The construction of the Gold Coast Government Railway began in the Sekondi district in 1898, but protests to the Colonial Office, a shortage of labour and the breakout of the final Ashanti war meant progress was slow until 1900. The railway reached Tarkwa in 1901, Obuasi in 1902 and in 1903 Ashanti. In 1912 a line connecting the colony’s capital, and government seat, of Accra with Kumasi was commenced and completed in 1923, making the railway 362 miles. In 1928, Takoradi Harbour was opened which enabled the exportation of mangoase, mahogany, cocoa and timber brought by the railway from the interior of the Gold Coast Colony. With the exception of 39 mile journey between Accra and Mangoase, which was privately contracted, the whole Gold Coast Railway was built by government departments. The company headquarters were in Sekondi initially, but then moved to Takoradi in 1928 after the construction of the harbour. The railway was built using 16,000 native Africans, 12,000 of whom were Nigerian, after the Gold Coast government appealed to neighbouring colonies for labour, in addition the locomotives and rolling stock were imported. The main stations were Accra, Mangoase, Sekondi, Tarkwa, Obuasi, Takoradi and Kumasi. The workshops were situated two miles from Sekondi, though repairs were also carried out at Accra. In 1957, Gold Coast Railway became Ghana Railway after Ghana became an independent nation from the United Kingdom.

In 1955 the Nigerian Railway Corporation Act was passed by a British Act of Parliament, which gave Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) exclusive rights to construct and operate rail services in Nigeria. By 1964 when the construction of 640km Kano-Maiduguri rail line, then known as Bornu extension, was completed, the present core of the railway network had been put in place. The headquarters of the Corporation are located at Ebute-Metta in Lagos while the entire network is, for administrative conveniences, divided into seven autonomous districts viz: Lagos (Ebute-Metta Junction), West (Ibadan), North (Zaria), East (Enugu), North-West, (Minna), North-Central (Kafanchan) and North-East (Bauchi). In 1988 Nigerian Railways declared bankruptcy. From 2006 to the present day the railway has been undergoing some rehabilitation and modernization with the full political and financial support of the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Transport.

In March 1936 Britain sold Mesopotamian Railways to Iraq, which renamed the company Iraqi State Railways (ISR). In 1958 ISR was renamed Iraqi Republic Railways.

The North British Locomotive Co Ltd was formed by the merger the 'big three' Glasgow locomotive builders (Sharp Stewart & Co, Neilson, Reid & Co and Dubs & Co) in 1903 as a result of increased competition both at home and from abroad. The new company claimed to be the largest manufacturers of locomotives anywhere outside America and was prompted by the ever increasing annual production by the Baldwin Locomotive Company in Philadelphia, USA, which had recently made incursions into the domestic UK market and in India, which the British locomotive industry had considered to be its own special preserve. It was believed that the rivalries and competition between the three companies operating individually within Glasgow had already produced significant technological advances which, in the new North British Locomotive Company would combine to make a single powerful and well equipped company, ready to dominate the market and take on competition, particularly from America. The new company never managed to operate at its capacity of 700 locomotives per year, producing a maximum of 573 in 1905. These numbers were maintained through to 1909 when production numbers began to fall rapidly. During the First World War North British Locomotive Company made locomotives for the War Department, as well as munitions and other military equipment, which were produced in vast quantities to meet the high demand. However, between the two World Wars, while orders were still being received, particularly from domestic railway companies, the fluctuation of demand meant that the company ran into some difficulty. As a result, employee numbers were significantly reduced, and manufacturing was concentrated at Queens Park and Hyde Park works. The last locomotive orders were completed at the Atlas Works in 1923. The Great Depression from 1929 saw the decline in demand for locomotives worldwide, with none built at all in 1932, and by the end of the 1930s, locomotive production at the North British Locomotive Company was operating at a loss. At the outbreak of the Second World War the company concentrated once more on war work, supplying both locomotives for the Ministry of Supply and munitions for the war effort. After World War II there was something of a revival in locomotive manufacturing, with orders being received and agreements being reached to build diesel & electric locomotives with the General Electric Company. This upturn in fortune was not to last however, as the North British Locomotive Company failed to make the successful transition from steam to diesel locomotive production. In 1957, the last order for steam locomotives was placed with the company and the last steam locomotive was completed in 1958. Although the company were making small industrial diesel locomotives, and received some early main line diesel orders from British Railways, the orders were never big enough to maintain the company. Other locomotive manufacturers, who had acted swiftly in transferring from steam to diesel and electric production, were becoming more successful. The company went into liquidation on 19 April 1962 with Messers Andrew Barclay Sons & Co (Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland) acquiring the North British Locomotive Company's goodwill.