PRESENTATION at Beit clip-clopped round the entire perimeter of the moshav their Mediterranean ports, resulting in a lack of le'an Station - the old in the quiet afternoon hours so that everyone would maintenance, supplies and coal, which were need- Hedjaz train and the newly see and hear its arrival. The Russian grandmother was ed to keep the railway in operation. Wood was used -P renovated Emek line. an obsessive housecleaner, but eventually locked the instead of coal, which accounts for some of the de יזרעאל vacuum cleaner away when she discovered that all the nuding of the forests of Palestine in the early years of dirt it removed was actually still inside its cylinder. No- the 20th century. By 1918, the British controlled the body knew how to empty it. entire Emek railway. In 2005, the old German-style buildings at Kfar However, the Hejaz railway was vital for Jewish Yehoshua were restored, old railway carriages placed settlement during those pre-independence years. It on the original lines and a museum created within the helped the transportation of construction materials framework of the Society for Preservation of Israel Her- to build communal villages and immensely increased itage Sites. the population in these remote northern areas. With Rachel Harris, head guide, was born and bred in Kfar the benefits were also hazards and the railway became Yehoshua, and in the film shown at the museum, it is a target for robberies and terrorism. obvious that the Valley railway was the main attrac- Immediately after World War II, however, it was the tion in this little village, with adults and children alike Jewish resistance movements that, in their attempts to thronging around the station when a train was due. weaken the British Mandate, ambushed and destroyed standard, plus the complete overhaul of the rolling In contrast, my 6-km. drive over to Elroi station near much of the Valley railway, leaving only the Jezreel stock to fit the modern lines, postponed the project Tivon brought me to a small site that was restored Valley section, cut off from extensions to the east and for another 50 years. thanks to the passion of the veterans of Elroi, whose the south. life also centered around the comings and goings of Upon independence, that railway system was tak- IN ENJOYING the comfort and speed of the renewed the train, Kurdistan immigrants who themselves had en over by Israel Railways, and the Emek line was dis- Emek line, one cannot forget the history that covers built and maintained that part of the Hejaz railway. continued because of the cost of modernization and more than 100 years of Jewish settlement and pioneer- At the station - without a platform and looking like maintenance. ing in that region. nothing more than a stop surrounded by fields -1 was Therefore, it was with great celebration that some In my journey to follow the historical route of the greeted by Nahum Levy and Nathan Ben-Haim, both train-enthusiast friends and I took one of the first of Valley railway, 1 found, sadly, that I couldn’t do it by of whom were born and raised in Elroi. These and oth- the new modern Emek line trains nearly two years train on the newly renovated line, because the origi- er veterans formed a nonprofit and raised funds to re- ago. We arrived in Beit She'an station, a spotlessly nal stations either do not have stopping trains or, with store this station and bring in rolling stock dating back clean spacious building, the only one remaining on the exception of Beit She’an, are located some distance to the early 1900s. the site of the original. My late husband, severely dis- from the modern buildings. Although they usually receive groups only by ap- abled by then, received the best of help and courtesy The original starting point was what is now called pointment, my guides opened one of the carriages in getting on and off the train and through the sta- Haifa East. A beautiful old Ottoman building still to show me a film from the archives about the peo- tion to a nearby taxi. stands, and trains run through on the lines that divide pie who built and maintained the railway and sta- Some of our friends went on a return visit to the the site of the Israel Railway Museum, where there is a tion at Elroi, and how it became the focal point of archeological site, while the rest of us went to the new, wonderful collection of old carriages and engines and this tiny village. beautiful eucalyptus park in the center of the town, artifacts with a lot of material connected to the Hejaz The small waiting room had been restored, showing an oasis of wooded picnic areas and a huge children's railway. Trains do not stop at Haifa East unless arrange- timetables illustrating the infrequency and slow prog- playground, which in the summer is drenched with an ments are made with visiting groups. Chen Melling, ress of these trains. When they repainted the outside illuminated fountain. the curator, welcomes visitors and, while still young, walls, they did not conceal the names and heights of The renewed Emek line has opened up enormous op- has been a train enthusiast since childhood. several small children (including my two pensioner portunities for employment, housing, leisure and tour- To get a more specific history of the Hejaz railway, guides) who used to record their growth spurts on the ism in one of the most beautiful parts of Israel. I drove out through the Jezreel Valley to the Kfar station walls. Yehoshua station, which has been converted into a Israel Railway Museum, East Haifa station: Open daily. beautiful Valley Train museum. DURING THE Ottoman occupation, there was fierce (04) 8564293. Readers who enjoyed Meir Shalev's brilliant and hu- competition between various railway companies, Kfar YehoshuaRakevetHa’emek: (04) 953-4226. Open dai- morons book My Russian Grandmother’s American Vac- which delayed or prevented the planned extensions ly. For guided tours: (04) 953-4226. uum Cleaner will remember that the gift from the rich of the Hejaz railway. Part of the original plans would Elroi Railway station (forgroups only, by appointment), Na- American uncle arrived in an enormous crate (vacuum have linked Afula with Jerusalem; and, in fact, the first hum Levy: 052-823-9248. cleaners were very large in those days), arriving at Hai- 17-km. section was completed in 1913 as far as Jenin. HaRakevet magazine (entire history of Israel Railways, fa Port and then transported by train to Kfar Yehoshua, During World War I, the line extended to Tulkarm and edited by Rabbi Walter Rothschild), from whence it was loaded onto a wagon to be deliv- to Lod, where it connected with the Jaffa-Jerusalem www.harakevetmagazine.com ered to the family home in a nearby moshav. The horse railway and the line to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. The Railways of Palestine and Israel, by Paul Cotterell, that led the wagon understood the significance of this During that war, the Ottomans took over the Hejaz who was an ex-British signalmm and first curator of the Israel gift and, instead of taking the short route to the house, line for military purposes, but the British besieged Railway Museum in Haifa.

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From left to right:

ENJOYING THE new Emek railway when it opened in 2016: The writer and her late husband David (right) with Marion and Harry Hiller, (jonbryan Majorada)

RELICS OF the Valley railway at Kfar Yehoshua.

THE ENTRANCE to the original railway station and now the museum at Kfar Yehoshua.