Don’t Miss The Fine Pink Steam Engine…

"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 mine had first been worked in biblical times but had lain dormant for very many years, probably ever since the collapse of the Roman Empire.  Initially it was intended that the copper ore would be taken by rail to Famagusta for export but it seems there were doubts about the capacity of the railway to handle the amount of traffic anticipated, up to twenty trains a day.  Eventually the mine company built its own 2’6’’ gauge line parallel with the government railway from Skouriotissa northwards as far as Penayia, on Guzeluurt Bay, where a new port was established.  Although their line was built, paid for and operated by the mine company using their own locos the colonial authorities cannily negotiated an arrangement under which it was treated nominally as a part of the government railway and a toll was charged on all traffic passing over it! 

In the 1920’s, as production began to build up at the mine, the port at Penayia proved to be inadequate.  A new port was built at Xeros, about one mile further west, and the mine company’s railway was diverted there.  At about the same time a new mine was opened at Mavrovouni, about three miles inland from Xeros, and a new line built to serve it.  As the operation grew an enormous yard was developed at Xeros where the trains were unloaded and the ore was processed and prepared for shipping.  The company’s offices and a loco depot were also built there.

The government railway began to struggle in the 1920’s.  The section west of Nicosia closed to all traffic in 1926 but was later reopened as far as the mine for freight trains only.  The advent of a series of petrol railcars and energetic management helped the passenger service between Nicosia and Famagusta to survive but eventually the railway closed to all traffic on 31st December 1951.  By the spring of 1952 it had been dismantled.

No. 1 spent most of its career pottering around Famagusta.  The colonial authorities must have taken it to their hearts as it was restored and set up on its plinth outside Famagusta station soon after the closure.  Along with the engine the station building also survives almost unaltered, now in use as government offices, and in the undergrowth behind it the loco works still stand close to the old city walls.  No. 1 was followed by a series of locos from Nasmyth Wilson built between 1904 and 1911, two 4-4-0’s, three 2-6-0’s and two 2-6-2T’s.  Finally four much larger 4-8-4T’s were supplied by Kitson in 1915 which were originally intended to work the new, steeply graded, section to Evrykhou.  All were scrapped soon after the closure.

The mines company, meanwhile, went from strength to strength.  They acquired four steam locos from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the U.S.A. between 1921 and 1927 and a fifth from Orenstein & Koppel of Berlin in 1937.  They also acquired at least eight petrol engined shunters from Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barr, U.S.A., between 1923 and 1948 and a series of diesel locos from 1939 onwards.  The last two steam locos, no. 3 (Baldwin 2-8-2ST no. 57790 of 1924) and no. 4 (Baldwin 0-8-2T no. 60344 of 1927) were retired in about 1960 and placed in open store in the yard at Xeros. 

The Cyprus war of 1974 spelt the end of the mine company.  The Atilla line, the border between the Greek and Turkish parts of the island, runs immediately to the north of Skouriotissa and cut off the mine from the port at Xeros.  The later mine at Mavrovouni and the railway leading to it lay entirely north of the border but by the early 1980’s all mining activities had ceased and the railways were closed.