Red lizard
The red Lézard is the name given to a tourist Train of Tunisia traversing the Gorges of Selja, a Canyon with the abrupt walls in the center of which the Oued Selja runs. The departure is made with the Gare Métlaoui (city located between Tozeur and Gafsa) in the mid-west of the country, the train then traversing 43 kilometers on a portion borrowed by the mining trains evacuating the Phosphate S.
History
Built for the Workshop S of Rouvain in 1910, by the company Dyle and Bacalon (France), this train in the beginning is reserved for the transport of the Bey de Tunis and its court. It is then composed of a car for the bey, of a car for the court, a Voiture-restaurant and two vans accommodating the luggage. The car beylicale is transformed in the workshops of the farm Compagnie of the Tunisian railroads with Sidi Fathallah, in 1922, for its adaptation to the Tunisian network with metric gauge Track. Like it sied with a royal vehicle, its installation and its decoration are of a richness, a comfort and a refinement extremes: woodworks, garnet-red Velvet, Marquetry, floor coverings and Cuivre register it in the line of the large trains of the beginning of the 20th century such as the East-Express train, the blue Train or Star of north.During its famous career, the train is used for the last three sovereigns Husseinites (Ali I Bey, Moncef Bey and Lamine Bey) like with many foreign personalities hosts of Tunisia. Symbol one time completed and supplanted by the individual car, of a more discrete use, the train beylical is garaged on a siding during long years. It is only in April 1974 which, under the red name of Lézard , it takes again service following a Convention concluded between the National company from the Tunisian railroads (SNCFT) and the Transtours company which affects it, for one short period, with the service road of a tourist tour between Tunis and Tozeur with a halt with El Jem to allow to the passengers the visit of sound amphitheater. After a technical revision and a refitting, the red Lézard is again given in circulation in 1984 and exploited in an intensive way but, this time, on the section of the network connecting Métlaoui to Redeyef (built between 1906 and 1907), a circuit crossing the throats of Selja.
Train
A Diesel loco tractor draws a oar made up of six cars painted in a royal red, provided with a stringcourse Jaune Or underlined Noir which runs along its sides where the names of red Lézard and tourist train are registered in Arab and French on each side, while the initials of the SNCFT are engraved in a plate of Bronze.The tourist train is composed of a parlor car, a buffet car and four comfortable cars including two of first class.
Practical informations
The train, of a capacity of 116 places, almost daily accommodates the passengers in station of Métlaoui for a departure with 11:00. It leads them to discovered throats of Selja (inaccessible canyon in normal weather). The return is done with 12:45. The addition of additional coaches as well as the organization of a show of attack of the train, the made-to-order of Lawrence of Arabia, can be proposed with the groups of tourists.
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