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The Middle East is a part of the world where change has been slow over the centuries, and
even today many places have managed to retain an almost biblical atmosphere.
The coming of the oil wells in the 20th century meant that the deserts needed to be opened
up but for petroleum rather than people, by pipeline rather than the railways of the early
industrial age.
Of the few railways that were built, most have a checkered history and have now been
abandoned, victims either of World War or Middle East conflict.
There is however one notable exception to this sorry tale.
This narrow single track railway through the Arabian desert, leading apparently nowhere,
little used and half forgotten, was once the focus of history's most famous campaign of
railway sabotage.
For this was the Hejaz railway, where in the First World War, Lawrence of Arabia laid siege
to what was then the Turkish Ottoman Empire's lifeline to its Arab lands.
By 1918, the railway lay in ruins, just ten years after it had been built.
Due to the unusual gauge of one metre and five centimetres, it opened in 1908 and ran
1300 kilometres southwards from Damascus through Arabia to the desert garrison of Medina.
It was originally promoted as the Pilgrim's railway, but the proposed extension to the
holy city of Mecca never materialised.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the southern portion of the line fell
into complete disuse, having no commercial value at all.
But further north, in Jordan and Syria, the Hejaz railway was repaired and continued to
perform a useful role.
In this programme, we shall take a look at both countries, starting with Jordan.
We took these scenes of the capital, Amman, on our first visit in 1968.
We found a railway that was still entirely steam-powered, with locomotives of quite recent
build maintained in excellent condition.
These engines had been ordered in the 1950s to replace ageing Hejaz machines leased from
Syria.
The newly overhauled and freshly painted locomotive on the left is a Belgian 282, built by Ains
Saint-Pierre in 1955, while on the right is the shortened tank engine version, a one-off
design specially built for Jordan and used for local trains.
On the turntable is a big German 282, built by Jung in Germany in 1951, here being prepared
for the international train to Syria that ran three times a week.
The rolling stock still consisted entirely of original Hejaz vehicles from the early
years of the railway.
It was 25 years before we visited the railway in Jordan again.
It was still performing a useful role, here taking on board passengers for the Friday's
only train from Amman to Mafraq near the Syrian border.
The steam locomotives had by now been set aside in favour of General Electric diesels
built in 1974.
Now engulfed by new building development, this classic stone arched viaduct near Zurka
originally stood in virgin desert landscape.
Still soldering on, now over 80 years old, were the original wooden carriages dating
from the days of the Ottoman Empire.
Despite many years of disuse, most of Jordan's steam locomotives survived and some were still
in working order.
A local travel bureau runs occasional tourist charters out to the desert, while for the
railfan the British TEF's travel service operates complete rail tours of the Hejaz system.
We joined the group of TEF's travellers at Amman station to enjoy the period atmosphere
with the last generation of steam locomotives supplied in the 1950s.
The first trip was made with number 71, one of a small class of just three 282s, built
in 1955 at the Ains St Pierre foundry in Belgium and closely resembling British colonial types
of the 1940s.
They may have been intended as a prototype for a new class of locomotive for export elsewhere,
but in the event only these three were ever built.
Number 71 was used for the first part of the tour programme covering the line to the south
of Amman, and the start was made with two short trips on the steep and highly scenic
climb through the city up to the desert plateau.
This line is hardly ever used nowadays.
The flag man at the road crossing had difficulty getting the traffic to stop, as most of the
locals thought the line had already closed.
The targets were got to be male, both female and youth.
10 kilometers to the south of Amman is the largest masonry viaduct on the Hejaz railway.
With 10 galleried arches soaring across the valley, this graceful structure reflects the
classical style of the Roman Empire and is perfectly in keeping with the landscape of
the ancient world.
Feud from above, one could see the bleak inhospitable terrain that confronted the
railway builders of the turn of the century when the area was largely uninhabited.
Children ahoy who have been
In the town of Qasim, in the outer suburbs of Amman, another problem was encountered.
A parked car on the line.
The driver could not be found, so with all the authority conferred on him by a Zimbabwe
railway's hat and a China Rail t-shirt, our globe-trotting tour leader ordered his flock
to manhandle the offending vehicle off the track.
Come on you guys, give a hand!
Come on!
Moving a large Mercedes by hand was not as simple as it seemed.
But fortunately the owner was found, and after explaining to the local police that his personal
importance justified blocking the Hejaz railway, he obligingly drove away.
The only other problem was a little friendly stone throwing from local boys, who seemed
to find the train conductor an irresistible target.
The hardier photographers decided the risk was worth taking, but most of the tour group
wisely retreated to the safety of the special saloon at the back of the train.
The next day, a long trip was made into the desert to Katrana, 104 kilometres south of Amman.
The locomotive this time was number 51, one of another class of just 3282s supplied by
Jung in Germany in 1955, and intended mainly for long distance passenger work.
This is now the only working steam locomotive in Jordan.
The climb out of Amman was somewhat laborious, as the sand boxes were unaccountably empty,
a curious omission in a desert country.
The Heizer station, 37 kilometres south of Amman, was the first of the typical desert
stations of the Hejaz, designed by the German engineer Meissner, who was also responsible
for the bridges and viaducts on the line.
An unscheduled stop in the desert was due to problems with the carriage brakes.
The Jordan railways have never acquired any modern passenger coaches, and still rely on
these Hejaz originals, dating from 1912 and built by the Roer company in Belgium.
This carriage had its fittings renewed in the 1920s, when the Jordanian part of the
Hejaz was taken over by the Palestine railways.
The charm of these antique carriages was certainly lost on the train crew, who had
to hammer the rusty brake parts together before the train could go any further.
The original purpose of these isolated stations was to house the Turkish troops defending
the railway against Arab raiders.
It was on the desert sections that Lawrence of Arabia launched most of his attacks on
the railway during the First World War, and bridges like these were his favourite targets,
The arrival of a train was something of an event, as the railway here is in effect mothballed
nowadays.
Trana is the railhead for the arid mountain region to the east of the Jordan Valley, which
contains one of the world's best known ancient sites, Petra, rose-red city of the east, half
as old as time.
The Iron Horse gives way to the real thing here, as it is the only way to reach this
former capital of the Nabataean kings dating back to the 4th century BC.
In more recent times, its unique position hidden in the mountains made it an ideal base
for Arab tribesmen in league with Lawrence to attack the Turkish garrisons on the Hejaz
railway during the First World War.
Gold wells from a skirmish with the Turks can still be seen on the walls of the treasury.
Turning northward now, the next part of the tour took us to Mafraq in northern Jordan,
for this section was number 82, a Pacific type built in Japan by Nippon in 1953.
Like most of Amman's other locos, number 82 was very run-down.
The loco was in trouble almost as soon as it got underway, slipping violently on the level
crossing and treating the footplate crew to a permanent shower bath of scalding hot water.
In fact, this turned out to be the last time that old number 82 was used.
In the busy market at Zaka,
the crowds parted to let the train pass, and nearly relieved us of our camera as well.
A sign that the southern hijas had been left behind was the different look of the railway
buildings, which now appeared in black besought blocks instead of the characteristic sandstone
further south in the desert.
At kilometre 187, the train passed a typical bridge over a dried riverbed.
The central arch looked rebuilt, having no doubt been another of Lawrence's targets in
1918.
The last station before Syria was Mafraq, and here we took the weekly international
train from Jordan into Syria. Standing on early Hejan's rails cast in Belgium in
1900 was one of the 1974 American diesels, the only touch of modernity in a
scene otherwise unchanged since the line was built. The vintage carriages belonged
to Syria which like Jordan has retained its collection of Edwardian coaches
from several European builders. Vehicle number 182 is a mixed first and second
class clear story coach built in Nuremberg in 1906. The regulars on the run
were naturally unimpressed by this antique elegance and couldn't understand
why it was being filmed. Since these scenes were recorded the old carriages
have been taken out of service. The international train now consists of
Syrian rail cars, so this turned out to be an historic last chance to record
Jazz Railways original carriages in mainline service.
Crossing the border into Syria we entered Deirah where the first thing we
saw was a long line of abandoned freight wagons all dating from Ottoman times. The
station was once an important junction where the railway from Palestine joined
the Hejaz route. At the depot we discovered that the Syrians had retained
not just the carriages but the original locomotives of the Hejaz as well. These
squat 280s from the Borsig works in Berlin were delivered in 1914 having
been diverted from their intended destination the Peloponnesus railway in
Greece. These stylish 282s were supplied by the Hartmann works in Chemnitz in 1918
the last year of Turkish rule. They were the nearest the Hejaz got to having an
express loco. This one number 263 was one of a batch delivered in parts in the
final months of the war when the railway was too badly damaged for the locos to
be of any use. It was left to engineers of the victorious British Army to
assemble the engines in Damascus after the war had ended. There were 22 of them
altogether of which 12 made it to the Hejaz. The remaining 10 being sold off to
Java in the Dutch East Indies. The 40 kilometer branch from Derau to Bosra
across the plains of the South Horan was built in 1912 to secure the area
against rebel Druze tribes. It had long outlived its usefulness and regular
service has now been discontinued but the track is still there and is in good
enough shape to enable the occasional special train to run. We took one of these
pulled by the Hartmann 282 number 263.
Beside Bosra Fort a large medieval castle built in the 12th century by a
victorious Sultan who beat off the Crusaders trying to seize the town for
Christendom. Inside the castle another surprise a Roman amphitheater from the
second century AD. The city was originally Nabataean. It was the northern
twin of Petra in the south both of them guarding key points on the old caravan
routes of Arabia. Like Petra the town is still partly inhabited.
On the way back from Bosra to Derau our train rejoined the main line and came to
the viaduct at Naseeb the scene of Lawrence of Arabia's 79th and final
attack on the railway. On September the 17th 1918 using 360 kilos of explosive
he destroyed this bridge completely thereby delivering to the Turkish lines
of communication a crippling blow, a coup de grâce from which they never
recovered.
The bridge was rebuilt in the 1920s when Syria came under French mandate and the
railway was renamed the Chamond Affair Hejaz whose fittings still adorn the
first-class saloons. The other branch from Derau to the port of Haifa on the
coast of Palestine was much more important being virtually a main line in
its own right designed to supplant the old cog railroad to Beirut further north
which until then was Syria's only rail route to the Mediterranean. It was opened
in 1906 and descended a steep gorge down the valley of the Yarmouk River. This
highly scenic route had the unique distinction of running below sea level
at the western end of the valley where it meets the River Jordan. In 1946 Jewish
saboteurs blew up one of the largest bridges in the valley. It was never
repaired and the line has remained closed ever since. In 1983 Teff's travel
managed to persuade the Syrians to run an excursion down the undamaged part of
the line using one of the Borsig locos we saw sidelined at Derau.
Tell el-Shahab was another of Lawrence's targets in 1917 but his Bedouin troops
away from their familiar desert terrain gave their positions away just before
the attack and had to retreat hastily leaving the bridge unharmed. This
strategically sensitive valley below the Golan Heights touches the borders of
Jordan, Syria and Israel and as there's no road the Syrians decision to close
their end of the line late in 1983 effectively sealed off the area
completely. We are grateful to Manfred Stoltz for making available to us these
rare pictures of a forgotten railway with a fascinating history. With both
the Haifa and Bozra branches closed Derau station yard enjoys long periods of
inactivity nowadays allowing plenty of time for the weed killing team to do
its work. The piece is briefly disturbed by the daily service to Damascus
provided by one of the few surviving workable pieces of former Eastern Block
aid to Syria, a rail car built by Gantz in Budapest.
Meanwhile at the engine sheds loco number 263 was being prepared for our
own train up the main line to Damascus. In charge of number 263 was the senior
driver on the Syrian railways Mr. Aziz who having worked for a time in the 60s on the
Deutsche Bundesbahn in Cologne preferred to answer an English question in German.
Which locomotive is the best one? Hartmann locomotive.
First class saloon was attached to the train for our tour group and the scene
was set for a site worth coming a long way to see. The original Damascus Express
complete in every detail not preserved as such but simply unchanged over the
years.
Mr. Aziz invited us to join him on the locomotive steaming across the Horan
Plain the Granary of Syria on the main line to Damascus.
Mr. Aziz was nothing if not a true professional. Suspecting of fault on the
valve gear he climbed out along the running plate and precariously checked it
out while the loco went at full speed.
When the Turks built this route in the early 1900s they came under attack from
the rebel Druze tribes in Bosra and here as in the south the stations were
designed to house security troops.
As we passed the outskirts of Damascus a surprise discovery was an old English
semaphore signal presumably left over from the short British occupation from
1918 to 1920. Arriving at Khadem station in Damascus our train was flanked by
more products of former Eastern Bloc aid. East German coaches on the new standard
gauge line from Aleppo and on the left another of the Gantz rail cars.
Of greater interest at Khadem was the locomotive yard where nothing seemed to
have changed since Ottoman times. We took a ride on the Traversa to take a
closer look at this silent parade of veterans from a forgotten Empire still
waiting after 80 years for the overhauls they will certainly never receive.
There were even some victims of Lawrence's sabotage including this
damaged Hartmann 280 dragged up to Damascus from the desert many decades
ago. This handsome machine was the most common type of hijaz loco. Introduced in
1907 it was the workhorse of the system and 32 examples were built some of them
by the SLM works in Vintitour Switzerland. Inside the works one of the big Hartmann
282s was receiving a major overhaul almost alone in a works that was built
to handle at least a dozen locomotives.
From a shabby office under the watchful eye of President Assad this ramshackle
establishment is run by a nervous foreman painfully aware that it would be
politically more suitable to overhaul these Romanian diesels instead of the
ancient steam engines. The trouble is that despite their impressive speed and
power they break down too often to make it worthwhile to keep them in service.
Other earlier models of the internal combustion engine are scattered about
the works. Here the power axle of a Gantz rail car is wheeled through the machine
shop which with its original belt driven equipment looks more like a 19th century
cotton mill and locomotive repair works.
This mallet type loco was one of two built by Hartmann in 1906 and was in
service as recently as 1983. It was not a hijaz engine but belonged to the old
French company that originally served Damascus the Damas Amas et Prolongement
or DHP for short. This railway connected Damascus with Beirut on the
Mediterranean coast. It was 144 kilometers long and built to the unusual
gauge of one meter and five centimeters. It was opened in 1895 and had a long cog
section to climb the Lebanese mountains. We filmed the railway during our first
visit to the Middle East in 1968 and found these 010O locomotives in service,
rack tanks supplied by the Swiss company SLM Winterthur in 1926. We took the film
at Alay station 20 kilometers from Beirut and also further up the climb
towards Bamboon.
The identity of the small diesel locomotive is uncertain but it is
thought to be on its way via Syria to the Jordanian oil refinery at Zurka.
The outbreak of civil war in Lebanon closed the line in 1975 and it is now considered
too badly damaged to be worth rebuilding. So both the original lines from Syria to
the Mediterranean have now suffered the same fate. The trains from Beirut share
the hijaz railway terminus at Kanawatt station in Damascus. This was built in
1911 in typical Ottoman imperial style and is still in use today with little
change except the addition of French notices over the ticket windows in the
1920s. The station has recently regained some of its old importance as the
locals have discovered the usefulness of the railcar shuttle service to Kadem
on the city outskirts connecting with the new standard gauge mainline to Aleppo
in the north. Here a railcar arrival coincided with a special train for a
trip up the Syrian section of the old Beirut railway. The train was powered by
this delightful centenarian a 2 6-0 tank engine built for the opening of the
railway in 1894 by SLM. These locos are still used for public excursions at
weekends up the Lebanese frontier at Surgaia.
After negotiating the streets of Damascus, number 751 headed off through the villages
of the Barada Valley. This trip was the first of the season and constant use had
to be made of the shrieking whistle to announce the resumption of railway
service.
The lush pastures of the lower Barada then gave way to the stark contours of
the rocky Barada Gorge. The spring growth of weeds and grass over the tracks turned
into a mushy paste under the engine wheels which lost their grip several
times.
Higher up the gorge near a tunnel mouth the line had to be checked for the
rock falls that occur during most winters. Our driver had to proceed with
caution as no train had been up the line for six months.
On the approach to Zabadani there was more severe slipping.
To lighten the load it was decided to leave the coaches behind and cram
everyone into the guards van.
Now with a featherweight train the little engine galloped off for the last
few kilometers to the terminus at Sergaya.
When the line was built there was no frontier here as the whole territory
was then Turkish. It is hard to imagine that this sleepy narrow gauge branch
was once part of the trunk route from Turkey down to Damascus, a lifeline of
the southern Ottoman Empire.
It is even harder to believe that despite sweeping political and economic
changes over the years the Syrians can still find a use for this charming
little Swiss veteran. Now over a hundred years old and the oldest working
locomotive in the Middle East.
See you on the next world's greatest train ride video adventure.