A WALK DOWN A LOST RAILWAY

THE LAST DEPARTURE

Deep in an African rainforest, a train has been waiting in the rain for forty years. Scroll to walk the line.

01 — The Line

Forty-seven kilometres of narrow gauge

Cut through the Congo basin in 1921 to carry timber to the river. The company abandoned the concession in a single night, forty years ago. No record says why.

02 — The Rain

It has rained here ever since

More or less without pause. The sleepers rotted, the cuttings flooded, and the forest closed back over the line like water over a stone.

03 — The Watchers

Keep to the line

Whatever moves between the trees has watched every expedition that ever walked this ballast. It has never once stepped onto it.

04 — The Cargo

Three wagons, still sealed

That is what the first survey reported. By the second survey the doors stood open. They had been opened from the inside.

IT NEVER MADE ITS LAST DEPARTURE

— until tonight.