Syria 25.9.2008: The tour group returned to Dera'a from where their train was to descend into the incedible Yarmuk Gorge, on the former line to Haifa. However, Syrian Railways would permit the train to pentrate the Gorge only for a few kilometres, because of danger of rockfalls. 2-8-2 No. 262 (Hartmann 4031/1918) and a (supposedly!) repaired 2-8-0 No. 91 (Hartmann 3040/1907), were to be used together and they first hauled the train double-headed, but tender-first, to Muzereib, from where the line drops very steeply into the Gorge. We see the locos here at Muzereib, where 2-8-2 No. 262 went to the other end of the train so that she could lead on the return journey, with its heavy climb out of the Gorge.
Roger Griffiths; roger.griffiths@hotmail.com