British East Africa. 63 RAILWAYS Particulars of Construction . All the railways of the two Protectorates belong to a single administrative system , and are uniform in gauge andin method of traction. There is in every case a single line of one metre gauge , laid with 50-lb . rails . Thetractive power is supplied by locomotive steam engines of various classes, using as fuel either coal or wood. The best engines appear to be those of the Mastodon type (Class " Ğ ” ), which might well be adopted, with little modification, as the standard type for the future , to replace the large number of inferior and outworn engines that have been in use since 1900.

The average speed of goods trains is 13 miles per hour, of mail trains 16 miles . This low speed is due partly to the limitations of the rolling -stock and the narrow gauge, partly to the curves and gradients of the line. The longitudinalsection of the railway shows that from sea-level the line ascends in three great steps to a height of7,800 feet, fallsto 6,000, climbs again to 8,330 at Mau Summit, and thence drops to the lake level of 3,750 feet. Over this varied contour, with ascents totalling 15,000 feet between ocean and lake, the maximum gradient of 1 in 33 is encountered on stretches amounting to less than three miles in all; grades of 1 in 33-50 occur on a total of 90 miles ; 219 miles range between 1 in 50 and 1 in 100 ; while the remaining mileage varies from 1 in 100 to level. The gradients of the projected Uasin Gishu Railway will not exceed 1 in 66, which is also the ruling grade of the Busoga Railway in Uganda.

The longest bridge on the main line is the Salisbury Bridge , which connects Mombasa Island with the mainland and is composed of five 12-ft . spans and twenty -one spans of 60 -ft. girders carried on iron screw piles . The Tsavo and Stov Athi bridges have each four spans, with 60-ft . girders, while the Athi River and Morendat bridges have centre girders of 100 ft . , flanked in each case by smaller spans . The deep ravines of the Kikuyu escarpment and the many channels cut ting the downward slope from Mau to Kisumu are