Hejaz railway

[Kate Wills]

I was interested to hear a piece about the Hejaz Railway on Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent last week. Apparently there will be a new three part series about this on BBC World Service this Wednesday, though the timings do not seem to be listed on the website. However, here is a link to the page with the complete article, and highlights below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from...ent/4609450.stm

The Hejaz Railway was built 100 years ago to carry pilgrims from Istanbul to Medina but was blown up by Lawrence of Arabia during World War I… Stretches of the line are still used today by passenger and goods trains with engines and carriages from another era…On the Saudi stretch of the line there are steam engines that were abandoned after the end of World War I. One was in Medain Saleh, a big station along the line in Saudi. The locomotive, stripped of every moveable part by the Bedouin, was still in its engine shed waiting for maintenance that should have been done 80 or 90 years ago.

The Ottomans had sided with Germany in World War I, so the good quality British coal they used in the locomotives from the mines in Wales was cut off. At one stage fuel was so scarce that the engines were being fed furniture and floor boards just to keep running. As the railway had to burn wood instead of coal, they built this 25-mile-long (40km) branch line into a forest near the Crusader castle of Shubak to collect it.

Ueli Bellwader explained that the holes all around the stations we saw in the desert were not World War I bomb craters but deep holes dug by treasure hunters. "It may sound crazy," he said, "but people really do believe that the retreating Ottoman soldiers buried gold around the stations.

"In their frenzy to find it," he said, "they have mechanical earth-moving equipment that is demolishing buildings and stretches of the embankment."

And the hunt for the treasure has spawned another profitable sideline for shops in faraway Istanbul. Maps of the railway sell for serious money along with a guarantee that the cross on the map is definitely the place to dig for an Ottoman pot of gold.

[JulianB]

I would have been interested to hear the programmes - I wonder who made them. A teeny weeny pinch of salt is need for some of their text though. I have travelled on and alongside many many miles of it. There are quite a few interesting articles and a new book came out on it last autumn (which I'm supposed to be writing a review of). There has been archaeological work around it too (yes, 1WW related).

[zooloo]

I would have been interested to hear the programmes

You can, follow the link in the first post and on the right is the "listen again" feature.

Thank you BBC

zoo

[Paul Hederer]

"On the Saudi stretch of the line there are steam engines that were abandoned after the end of World War I. One was in Medain Saleh, a big station along the line in Saudi..."

Yep,

Take a look here:

Hijaz trip website

Was an interesting trip.

Paul

[Kate Wills]

and an interesting set of photos Paul. Are you second from left in the group?

The programme will be broadcast and repeated at various times throughout Wednesday and Thursday. Here is the World Service schule for this week, all times GMT http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedule...io_weekly.shtml

[Paul Hederer]

and an interesting set of photos Paul. Are you second from left in the group?

The programme will be broadcast and repeated at various times throughout Wednesday and Thursday. Here is the World Service schule for this week, all times GMT http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedule...io_weekly.shtml

Yes, that's me!

Paul

[Kate Wills]

Now look what has happened Paul. Everyone is so keen to see your holiday snaps that visitors get this message:

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.

The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

[Paul Hederer]

Now look what has happened Paul. Everyone is so keen to see your holiday snaps that visitors get this message:

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.

The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

Reaaaally... hmm it's been up for about 7 years now. Perhaps it's time to move it over to my main website and add some more pictures. I have 100's but only incuded those few due to space.

Paul

[JulianB]

Paul

I spent nearly 6 months at Medain Saleh in the 1980s (studying much earlier remains than trains). I hate to tell you but the trains there - and some 'abandoned' ones farther south were in fact 'left' in the 1920s. The line was actually opened for a short period at that time. Farther north, in Jordan, much of the line - and bits of trains etc - were 'savaged' by Australian REs in the 2WW.

I also have lots of photographs and have used them in various lectures but I dont have a web site.

ahlan wa sahlan

Julian

whoops, I meant SALVAGED

[Paul Hederer]

Paul

I spent nearly 6 months at Medain Saleh in the 1980s (studying much earlier remains than trains). I hate to tell you but the trains there - and some 'abandoned' ones farther south were in fact 'left' in the 1920s. The line was actually opened for a short period at that time. Farther north, in Jordan, much of the line - and bits of trains etc - were 'savaged' by Australian REs in the 2WW.

I also have lots of photographs and have used them in various lectures but I dont have a web site.

ahlan wa sahlan

Julian

whoops, I meant SALVAGED

Julian,

Interesting information, and you sure could be right. I have no idea if the trains we photo'd were abandoned or destroyed. We were told they were trains attacked by Lawrence, so that's what I've always believed.

Actually I don't remember if we made it/started at Medain alSaleh. We travelled the train-line from Al Ula to Madinah, but not to the North.

We were in hot water pretty much from the time we arrived. The police and "rail guards" didn't like the fact that we had diplomatic passports from MODA and gave us a hard time at every turn. We even ended up being arrested as spies and hauled back to Al Ula. After drinking teas with local head-man all was sorted and we went on our merry way.

It was a great trip. Travelling alone, sleeping in tents at night, sitting around the camp fire, and watching the stars in a sky darker than any I've ever seen.

Paul

[domsim]

Paul

I spent nearly 6 months at Medain Saleh in the 1980s (studying much earlier remains than trains). I hate to tell you but the trains there - and some 'abandoned' ones farther south were in fact 'left' in the 1920s. The line was actually opened for a short period at that time.

whoops, I meant SALVAGED

Julian is right about these engines. James Nicholson's new book on the Hejaz Railway (page 110) has a section on how many of the remaining engines were actually ones attacked by Lawrence himself and concludes that none of the current wrecks were, the Turks remained adept at recovering and repairing damaged trains until almost the end of hostilities. There is a possibility that the wreck at Hallat Ammar station was destreoyed by Beni Atiyya bedu on 28 June 1918 and never repaired.

I worked along the railway in Jordan on an archaeological survey and we surveyed some of the Ottoman trenches around some of the stations. My avatar shows the railway just south of Jurf ed-Darwish.

Cheers

Dominic

[JulianB]

Been busy but these are the two most useful publications (in book form). The last is the one Dominic is referring to

Tourret, R, 1989, Hedjaz Railway, Tourret Publishing, Abingdon.

Nicholson, J, 2005, The Hejaz Railway, Stacey International, London

(Thought you'd pick up on this one Dominic,

there is a TEL conf in Tennessee in April )

Julian