Otavi Mining and Railway Company

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Otavi Mining and Railway Company (Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft or OMEG) built the longest 60-centimeter gauge railway in the world extending 567 kilometers from Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast of Namibia (formerly German South-West Africa) to the mines of Tsumeb. Construction began in 1903 and reached Tsumeb three years later. The first 225 kilometers of railway required 110 steel bridges to cross deeply eroded gullies through sparsely vegetated arid terrain. Most were deck plate girders. Construction coincided with the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. Delays resulted from labor shortages and military feldbahn operations. A 91-kilometer branch was completed in 1908 from Otavi to mines near Grootfontein.