The longest Train in the world

There is only one railway line in Mauritania. Opened in 1963, it consists of a single, 704-kilometre railway, single track standard gauge line linking the iron mining centre of Zouerate with the port of Nouadhibou, via Fderik and Choum. The mining company SNIM controls the railway line. Trains on the railway are up to 2.5 to3 kilometers in length and are longest and heaviest in the world. They carry about 240 cars each carrying up to 84 tons of iron ore. This is the symbol of Mauritanian pride and its picture is on every currency note of Mauritania. (In above photo -Train about 50 Kms from Nouadhibou) In the photo bellow the now abandoned Choum tunnel. You can see the beautiful granite plateau underneath which it was cut.

(In this phot - Train approaching Nouadhibou at he cape Blac Peninsula) Few passenger cars are sometimes attached, but more often passengers simply ride atop the ore hopper cars. And it is free. But it is interesting to take a look at the passenger cars as well. They are not actually like train bogies, but more like containers put on container rakes. As you can see in the photos they are individual containers. I have given photo of both the first class which has A/C and second class. As you see it looks more like as if you are in the cabin of a ship then train.
This National Train of Mauritania has anther distinction – It passes though another country as well and that in Western Sahara. In the early 1960s the French colonial authorities in Mauritania wished to build the line from Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron ore reserves at Zouérat. The Spanish authorities then responsible for the Western Sahara negotiated to allow the railway to be built through Spanish territory over relatively level desert but imposed conditions unacceptable to the French. The French engineers therefore built the line parallel with the border and tunneled through the Choum hillspur - two kilometres through solid granite just to stay within French territory. The tunnel has been called a "monument to European stupidity in Africa", because of the difficulty and expense in building it. The absurdity was highlighted when the southern part of the territory of Western Sahara was occupied by Mauritania after the Spanish withdrew in 1975-6. The tunnel is no longer in use and a 5 km section of the railway cuts right through the Polisario Front controlled part of the Western Sahara. I have given a photo of that tunnel. During the Western Sahara War the Gorilla fighters of Polisario raided this train several times, thus disrupting the export of iron ore. The most important source of revenue for the country. Thus Mauritania left all claims on western Sahara and ended war with Polisario fighter and only retained two West Saharan territories. One in Choum were this train is passes thought 5 kms of Western Saharan Territory and other is the town of La Güera in the Cap Blanc, peninsula.

This is the only road crossing of this train that comes when we enter Nouadhibou - and as you see ITS UNMANNED. There is hardly any traffic on this impotent highway which connects together the largest and second largest cities of Mauritania and also goes further to connect Morocco. Also the people in Mauritania are very disciplined. They follow rules. They are not forced to follow it. I have seen that on all the police check posts in the country. Non had any kind of barricade or speed breaker. When people see the sign to stop they always stop.

There are a few Passenger coaches also in this train. They are not like conventional bogies, but basically containers put on a rack.

 As you can see in this photo. The passenger wagons are in reality containers, which are modeled to carry passengers loaded on container carrying carts and not real train bogies

Women looking out of her passenger container

This is inside of a first class container. It has A/C. It looks so much like a ship cabin

And this is second class container. We have some French ladies traveling today.

This is how a first class wagon looks like. Basically a container put on a rack. This is actually a good idea. This allows the company to remove passenger wagons and puts good containers on the racks or vice versa as need arises.