Shades of the Uintah!--Heroes & Steam in Eritrea (Africa)

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 11, 2015 2:19 pm

Found this while looking for something else. It's an Italian-built narrow gauge line from the colonial era with lots of grades and curves, some wonderfully dated facilities, apparently somewhat informal operations, and tank Mallet power. As noted, the countryside looks a lot like Utah or other desert places, though the Uintah didn't have stone bridges. Track actually looks quite good if the speed of the trains is any indication.

Exotic to us? Maybe. The equipment is not like what we are used to seeing? Yes.

But it's still something I think viewers here will enjoy; I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aZ_Xo0_Qew

Some of these people are real heroes; look what they started with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnNmkoQZfo

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

Both videos are fantastic. I like the last line of that 1996 documentary: "The can-do people of Eritrea are showing the rest of the world what can be done with determination, self-reliance, and very little money."

Loco112 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:26 pm

They probably are not being fleeced with their own currency and central bank, and have local money, or barter( maybe silver, gold, or diamonds) to use to build and run their local economy with.

1702 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:10 pm

FarRail Tours in Germany has a tour scheduled for Jan 19-24, 2016.
http://www.farrail.net

Jim Tatum

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2018 6:20 pm

A recent story (at least recently dated, anyway):

https://www.tesfanews.net/eritrea-is-a- ... ostalgics/

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:30 pm

A video that just turned up, part of it being footage from only 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBw4SSXC44Q

nedsn3 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:11 pm

Superb videos and a wonderful uplifting story about resilient people. Ned