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https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesteadman/16036897875/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesteadman/15849653750/Teaboy from MacsBags was recently in Eritrea and took the opportunity to do a couple of small handouts.
Wow – didn’t realise carriage couplings with side chains were in use anywhere any more! Living dangerously, no continuous brakes either. Any pics of the loco?
Oh and nice bags too. I always have a slight feeling with intercultural hand outs that the recipient is thinking “What is he on about? I’ll best be polite and humour him”.
The Eritrean Railway is something of a throwback, rebuilt after the independence struggle, finally reaching Asmara in 2003. Unfortunately, the locos are now in a very bad state of repair. The line has also suffered several blockages and washouts. Our trip may well be the last ever steam trains to run. More pics are on Flickr – see mikesteadman’s photostream.
Thanks for the great pictures.
It’s sad but I can see that the country cannot justify steam once the big bill repairs are due. I expect someone will make them an offer. It’s hard, but my feelings are they would be best somewhere they can afford to be run. Then put the cash into diesels which serve local needs. Weird gauge though.
As far as I can find out the track was rebuilt by national effort in recent years so there is hope they can fix it again.
Gauge of 950mm is the standard Italian narrow gauge, Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1890 to 1941 and the whole country still has a strong Italian feel to it even now. Unfortunately, the country is just plain broke and they don’t have money for anything.
In the countryside, most people were living in shanty towns.
I expect if you go back in 20 years time, the locos will still be there just where they were parked at the end of our trip just slowly rotting away.
Hello Teaboy! It looks like an interesting trip 😀 You did well to give those bags away so far from home! Hope you had a great time 😀
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesteadman/16036162196/
The Morsbags should stand out as they are made of fabric, all the local ones are made of woven plastic. As there aren’t any large shops or supermarkets, the flimsy plastic bags dished out here by the billion don’t exist.
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