Lézard Rouge
| Lézard Rouge | |||||||||
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.jpg) A Lézard Rouge car
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 Route
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| Route length: | 43 km | ||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||
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The Lézard Rouge ( French Red Lizard ) is a museum railway train in Tunisia .
location
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The narrow-gauge railway with 1000 mm gauge on which the Lézard Rouge runs, was originally to reduce phosphates built. The train runs from Métlaoui to Redeyef and passes the Selja Gorge, which is worth seeing on its 1½ hour journey .
history
The train was originally owned by the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Bone-Guelma , then the Beys of Tunis . It was built from 1910 in the workshops of Blanc-Misseron and Dyle et Bacalon in Bordeaux and finally sold to the Bey of Tunis. During his reign he operated between Bardo , Tunis , Hammam-Lif and La Marsa . The Bey train was adapted and converted to the Tunisian meter gauge by the Compagnie fermière des chemins de fer tunisiens in Sidi Fathallah in 1922 . It consisted of a car for the Bey, one for the members of the court, a dining car and two accompanying cars for luggage.
After the conversion, the car was characterized by enormous luxury and comfort. Paneling was put in place, plenty of velvet was used, marquetry and inlays as well as exquisite floor coverings and mirrors were installed. It not only served the three Beys Ahmad II, Moncef Bey and Lamine Bey as a means of travel, but also foreign guests. With independence in 1956, the wagons were a symbol of monarchy and colonialism and were parked in a coach house for many years .
In 1974 it was put back into service under the name Lézard rouge . This was done on the basis of a contract between the Société nationale des chemins de fer tunisiens (SNCFT) and the Société Transtours , which ran the train between Tunis and Tozeur for several years, with a stop in El Jem to allow travelers to visit the to enable the amphitheater there.
After a technical overhaul, the train was used again in 1984, but only between Métlaoui and Redeyef, a route that was built between 1906 and 1907 and for which the train takes three hours. Since 1985 he has been crossing the Selja Gorge regularly at a speed of 25 km / h. The train, which now consists of six cars, offers 116 seats.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Trains du monde 2012-2013 , Petit Futé, 2012, p. 114 f.
- ^ Metlaoui - Le Lézard rouge et les gorges de l'oued Selja .