Birkirkara has one of the island’s few remaining train stations.

Malta’s brief railway history has been marked at an exhibition in Birkirkara, which boasts one of the few remaining train stations on the island.

Organised by the local council, the exhibition was titled Vapur tal-Art, the Maltese term for the railway, which, literally translated, means land ship.

It was held at the former station in Old Railway Garden and marked the 130th anniversary of the Maltese railway, which, according to a song by the folk group The Greenfields, always ran at a loss but was unique.

Inaugurated in 1883, the Malta Railway service ran between Valletta Railway Terminus and Notabile Railway Station in Rabat.

Birchircara (the old way of writing Birkirkara) Railway Station, as it was called then, was considered to be the main hub where trains to Rabat and Valletta met.

The railway consisted of a single line, from Valletta to Mdina, which extended for more than 11 kilometres, climbing 150 metres.

First and third class carriages were originally illuminated by candles but changed to electricity powered by batteries in 1900.

When the railway stopped running in 1931, 34 carriages were being used and one third-class carriage was preserved, restored and placed outside Birkirkara’s former station.