Valletta station in 1883.

This photo is likely to have been taken before the official opening of the Malta Railway, in late February that year. It’s certainly not the first, inaugural, train to run on the line, that was hauled by two engines, but the presence of a British engineer on the footplate suggests it was one of several trains used to test the safety of track and bridges before public use.

It’s not certain, but the engineer may be Frank Geneste, the man entrusted with completing the line and later running it. A similar stout looking gentleman with pith hat appears in a number of photographs recording the line during construction.

Geneste’s working of the railway was considered disastrous, leading to the engines becoming overworked and the track being left in a poor state when he resigned in 1887. Perhaps in retort to the accusations of mismanagement of the railway, Geneste’s Obituary read:

“He was then appointed Engineer and General Manager by the Malta Railway Company, Limited, maintaining and working the line in a masterly fashion, as will be seen by any one who can read the local accounts of the different Festas, involving sudden and large traffic; his greatest care having been to avoid peril to life or limb, and his pride being a clean bill.”