The Fayoum Light Railway (FLR) was a gauge Egyptian light railway. Founded by a group of Egyptian Coptic investors, it operated in the first half of the twentieth century.Marilyn Booth and Gorman Anthony: The Long 1890s in Egypt: Colonial Quiescence, Subterranean Resistance. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. Page 84.

Construction

Construction began in 1898. The railway served an irrigation district south of Cairo, centred on the provincial capital of Medinet-el-Fayoum. The track network comprised seven, mostly roadside, branch lines with a total length of .London Standard Newspaper Archives of March 20, 1906 – Page 1. British railway engineer Everard Calthrop was a consultant on this railway.Gratton, Robert, 2005,The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway, RCL Publications.

Operation The railway was mainly used for transporting sugar cane and other agricultural produce,R. Neil Hewison: The Fayoum: History and Guide. American University in Cairo Press, 2008. Page 26. but it also transported passengers. In 1904 a total of 618,000 passengers and 145,000 tons of goods were carried.

The Government Inspector reported in 1904 very unfavourably on the Fayoum Company, which was managed for the first five years after its incorporation by S. Sandison de Bilinski. The railway was apparently in need of a competent manager. "The Staff" the inspector wrote, "appear to be entirely out of hand, and the Traffic and Locomotive Departments have both apparently been left to run by themselves."

In 1936, the company owned 17 locomotives, 2 railcars, 52 coaches and 248 goods wagons.

Fossils

The American vertebrate paleontologist Walter Granger used the railway in April 1907 during his expedition, which was sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History in New York for transporting the fossils that he had found from Tamieh (Tamia) to Cairo.Walter Granger's 1907 Fayoum Expedition Diary. Part III.

Anthrosol

The railway tracks were probably also used by a company that harvested a rich anthrosol, locally called sibakh, which consists of decomposed organic debris, left by the ancient Egyptians. The workers, who dug pits for removing the soil, found well preserved papyri, which were sold to collectors and museums. This caused some interest by archeologists, who closed a deal with the Italian managers of the company that sold the compost, by which the team of the archeologists had to dig-out a sufficient amount of compost to keep the company and their rail vehicles busy, while they were searching for the papyri from 1928 to 1935.Jimmy Dunn: Karanis in the Fayoum of Egypt.

Takeover and continuing use

The majority of the shares in the Fayoum company (80%) was transferred in 1906 to the Anglo-Belgian Company of Egypt, which had been organized in the same year in London for this purpose. It also owned some properties in the centre of Cairo, for instance the garden of the Ghezireh Palace Hotel and the ground of the French Institute. Baron Georges de Reuter became the first president of the company. He was a relative of Baron Paul Julius von Reuter, the founder of the news agency Reuters Telegraphic Co.Gutoski: 44. Accessed 12 July 2010.

Joseph Kfoury, who owned and operated already some coach lines in the Fayoum province, acquired a significant part of the shares of the Fayoum Light Railways Company in 1939, and was nominated to be its manager. Its headquarters were located in the al-Immobilia building at this time.Ola R. Seif: Winter destination series 4: Fayoum, The City of the Crocodile. Accessed 11 February 2015.

Some of the stock exchange certificates were re-issued on 1 May 1944, which demonstrates that the company still existed during World War II,Historic stock exchange certificate of the Fayoum Light Railways Company issued on 1 October 1899 and rubber stamped on 1 May 1944. although no time tables for passenger transport had been issued since 1938. After the war, operations ceased, although the government's concession would have been valid for 70 years, i.e., up to 1972.

Lines and stations

130. FAYUM – GHARAQ

Fayum Shaikh Hassan Abgig Barmaki Massara Sawafna Difino Etsa Guaafra Miniet-el-Heit Shidmoh Abou Nour Danial Gharaq

131. MINIET-EL-HEID – SHAWASHNA

Miniet-el-Heit (see 130) Nawara Abou-Guandir El-Wanaissa Mokhtalata Abou-Hamach Nezlet-Balad Kasr-el-Guibali Gebel Saad Shawashna

132. FAYUM — AGAMIYNE/NEZLEH-WADI

Fayum (see 130) Shaikh Hassan (see 130) Soufi Abou Eche Omar Bey Aly Bey Manchat—Halfa Hereit Georges Eid a Guaradu Tobhar → Nezleh-Wadi a Agamiyne (branch) Agamiine Abou-Hanach

133. FAYUM — QALAMSHA

Fayum (see 130) Sheikh Hassan (see 128) Maghraby → Deir-el-Azzab (branch) Azab Ezbet Qalamsha Ezbet Mattar QalamshaJim Fergusson: Railway stations lists.

134. FAYUM — LAHUN

Fayum (see 130) Quhafa Guinedi Rushdi Khaled Bey Hawara Bahr-Seila Dimishkine (Minshat Kamal) Bash-Kateb Lahun

135. FAYUM — RODAH

Fayum (see 130) Massloub Edwa Mittertaris (Matar Taris) Ekhssas Massaret-Douda Kafr Mahfouz Tamieh (terminus) Rodah (via 137)

136. MASSARET-DOUDA — SENNORES

Massaret-Douda (see 135) Guabala Sennorés

137. MITTERTARIS — RODAH

Mittertaris (see 135) Kafr-Koleib Sersina Forkos Rodah (see 135)

References

External links Railway Stations List