Malta Railway Blog

Here you’ll find all the latest news and discoveries. There’s plenty to see, including many research updates covering investigations that have helped inform the main pages on this site, and odd stories that we’ve not been able to fit in elsewhere. Have fun exploring.

The origins of obsession

We’re incredibly grateful to Michael Cassar, one of the authors of The Malta Railway, for his kind permission to host a pdf copy of his[…]

Staff on parade

This is a view I’ve seen before, but only ever as a printed postcard. Here is a copy of an actual photographic version of the[…]

Another forgotten survival

When the Malta Railway was built through Attard it had to deal with the Knight’s era Wignacourt Aqueduct descending on a slight gradient through the[…]

An enhanced version of the recently sold postcard of Museum station

What price history?

Recently, a previously unpublished photograph went up for auction on Ebay. We were keeping our eyes on it to add to our collection. It was[…]

Photo of Birkirkara railway station in Malta with a train standing at the platform heading towards Valletta.

Brining back a little colour

I’m not fond of historic photos being colourised, the standard algorithms often producing inauthentic and misleading results. However, I’ve found new filters on Photoshop that[…]

Unravelling spaghetti

Close inspection of an early plan to tunnel the Malta Railway under Mdina, drawn in around 1894, reveals a spaghetti of crayon lines in red[…]

Carmelo Rizzo and the end of days

I’ve finally found a photo of Carmelo Rizzo, the last manager of the Malta Railway between 1924 and 1931. He had quite the career it[…]

“Never kill a Bishop”

I’d not noticed before, but this photo of the Malta Railway’s inauguration shows the marquees erected on Racecourse Road above Notabile station where refreshments were[…]

Failing to fall for Fell

One of the early proposals for a railway in Malta was promoted by Major Hutchinson, an officer of the Royal Artillery, recorded as being promoted[…]

The stuff of legends

Until now, there were no known photographs of the third locomotive to enter traffic on the Malta Railway. Manning Wardle-built No.3 arrived in 1883 and[…]