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Thomas Kautzor writes of his visit between 3rd and 5th May 2024.
In early March 2024 I drove almost the entire length of the Hedjaz Railway section in Saudi Arabia, from Medina (Km 1302 to 1320 according to different sources) to That al-Hajj (Km 608/610, the 2nd station south of the Jordanian border) and back, over a period of three days. As my rental car was a low-clearance vehicle, I could not reach some of the stations away from tarred roads).
The Hedjaz Railway in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia :
Construction started in 09.1900 in Damascus and on 01.09.1906 the section between Al-Mudawara (in present-day Jordan) and Tabuk (in present day Saudi Arabia) was opened. Al Ula was reached on 01.09.1907 and the holy city of Medina on 01.09.1908, with the first train having reached Medina on 22.08.1908.
Projects to extend the line either via an inland route or via the Red Sea ports of Rabigh (Km 1590) and Jeddah (km 1780) to the holy city of Makkah (Km 1855), with a target date of 01.09.1909, did not
materialise, mainly due to the hostility of the local Bedouin tribes who saw the railway as competition for taking pilgrims to Makkah and for robbing them of the possibilities to raid the pilgrim caravans of the other tribes. The Jeddah – Makkah section was to be paid for by the Indian government, as it would have been used mainly by pilgrims coming from the East.
In 2018, the cities of Medina, Rabigh, Jeddah and Makkah were finally connected by rail through the standard gauge Haramein High Speed Railway (492 km).
Initial unrest was overcome after 1908 when the railway started paying the Bedouin tribes to deter them from attacking the railway, paid for by a surcharge on railway tickets. From 1910, all stations south of Medain Saleh were reinforced with fencing and trenches, firing
positions on nearby hills and given troop garrisons.
By 1913, traffic on the section consisted of 3 passenger trains per week from Damascus to Medina, taking 4.½ days, 1 weekly Express with sleeping and dining cars, taking 2 days, a bi-weekly freight train, as well as various service trains with water and supplies for the stations.
World War I:
After the start of World War I, from 1914 to 1916 two daily trains ran between Damascus and Medina. In 1915, a 2 km extension was built from Medina station to the Citadel. On 05.06.1916, the Arab Revolt led by Sheriff Hussein started in Makkah, which fell on 12/13.06.1916, followed by Jeddah (16.06), Rabigh (16.06), Yanbu (27.07) and the hill station at Taif (22.09). The Ottomans were however able to hold onto Medina, because the Arab forces feared bombing the city could damage the Prophet’s Mosque.
When Captain T.E. Lawrence arrived in Jeddah in 10.1916, a Turkish expeditionary force had left Medina to retake Makkah. To counter this, Lawrence advised for the Arabs to march onto the Red Sea port of Wejh (180 km of Yanbu), which was captured on 24/25.01.1917 with British naval support. The Turkish advance towards Makkah was recalled after the captures of Yanbu, Wejh and attacks on Al Ula, Medain Saleh and other stations along the railway.
Although the railway link to Medina could have been cut off, Lawrence saw constant hit-and-run guerilla warfare as a way to drain Turkish resources away from the main theatre of operations in the Sinai and Palestine. As a result, Turkish forces based four labour battalions tasked with repairs in Ma’an, Tabuk and Medina. Train movements were reduced from two per day to two per week and passenger services suspended on 02.01.1917. In early 1917, half of the civilian population f Medina was evacuated by train to the North and by early 1918 there were almost no civilians left.
On 18.06.1917, Arab forces moved north from Wejh towards Aqaba, which was taken on 06.07.1917. That same month, Ma’an (in present-day southern Jordan) was attacked. The last through train reached Medina in 04.1918. After Armistice was signed on 30.10.1918, the Medina garrison held out and refused to surrender to the Allied forces until a personal order from the Sultan relieved it of its responsibility and only did so on 10.01.1919 after some officers mutinied.
The aftermath of WWI:
While many people believe that traffic on the Hedjaz railway in Saudi Arabia ended as a result of the damage inflicted during WWI, it was not the case. In 1918, what became known as the “Section Sud”, was administrated by a British sub commission, which initiated some repairs to allow extra trains to run. Over time these trains, mainly to ferry members of the family of the Sheriff of Makkah, became fewer and fewer, until in 11.1910 Prince Abdullah, accompanied by several notables and a force of 500 men, travelled
from Medina to Ma’an to call for a revolt against the French in Syria (which resulted in him being named ruler of the newly-formed state of Transjordan by the British).
In 1923, King Hussein Ibn Ali attempted to restart pilgrim trains on the line
through the creation of the “Direction Sud du Chemin de fer du Hedjaz”, under the patronage of Emir Abdullah. A Turkish officer was appointed to run the railway, the first through train arrived in Medina in 06.1923 and repairs to the line were completed in 08.1923. Steam locomotives were leased from CFH in Syria (No. 17, 101, 105 and 111 according to Syrian lists) and a number of trains were operated for the 1924 Hajj, but conditions were bad, with some trains needing 12 days to cover the distance from Medina to Ma’an and at least one train never reaching it.
After that, all traffic on the Section Sud was stopped due to heavy rain damage to the line and tribal conflict, resulting in King Hussein fleeing North and the Hedjaz Province becoming part of newly-founded Saudi Arabia.
Later attempts of revival:
The following decades saw a number of attempts to reopen the line. In 10.1935 a conference was held with the mandate members Great Britain and France in Haifa on the initiative of Saudi Arabia, calling for a weekly passenger service between Ma’an and Medina. The plan failed as the former powers were not interested in financing it.
The years 1954-1957 saw the last pilgrim trains from Damascus to Ma’an and onto Ras en Naqib (the branch built during WWII), in Jordan. From there, the pilgrims were taken to Aqaba by bus and onto Jeddah by ship.
In 1955, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia formed a committee to rehabilitate the entire line. A 1956 report showed that apart from damage caused by combat and looting, blown sand and flooding had caused much deterioration. In 1960, a German consulting firm was appointed and Saudi, Egyptian and Japanese contractors engaged, but due to difficulties these were cancelled in 1963 and new contracts awarded to newly-formed Hedjaz Contractors Co. Ltd. and Thomas Summerson & Sons of the UK for GBP 10 million over 3 years.
A 1964 survey of the 575 miles between Ma’an and Medina showed 85% of the track damaged, 30 miles of washed-out
embankments, 10 miles buried in sand drifts, 160 miles with blown sand on tracks, in addition to the 40 miles of track south of Ma’an lifted by the British Army during WWII to build the Ras en Naqib branch. Reconstruction started in Ma’an in 1966, first using 5 steam locomotives from Syria (including 2 Hohenzollern 0-6-0T and 2 Hartmann 2-8-0) and later 6 CEM 650hp diesel-electrics for the use on the desert sections. Jarrah sleepers were imported from Australia and 23,000 tonnes of the rails from the UK.
In 1971, as civil engineering work was nearly completed and track-laying had reached south of Zat al-Hajj (km 608/610), when the project run out of funds and construction was suspended. The locomotives were put into storage at Ma’an, where the steam locos were later scrapped, while the CEM diesels were used during construction of the Aqaba Railway and by 1999 five sold to Syria.
Renewed attempts to reopen between 1977 and 1983 and in 2001 come to nothing.
Locomotives in Saudi Arabia:
While many of the locos still present in Saudi Arabia were presented as “Lawrence’s casualties”, that is not the case. During WWI, locomotives damaged during attacks were consequently removed for repairs or to be used as spare parts donors, and the only two locos that were left behind after the line had been cut off in 1918 were victims of attacks after Lawrence had already moved north.
After 1918, five locos present in the Hedjaz were moved North:
2-6-0 62 & 65 (Jung 1906) to CFH Syria (62 survives plinthed at Damascus-Kanawat station)
2-8-0 97 (Hartmann 1910) to Palestine Railways
2-8-0 109 (Hartmann 1910) to CFH Syria
2-8-0 128 (Jung 1907) to CFH Syria
The 14.10.1926 list resulting from Article 108 of the 1923 Lausanne Accords on the division of assets of the Hedjaz Railway shows the following locomotives on the Section Sud in Saudi Arabia:
0-4-0T 1 (La Meuse 1901)
0-6-0T 3 (La Meuse 1901)
0-6-0T 17 (Krauss 1904)
2-6-0 54 (Hartmann 1907)
2-6-0 60 (Jung 1906)
2-8-0 110 & 111 (Hartmann 1912)
2-8-0 151, 157 & 158 (SLM 1912)
Apart from Nos. 1 and 3, all of these have been accounted for. According to the 1926 list locos 17 and 111 were Syrian CFH locos loaned to the Section Sud for the 1923/24 reopening, as were locos 101 and 105 according to a CFH list from 01.03.1944.
Kilometre indications vary widely according to the source and are only used as a reference. All stations of the Hedjaz Railway in Saudi Arabia are the classified as ANTIQUITIES ZONES by the Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage and fenced off with NO TRESPASSING signs. At some stations, the fences have been breached. Those stations which have been refurbished during the 1966-1971 reconstruction have received windows and electrical wiring.
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