Another new photo from my friend at the Malta Study Circle. This is staff and boys of the Technical School in Hamrun posed on the derelict Malta Railway engine No.1. Extraordinarily, this is dated 1945, suggesting that it survived the entirety of WWII intact. In the background the 1937 Milk factory building is recognisable on the site of the old carriage/engine shed. Notice how the railway track is cut just beyond the engine wheels.

With the engine significantly being the very ‘first’ locomotive, and the effort required in bringing a tramcar to join it, was there some sort of intention to preserve them? Or were they just here for apprentices to work with? When did they eventually go to scrap? Someone alive must still remember?

This post was first published on the Malta Railway Facebook page in September 2024