“The NRZ Railway Museum is within walking distance of the Club in central Bulawayo. I had not been there since – well, since I was a boy, and I won’t divulge how long ago that is. I can pretty well guarantee that nothing has changed since my last visit. But then, when you are dealing with parked rol…ling stock, nothing really needs to change. As a whole, the museum reflects in microcosm the state of the National Railways as a whole; still ticking over, but in need of some TLC – or in this case a relatively small cash injection for a facelift. There are some gems like old C. J. Rhodes’ personal coach, which is worth a visit on its own; luxury is not the word by today’s standards, but given the unknown conditions and the virtually uncharted terrain through which the coach was to be hauled, it is a monument to the empire-building spirit of the era. You can almost still see the white-gloved waiter serving CJR with his afternoon tea and after-dinner port. As the world at large speeds up with every new innovation in IT, this museum is a timely reminder of what it took to get where we are today, in a time when values and morals were so different.”