Fayoum Light Railway

Fayoum Light Railway
Fayoum Light Railways Company share dated October 1, 1899
Route of the Fayoum Light Railway in Baedeker from 1908
Route length:	168 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend from Cairo (standard gauge) 0 al-Fayyūm after Sheikh Hassan after al-Rôda 1.6 Quhafa 4.0 Guinedi 5.5 Ruschdi 6.5 Chaled Bey 8.3 Hauwâret 11.0 Bahr-Seila 13.0 Dimischkine 15.0 Basch-Kateb 17.3 al-Lahun by Beni Suef (standard gauge)
Legend 0 al-Fayyūm after Sheikh Hassan to al-Lahun 4.3 Mandaret-al-Fayyūm 7.2 al-Idwah to Cairo 10.1 0 Mid-tariff after Tâmîja 3 Kafr Koleib 5 Sela 7th Sersina 10 Kafr Hassan 12 Forkos 1.5 Robijat from Tâmîja 15th al-Rôda
Legend 0 al-Fayyūm after Sheikh Hassan to al-Lahun 4.3 Mandaret-al-Fayyūm 7.2 al-Idwah to Cairo 10.1 0 Mid-tariff after Kafr Koleib 13.1 Echssas Al-Fayyūm standard gauge 5.3 Sinnûris 1.0 Guabala 16.1 Massaret-Duda 20.5 Kafr Mahfuz 26.9 Tâmîja from Mittertaris 33.3 Al-Rôda
Legend 0 Al-Fayyūm to Al-Rôda and Al-Lahun 2.0 Sheikh Hassan according to al-'Agamîyîn according to Miniet-Heit 3.5 Itwan 5.0 0 Maghraby 1.5 Deir-al-Azzab 6.4 Azab 8.0 Naghib Bey 9.1 Kallahana 10.0 Rabia 11.5 Izbat Qalamshah 14.3 Ezbet Mattar 16.9 Qalamshah
Legend 0 Al-Fayyūm to Al-Rôda and Al-Lahun 2.0 Sheikh Hassan according to al-'Agamîyîn to Qalamshah 3.0 Abgig 4.0 Barmaki 5.0 Massara 6.0 Sawafna 6.7 Difino 9.2 Etsa-Merkez 9.8 Etsa-Kom 11.8 Guaafra 14.5 Habat 16.1 Miniet-Heit after Al-Shawâschna 18.7 Schidmuh 21.1 Abu Nur 25.4 Danial 29.7 Al-Gharaq al-Sultani
Legend by Al-Fayyūm from Al-Gharaq al-Sultâni 0 Minietness 0.5 Al-Minya 3.6 Nawara 6.0 Abu Guandir 9.4 Al-Wanaissa 10.5 Mochtalata 13.1 Abu-Hamach 15.5 Al-Nazia 19.1 Kasr al-Guibali 20.5 Gebel Saad Industrial connection 24.2 Al-Shawashna
Legend 0 Al-Fayyūm to Al-Rôda and Al-Lahun 2.0 0 Sheikh Hassan after Miniet-Heit and Qalamschah 2.2 Sufi 3.5 Abu Eche 4.5 Omar Bey 5.8 Ali Bey 8.4 Manchat-Halfa 9.3 Mutul 11.9 Hereit 13.2 George's oath 15.4 Guaradu 16.8 0 Tubhâr 4.5 NezlahWadi 20.6 Al-'Agamîyîn

The Fayoum Light Railways Company (FLR) was founded on February 17, 1899 by a group of Coptic investors to build and operate a network of narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 750 mm in the area around Fayoum in Egypt .

Steam locomotive No. 22 of the FLR

construction

Construction of the first railway line began in 1898. It served an artificially irrigated area in the Fayyum Basin south of Cairo . The railway had seven branch lines, mostly along roads, with a total length of 168 km.

British railway engineer Everard Calthrop served as a consultant in the design, construction and operation of the railway.

Opening of the routes

year	route	annotation
1900	Al-Fayyūm - Al-Lahun
1900	Al-Fayyūm - Qalamshah	About Sheikh Hassan
1900	Sheikh Hassan - Al-Gharaq al-Sultâni	About Miniet-Heit
1901	Al-Fayyūm - Al-Rôda	Route: Al-Fayyūm – Al-Rôda via Kafr Koleib
1902	Al-Fayyūm - Tâmîja	Route: Al-Fayyūm – Al-Rôda via Tâmîja
1902	Miniet-Heit-Al-Shawâschna	Miniet-Heit-Al Minya: 1900; Al Minya-Al Nazla: 1901; Al Nazla – Al-Shawâschna: 1902
1915	Sheikh Hassan-Al-'Agamîyîn	Sheikh Hassan – Tubhâr: 1900; Tubhâr-Al-'Agamîyîn: 1915
1916	Tubhar-Nezlah Wadi
1917	Tâmîja - Al-Rôda	Route: Al-Fayyūm – Al-Rôda via Tâmîja

business

Covered freight car No. 602 FLR

Regular operation

The railroad was primarily used to transport sugar cane and other agricultural products, but also offered passenger transportation for 0.55 pence per mile.

In 1904 618,000 passengers and 145,000 tons of goods were transported.

There were at least 17 locomotives, including a 4-4-0T steam locomotive no. 8 and a rail bus no. 509. The car with the numbers 1543 and 1544 were from Drewry & Sons in Herne Hill ( London produced).

The government inspector made a very negative report in 1904 on the Fayoum Light Railways Company, which was headed by S. Sandison de Bilinski for the first five years since it was founded. At this point in time, the railroad needed a competent manager. The employees had gotten completely out of hand and the traffic and locomotive departments were left to their own devices.

Fossils

Removal of the fossils from Walter Granger's Fayoum expedition, 1907

The American fossil collector and vertebrate paleontologist Walter Granger used the railroad in April 1907 during an expedition to the Fayyum basin organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York to transport the Fayyum fossils found there from Tamieh (Tamia) via Faoyum Cairo, from where they were shipped to New York.

Sibakh

Light railway at Karanis in the Fayyum Basin , 1920s

The narrow-gauge railway was probably also used in the 1920s by a company that was mining Anthrosol . The fertile compost soil, known locally as Sibakh , consists of rotted organic remains from the agriculture practiced by the ancient Egyptians. The workers involved in the dismantling found well-preserved papyrus rolls that were sold to collectors and museums. This caught the attention of archaeologists, who signed an agreement with the Italian manure mining company that the archaeologists had to mine enough Sibakh to keep the company and the railroad busy while they were doing the papyrus rolls from 1928 to 1935 Emergency excavations salvaged.

Takeover of the majority of the shares and survival

Share of the Anglo-Belgian Company of Egypt depicting a train in front of a pyramid, 1906

In 1906 the majority of shares with 80% of the shares went to the Anglo-Belgian Company of Egypt , which had been founded in London in 1906 for this purpose. She also owned several properties in central Cairo, including a. the garden of the Ghezireh Palace Hotel and properties of the French Institute. First president of the society was Baron Georges de Reuter , a relative of Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter , founder of the news agency Reuters Telegraphic Co . According to annual accounts, the value of the property under the new management rose from E 185,972  in 1907 to over E 249,075 in 1910 to E 263,850 in 1914. Sales rose from £ 23,528  in 1904, over £ 24,650 in 1905, £ 25,573 in 1906, £ 27,013 in 1907 to £ 27,032 in 1908, and then decreased to £ 24,460 in 1909 .

In 1939, Joseph Kfoury, who already operated several bus routes in Fayoum Province, acquired a significant stake in the Fayoum Light Railways Company, whose headquarters were located in the al-Immobilia building. He was then appointed their manager.

Original share from 1899 stamped over in 1944

Some stocks were reissued on May 1, 1944, with a stamp, indicating that the railroad company still existed during World War II, even though no timetables for passenger services have been issued since 1938.

In the post-war period, operations ceased, although the state concession was originally for 70 years, i.e. H. until August 15, 1972. The railway company was probably given up around 1952.

More Egyptian narrow-gauge railways

The Port Said Railway had a similar concession from 1891, but was mainly used for passenger transport along the Suez Canal, while goods were transported by canal boats. When she after a few years standard gauge umgespurt was their narrow gauge locomotives were to the Egyptian Delta Light Railways sold.

The Belgian baron Édouard Empain and Belgian investors founded the Chemins de Fer de la Basse-Egypte as a public limited company in Lower Egypt in 1896 . The following year, together with French investors, in 1897 he founded the East Egyptian commercial railway company Compagnie des chemins économiques de l'Est égyptien .

The Egyptian Salt and Soda Company Railway was primarily used for the transportation of minerals for soap making. The Western Oasis Lines and the Baharia Military Railway served to develop two oases.

literature

• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Vol. 7: North, East and Central Africa. World Rail Atlas Ltd., 2009. ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5 , pp. 32–33, maps 26.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Section ribbons according to Robinson, plate 26.
2. ↑ Vincent L. Morgan and Spencer G. Lucas: Notes From Diary - Fayum Trip, 1907. New Mexico Museum of Natural History, 2002.
3. ^ Marilyn Booth and Gorman Anthony: The Long 1890s in Egypt: Colonial Quiescence, Subterranean Resistance. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. page 84.
4. ↑ Samir Saul: La France et l'Égypte de 1882 à 1914: Intérêts économiques et implications politiques. Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, 2013.
5. ↑ ^{a b} London Standard Newspaper Archives of March 20, 1906 - Page 1.
6. ^ Gratton, Robert, 2005, The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway , RCL Publications.
7. ↑ Information from Robinson, p. 32f.
8. ^ R. Neil Hewison: The Fayoum: History and Guide. American University in Cairo Press, 2008. page 26.
9. ^ AJ Cotterill: Report on Agricultural Lines , in Public Works Ministry, Report Upon the Administration of the Public Works Department in Egypt for 1900.
10. ^ London Standard Newspaper Archives of March 20, 1906. Page 1.
11. ^ German Society for Railway History: Gauges 750 to 799 mm.
12. ^ Garry Goldfinch: Steel in the Sand .
13. ↑ Charles Stewart Drewry (1843-1929)
14. ^ Walter Granger's 1907 Fayoum Expedition Dairy. Part III.
15. ^ Jimmy Dunn: Karanis in the Fayoum of Egypt.
16. ^ Paola Davoli: The Archeology of the Fayum. Page 158.
17. ↑ Gutoski: 44th auction on July 12, 2010.
18. ^ Martin Bunton: Colonialism and the Modern World. Routledge, 2016.
19. ↑ Mina Gerges Matta: The cultural struggle and the British experience in Egypt as a turning point of Egypt's transformation: A study of the cosmopolitan British perspective in Egypt from 1882 to 1914. December 9, 2012.
20. ↑ ^{a b} Ola R. Seif: Winter destination series 4: Fayoum, The City of the Crocodile. February 11, 2015.
21. ↑ Historic shares of the Fayoum Light Railways Company, issued on October 1, 1899 and stamped on May 1, 1944.
22. ↑ Jim Fergusson: List of train stations
23. ^ OS's stock certificate collection. 20th November 2013.
24. ↑ ^{a b} Samir Saul: La France et l'Égypte de 1882 à 1914: Intérêts économiques et implications politiques. Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, 2013, ISBN 978-2-8218-2862-9 , p. 318 ff.
25. ^ Agnieszka Dobrowolska and Jarosław Dobrowolski: Heliopolis: Rebirth of the City of the Sun. American Univ. in Cairo Press, 2006. page 41.

Coordinates: 29 ° 18 '  N , 30 ° 50'  E