Don’t Miss The Fine Pink Steam Engine…

James Waite explores the railway relics of Northern Cyprus

“Don’t miss the fine pink steam engine” said the guide book to Northern Cyprus, adding that the engine in question, preserved at Guzelyurt in the north west of the island, was the only surviving relic of the railways of Cyprus.  This didn’t look too promising for a rail fan on holiday but how wrong it proved to be!

The Turkish Cypriots are amongst the most hospitable people one could ever wish to meet. 

During the course of our holiday our new found friend Ercan took us on a tour of the island.  By late afternoon we had reached Famagusta on the east coast of the island.  Famagusta is famed for its massive city walls and fortifications built by the Venetians in the fifteenth century, its Gothic cathedral dating from two hundred years earlier when the French had control of the island and the remains of the Roman city of Salamis on its outskirts. 

We were looking forward to visiting the city, but instead of heading for the obvious tourist sites we were taken first through what seemed like a maze of back streets until a small green steam tank engine standing on a plinth came into view.  Plainly Ercan had been told that he had a rail fan on board! 

The engine turned out to be 0-6-0T no. 1 of the Cyprus Government Railway, acquired from Hunslet Engine Works in Leeds in 1904 (works number 846), to assist in the construction of the line. 

The 2’6’’ gauge Cyprus Government Railway, the first railway on the island, was built by the British colonial authorities and opened on 21st October 1905 between Nicosia, the capital, and Famagusta where a large port was being constructed and where the railway’s works and headquarters were established.  An extension westwards across the Mesoaria plain to Guzelyurt opened on 31st March 1907. 

A final extension westwards to Pendayia and then southwards up the Solea valley through the foothills of the Troodos mountains to Evrykhou opened on 14th June 1915 making a total route length of 76 miles.  The following year, on 10th March 1916, the Cyprus Mines Corporation, an American concern, was formed with a view to reopening the old copper mine at Skouriotissa, close to the new line not far short of Evrykhou.