Eritrea Railway Model

Following Santa’s train set this Christmas I have decided to build a proper layout.

For first my first attempt at a layout I decided to satisfy several interests and combine few skills. My minimum requirements were: Steam locomotives, Art Deco architecture, scenery combining hills and water, historically interesting, cable car, limited space, unique layout and present a research challenge.

Two scenarios satisfied these conditions;

1. Rosh HaNikra in Israel (my original homeland, on the Haifa, Beirut, Tripoli (HBT) train line and home to the steepest cable car, albeit on two different eras).

2. Eritrea Railway in the late 30s.

The HBT line was easier to model as the locos are available off the shelf, the architecture is limited and a realistic model would be too big. The Eritrea model is more esoteric, could not find locos, the history is very interesting and the line is still active with steam trains today.

So the decision was made to go with the Eritrea model, knowing full well the locos will have to be built/kit bashed and research will be difficult. The aim is to model as much as possible the Asmara to Massawa line when it was built under Italian Eritrea omitting any Fascist symbols, concentrating on architectures, period vehicles and the African context.

As space is limited I have to be selective and creative in my representations. Based on the limited resources the aim is to represent the following:

1.      Asmara loco shed

2.      Asmara city

3.      Viaduct Asmara-Massawa line

4.      Asmara-Massawa cableway

5.      Massawa docs and some city architecture

6.      Locos; Breda 0-4-0  & Ansaldo 0-4-4-0 442 Mallet

7.      Fiat Littorina and unnamed (ex-Somalia) railcars

I have chosen 00 Gauge as I live in the UK, so locos and kits as donors for kit bashing are plentiful.