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Date Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2012, 23:34:00
Author: Justin Rowlatt
Author Host/IP: 2.220.70.115.static.exetel.com.au / 115.70.220.2
Subject: China follows British footsteps to African wealth
Tony, the railway official who was looking after us, urged us to get moving too.
"It will not wait for you," he warned.
He hurried down to the very last carriage, and gestured at us to board this battered old compartment.
"You can leave your things safely here," he said.
We did as he said and climbed up the steps, and into another world.
Teak-lined stateroom
The contrast with modern Africa could not have been greater.
We were in a teak-lined stateroom, the windows shaded by slatted blinds.
There was a table with a crisp white tablecloth surrounded by four heavy chairs and, in the ceiling, a big silver fan.
We had stepped back into Edwardian England.
Tony laughed at my astonishment. He had known we would be impressed.
"You should feel at home," he teased.
"This is one of the original British carriages, where the directors of the railway company would travel."
Our grand accommodation was a remnant of what was once one of the great routes of Africa - the Benguela Railway.
It was an engineering triumph, stretching 1,000 miles up from the Angolan coast, right into the southern Congo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ykxg9
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