Steam Train Veterans

The CNN iReport Global Challenge project lists Eritrea among the 10 most fascinating places worldwide. Railway enthusiast and iReporter George Hart travelled from the United Kingdom to Eritrea in 2009 to ride on the Eritrean railway.

The trains go from the highlands to the coastal lowlands of Eritrea passing through approximately 30 tunnels, 65 bridges and viaducts. The national rail line owes and operates solely antique trains, locomotives and rail-cars build by the Italians during Eritrea’s colonial occupation in the early 1920s and 30s.

Eritreans made tremendous efforts to rebuild one of Africa’s most nostalgic railways without external help, even recalling several train veterans from their retirement to support younger inexperienced generations.

By 2003, work on the rail line between the capital Asmara and Eritrea’s main port of Massawa was successfully finalized.

While the railroad was the high point of his trip, Hart told CNN, that he also enjoyed visiting the capital city of Asmara, an immaculate city — “not a scrap of litter to be found” — with Italian roots, Art Deco buildings, and an unusual open-air market selling household items made from scrap materials.

To find out more visit: iReport Global Challenge

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