Egypt, one of a kind country in the world. It is rationale to explore this one of the most important places for railway history, in person. I made myself to Cairo during Ramadan in 2023, and immediately dived into its lavish culture with no hesitating.
To me it is nearly impossible to withdraw from drinking water during entire day time, but I made it happened even though spring time here in Cairo is notably dry and hot. I now fully understand building railway here back then is no doubt a deadly job. After sunset, I had this spectacular dinner here and myself went to kitchen to cook with the chef at Ritz-Carlton (Yes, I am also a chef). Wonderful time.
Okay, now is time to figure out how to do research on railway in Egypt. This is not a very friendly country if you look at things that more than just the Pyramid. At this moment, I have two Egyptian model projects in my mind, the USATC S100 and GE C18-7i. First let’s find out where is the last S100 in the country. I went to media city that is about 30-40 minutes away from the hotel. The security guard made it impossible to access but a friend of mine works in the TV industry here and helped me out with some very helpful pictures of the S100 locomotive. Done, the first mission is accomplished.
The second one, GE C18-7i, this one is undoable, for the most people, especially from outside the country. First of the first, I drove to the Cairo station, a beautifully crafted railway station with numbers of Egyptian trademark decorations.
There is an issue, that authority does not allow visitors (yes, foreigners, in other words) to take photos on trains. I went to over hundred of countries, here and Morocco are only two countries I can not take pictures for trains freely. Since there are very limited information for GE C18-7i on the internet and to make a very fine brass model we need more detail photos on this locomotive. So, the old-school way, Franklin, or the green bills, worked everything out. Me, feel like staying in a strip club, only bills are not going to ladies this time but man with guns.
Right after this, I sent everything to the builder so there is no risk that my photos being checked by another authority and get deleted. Like most people said, here is ridicules in many ways. However, to me, this is the fun part of my global expedition. Because of those hard works, we today have two impressively hand made Egyptian brass locomotive models.
The last night in Cairo, I went to a floating restaurant that is facing to my hotel. Just US$30 would give you a memorable dinner here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading here and if you had chance to put hands on one of our Egyptian models. you would know it is not just a nicely built model, but a witness for this exciting adventure.
