Imagine if your rush-hour commute faded away to a surreal moment picking blackberries, and viewing a cross in the sky. It happened when my busy train stopped, reminding me of Edward Thomas’s poem ‘Adlestrop’… (below). For a couple of weeks in 2000 I caught the 19:00 train from Charing Cross to the coast at Deal....Read More

This is an atmospheric report from almasry alyoum detailing the situation at Cairo Central early this morning, as the first train in 68 days prepared to depart, and then on board Train 903 to Alexandria. (Initial train times here). There is a short interesting video here and I’ve translated the first half of the report (around the station)...Read More

Despite the irony of there currently being almost no trains in Egypt [written 1/Sep/2013], one writer (Shima Hafni) ran a piece this week excoriating the safety record of Egyptian Railways over the past 20 years. I thought the article was worth translating and reproducing here as it had a definite anguish and certain details about...Read More

This is quite a long post but I think it’s important to reveal the contents of such an historic find, that I’ve just transcribed. Mr Ton Pruissen in the Netherlands was kind enough to send a 30-minute cine film made in 1953 by Mr Albert G. Nymeyer. It’s an amazing discovery. Mr Nymeyer filmed extensive trackside...Read More