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Italian Libya Railways was a group of small railways built in the Italian colony of Libya between the two World Wars.
Contents
History
The Kingdom of Italy built in Italian Libya nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm (3 ft 1 3⁄8 in) gauge.
Projects
The Italian authorities decided to give priority to the construction of roads in Libya when Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian colonies. After 1926 no more railways were made in Libya, but during World War II the need of railways transport to the front during the war in the frontier with British Egypt changed this approach.
In spring 1941 the Italian government started the construction of a new railway between Tripoli and Benghazi, but by the end of 1942 all was stopped because of the Italian defeat in north Africa: only 18 km were done in Cirenaica.
Equipment
In Libya the first locomotives were the steam locomotives R.401 and R.301, but the most successful were the R.302 produced in northern Italy.
Railways
There were only five small railways:
1) Tripoli-Zuara (118 km):
2) Bengazi-Barce (108 km):
3) Tripoli-Garian (90 km):
4) Bengasi-Soluch (56 km):
5) Tripoli-Tagiura (21 km):