Sahara lunch stop 20231005--295
The second day of the Branch Line Society's "The Sahara Explorer" railtour, which ran from from Oujda to Bouárfa in Morocco, stands at Berguent Fouchal in the Sahara Desert during the lunch break for the crew. At the head of the train are ONCF (Moroccan National Railways) locos DH411 and DH367.
The front two coaches were for the use of ONCF staff, while the third coach is a generator van which also contains an area which was used for food preparation as well as selling cold drinks (and giving away bottles of water). Fourth is a couchette coach, available to the 32 tour participants on the return journey (which took place overnight - a departure just after 9pm resulted in an arrival back at Oujda just after 05.15 the following morning). At the back are two seating coaches, the first being air conditioned while the rearmost coach has opening windows and was originally built for SNCB (Belgium).
On the left is a police car: for security reasons (safety) the train was followed by two police cars (from the national force), which met it at various level crossings and every time it stopped, but at stops where there was likely to be interest from locals the local police also put in an appearance. There was also a police officer on the train.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.
Sahara lunch stop 20231005--295
The second day of the Branch Line Society's "The Sahara Explorer" railtour, which ran from from Oujda to Bouárfa in Morocco, stands at Berguent Fouchal in the Sahara Desert during the lunch break for the crew. At the head of the train are ONCF (Moroccan National Railways) locos DH411 and DH367.
The front two coaches were for the use of ONCF staff, while the third coach is a generator van which also contains an area which was used for food preparation as well as selling cold drinks (and giving away bottles of water). Fourth is a couchette coach, available to the 32 tour participants on the return journey (which took place overnight - a departure just after 9pm resulted in an arrival back at Oujda just after 05.15 the following morning). At the back are two seating coaches, the first being air conditioned while the rearmost coach has opening windows and was originally built for SNCB (Belgium).
On the left is a police car: for security reasons (safety) the train was followed by two police cars (from the national force), which met it at various level crossings and every time it stopped, but at stops where there was likely to be interest from locals the local police also put in an appearance. There was also a police officer on the train.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.