ONE of the last locomotives to be built in Swindon is still on track at its home in Kenya.

The Hunslet shunter train was built in Swindon BREL Works in 1979 for Kenya Railways and is still in use at Nairobi station.

David Rees, of Stratton St Margaret, returned from Kenya on Monday after visiting the country for 23 days.

On his travels the former Swindon railway worker visited one Nairobi station which is on the Uganda Railway, and runs services to Mombasa three times a week.

David worked in the A Shop at the rail works in Swindon for 13 years until thy closed in 1986 and he was made redundant. He said he felt proud to see something he had helped build still being used.

“I knew the train was there and wanted to visit it having worked on it myself,” he said.

“I remember working on the train and to see it over the other side of the world and still working is really good, and I felt very proud.

“The shunter was in fine working order and still going strong. I looked it over and it was looking really good still 30 years on.

“The whole railway system out there is very run-down, it needs a lot of investment in it.

“I would have liked to travel around more of the country by train, being a train buff, but it wasn’t possible.”

David was shown around the museum and the railway works by a local man, David Gitundu, and he said it was like taking a step back in time.

“David was a brilliant guide. He was so knowledgeable and really made the experience,” David said.

“It was a really nostalgic experience going around the rail works there – it was like being back in Swindon railway works.

“I went to see a few of the people who worked at the wheel bay and it was just like what it had been when I worked in Swindon.

“They were doing the same things I was doing in the 70s and 80s, things hadn’t changed at all.

“Meeting the workers was great. They were really friendly and railway people are like one big family.”