What more to expect on the last day of this successful trip? Not expecting much more, we wanted to check out what the Sidi Kacem region had to offer, before heading to the airport. This time, it was Eurorailer and his sharp eye announcing “something green” when passing the station of Sidi Mbarek Rdom. Turns out nez cassé 1302 had broken down and needed to … Continue reading Morocco day 7: tastes like more
The last full day in Morocco! We started in Nador, where we ended up last night in our search for a hotel. The hotel was good so we started the day all refreshed. This line was our last hope to see a DF 100 locomotive in action. Somewhere we had read that these locomotives run freight trains here. Well, all we got to see was … Continue reading Morocco day 6: on the lookout for DF100’s
After a refreshing night in Fès – I love riads – we left for a full ay along the diesel line bewteen Fès and Taourirt. Weather was looking great and we headed straight to the region where we left the day before: the barrage Idriss 1ier. The chosen photo location was top class. Blue lake, hills, and underneath the recent bridge you can see the … Continue reading Morocco day 5: sunny day on the diesel line
We took our time to enjoy breakfast, and the stunning view over Meknes from the rooftop terrace of our riad. Today we would move east, following the electrified line to Fès, to continue on the diesel line to Oujda and Taourirt. On this diesel line, we would have most chance to maybe still catch a DF diesel loco. Judging the satellite images, the section between … Continue reading Morocco day 4: from electric to diesel trains
Day 3 in this country that we were getting to know and appreciate better every day. We spent the night in Settat, in a hotel that we will remember for a long time. We got to sleep, that’s what counts. At the beginning of the vacation we had still hope to see a French Astride locomotive. After 2 days and some calculated guessing, we realized … Continue reading Morocco day 3: from phosphate to passenger trains
We spent the night at a more than decent hotel in Khouribga. Lots of choice there, as it is a mining city and most likely seeing a lot of business travellers. We didn’t sleep in though: it was still cool in the morning, the sun was out and based on the previous day we expected quite some train traffic. We made the first pictures at … Continue reading Morocco day 2: one day on the phosphate line
In May 2017, 2 friends and I made a trip to Morocco. Why Morocco? First reason were the phosphate trains between the mines around Khouribga and the Atlantic ports. Second reason were the BB72000 diesel locomotives that were running their last kilometers. We were also silently hoping to still catch some of the Astride locomotives that AKIEM rented out to ONCF for some time. Last … Continue reading First time in Morocco
Railscapes 