ABSTRACT
When the British South Africa Company first took over the administration of the country, the nearest centre of railway communication was Kimberley. The discomforts of the railway journey were speedily forgotten in the joy of being once more in a train. The Beira Railway being only of a two-foot gauge, considerable delay and expense were entailed in transferring goods at Umtali from one line to the other; also, owing to the narrowness of the line, only a limited amount of traffic could be passed along it. The accommodation provided on the ordinary passenger trains in Rhodesia is the same as that on the Cape Government Railways, whilst the Train-de-Luxe, which carries the oversea mails once a week, in each direction, between Cape Town and Bulawayo, is fitted up for the comfort of its passengers in as luxurious a style as any of the first class saloon trains in England or on the Continent.
