11th February 2025 “Middle-Eastern Travels by Rail” by Iain Scotchman
Rail travels in the Middle-East were our guest speaker Iain Scotchman’s subject at our meeting on Tuesday 11th February 2025. Iain provided us with a remarkable insight into rail operations in Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia, in some of the hottest and sandiest conditions imaginable!
We began in Amman, Jordan, on the former Hedjaz Railway which originally ran from Damascus to Medina. No longer operating as a through route, the Northern part of the line runs from Mafraq, to the North of Amman, South to Al-Qatrana, with the unusual gauge of 1005 mm. We were treated to some delightful views, including Jordan Hedjaz Railway 2-8-2 No. 52 (German-built Jungenthal 12083 of 1955) crossing the famous ‘Ten Arches’ viaduct in Amman on a Branch Line Society/Locomotive Club of Great Britain railtour (which Iain was instrumental in organising) in May 2017. Also of interest was the ‘Family Train’, an excursion from Amman to Al-Jiza and back, which was seen at Amman behind a pair of General Electric UM10s, Numbers 40.213 and 40.21
To the South, on the Aqaba Railway we saw some of the sizeable potash trains which at the time were the mainstay of traffic on the line, travelling South to Aqaba Port. Triple-headed General Electric U20C Co-Co locomotives Nos. 302, 314 and 316 were caught on camera on such a working in the desert plains.
Wadi-Rum station is worthy of particular mention, being the film set of a number of Lawrence of Arabia scenes and hosting the still-operational 1953-built Nippon Sharyio Seizo 4-6-2 No. 85.
After Jordan we toured the majority of lines in Isreal which Iain reckoned could all be covered in a good two days. Tel Aviv Savidor Centre was our starting point with the Class 67 lookalike locomotives hauling double-deck stock that were the mainstay of passenger services prior to much of the recent electrification. In addition, we saw some of the newer Vossloh Co-Co locomotives and the regular, rather unflattering rubber-nosed ABB/Scandia IC3 multiple unit sets. Iain then showed us various views around the network, ranging from 737 at Haifa in the North (and the curious Carmelit Funicular Railway with its stepped trains), through the suburbs of Tel Aviv and the original 1890 station at Jaffa, down to Ashkelon and a PTG railtour on the freight-only line to Kiryat Gat, the old Hedjaz Railway station at Beersheba (including restored Stanier 8F No. 8267 (WD341) in a housing estate!) and the locomotive depot at Dimona. We concluded our travels in Israel with views of the Tzin branch and Tzinstream viaduct and former Hedjaz railway stations on the now-abandoned Haifa to Dera’a route.
We finished our evening in Saudi Arabia, starting in the extensive Damman Yards with many double-stack container trains. We moved a little to the North to Nariyah yard with the phosphoric acid train from the nearby works as Ras Al Khair, hauled by Saudi Arabian Railways SD70ACS locomotives. Passenger services were also seen, worked by ubiquitous CAF-built units heading to Riyadh. One curious working was the Wednesdays Only 20.30 Sleeper from Riyadh to Qurayyat, in the far North-West of the country close to the Jordanian border. To finish the evening, Iain illustrated some of the former Hedjaz Railway stations such as Al-Ula, Buwair and the well-preserved station at Medinah, concluding with a run on the high speed line from Medinah to Jeddah.
Our thanks went to Ian for a fantastic evening of Middle-Eastern rail travel, wonderfully captured on camera in some of the hottest and dustiest weather conditions!