Heritage route
Lézard Rouge
Metlaoui → Selja Gorges · Tunisia
The Bey of Tunis’s 1910 saloon cars, freshly restored: creeping into the Selja gorge’s ochre cliffs, photo stops included, in phosphate country.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 6776536 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: SNCFT — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Lézard Rouge?
The Lézard Rouge runs 43 km from Metlaoui to Selja Gorges.
How long does the Lézard Rouge take?
Over the 43 km, the fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 1 h 45 min (round trip). The line's top service speed is 30 km/h.
Who runs the Lézard Rouge?
SNCFT, with restored beylical saloons (1910).
How old is the Lézard Rouge?
The line has been in service since 1910. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More heritage routes
- Durango & Silverton
1882 gold-rush narrow gauge: steam-hauled ever since, on the Highline ledge blasted 120 m above the Animas River gorge.
Wikipedia ↗ - La Trochita
Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express: 750 mm gauge, 1922 steam locomotives and wood-stove-heated wooden coaches across the steppe.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sagano Scenic Railway
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids: twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Gunma
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends: steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
More train routes in Tunisia.