Walking around the Railway Museum is like turning the pages of a good history book on Kenya. Each item in the museum has a story to tell. Take for instance, the coach christened Kima Killer; it reminds you of the savagery the builders of the rail line had to contend with. It is from this coach that, on June 6, 1900, a lion snatched Charles Henry Ryall, a railways superintendent, and dragged him to his death in the Nyika plains. Ironically Ryall had stopped at Kima railway station intending to shoot the lion that had killed many rail workers and left others extremely terrified.

Ryall was travelling from Mombasa to Nairobi and shared the same cabin with a Mr A. Parenti. He left the door open and sat with a rifle on his lap as he waited for the lion. The hunter became the hunted when he fell asleep - the lion killed him in his sleep. His travelling mate woke up to find the beast pinning him down with its claws. It made good its escape through the window but it was later killed.

The coach in which Ryall was killed and the lion’s five claws are at the Railways Museum. The coach has a beautiful interior and was used in the filming of the movie Out of Africa.

At another corner one reads a poster in which Sir Charles Eliot is saying in 1903: "It is not an uncommon thing for a railway line to open a country, but this line literally created a country." He was commenting on the Kenya-Uganda railway whose completion opened the floodgate of European settlement in Kenya.

At more or less the same time that Sir Charles was making this comment, several advertisements appeared in British newspapers announcing the beauty and splendour that awaited settlers in East Africa. The highlands of British East Africa were portrayed as a winter home for aristocrats. A cartoon of the time showed the Nairobi station as a pond full of crocodiles and hippos while on the dry land lions were pulling passengers out of a coach and hyenas and snakes were waiting to feast on the hapless passengers.

It is no wonder therefore that with time sons and daughters of British aristocrats found their way to the colony where their full time preoccupation was philandering in the triangle covering Nairobi, Naivasha and Nyeri as illustrated in books like The White Mischief.

The museum contains a fascinating historic record of life in early Kenya. It is also the story behind the construction of the "Lunatic Express", the rail line that cuts across Kenya into Uganda and which created in its wake tens of urban centres. Virtually everything that shaped East Africa is present in this museum, the only one of its kind in this part of the continent. Two other similar museums are in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The museum is a mine of information. Sadly, few people visit this historian’s gem, which was opened in 1972 by the then East African Railways Corporation purposely to preserve and display the relics and records of the railways in East Africa. Indeed, more foreigners than Kenyans visit the museum, which sits on a neatly maintained Kenya Railways compound at the corner of Haile Selassie Avenue and Uhuru Highway. There are several trains dating back to early last century.

The museum is made up of the main building, an annex and an outdoor display area. Immediately after the entrance, one is greeted by a commemorative plaque which announces that it is a tribute to members of the Uganda Railways staff who gave up their lives in World War One. The book, The Kima Killers, sits pretty at the reception. Here you also find displayed in a large sideboard, an assortment of glassware, crockery, cutlery and silverware used by Queen Elizabeth II and her royal entourage in 1959.

This is a pointer to the pomp and grandeur that travelling by train was in those days. Many other prominent personalities travelled by the railway which became the Kenya-Uganda Railway in 1926 when the rail line crossed the Malaba border post into Uganda. The personalities included a former United States president, Theodore Roosevelt, and members of the landed gentry of Europe.

Antique collectors will love items such as brass lanterns, huge clocks, old-fashioned telephone heads, typewriters, plates, cups and cutlery used in the trains and ships. Ships? Yes, ships. Until the break-up of the former East African Community in mid 1970s the port authorities in both Kenya and Tanzania were under the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation.

Models of ships belonging to this corporation which collapsed in 1977, wall clocks still in good working condition, various crests which belonged to the three East African nations, enrich the museum. So do a dining table and a wall unit salvaged from the wreckage of Konisberg, a 3,400-ton World War I German warship that was scuttled at the delta of River Rufiji, Tanganyika, as Tanzania was then called.

There is a water tank and a pulley built in Glasgow way back in 1898. At one time the tank served as a refuge for a man who was drawing water when a lion appeared suddenly and he jumped into it.

A model of a Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotive constructed in 1955 for the East African Railways by the Manchester-based engineering firm Beyer, Peacock and Co Ltd stands is in the showcase. However, the actual locomotive, which was withdrawn from service in 1981 is, along with another one, being rehabilitated with the intention of starting the steam engine safaris specifically for tourists.

The engines are being rehabilitated at the Kenya Railways Corporation’s workshop. They are Nyaturu, a Class 30 steam locomotive that has been of great interest to the museum visitors, and Mount Gelai, a Class 59 Garratt with the reputation of having been the most powerful steam engine ever built. This is the train seen in a past BBC television series, World About Us.

Another steam engine expected to be rehabilitated and now grounded at the museum is Mount Shengena, built in 1955. It is the same engine that was used in the 1988 unsuccessful Nairobi-Naivasha passenger service.

Those who are crazy about steam engines should never miss a visit to the Railways Museum. You will lose yourself in history as you enjoy pictures and read the relevant literature in this museum. Entrance fees for residents is Kshs. 100 and Kshs. 200 for non-residents. There are special rates for school parties.