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Jennie reaches destination after epic train journey in the Horn Africa

By Peter Kay
MANY men are interested in railways, and some have written books about them, but Jennie Street has gone down a virtually unknown line.
A woman writing about a publication about trains? And about the rail network in a country in the Horn of Africa?

Jennie – renowned for her enthusiastic rallying of the community in Totley, where she lives – has spent the past ten years compiling Red Sea Railway.
She decided to write the history of the Eritrean Railway not because she is a railway enthusiast but because she was inspired by how the country pulled together to get the trains going again after a devastating war with Ethiopia.

Jennie lived and worked in Eritrea before and after Liberation in 1991 and started the book to record some of the stories of the men who worked on the line.
Some of them were in their 70s and 80s, helping to reconstruct 117km of line that had been destroyed in the war, which saw sabotage and ambushes and rails used in the trenches on the frontline.
A new government wanted the railway to be a symbol of self reliance, even rejecting the chance of using European funds. So there was a stirring story to be told.
Some rail experts, though, told Jenny in no uncertain terms that a woman without any technical knowledge should not even attempt such a book.
Publication has confounded the doubters and the reaction has been positive, she said. "It's been wonderful. I was very nervous about how the railway fraternity would view it. "One man from Germany told me I shouldn't even try to write a book about railways. But I have had some very good comments from senior people in the railway world, including a professor of transport history in Italy."
It's an offshoot from Jennie's usual world of working with Totley Residents Association, organising the Totley Show and opening her garden in The Grove to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme.
Her literary subject was bound to raise eyebrows. "Women tend not to be the ones interested in railways and they don't tend to write books about them. It's the little boys who become train spotters."
Yet she persuaded the general manager of the Eritrean railway to be her co-author and their collaboration across continents has paid off.
Jennie has presented all the 'nuts and bolts' of locomotives, track, rolling stock and gauges, aided by the generous railway enthusiasts from across the world, "who probably thought they were coming to the aid of a damsel in distress."
The book involved extensive research in archives in Khartoum, Asmara, Rome and London, interviews with elderly Eritreans and searching the internet for photographic and documentary items.
With her husband, John Beazer, teaching himself book layout skills, Jennie, aged 58, ended up publishing the book herself. As a Sheffielder Jennie asked Starprint, of Abbeydale Road, to print the book.
Comprising 374 pages, 385 photographs, 71 illustrations and 19 maps and weighing in at 1.3kgs, it has proved a mighty undertaking.
But she stuck at it.
"There were days when I didn't open a file and days when it was very intense," said Jennie, who is a voluntary learning advisor with the south west Sheffield community assembly and is currently trying to set up a horticulture project in Bolsover.
"Ten years is a long time. I don't think my friends thought I would do it…"
Red Sea Railway costs £29.99. Contact Jennie on 236 2302 or see the website www.redsearailway.co.uk

Source: http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk



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State of Eritrea ሃገረ ኤርትራ Hagere Ertra دولة إرتريا Dawlat Iritrīya

Anthem: Ertra, Ertra, Ertra Eritrea, Eritrea, Eritrea

Capital (and largest city) Asmara 15°20′N 38°55′E / 15.333°N 38.917°E / 15.333; 38.917

Official language(s) Tigrinya, Arabic, English Other languages Tigre, Saho, Bilen, Afar, Kunama, Nara, Hedareb,.

Ethnic groups 60% Tigrinya, 30% Tigre, 4% Afar, 3% Saho, 3% Kunama

Demonym Eritrean Government Provisional government - President Isaias Afewerki

Independence - From Italy November 1941 - From United Kingdom under UN Mandate 1951 - from Ethiopia de facto 24 May 1991 - From Ethiopia de jure 24 May 1993

Area - Total 117,600 km2 (100th) 45,405 sq mi - Water (%) 0.14%

Population - 2009 estimate 5,224,000[4] (109th) - 2008 census 5,291,370 - Density 43.1/km2 (165th) 111.7/sq mi

GDP (PPP) 2010 estimate - Total $3.625 billion[5] - Per capita $681[5] GDP (nominal) 2010 estimate - Total $2.117 billion[5] - Per capita $397[5] HDI (2007) steady 0.472 (low) (165th) Currency Nakfa (ERN)

Time zone EAT (UTC+3) - Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+3) Drives on the right ISO 3166 code ER Internet TLD .er Calling code 291 1 ,. National TV: Eritrea Television (ERI-TV)

Eritrea (play /ˌɛrɨˈtreɪ.ə/ or /ˌɛrɨˈtriːə/;[6] Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritrīyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Eritrea's size is approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi) with an estimated population of 6 million...

Source: Wikipedia


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