Reference Sources for Ghana Railways

THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST

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Reference Sources for Ghana Railways

This page is to assist in research on Ghana Railways. Please also reference our Nigerian page for further ideas.

Firstly, a word of warning, there has been a spate in recent years of people finding books that are out of copyright, OCR’ing them and offering the copies for sale. Admittedly they do warn that the copies may not be perfect. The Trust brought a copy of a French book on African Colonial Railways that is extremely rare but found that no more than 25% of the pages were legible.

Ghana has no overall detailed history of its railways.

On this page, the term Ghana Railways as an overarching cover for the current Ghana Railways, and its various constituents, which include The Gold Coast Government Railway.

Some of the titles below are available in the British Library and can be found by searching their catalogue.

Journal articles listed should be available through JSTOR or appropriate online sources.

In producing these research files use has been made of the following reference source: TRANSPORT RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY, Gordon Pirie, African Centre for Cities University of Cape Town December 2018, however much additional material has been added.

Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana is a journal with a long history. It was started in 1957 – in continuation of the former Transactions of the Historical Society of the Gold Coast that started in 1951. After a vibrant period up to the late-1970s the journal faced a number of challenges and became dormant. In 1995 and 1998 it was re-introduced as a New Series. Volumes (issues) of the New Series have since then come out regularly. Please note, we have not discovered an index to any of the journals and do not know if they contain anything of railway interest.

Ghana Railways and Harbours Authority had a staff magazine called RailPort. We are aware of one edition dated Oct1976 - June 1977, vol 2 No. 9.

Ghana Railway Specific Books and Articles

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Town	Remarks
Adote, WA	Economic utilization of Ghana's road and rail systems	1974	PhD, Washington State University.
Alimo, Philip Kofi and Agyeman, Stephen; Zankawah, Sanusi Mumuni; Yu, Chunhui; Cheng, Lin; Ma, Wanjing	Factors causing low demand for a suburban passenger train in Sekondi-Takoradi	2022	Journal of transport geography. Volume 98 (2022)
Andoh, Richard	The Politics of Railway Transportation and Development in Ghana: A Case Study of Nsawam and Akim Achiase Junction Railway Stations	2018	Thesis, University of Ghana	Legon
Anon	Atlas of the Gold Coast	1945	Gold Coast Survey Department	Accra
Anon	ESAB delivers engineered automatic welding station to Ghana in Africa for build-up welding of worn railway wheels	2001	Svetsaren. PART 1, ; 2001, 20-21
Anon	ROADS AND RAILWAYS: Ghana	2010	Africa research bulletin. Economic, financial, and technical series. VOL 47; NUMBER 7
Anon	Takoradi Harbour and Railway Terminus 1921-1928	1928	GOLD COAST Colony	Accra	Commemorative book
Anon	The Volta River Project: I) Report of the Preparatory Commission. II) Appendices to the Report of the Preparatory Commission. III) Engineering Report to the Preparatory Commission	1956	Published for the Governments of the United Kingdom and of the Gold Coast by Her Majesty's Stationery Office	London
Anthony, Fosu	Review of Railway Transportation in Ghana	Undated, post 2011	Online Resource
Awal, Iddrisu Mohammed and Senadjki, Abdelhak; Nee, Au Yong Hui	Prospects and Impediments of Railway Infrastructure Development in Ghana: Impact of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Technology	2021	Journal of infrastructure development. Volume 13:Number 2 (2021); pp 87-106
Brice, D	Refurbishment of Ghana Railways Corp's Accra - Tema line reflects the government's commitment to restoring the network	2008	Railway gazette international. VOL 164; NUMB 6, ; 2008, 368-371
Chada, Geoffrey Takawira Zinyama	Labour protest, group consciousness and trade unionism in West Africa : the radical railway workers of Colonial Ghana 1900 to 1950	1981	PhD, University of Toronto
Dinye, Romanus Dogkubong	Prospects and Issues of Railway Infrastructure and Development in Ghana	2012	Journal of Construction Project Management and Innovation Vol. 2 (1): 259- 284
Dumett, Raymond E	British imperial transport management: the Gold Coast Sekondi-Kumase railway, 1903-1911	2006	Journal of Transport History, 27 (2), 60-79.
Engman, Charles Edmund	Railway facilities in Ghana	1968	Univ. of Technology	Kumasi
Engmann, VEA	The Integration of Lake Transportation with Road and Railway Systems: the Case of the Volta Basin in Ghana	1965	MA, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Hammond, FD, Lt-Col, R.E	Report on the railway system of the Gold Coast	1922	Colonial Office	London
Haynes, J	Railway workers and the PNDC government in Ghana	1991	Journal of Modern African Studies, 29 (1), 137-154
Heslop, Derwent Gordon, 1877-1944	Through jungle, bush and forest	1934	Melrose	London
Heslop, Derwent Gordon, 1877-1944	Experiences of a Railway Engineer in West Africa	1938	Proceedings of the Great Western Railway Lecture and Debating Society, No. 325	London
Honig, ET	Réseaux ferrés de l'ouest africain, Railway networks in West Africa, Eisenbahn Atlas Westafrika, Vol 1	1989	Röhr Verlag	Krefeld
Jedwab, Remi, and Moradi, Alexander	Transportation Infrastructure and Development in Ghana	2011	PSE Working Papers n2011-24
Jedwab, Remi, and Moradi, Alexander	Colonial investments and long-term development in Africa: evidence from Ghanaian railroads	2012	George Washington University
Jedwab, Remi, and Moradi, Alexander	The permanent effects of transportation revolutions in poor countries: evidence from Africa	2016	The Review of Economics and Statistics, 98 (2), 268-284
Jeffries, Richard Duncan	Class, Power and Ideology in Ghana: The Railwaymen of Sekondi.	1978	Cambridge University Press, African Study Series 22	Cambridge
Jeffries, Richard Duncan	The politics of trade unionism in Ghana : a case-study of the Railway Workers Union	1974	University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies
Lacy, Leslie A	A History of Railway Unionism in Ghana	1965	MA University of Ghana, Legon.
Luntinen, Pertti	Railway on the Gold Coast: A meeting of two cultures : a colonial history	1996	Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia	Helsinki
Mock, CN; Forjouh, SN; and Rivara, FP	Epidemiology of transport related injuries in Ghana.	1999	Accident Analysis & Prevention, 31 (4), 359-370.
Solomon-Ayeh, KA	Evaluation, after twenty years, of timber railway sleepers in Ghana	2003	IABSE reports.; Structures for high-speed railway transportation; Antwerp, Belgium, 2003; Aug, 2003, 314-315
Tsey, CE	Gold Coast Railways: The Making of a Colonial Economy, 1879-1929	1986	PhD, University of Glasgow.
Tsey, Komla	From head-loading to the iron horse : railway building in colonial Ghana and the origins of tropical development	2013	Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group	Bamenda, Cameroon
Tsey, Komla, and Short, Stephanie D	From head-loading to the iron horse: the unequal health consequences of railway construction and expansion in the Gold Coast, 1898-1929	1995	Social Science and Medicine, 40 (5), 613-621.
Vickery, E	Pricing rail transport services in Ghana for increased efficiency	1971	Economic Bulletin of Ghana, 1 (4), 28-48
White, HP	Recent railway developments in the Gold Coast	1955	Geography, 40, 49-50
Williams, Alan	African Steam Safari: Luxor to Sir Lowry's Pass	2020	Association of Railway Enthusiasts (ARE), Australia

Books or Journal Articles on African Railways that will Mention Ghana

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Town	Remarks
Anon	Notes on railway construction	1912/13	Journal of the Royal African Society, 12 (47), 290-295.
Anon	Railways and harbours in tropical Africa	1941	Royal Engineers Journal, 55, 341-349.		This article contains the only detailed account of the Royal Engineers building the Baro-Kano railway seen
Baltzer, Franz	Die Kolonialbahnen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas [The Colonial Railways with particular reference to Africa]	1916	Berlin, Leipzig, Göschen: (Reprint: Leipzig 2007: Holzminden Reprint-Verl.). ISBN 9783826202339	Berlin	(in German)
Carter, Reg	Kitson Works List	1997	Private.	Kingston-upon-Thames:
Darwin, Major	Railways in Africa.	1896	Geographical Journal 8: p488-501.	London	Darwin, L. (1897). Railways in Africa. Transactions of the Liverpool Geographical Society, 17-35.
de Renty, Ernest Amédée	Les Chemins de Fer Coloniaux en Afrique,	1903	De Rudeval	Paris	Pt 1 is German, Italian and Portuguese Colonies, Pt 2 the British Colonies and Pt 3 the French Colonies
Due, John F	The Problems of Rail Transport in Tropical Africa	1979	The Journal of Developing Areas Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jul., 1979), pp. 375-393 Published by: College of Business, Tennessee State University	Nashville
Durrant, AE; Jorgensen, AA; Lewis, CP	Steam in Africa	1981	Hamlyn	London
Metcalfe, Charles	Railway Development of Africa, Present and Future	1916	The Geographical Journal Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan., 1916), pp. 3-17 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)	London
Orr, CWJ	Light Railways for Tropical Africa	1911	Journal of the Royal African Society Vol. 10, No. 38 (Jan., 1911), pp. 179-190 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society	Oxford
Palterman Jonathan	African Railway Album, Vol 1	2006
Wiener, Lionel	Les Chemins de fer coloniaux de l'Afrique	1930	Goemaere	Brussels

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