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Eritrean Railway Revival Continued |
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Alexandre Gillieron reports on his trip to Eritrea with Globe Steam in October 2003. This is the first of several such tours planned over the next few months. The 118 Km Masawa - Asmara line, one of the most dramatic mountain railway of the world, is now fully operational. Total slope of the line is exactly 2392 meters, more than the Darjeeling tramway. This must be considered as the greatest railway revival of all times. Globesteam ran a very successfull and sunny one week tour starting October 17th. The whole line was made behind steam using Mallets 54, 55, 59 ,202 010 around Ghinda and railcar No2. Condition of the track on the last opened section is as usual very impressive. Some technical problems were encountered with the locos : 54 and 55 blew their lead fuse due to incorrect handling, 202 008 had holes in its water tank so it could not be fired up. Generally said, the condition of engines and staff is critical, both of them becoming too old and weak. The major challenges of the railway are now firstly to train new and younger staff and secondly to find new or second-hand diesels in order to start a reliable public service (what obviously the old Mallets and both Krupp diesels are not able to do). Concerning the diesels,the General Manager of the railway was on an investigation tour in Europe during our visit. It seems the plan is to buy new diesels from Italy but we were told that there are also contacts with the DLM in Winterthur... Studies to rebuild the Asmara - Keren section are also under way, the main problem being the missing track material (most of the recoverable material has been used for Masawa - Asmara). For the 'real steam' fanatics, there may be some occasional shunting at Asmara and Ghinda with the 202's. The complete steam roster : FIAT Railcars : The first two pictures show the 'new' section:
This shows the tunnels below Asmara:
Finally the first time I have seen the Ghinda line up in the sun....
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