Egyptian Salt and Soda Company Railway

Khataba – Bir Hooker
The Egyptian Salt and Soda Company Limited
Route length:	51.5 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Legend 0 Khataba Khataba Hill 22.5 Bir Victoria Bir Hooker 51.5 Wadi Natrun. Swell:

The Egyptian Salt and Soda Company Railway built and operated a 51.5 km long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 750 mm in Egypt .

route

The route ran from the station Khataba on the standard gauge route Cairo - Damanhur up to Bir Hooker in Wadi Natrun . The route was therefore also called Khataba – Wadi Natrun R (ailwa) y . According to Baedeker from 1914, there was also passenger traffic on the route.

At the beginning of 1942, the 51.5 km long main line was extended by a 5.5 km long branch line to the limestone quarries where minerals for soap production were mined. There was also a branch line for the extraction of soda in the dried-out bed of Lake Abu Gabara, from where tipping lorries were used on flying tracks to extract soda.

Locomotives

In March 1942 the following locomotives were available or in operation:

No.	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Serial no.	Construction year	Remarks
1	0-6-0 + tender	SLM	1133	1889	green
2	0-6-0 + tender	SLM	1134	1889	green
3	0-6-0 + tender	SLM	1135	1889	green
4th	0-4-0 saddle tank	Hunslet	756	1901	Indian red . Formerly War Department . Nominally 2 feet 6 inches (762 mm) gauge on 750 mm of track
5	0-6-0 + tender	L. Corpet, Paris	532	1890	green
6th	0-6-0 + tender	L. Corpet, Paris	533	1890	Grün, employed on the Port Said Railway from 1891–1902 , later with the Egyptian Light Railways and in the construction of the Suez Canal near El Shatt. In operation on the main line in 1942, frame in poor condition in 1942.
-	Three-axle diesel locomotive	Brookville	-	-	Branch line to Zugm-See
-	Three-axle diesel locomotive	Brookville	-	-	-
-	0-4-0 saddle tank	OK	12199	1930	Red. Delivered in 1930 by Rothpletz & Lienhard, O & K's Egyptian sales representative. Coal-fired. 70 hp. Use on the branch route to the limestone quarries.
-	0-4-0 saddle tank	R. Aebi & Cie AG , Zurich	-	-	Red. Boiler label: A. Borsig - Tegel , 1910, boiler no. 7842, 12 kg at 10 cm - 12 Atmos overpressure. Driver's cab lettering: Robert Aebi & Co AG, Zurich, engineering firm for construction machinery
-	0-6-0	SA de Gouillet, Belgium	882	1887	Originally 3 feet (914 mm) gauge
-	Two-axis with vertical bowl	Rose, Downs & Thompsons, Hull	-	1908	-

dare

Among other things, there were two two-axle passenger cars for visits by management and four-axle bogie cars with a French clearance profile and 2 t load capacity. Additional wagons were temporarily hired from the Egyptian Delta Light Railways during the First World War in order to cope with military traffic. A bogie car was provided as a hospital car by the Western Oasis Railway in January 1916 , which could transport up to 12 stretchers, but was not required for it.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mohamed Moawad: Military Report on Egypt 1937.
2. ↑ Jim Fergusson: List of train stations. (PDF) railwaystationlists.co.uk, accessed October 23, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Captain Claud Williams: Light Car Patrols 1916-19: War and Exploration in Egypt and Libya with the Model T Ford. Silphium Press, 2013. Page 172.
4. ^ ^{A b} David LF Gilbert: Egyptian Interlude. The Marker, magazine of the Alberta Pioneer Railway Association, Canada. March 1983, pages 47 / 15-50 / 18. The text without photos was also published again in The Industrial Locomotive , Fall 1985.
5. ^ ^{A b} Iain Logie: Light railways of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force 1915-18 (Part 3: The railways of the Western Desert). In: The Narrow Gauge , issue 240.

Coordinates: 30 ° 22 ′ 28.9 ″  N , 30 ° 20 ′ 39.1 ″  E