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.

Reuse and restoration at Notabile

Back in October my visit to the former upper station building at Notabile station concerned me. Having been derelict and in decline for years, work[…]

Notable new view of Notabile

We’ve recently been sent an amazing photo, one new to the history of the Malta Railway. We’re indebted to Robert Galea-Naudi for his permission to[…]

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[…]

“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[…]

Papped on opening day

Two photographers were out on the 28th February 1883 to record the inauguration of the Malta Railway. The sequence of photographs they took of the[…]

A change of plan

In 1883 the Malta Railway company directors reported to their investors that the Government Supervision Board had required them to move their originally planned location[…]

Opening Day observations

There are a number of photos of the 1883 opening of the Malta Railway taken on March 1st at Notabile station. It’s interesting to see[…]

The mystery growth spurt of Notabile railway station.

A few weeks ago I was confused about Notabile station suddenly growing between photos (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Z9XpsEQa6ebKzBae/). I’ve been building an accurate scale 3D model of the[…]

From latrines to living rooms

This article was first posted on the Malta Railway Facebook Group in 2024 and has since been confirmed by site inspection. There’s this old image[…]

Figuring-out Notabile station

Why is Notabile station so complicated? It seems that it’s gone through so many changes over time it’s difficult to understand. Interrogating some plans from[…]