by a bunch of photographs of Sierra Leone trains and history of the Sierra Leone rail system and the history of the museum itself. Sierra Leone used to have a quite nice rail system until 1975. After that, it was closed down and all the good rolling stock sent to England where a lot of it is still used. Some pictures of the original cars before they were restored. The museum had some pretty slim pickings based on the photos, but they have done a good job so far. They still have a ways to go, and a little visited railway museum that is way out of the tourist beat in Clinetown is probably not a high priority for a strapped national budget. The tour guide was passionate about the train system as it used to be. He showed me the partially restored car that was made for Queen Elizabeth II for her visit to Sierra Leone. There is no furniture or anything. Just a bare car. We went out the back where the queen would have stood to do her twisty wrist wave and we did the wave together imagining our hand covered in white glove, I suppose.

He showed me the diesel engines of a couple of the locomotives--one functional 8 cylinder locomotive and one damaged 6 cylinder engine. I got to climb up into the engineer's cab. It reminded me of the scene in The Road where they find a train and go into the engineer's cab. Then we got the steam engines. Steam engines are my favorite. I especially like the one in the Yaletown Community Center in Vancouver because it has all the parts I remember from History of the American Locomotive and it's fun to figure out the role of each piece. These steam engines weren't in as good shape and a lot of the cool stuff was hidden behind metal casings. But there was still a lot to look at. I sort of wish the guide wasn't there so I could really think about each piece. We saw one of those pump cars where two people (or one, I suppose) pumps the handle attached to a rocker to make the car go. There were a few more utility cars, a box car for carrying money, a small self contained inspection car, and a few other things related to rail maintenance. Finally, there is a piece of track they are working on. They want to put the pump car onto the tracks and let children ride it.

I tipped the guide with one my precious few Le10000 bills and gave another to the donation box. I hope they are able to continue work on the museum. They eventually would like to move it downtown since not many tourists brave Kissy Street and then Clinetown. The trick the museum guides use is to, at some point, find an excuse to tell you that they have been working without salary--5 months in the National Museum guide's case and 2 months for the Railway museum guy--just to make sure you err on the side of giving them a tip.

After that, I was tired so I came back to my room to type this up. Then it started to rain, so I was happy to be indoors.

September 6, 2008 12:03 Sierra Leone local time