The Eritrean Railway

Any railway whose principal motive power was (is?) Mallets and used Klien Lindner axled 0-8-0Ts has got to be of interest to me. Here is a little more information on this fascinating railway. I have now added some more photos (15th September 1998) to this page - click here for them. A further set of old photos (26th October 1998) is on a separate page.

The Eritrean Railway runs inland from the port of Massawa on the Red Sea. Although it started life in 1887 as a 750mm gauge railway, little appears to have happened before it was changed to 950mm gauge in 1900. (This is by no means certain, it may have been 950mm throughout RD.) It was built to serve a plateau which lies not far to the west at a height of between 1000m and 2400m which necessitates steep grades (the ruling grade is 3 to 3.5% uncompensated) and a very winding alignment with some thirty tunnels and no less than 532 bridges, viaducts and culverts. Initial progress was slow, Ghinda (69km, 993m) was reached in 1904 and Asmara in 1911, 118km from and 2343m higher than the coast. Even in the 1950s when Charles Small visited the railway the steam hauled run took 10 hours although by then Fiat railcars covered the distance in one third the time. Beyond Asmara the line continued slowly westwards towards the Sudan border, descending initially through the Cheren Gorge (222km, 1390m). By 1925 the line had reached Biscia via Agordat with the intention of finally reaching Tessenai to connect with the 3 foot 6 inch Sudan railway, but this was never built and the line beyond Agordat was abandoned in the 1940s. Initially the workshops were at Ghinda but they were moved to Asmara about 1928.

James L. Woodward has sent me a sketch map of part of the scenic section:

The two old photos below have been provided by Renato Gaudio. The first appears to show one of the early Maffei Mallets.

I am grateful to Roland Beier for providing the steam loco list for the railway:

Bibliography:

Ferrovie Coloniale Italiane by G.Giotto (published 1975) - I have not seen this but Roland Beier has provided the list above from it.

Far Wheels II by the late Charles Small (ISBN 0-912113-31-6)
(and its predecessor Far Wheels) (from which I have 'pinched' the map.
Steam in Africa by Durrant, Jorgensen and Lewis (ISBN 0-600-349462)
The Mallet Locomotive by Durrant (ISBN 0-668-03678-8)

Here are six more pictures, the first five are from Charles Moulton. All were taken between 1968 and 1972.

The first two were taken on a causeway between the Island of Massawa where the central city is located and the mainland. One is a 1930s era FIAT motor car known as a Littorina

This is about 5 to 7 km down the mountain from Asmara:

This is about 10 to 15 km down the mountain and shows Moulton:

This appears to be taken near Ghinda. This would place it about 55 km from Asmara (or Massawa)

This picture was taken recently in Asmara by Hannes Neugebaug.