Revisiting Uganda Railway History and Museum

The Uganda Railway Museum is a national railway museum situated at Jinja City’s Railway Station along the Jinja-Iganga Highway. It is operated by the Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda and has been dubbed Uganda’s first railway museum.

We get to travel with friends and family to experience this historic adventure because it’s a lengthy drive for all of us—it’s 82.6 kilometers from Kampala.

Part of the history of the Uganda Railway goes that it was “built by the British government, and named for its ultimate destination; the Uganda Railway didn’t actually reach Uganda. Construction began in 1896 in the port city of Mombasa and continued its course northwest through today’s Kenya to its terminus on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria.”

Features at the Uganda Railway museum (Photo by Jenny Eloni)

Our distant guides appear just as excited to discover what’s inside as we do, and the small talk in the taxi on the way there and during the stops adds to the experience.

The train experience in a restored but stationary locomotive is the first enjoyable experience here. In the coach’s cinema section, you and your significant other can relax while viewing a brief historical film about the railway; all of these are presented with a cuisine inspired by railway themes.

Inside the Uganda Railways Museum (Jenny Eloni)

The local crafts community has a location where tourists can visit for the monthly market day, Katale, which is close.

Tourists can shop for local goods at the adjacent Katale monthly market day, where they can return with an African-themed bag for a loved one.

Places like this are the reason Ugandan history exists at all, so it’s critical that people who value Africa’s epicenter, like us, get the opportunity to educate the world about these historically significant locations.

It is the first railway museum in Uganda, officially opened in March 2022, and you may have a 90-minute tour of it. As you investigate what it means to enter one of Uganda’s most important. Include it in your Uganda itinerary today; talk to our safari planner.