MASIRAH STATE RAILWAY
The Masirah State Railway will be fondly remembered by many as a means of getting to the water sports club. However, it didn't work for many years and this page is a tribute to those that put in many hours, weeks and months putting it back into service.
There is a good history of Masirah on the UK MAMS website which gives a paragraph on the railway:"The 2ft guage railway had been built in 1943 as a joint British/American venture under the direction of a British engineer, primarily to carry stores and especially vast quantities of fuel in 33 gallon drums to the camp area. At the time of its building it was the only railway operating in the Arabian Peninsula, the old Mecca to Damascus railway never having recovered from the depredations of T E Lawrence and his raiders in the First World war. "
The header for this page is from the book by W.J.L.Corser. Still available from Amazon
MASIRAH STATE RAILWAY
UPDATE JANUARY 2023
I have known, for some time, that the railway has fallen into disrepair, to the point of extinction where very little evindence of it exists at all.
This was after a hurricane, in 1977, the railway fell out of use and the Royal Oman Air Force decided it was not viable to repair the track. In the harsh environment of the Middle East the track and sleepers quickly deteriorated.
One of the Ruston and Hornsby locomotives, YIMKIN, used on Masirah, once resided at the Aerospace Museum at RAF Cosford (now the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands). The Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society was restoring YIMKIN.
I enquired, on 18 January 2023, through the society Facebook page, and got a good update, and a couple of photographs which I am most grateful to Geoff Gauntlet of the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society for allowing me to publish on this website.
The engine was running, as recently as 2019, after a towing jump-start but didn't move under it's own steam due to gearbox problems.
I have requested a society update and hope to hear from Tim Ratcliffe.
Great update from Tim Ratcliffe (Society Officer - Museum Fleet I/C LocomotivesLeighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway as follows (edited a little);
"The locomotive was restored to working order in 2012, but has seen little use since then. 2019 might well have been the last time it was started, but for obvious reasons things have been difficult since then! As you've seen from the photos, (DJR N.B. Photographs below from Geoff Gauntlet) it is still stored in our workshop at Stonehenge Works at the 'country' end of the railway.
In 2021 the RAF Museum who were the original owners, donated the locomotive to the Society meaning it is one of three ex RAF Ruston & Hornsby locomotives we now have in our collection. There are more details in one of our recent Society magazines 'Chaloner' (issue No 185 - winter 2022)"
UPDATE JANUARY 2023
I have known, for some time, that the railway has fallen into disrepair, to the point of extinction where very little evindence of it exists at all.
This was after a hurricane, in 1977, the railway fell out of use and the Royal Oman Air Force decided it was not viable to repair the track. In the harsh environment of the Middle East the track and sleepers quickly deteriorated.
One of the Ruston and Hornsby locomotives, YIMKIN, used on Masirah, once resided at the Aerospace Museum at RAF Cosford (now the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands). The Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society was restoring YIMKIN.
I enquired, on 18 January 2023, through the society Facebook page, and got a good update, and a couple of photographs which I am most grateful to Geoff Gauntlet of the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society for allowing me to publish on this website.
The engine was running, as recently as 2019, after a towing jump-start but didn't move under it's own steam due to gearbox problems.
I have requested a society update and hope to hear from Tim Ratcliffe.
Great update from Tim Ratcliffe (Society Officer - Museum Fleet I/C LocomotivesLeighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway as follows (edited a little);
"The locomotive was restored to working order in 2012, but has seen little use since then. 2019 might well have been the last time it was started, but for obvious reasons things have been difficult since then! As you've seen from the photos, (DJR N.B. Photographs below from Geoff Gauntlet) it is still stored in our workshop at Stonehenge Works at the 'country' end of the railway.
In 2021 the RAF Museum who were the original owners, donated the locomotive to the Society meaning it is one of three ex RAF Ruston & Hornsby locomotives we now have in our collection. There are more details in one of our recent Society magazines 'Chaloner' (issue No 185 - winter 2022)"
Thank to Stephen Hull for sending this newspaper cutting in about the
Masirah State Railway in 1970.
A lot of the restoration work was carried during my tour in 1968-1969 but this had to be carried on and maintained during subsequent years. It is great to know this happened and this report gives an update after I'd left.
Must say, by the way, I didn't work on the railway in my time but I did use it to and from the water sports club.
I have split it to make it easier to read as the original had very small print.
Masirah State Railway in 1970.
A lot of the restoration work was carried during my tour in 1968-1969 but this had to be carried on and maintained during subsequent years. It is great to know this happened and this report gives an update after I'd left.
Must say, by the way, I didn't work on the railway in my time but I did use it to and from the water sports club.
I have split it to make it easier to read as the original had very small print.
Masirah State Railway photos from Trevor McMasters, 1969
Information from Dave Logan
Hi. I was one of the guys involved in the restoration of what we named "The Masirah State Railway" during the 1968/9 period. As most guys who were there know, there was not much to keep yourself amused on Masirah. So I suppose out of boredom, it was decided a project was needed and so the restoration work began. At the time there were two Rushton 0-4-0 diesel engines looking sad for themselves. We had them signed over to us by MPBW and got to work.
This involved two tasks, getting one of the engines going again and re-laying track from the camp (behind the MT hanger) to the jetty, with the intention of running a daily service after lunch, which was the time most guys finished work. Luckily MPBW also gave us a set of keys to one of the biscuit tin buildings which contained some spares and also sleepers, tracks, track joiners, nuts and bolts and other useful odds and sods.
For tools, well they were sort of "borrowed" from MT, also some were found with the spares. For diesel the CO came to the rescue, arranging with OC Supply to have a certain amount of fuel lost to spillage. Strangely enough it spilt into 45 gallon drums close to the engine. Getting the engine going was supported by DWS (Diplomatic Wireless Service) who were also based on the Island. Their engineers sorted out the injectors for us and helped fitting an electric starter/flywheel. At first we had to start the engine by large hand cranks.
The engine was very heavy due to it's exhaust system which caused derailment at times. As it had been used to move munitions from the jetty to the bomb dump, the exhaust was routed through heavy water tanks to ensure no sparks.
This was all stripped off leaving just an upright pipe. We converted three flatbed freight wagons to carry passengers by adding seating along both sides.
We were allowed to carry passengers free, we were not allowed to charge a small fare due to insurance liability (Nanny State even existed then). The intention was to build funds for further restoration The track was re-layed over the next months, sometimes pulling old track out of the sand with a Land Rover and sledge hammering it straight again, rebuilding bridges over culverts and flattening ground.
The engine was quite happy to pull but not so happy to push, which also occasionally resulted in derailments. This was solved by finding and reconditioning 4 sets of points. This allowed us to put a turning loop at either end so we could move the engine to the front of the train's direction of travel. The last bit of track we laid was from behind the MT hangar across the road to beside the biscuit tin building, our so called Engine Shed.
The work was carried out after lunch and you could always see the crew heading towards the engine carrying their Tea Urn full of cold water and that dubious squash we were issued with - "Use by Dates" how are you!!
I am not good at remembering names, however, I can remember one other Rail Nut, Pat Wire who also worked in ATC with me (Dave Logan). For info, I also helped out on Radio Masirah and stacking beer cans in the evening when we were not shouting out "Good Old Fred" at the cinema. (N.B. from DJR - The 'Fred' refers to Fred Quimby, the renowned animation artist)
We also ran a night service to the jetty during the turtle season so the guys could watch those magnificent creatures come up the beach to lay their eggs. As you can see the engine was in a sad state prior to restoration. You will also see the heavy water tank on the rear to supress the exhaust and counter ballance weights at the front that had to go to lighten the engine. You may also have spotted the High-Tech bell we mounted on the front of the engine which we had re-named Kingfisher - a colourful name considering the red led paint we applied.
((Update from Dave below the photographs, this was posted on the forum))
Many thanks to Dave Logan for these original photographs taken during the restoration of the railway 1968-69.
I have since confirmed that the Masirah State Railway’s Ruston Engine was sent back to the UK when RAF Masirah closed. It is now under the care of the RAF Museum at Hendon and their literature currently states, “The Royal Air Forces' connection with railways is not just confined to locomotive nameplates. It once operated extensive narrow and standard gauge railway systems. The Royal Air Force Museum's collection reflects this long-standing connection and includes a Ruston and Hornsby built 48DL two foot gauge diesel 'Yimkin' from the Gulf staging post at Royal Air Force Masirah (on loan to the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society since 1987)”. It’s nice to know our work in the 1968/9 lives on although renamed Yimkin from its former name Kingfisher.
Oct 22 2012 12 4:47 PM
I have recently contacted the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society to find out the current status of the Masirah engine and have received a reply from Tim Ratcliffe.
Tim is their society officer for what is known as the ‘Museum’ fleet of diesel and petrol locomotives. Essentially this means any loco not fitted with air brakes and used for our passenger services. Yimkin has been in his care for many years and that they have recently returned the engine to a working condition.
The locomotive was first run at Leighton Buzzard back in 1994, however very shortly afterwards it suffered a severe gearbox failure which put it out of action. Two of the concentric shafts for each of the speeds managed to get jammed together with debris. It was as if the loco was trying to run in 2nd and 3rd gear at the same time. The gearbox was rebuilt but other projects and priorities over the years meant that Yimkin was never completed. Tim wanted to put that right this year and his deadline was their recent gala event at the end of September 2012. It took a lot of effort, but by mid afternoon the engine was tow started and fired up on the first attempt in 18 years.
There is still quite a bit of work to finish it off. At the stage when the photo below was taken the loco had no brakes and could only be driven slowly and on level track. One of the 4 injectors didn’t appear to be working properly and will need removal and inspection. The paintwork (RAF ground equipment blue you will note) also needs to be completed. Despite these problems the engine seems to run well and Tim is confident for the future.
One of their members (Pete Wilson) was based at Masirah in the early 1970’s and features in photos in the book published on the railway. Pete helped in the initial restoration and has promised Tim he will come up again and repaint the turtle station emblem on the bodywork as he did originally
Tim has invited me to visit the railway’s ‘Stonehenge Works’ at the end of the line to have a look at their progress.
Update from me, Dave Rose, but can't remember where I got this photograph from but possibly from Hamdi bin Humaid bin Ali Al Wahaibi, a resident of Masirah who I am in touch with.
I'm afraid this is what it looks like now, after the RAF pulled out the railway fell into disrepair after the track was damaged by a hurricane in 1977. It was left to rot. Doesn't take long in that environment.
Photograph from the Masirah Water Sports Club facebook page.
Terry Bate - C.O. 1954-55
Terry has some amazing photographs in the general gallery but some are of the railway when it was used to transport the new distillation plant parts to the site where it was to be built.
Caption in the colour photograph is interesting :-)
Brian King - 1958
Brian sent this photo in of the railway being used to transport the oil drums of fuel from the jetty.
In the set below, from Dave Logan, there is another photo from 1958/59 - The colour scheme of the engine at that time may be of interest. Also is that the engine's name plate on the front - SALLY??
In the set below, from Dave Logan, there is another photo from 1958/59 - The colour scheme of the engine at that time may be of interest. Also is that the engine's name plate on the front - SALLY??