Reference Sources for Egyptian Railways

THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST

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Reference Sources for Egyptian Railways

This page is to assist in research on Egyptian Railways. Please also reference our Nigerian page for further ideas.

Firstly, a word of warning, there has been a spate in recent years of people finding books that are out of copyright, OCR’ing them and offering the copies for sale. Admittedly they do warn that the copies may not be perfect. The Trust brought a copy of a French book on African Colonial Railways that is extremely rare but found that no more than 25% of the pages were legible.

Egypt has no overall detailed history of its railways.

On this page, the term Egyptian Railways as an overarching cover for the current Egyptian Railways, and its various constituents.

Some of the titles below are available in the British Library and can be found by searching their catalogue.

Journal articles listed should be available through JSTOR or appropriate online sources.

In producing these research files use has been made of the following reference source: TRANSPORT RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY, Gordon Pirie, African Centre for Cities University of Cape Town December 2018, however much additional material has been added.

There is a railway museum in Cairo next to Rameses Station. It was opened in 1933 to coincide with the international Railway Congress being held in Cairo.

Egyptian Railway Specific Books and Articles

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Town	Remarks
Abdel-Mawla, H. A	The Role of Light Railway in Sugarcane Transport in Egypt	2012	INTECH Open Access Publisher
Abdel-Mawla, HA	Efficiency of mechanical cane loading in Egypt	2010	Sugar Tech : An International Journal of Sugar Crops and Related Industries, v12 n2 (201006): 108-114, 12(2), 108-114
Adams, WB	The construction and duration of the permanent way of railways in Europe, and the modifications most suitable to Egypt, India, &c.	1854	Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers
Ahrons, EL	The Egyptian Governments Railways and Locomotives	1903, June	Locomotive Magazine
Ahrons, EL	Locomotives of the Egyptian State Railways	1917	Locomotive Magazine
Ahrons, EL	The Utilisation of Waste Heat in Locomotives, Threvithick's System	1913	Locomotive Magazine
Ahrons, EL	Thirty Years of Locomotive Progress in Egypt	1914, November 27	The Engineer
Aickin, FW	Desert railway : an unofficial story of the railway operations in the Western Desert of Egypt from 1940 to 1943 and in particular the part taken by the 16th NZ Railway Operating Company in the desert campaigns	1998	D.M. Steedman	Wellington, N.Z.
Alexander, C, & Siton, A	Railways of the Middle East: The British Influence	2020	Amberley Publishing	Amberley
al-Misriyah, S. H.-H.	Winter in Egypt : illustrated guide of the Egyptian State Railways	1919	Egyptian State Railways	Cairo
Anon	Arab Republic of Egypt Railways Museum Catalogue	1979	Egyptian Railways Museum	Cairo
Anon	Diesel Traction Development in Egypt	1960	Diesel Railway Traction
Anon	Egypt: history and geography, the British Occupation and the Treaty of 1936, railways, air routes and the country	1946	George Gill and Sons	London
Anon	Report on the Egyptian State Railways & Telegraphs and Light Railways of Egypt	1883
Anon	The construction, development and organization of the Egyptian state railways, telegraphs and telephones systems	1932	Egyptian State Railways	Cairo
Anon	The Egyptian Railway Or, the Interest of England in Egypt	1852	Hope and Co.	London
Ayrton, F	Railways in Egypt: Communication with India	1857	Ridgway	London
Beinin, J, & Lockman, Z	Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954	1987	Princeton University Press	Princeton
Blanchard, G	La théorie de l'acte de souverainté et de l'acte d'administration en droit mixte égyptien À propos du procès entre le gouvernement égyptien et la société "The Cairo electric railway and Heliopolis oases company	1913	A. Pedone	Paris
Brand, ED	Railways of North Africa	1971	David and Charles	Newton Abbott
Cody, J	New Zealand Engineers, Middle East [Series Title: Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45]	1961	War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs.	Wellington
Day, JR	Railways of Northern Africa	1964	Arthur Baker Ltd.	London
Egyptian State Railways	Egypt and How to See it 1910-1911	1911	Ballantyne and Co.	London
Egyptian State Railways	Summer in Egypt: Illustrated Guide of the Egyptian State Railways	1912	Egyptian State Railways	Cairo
Egyptian State Railways	Egypt and How to See it 1910-1911	1910	Platt and Peck Co.	New York
Ettouney, OM	Railways Along the Nile and the Renaissance of Modern Egypt (1798-1879	2014	CreateSpace ISBN: 1500901822 Project: History of Railways in Egypt in the 1800s
Ettouney, OM	Railways along the Nile: The Early Years, 1851-1879	2010	Railroad History , SPRING-SUMMER 2010, No. 202 (SPRING-SUMMER 2010), pp. 60-69, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society
Goldfinch, G	Steel in the Sand - The History of Egypt and its Railways	2003	Finial Publishing	Swanage
Hennessey, R	Atlantic: The Well Beloved Engine	2002	Tempus	United Kingdom
Hughes, H	Middle East Railways	1981	Continental Railway Circle	Harrow
Inter City Railway Society	North Africa : locomotives, diesel & electric multiple units of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Morocco & Tunisia	2009	HB Publications	Hartlepool
Judd, B	The Desert Railway : the New Zealand Railway Group in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War	2004	Penguin	Auckland
Karabell, Z	Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal	2003	Alfred A. Knopf	New York
Key, A	Egypt. A Few Suggestions on the Formation of Railways in that Country	1850
Khairallah, S	Railways In The Middle East 1856-1948. Political and Economic Background	1991	Librairie Du Liban	Beirut
Kinross, JB	Between Two Seas: The Creation of the Suez Canal	1968	John Murray	London
Mackintosh, H	Middle East Movers: Royal Engineer Transportation in the Suez Canal Zone 1947-1956	2000	North Kent Books	Rochester
McBean, S	England, Palestine, Egypt and India, Connected by a Railway System: Popularly Explained, with a Map	1876	Wm H Allen & Co.	London
Misr., H. a.-A.-S	EGYPTIAN RAILWAYS IN 125 YEARS 1852-1977	1977	Egyptian Railway Authority	Cairo
Oman, DAA	Anglo-Egyptian Relations and the Construction of the Alexandria-Cairo-Suez Railway, 1833-1858	1966	PhD, University of London.	London
RCTS	Standard gauge Locomotives of Egyptian State Railways and Palestine Railways	1946	RCTS	London
Sandes, EWC Lt.-Col. R.E.	The Royal Engineers in Egypt and the Sudan	1937	The Institution of Royal Engineers	Chatham
Shimmin, AD	Locomotives of Egypt	2021	Mainline and Maritime	Upper Seagry
Smith, P	The Travelling Post offices of Egypt	1983	Mobile Post Office Society	USA
Tourret, R	Allied Military Locomotives of the Second World War	1995	Tourret Publishing	Abingdon
Wallace, WM	Report of the Railway Operations in Egypt During August and September 1882	1882	Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, pp. 79-99	Chatham
Waters, PE, & Rainbow, JJ	British Military Railways in Egypt, Palestine and Syria in the Great War	2019	BORHT	Greenwich
Waters, PE, & Rainbow, JJ	British Military Railways Overseas in the Great War	2018	BORHT	Greenwich
Weiner, L	L'Egypte et ses Chemins de Fer	1932	International Railway Congress	Bruxelles
Weinthal, Leo, ed.	The Story of the Cape-to-Cairo Railway and River Route, 1887-1922	1923	Pioneer Publishing	London	4 volumes and a map set
Williams, A	African Steam Safari: Luxor to Sir Lowry's Pass	2020	Association of Railway Enthusiasts (ARE)	Australia
Williams, F	Our Iron Roads	1885	Bemrose and Sons	London
Youssef, M	Optimal Utilization of Cairo Regional Underground Railway lines	2017	Noor Publishing	Cairo

Books or Journal Articles on African Railways that will Mention Egypt

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Town	Remarks
Anon	Notes on Railway Construction	1912/13	Journal of the Royal African Society, 12 (47), 290-295
Anon	Railways and Harbours in Tropical Africa	1941	Royal Engineers Journal, 55, 341-349		This article contains the only detailed account of the Royal Engineers building the Baro-Kano railway seen.
Baltzer, Franz	Die Kolonialbahnen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas [The Colonial Railways with particular reference to Africa].	1916	Berlin, Leipzig, Göschen: (Reprint: Leipzig 2007: Holzminden Reprint-Verl.). ISBN 9783826202339	Berlin	(in German)
Carter, Reg	Kitson Works List	1997	Private	Kingston-upon-Thames
Darwin, Major	Railways in Africa	1896	Geographical Journal 8: p488-501	London	Darwin, L (1897). Railways in Africa. Transactions of the Liverpool Geographical Society, 17-35.
de Renty, Ernest Amédée	Les Chemins de Fer Coloniaux en Afrique	1903	De Rudeval	Paris	Pt 1 is German, Italian and Portuguese Colonies, Pt 2 the British Colonies and Pt 3 the French Colonies
Due, John F	The Problems of Rail Transport in Tropical Africa	1979	The Journal of Developing Areas Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jul., 1979), pp. 375-393 Published by: College of Business, Tennessee State University	Nashville
Durrant, AE; Jorgensen, AA; Lewis, CP	Steam in Africa	1981	Hamlyn	London
Metcalfe, Charles	Railway Development of Africa, Present and Future	1916	The Geographical Journal Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan., 1916), pp. 3-17 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)	London
Orr, CWJ	Light Railways for Tropical Africa	1911	Journal of the Royal African Society Vol. 10, No. 38 (Jan., 1911), pp. 179-190 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society	Oxford
Palterman, Jonathan	African Railway Album, Vol 1	2006
Wiener, Lionel	Les Chemins de fer coloniaux de l'Afrique	1930	Goemaere	Brussels

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