Distance: 40km
Time: 90 min.
Windows: no
Sandblasting desert winds: yes
Scenery: lush

Egypt is a land of contrasts: harsh desert and lush greenery, fabulous wealth and destitute poverty, ancient Pyramids and modern Children's cancer hospitals. It is also a country rich in character, which pervades everything, yet is impossible to quantify. And, in some small way, this train trip from El Wasta to El Fayoum seems to capture both of these things.
Click any picture to see a large version.

Mural on the train station wall in El Fayoum

The old-fashioned mechanical ticket machine -- no computer-printed tickets on this trip. The one-way fare is 1.25 LE (about 23¢);

Locomotive. The same train goes back and forth on the track, so this is the locomotive switching ends after the incoming journey.

Another shot of the locomotive and the switching yards in the station.

Interior shot of the train.

Ancient (out of use?) train in the railyards just out of the station.

Man walking alongside the train at the end of the railyards.

Village scene literally right beside the tracks. When the train stopped in stations, chickens would sometimes run under the train cars.

Lush farmland, supplied by canals, which are filled by…

…waterwheels, for which El Fayoum is famous.

Breathtakingly out-of-place "river valley", literally across the train tracks from…

…desert

Egyptian Railways' maintenance operations and railyards centre, in the desert just west of the Nile Valley.

Fellow passengers on the journey.

Moon rising over the city of El Wasta as the train pulls in.