Eritrea Running on Steam
A newly independent nation struggles to rebuild after a disastrous war.

Tucked in the Northeastern corner of Africa, Eritrea is Africa's newest nation. It is a country struggling, sometimes too much, to limit international aid. The 30-year war that in 1991 has brought independence to Eritrea has taught Eritreans the value of doing things their own way. The semi desert landscape and scarce natural resources have taught the people here the value of hard work. By many accounts Eritrea is doing amazingly well: it carries no foreign debt, the AIDS epidemic is under control and corruption is virtually nonexistent. In Eritrea hundreds of workers are rebuilding a railroad that has been in disuse for 25 years. This rebuilding effort has become a symbol of the country's self-reliance.

Envisioned and designed by the Italians as a gateway to their colonial empire the 95 centimeters gage railway was constructed between 1887 and 1911. The line originates at the port of Massawa and unites the Muslim populated coast with the Christian dominated highlands. At its inception it was an engineering marvel that in its 75-mile length climbed 8000 feet, winded treacherous mountain slopes and crossed 30 tunnels.

 
Veteran machinist workers in front of the Steam Locomotive Repair shop, Asmara.
 
Workers take a break from work for a cup of tea. Men clearing railroad tunnels of debris protect themselves from the dust and sun wearing hats and scarves.

During the Mussolini invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 the railway line run Italian troops day and night. At its peak 38 trains had run between Asmara and Massawa in each direction within 24 hours. From Asmara the line continued on for another 115 miles to Agordat in northern Eritrea. During the independence struggle with Ethiopia, that portion of the railway has been completely destroyed in the fighting.

The 30 year war against Ethiopia almost completely destroyed the infrastructure of the Eritrea rail system. The task of rebuilding the railway infrastructure has begun in 1996 without any international assistance and relying only on local skill and small government budget. Railway technical department manager, Ghoitom Cherzinher, told me how Russian truck engines were adopted as locomotives in 1996 to serve for local transport needs in Massawa. This is just one of many examples of how older railway workers came out of retirement to offer the skills the young generation didn't have, but needed to rebuild and operate the railway.

 
A timekeeper gets a signature from a stone mason working on a retention wall protecting the railroad near Bar Durfo.
The workers who are retired war veterans are trying to rebuild their lives by reconstructing the country they fought for. Older railway workers, many of them in their 70's and 80's share their technical knowledge and pass it on to the new generation. A big motivation is a salary often ten times larger than their retirement checks.

Workers rebuilding the railway come from all over the country. Some workers are Eritreans expelled from Ethiopia during the recent conflict. Muslims and Christians work here side by side. In the summer hundreds of Eritrean schoolchildren volunteer and work with little or no tools finding scattered railway planks, cleaning rusted railway bolts and straightening bent steel tracks. In the train depots railway locomotives are being brought back to life and re-equipped

 

 
 
A forger from a Ghinda workshop.

The escalating war forced the railway to stop operations in 1974. In 1995 the Eritrean government decided to undertake the rebuilding of the Massawa- Asmara portion of the railway. "The symbolic aspect of the rebuilding of the railway shouldn't be over emphasized. What we're doing is not out of pride, but it has a lot of other advantages: the railroad can serve a complementary purpose to the road transport," said railway rebuilding project director Amanuel Gabreselassie.

Over the last five years workers and managers of the project had an opportunity to improve their knowledge and understanding of the railway system. In the beginning the time and cost of the rebuilding the railway was underestimated. "We were overly optimistic when we started the project. We thought that we could finish the work in two years, but the degree of destruction was underestimated," said Gabreselassie, "Gathering of the rails and slippers, from the war trenches and misused by general population, is still a big task."

 
 
A locomotive mechanic works on a 1950's German locomotive.
One of the biggest problems in the rebuilding process was the lack of workers with technical skills. The old veterans were good at renovating existing lines, but had difficulty in providing new solutions. "There were a lot of things that could have been done better. We had very little experience in railroad transport and we were learning on the job. Our veteran workers were expert in their work, but couldn't help in other areas," said Gabreselassie. The project management preferred to send some of their employees on training courses abroad, than to hire foreign consultants.
 
Muslim and Christian railroad workers use old railway cars as living quarters while working away from home. A typical kitcha bread is prepared for dinner.

 

One of the project's goals is to create a railway that is able to support itself financially. During the period of Italian colonization the railway employed 30,000 workers and was the biggest employer in the country. The larger Djibouti-Addis railway line is seen as an example of a successful railway enterprise.

 
Tourist aboard a train to Massawa are treated to drinks and snacks. The rebuild railway is envisioned as a major tourist attraction.

 

Already first foreign tourist groups charter trains for a journey from Ghinda to Massawa. This is no cheap thrill, as the cost of chartering a diesel locomotive powered train is eight hundred dollars. Some of these groups are organized by Eritrean travel agencies, other are independently chartered by foreign railway buffs excited by the thrill of riding on an East African railroad.

The diesel locomotive uses about 280 gallons of fuel over the three hour trip and requires six workers to operate. The steam locomotive charter is more expensive. The 1,800 US dollars tariff pays for 640 pounds of coal and diesel locomotive back up.

 

Some major dates of the history of the Railway Rebuilding project:

May 1994: 3 committees ( technical-condition of locomotives and wagons, Engineering- the condition of tunnels, bridges, Permanent way- rails and slippers)are established to access the feasibility of the rebuilding project. They give a two year estimate for the rebuilding.
January 1995: work rebuilding the railway tracks and infrastructure begins.
March 1995: first five kilometers of railway service in Massawa opens. It becomes a way of testing the skills of veteran workers and providing local transportation service within the city. The city of Massawa had no local transport back then.
December 1996: village of Mayata (kilometer 30) is reached.
February 1998: city of Ghinda (kilometer 70) is reached. Ghinda to Damas train service begins.
December 1999: Destroyed bridge at Embatkala (kilometer 84) is reached.
December 2002: "We hope for the railway Asmara- Massawa to be completed by the end of 2002," said project director, Amanuel Gabreselassie.",The decision to continue the railway to Keren, and eventually connecting to Sudan was made but the timing hasn't been determined."

 
Farmer loading his camel with goods that were brought on a train from Ghinda. Some farmers have began planting new crops to sell their produce at markets accessible by rail.
For the first time since 1974 a limited train service began in 1999. Every Tuesday and Friday a train departs Ghinda station for a 25 kilometer journey to Damas. Since the vegetable market in Dumas became accessible, some of the local farmers began to grow crops that are more profitable. "The farmers benefit from the railway... they transport grains, plants, even animals," one of the railroad workers told me. The Dumas farmer train is an example of the railroad already making a positive impact.

With the grade up hill being almost constant 3%, the train doesn't go faster than 10-15 kilometers an hour. Each wagon requires a break operator. None of the four stops on the line or the numerous valleys on the journey none is accessible by road.

 
A Muslim railroad worker washes his feet preparing for a midday prayer. In the background a bulldozer clears way for the rail line.
The population here is 100 percent Muslim. Men refuse to be photographed, women cover their faces and hide their children. Some of the farmers carry AK-47 rifles, more out of prestige than for protection. The locals here knew better times. In the past the railway brought regular and frequent connection to markets in the cities. Railway was their lifeline and when the service was cut, they were the first to suffer. Without the railway all the transport has been done by camel. The terrain is too steep and villages not important enough to justify building a road. This is typical Eritrea: poor, barren, inaccessible.
 
A veteran mechanic sweeps the floor of the Steam Engine workshop in Asmara.

 

 

The Asmara depot has some unusual looking locomotives. In 1996, at the beginning of the project and when the Italian motorinas (small locomotives) were not operational two Russian trucks "Ural" were adopted as locomotives.

The railway depot in Asmara houses five steam locomotives. Three of them are almost completely rusted away, the other two are in working order, nicely painted in black and red. "The oldest locomotive is the Ernesto Breda, from 1927," tells me in Italian Seium Baraki, Steam Engine Depot Manager. Baraki has been working on the railway for 61 years.

 
 
Workers at the Ghinda engine workshop gather their tools at the end of the day’s work. Beyond, a Russian truck “Ural” converted to a locomotive.

The railroad factory that once housed a hundred young, energetic workers, now looks like a vocational training place for retired people. The work pace is unhurried, almost casual. There is dignity about how the workers carry themselves through a long, nine hour workday. Many of the older workers still speak Italian. The younger, in their 30's and 40's are more likely to know English.

But, there are surprises. Yemane Yalleu, a machine workshop worker, greets me in French: "Vous parlais francais?" He is 53, but looks ten years younger. This is a common phenomena on the railway where being 70 and 80 years old is not uncommon. Before he had to leave Ethiopia, Yalleu worked for Ethiopian Railways in Dire Dawa. "All the machinery was electronic... here it is steam," he says, "it is like going back in time." Yalleu says that the workshop in Asmara reminds him of a museum. Yalleu says that all the bosses at the railway are "ex fighters" and get the better paid positions. Coming after 30 years of working in Ethiopia Yalleu is an outsider and sees things a little differently than most people railway workers.

 
Metal bolts, some still red hot after casting, cool down on top of a sand heap. Bolts for the original Italian railway were brought in from abroad- these are made locally.

 

Its fascinating to see the 1920's, 1930's technology being still in use. In the machine workshops a lonely electric engine powers five separate drills and rotors. All that with an ingenuous system of pulleys and levers. The machines, even when not used, are well taken care off: oiled and covered from dust.

Recycling is the key to the railway reconstruction being independent from international help. Some unusable railway tracks are used to reinforce new foundation under a bridge three kilometers outside Asmara. The concrete for foundation is mixed in by hand and the workers, whose average age seems to be somewhere around fifty, switch each other at the shovel work every two minutes. They work unselfishly, helping each other whenever possible. The work is dependent on the truck bringing supplies for the day: water, concrete, sand. In the meantime there is a lot of waiting and preparation. The work moves slowly, but pushes ahead.

 
Where there is a need there is a way: at the Asmara machine workshop a hand made tool serves to measure the curvature of rail axis.
Eritrea remains one of the poorest countries in Africa, yet its people are optimism about their future. Most Eritreans see their country as a functioning African democracy. "We would not have fought and lost our lives for independence then to lose our freedom to the corruption and despotism of our government," I was told by an Eritrean emigrant who decided to return home and rebuild his homeland.
 
An old man looks out the wagon of the “Farmer train” outside Damas. The terrain here is high dessert with small farms.

 

The railway rebuilding project is constantly changing and evolving. The border conflict with Ethiopia has caused a major disruption to the project. For the past two years all young railway workers have been recruited into the army and sent to the front lines. From over a thousand employees the reconstruction workforce dwindled to three hundred. This has slowed the project's progress considerably. The work has also been delayed by a damaged railway overpass that Eritrea's Ministry of Public works hasn't yet started to reconstruct. To speed up the project it was decided to continue the work from Asmara's end of the line. "We hope for the Asmara- Massawa railway to be completed by the end of 2002," said Gabreselassie, "the decision to continue the railway to Keren and eventually connecting with the Sudanese railway has already been made, but the timing hasn't been yet determined."

     
  A journalistic portion of a Masters of Arts degree in Journalism at
University of Missouri, Columbia
September 20, 2001