Train at Cotton Tree Station

Postcard, colourised, depicting a steam train approaching the Cotton Tree with passengers waiting. Printed by Pickering & Berthoud Ltd, c1910. To enable residents of Hill Station to commute to Freetown and back daily, an efficient transport system was needed and so a further five and a half miles of railway was built, known as the Mountain Railway. Construction started in 1902 and the line was opened in early 1904. The line connected with the main line at Water Street, but the main station was this one, at Cotton Tree in the centre of the City. This postcard is part of the collection of the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum which was founded in 2004. The Museum is based in Cline Town, Freetown, Sierra Leone and tells the story of the construction, development and operation of the railways in Sierra Leone.