Morocco

[47164]

Did a day trip from Spain to Morocco yesterday,and yes the trains and due to open next month tgv are essentially an extension of sncf , but the contrast of some locals still on donkeys and horses and carts only 20 miles outside tangiers is mind boggling, I guess only India is similar! And maybe rural China.

[Andy Hayter]

I think you will find a lot of the world - judged by land area - is like that.

 

Most of Asia outside major cities

Almost all of Africa

A lot of Central and especially Southern America

Still bits of Europe - parts of - Albania, former Yugoslavia, Romania, European Turkey, rural Russia and former states and Bulgaria. 

Large tracts of Canada and probably bit of the Mid-West USA.

[Allegheny1600]

As a child, I travelled to Morocco every winter between 1971 and 1982. My dad bought secondhand old vans (a Commer and a Leyland FG) and converted them into "camper vans".

We would set off every September/October and drive down through France and Spain, rarely exceeding 30Mph and doing no more than 100 miles per day. Once or twice, we only went to Portugal rather than Morocco and once, we went to Greece instead!

I think the journey would take "about" two months, I do recall having Christmas in Marrakech, at least a couple of times.

In those days, there was only railway from Tangiers in the north, down to Fes then across to Rabat & Casablanca and maybe Essaouira and a branch to Marrakech. There was also a dormant (due to war) branch to the Algerian border and a possibly independent mineral line for Phosphates, I believe this was an important line. There were long standing plans to build lines down to Agadir and beyond but I rather suspect energies have been spent on building the first high speed line in Africa instead.

The lines around Casablanca were electrified and quite busy with commuter traffic. Other lines saw maybe one train a day.

The rolling stock that I saw was mainly French or US built, I clearly remember the 'nes casse' type of diesels similar to the French CC72000's and large EMD type hood diesels. I think the latter were usually green but the big French Co-Co's were a very colourful beige with purple/orange highlights.

Somewhere, I have a very poor photograph (taken by my mum for me!) of one of these but its very blurry.

Most of the time, we spent down beyond Agadir, sometimes exploring into the Sahara desert proper or going down to the former border with the Spanish Sahara (Tan Tan?) as it was then, "disputed territory" now!).

I was much too young to be allowed to go off on my own or even to ride the trains, plus they were too far away but I do remember the Railways of Morocco with fondness. I even tried to get a family friend interested in railways by reading to him from my "Observers Book of British Steam Locomotives" - he was probably just being polite when he seemed interested!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

John.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Allegheny1600
Spelling!

[Fat Controller]

I've not had a chance to travel by rail in Morroco, but have been keeping an eye on things there (I have several Morrocan colleagues who occasionally give me gen.) They've acquired some new EMU stock, alongside some TGVs; these have included ex SNCF CC72000s,  and a small fleet of BB36000 multi-current electrics (they bought some of these new, then got more from SNCF). This may be of interest, given the usual caveat:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONCF

The phosphate railway doesn't belong to ONCF; I believe their locos may be Japanese.