{"id":356,"date":"2008-08-21T22:26:29","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T21:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=356"},"modified":"2013-04-24T18:43:57","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T18:43:57","slug":"saddam-husseins-luxury-train-to-return-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/saddam-husseins-luxury-train-to-return-to-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Saddam Hussein&#8217;s luxury train to return to service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story seems to be all over the web today. Here is the <a href=\"http:\/\/license.icopyright.net\/user\/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTQyNjI5Ng==\">Associated Press version<\/a>, which many of the reports are taken from:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Saddam&#8217;s luxury train to return to service<\/h3>\n<p>Iraqi railway officials say Saddam Hussein&#8217;s personal luxury train will return to service next month.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say the 23-carriage train will ferry passengers from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra.<br \/>\n(more&#8230;)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<iframe SRC=\"http:\/\/license.icopyright.net\/user\/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTQyNjI5Ng==\" \nWIDTH=\"100%\"\nHEIGHT=\"100%\"\nMARGINWIDTH=10 \nMARGINHEIGHT=10 \nFRAMEBORDER=\"NO\" \nSCROLLING=\"YES\" \nSTYLE=\"border-width:0;\nborder-color:#000000;\nborder-style:none;\" \n><br \/>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/license.icopyright.net\/user\/viewContent.act?tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id=D92LF3A00\">Saddam&#8217;s luxury train to return to service<\/a> from Associated Press<\/div>\n<p><a href='\/images\/rail\/iq-scandaria1-collision.jpg'><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/images\/rail\/iq-scandaria1-collision-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Collision-damaged IRR loco, and DEM2561\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-357\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The train is described as French-built, with 23 carriages (more than one rake?) and three locomotives. <\/p>\n<p>The locomotives have previously been reported as <a href=\"http:\/\/emdexport.railfan.net\/mideast\/iraq.html\">Thyssen-Henschel\/EMD JT22CW locos<\/a> DEM&nbsp;2559, 2560 and 2561. <\/p>\n<p>DEM&nbsp;2561 is the loco on the right in this 2004 photo by Rick Degman.<\/p>\n<p>Back in April 2003 The <cite>Times of Oman<\/cite> reported<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Saddam&#8217;s phantom train is now a sorry sight <\/h3>\n<p>Saddam Hussein&#8217;s private train, which he never bothered to use, now sits vandalised and looted in a dark railyard in Baghdad&#8217;s deserted central station&#8230;Saddam preferred to travel by plane for security reasons&#8230;Three engines allocated for presidential use and another unit purely to supply electricity, glistening with new green paint, were built in 1984 by the German company Thyssen, as attested by a plaque fixed to their sides&#8230;The living quarters &#8211; five French-made carriages &#8211; comprised a lounge, a dining room, sleeping quarters and a seating area&#8230;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story seems to be all over the web today. Here is the Associated Press version, which many of the reports are taken from: Saddam&#8217;s luxury train to return to service Iraqi railway officials say Saddam Hussein&#8217;s personal luxury train will return to service next month. Officials say the 23-carriage train will ferry passengers from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,20,38,95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}