1.
SV Name 'Elisabethville' on building
0.02

2.
GV Street scene with Congolese troops in jeep
0.09

3.
SV Native policeman
0.13

4.
GV Modern building
0.15

5.
SV Roadside market
0.18

6.
MV Passengers by rail coach
0.21

7.
CU Girl looks out of carriage window
0.23

8.
SV People wave from platform as train moves
0.29

9.
CU Passenger (refugee)
0.31

10.
TRAVEL SHOT..past river as train travels bridge
0.36

11.
GV Towards rear of train
0.39

12.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..bush land
0.42

13.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..DITTO'
0.45

14.
CU Male passenger
0.47

15.
MV Woman and child in train corridor
0.56

16.
GV train halted at small township station
0.54

17.
MV Passing people on platform as train moves off
0.57

18.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..leaving township
1.02

19.
CU Paratrooper
1.04

20.
CU Laughing girl
1.07

21.
GV Natives in groups by train halted at another stop
1.09

22.
MV Natives by train
1.12

23.
MV Passengers
1.14

24.
SV TRAVEL SHOT..past ant hill
1.17

25.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..past forest
1.21

26.
SV TRAVEL SHOT..Train enters Dilolo
1.25

27.
SV Passengers with baggage along side train
1.27

28.
CU Wooden cases with address 'Lisbom, Portugal' painted on
1.29

29.
GV Train and passenger at platform
1.31

30.
SV Engine with logs for fuel
1.35

31.
GV Train
1.37

32.
MV Station master with flag
1.39

33.
SV Station master on platform, as train moves off
1.42

34.
SV Passing jeeps on another train
1.45

35.
SLV DITTO
1.49

36.
SV engine pulls on bend
1.52

37.
GV Train moves along
1.54

38.
MV Passenger at window - landscape beyond
1.56

39.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..open country
2.00

40.
GV Male passenger with binoculars
2.02

41.
GV TRAVEL SHOT....open country
2.06

42.
CU Footplate man and passing scenery in BG.
2.08

43.
SLV TRAVEL SHOT..past wooded scenery (Eucalyptus trees-
2.14

44.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..forest verge and track ahead..angola district
2.16

45.
CU Driver
2.18

46.
GV TRAVEL SHOT..past wooded scenery
2.20

47.
GV Front of train through wooded terrain
2.23

48.
GV River in valley
2.26

51.
MV Engine at end of line
2.36

52.
GV Busy street scene, Lobito
2.38

53.
SV Policeman directs traffic
2.41

54.
GV Wide avenue
2.44

55.
GV Dockside scene
2.46

56.
SV stern of the 'Vera Cruz' of Lisbon
2.49

57.
ELEVATED GV..activity on quayside
2.51

58.
STV Luggage carried to ship
2.54

59.
SV Passengers line rail
2.56

60.
CU Passengers on rail
2.59

61.
GV Bow waves
3.01

62.
MV Mother and child at ship's rail, coastline in BG.
3.04

63.
LV Buildings in Luanda
3.07

64.
GV Ship tied up at dockside, Luanda
3.11



Initials PC/S/JF/ES



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: One of the biggest assets of the Portuguese West African colony of Angola - mainly financed by British capital - is the GBP30 million Benguela Railway. It runs on a single track from Elisabethville, in the Katanga Province of the Congo Republic some 1,000 miles to the terminus of Lobito - one of Angola's two main ports.

The railway is the means by which the vast mineral deposits of Katanga have been opened up to world markets. An estimated hundred million tons of copper lies in the province, said to be the richest source of mineral wealth in the world.

Since independents was granted to the Congo, the railway had been of great use to Europeans fleeing the country. Such was the pressure of Belgian refugees leaving Elisabethville at the outset, that many obsolete carriages were brought back into relief service.

Leaving Elisabethville for its run to the Atlantic coast, the train travels along a winding track through forests and scrubland - and arrives at the frontier point of Dilolo, where Portuguese West African customs officials make their appearance. The engines are fired by eucalyptus logs. The only disadvantage of this is that the sparks from them are prone to set the wooden carriages alight.

Great areas of Angola are still uncharted, and it is considered that only a fraction of the country's mineral wealth in diamonds, oil, iron, manganese and copper has yet been discovered. Portugal is to invest over GBP90 million in development schemes.

At Lobito terminus the journey by rail is completed, and passengers are transferred to a coastal vessel for their onward journey to the ancient capital of Luanda - a city and port that has doubled in size in the last ten years. There, outgoing passengers board ocean liners for european ports.