Mobile friendly

I have changed this website’s WordPress theme, so hopefully it should now be more mobile device friendly. Let me know if anything doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, I would recommend following “Historical Railway Images” on Flickr for lots of great photos of railways in the Middle East, such as this view of Krupp 2-8-0 steam locomotive No 1446 in Iraq. Click for more.

Iraq Railways - Krupp 2-8-0 steam locomotive Nr. 1446 (built 1956)

Egyptian Railways website

Mark Goldfinch, author of the excellent book Steel in the Sand, has an unofficial website on Egyptian Railways.

The Egyptian Railways Diwan is described as “a website and blog area intended to fill the need for a space on the internet dedicated to people to share their knowledge, expertise, news, photos and stories about Egyptian Railways”, and looks well worth keeping an eye on.

If you have any kind of interest in the history of Egypt’s railways – or in the country itself during the railway era – I’d strong recommend acquiring a copy of Steel in the Sand; see this reviewed published by Railway Gazette International.

Hudswell Clarke steam loco model

Model of Hudswell Clarke steam loco built for Iraq

The Middleton Railway in Leeds has this model of a 2-8-4T steam locomotive supplied to the Iraq Petroleum Co by Hudswell Clarke. This model was displayed in the entrance to Hudswell Clarke’s offices.

There are rumours that one of these engines (No.2) had survived in Iraq, and may even still exist, possibly near Kirkuk… does anyone know more?