The city of Livingstone in the southern region of Zambia is an incredible place. The area has unique and interesting wildlife, wonderful people, fascinating geology, and of course – what everyone comes here to see and learn about – the great African trains!
It was our first full day in Livingstone so I made sure to set my alarm for 05:00 so Sarah and I could be first in line to visit the Zambian National Train Museum when it opened at 10:00. Sure we got there early and we had to wait around for a few of hours. And yes it was so hot our driver who dropped us off came back unprompted a couple of times to bring us water to keep us from dying of dehydration during the wait. And yes there were in fact no other customers in line to delay our entry.
But none of that is important. What is important is that we got to visit a quality rail museum and we learned a few things about trains.
Were you aware that this train here was the first one to have the sex number painted on it? It’s true – this was all the way back in 1892.
In Africa, they sometimes use steel for their railway ties. In Canada we use wood and in Germany they are made out of concrete.
Did you know that back in the olden times, the people of England went half way around the world to Zambia and built a train network so they could more easily move around some of the Zambian trees they had just cut down?
Why the English didn’t just cut down their own trees wasn’t really explained but from what I can tell it’s one of those things that goes unmentioned but everyone kinda assumes – it’s the thing your supposed to do when you make contact with a region of the world before they make contact with you. You go in there and take their stuff.
Michael Bay once made a movie where a few dozen of these super-heavy giant train wheels were pushed off the back of a moving transport truck into traffic smashing a whole bunch of cars and the driver of the transport truck didn’t even notice.
Also, the movie took place in the future.
It was a great day!
Die Hard Three 
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