He gets to Cairo.
CAIRO.
The Egyptian State Railway's rolling stock seems to consist of large four—wheel bogied carriages. The third Class ones are not divided off into compartments as are our English ones, but follow more the lines of a Pullman. Probably the carriages on the District Railway at London are as dood as an example as could be obtained. They differ in that the Egyptian carriages are much more lofty. You enter at either end, and pass right down the centre of the car. In the centre is a sort of partition, coming down each side, but leaving the centre passage quite clear. As nearly as I could judge, they would each hold about eighty men. The First and Second Class coaches are divided into compartments, and differ from our own carriages in the entering at the end of the coach. Their engines appear to be large and powerful. I saw them of all types, from 0-6-0 side-tanks, to colossal Atlantics, and 4-6-0. Among the goods engines too is a fair sprinkling of 2-8-0s.
We were installed in the carriage in about five minutes, and punctual to the minute the train steamed out of Alexandria station. I do not think that the train was one of their best ones. We stopped at several stations on the way, a few were places of considerable size, many appeared to be little or no importance. Of the country not a great deal could be said. It reminded one very strongly of the Fens. On no side was there hill to be seen, and the palm trees were not so strikingly different from the tufted willows that abound there. Yet the camels and squalid native huts kept breaking in on the picture and forcing the distinctions upon one. Alongside the railway ran a canal, presumably for irrigation, and along it there was a constant stream of camels. From time to time, as we slowed down to stop at some station or another, we were able to get glimpses of the internal economy of the natives' huts. Curiosity might have impelled one to get out of camp on the first opportunity and make a proper inspection, but the accumulations of dirt and filth that even these cursory glances revealed, more than checked any such inclination. We must have been in the train something more than three hours when, In the distance several pyramids were distinguished on the Western side of the line. Needless to say, speculation as to whether they were "the" pyramids, was rife, and before it had died down, the passing of "Signal Cabin Cairo No.4" put a stop to all argument as we hastily donned our equipment, and prepared to leave the train. After a three and a half hours' trip, we were safely landed at Cairo.
Cairo Station consists of about five platforms, not a great number for a railway terminus in the capital of a busy country. When arrived, there was a Red Cross train in as well. Outside the place we found three lorries waiting for us. For the Red Cross train there were several Motor Ambulances. The patients from the train seemed to be chiefly wounded Indian troops who were put In the vans and hurried away with all possible speed. We loaded our kit up in to the first lorry, and when it would not hold all of them, half filled the second one. That done I managed to snatch a couple of minutes to look round. The station opened out into a large square through which half dozen different tram lines appeared to be running. One line appeared to be more like an electric railway than tram line. The cars on it were in sets of four or five, and I noticed that on our left it entered an enclosure where there was a platform and the usual attributes to a railway station.
Leaving the station, we bore to the left and followed a road parallel to the line on which we had just come. It was a wide and well made road, lined with trees, so that the mile or so that we covered passed very quickly. Two thirds of the way up it, a fairly important road joined it on the right, with a tram terminus to mark the spot. A 1itt1e way beyond this the road forked, or rather swerved round to the left, with a more narrow continuation straight forward. We started to take the left bend, then swerved and just scraped round into the other road. This wag not very long. A couple of minutes run brought us to another tram—line where we did a right wheel. This line seemed to be a busy one. On the right of us were the usual poor native houses and shops. On our left the buildings were of a much better class, but many were "To Let". Where a branch line of these trams turned off to the left; we did the game. This road, which was up hill turned slightly to the left and then went forward again just by a Coptic Girls School. (As far as I can make out, the Copts are a sect of Egyptian Christians who claim to have originated during Christ's sojourn in Egypt.) Leaving a brickworks on the right, and a tram depot on the left, there loomed up in front of us the "Egyptian Swiss Ironworks." Passing a railway crossing we swung to the right into its yard, and were greeted by the advanced party.
The building we had seen as we came up was the Office portion, and now accomodates the personnel of "X" Aircraft Park. The "Works" themselves consist of two long, high double sheds, with gantries, cranes, and all the usual paraphernalia pertaining to an iron foundry. In the yard, down the side of the sheds, tables had been arranged where we were soon hard at work demolishing tea. Our own tents, we were told were two miles away at the aerodrome. Thither we went after tea. At first the road was the one we came up. Where that left the trams, we now kept along with them until the aerodrome, distinguished by a solitary hangar, came in sight. We seemed to have reached the very edge of the town, and to be entering the desert. We left the road just before a railway bridge, took a road to the right, passed the Zeitoun Sporting ground, and entered the Aerodrome Camp.
The "X" may stand for expeditionary.
As you turned out of the side road the Camp lay round to the right, the aerodrome with its solitary hangar, on the left front, and the Officers quarters well to the left, extending even Into the road. The aerodrome appeared to be of fair size, but since it was marked off with somewhat irregular flags, it was difficult to estimate exact size. The camp consisted of two rows of bell tents, with a mess room facing the front of them, and the cookhouse and usual addenda behind the mess room. We were duly allotted to tents, myself and eight others getting the next to end one of the front row. On the whole the day had been tiring, so we quickly turned in and were sound asleep sn almost no time. At half past six next morning three lorries came and took us to the Iron Foundry where breakfast was ready and waiting. After breakfast those of us who had no regular work to go to, went round the back of the foundry to where several stacks of stuff had been dumped. we spent the morning sorting out hangar parts. As we got out the parts for one, a lorry would come up, be loaded with them and take them away to the aerodrome, where another party was already at work erecting them. Each hangar consists of about thirty or forty poles, as many "tie rods", a couple of dozen iron feet, fifty or sixty iron pickets, (like huge cork—screws), three huge canvasses, two long step-ladders, and a large box of small parts. It took us half a morning to sort one out, and each one removed made it more difficult to find the parts for the next one, for the distinguishing numbers and letters were for the most part obliterated. I went up to the aerodrome with the third one, in the afternoon. The road was different from the one we followed in early morning. It appeared to be parallel to that one about a quarter Of a mile to the right of it. The way led past several camps, through a big barracks, and finally on to the open desert. Here it was not easy to proceed, but we managed to come up to the far corner of the aerodrome from the camp. There we unloaded, and carried the stuff a matter of two hundred yards across the sand. As the sand was soft and deep, and most of the poles were heavy, the work was by no means easy. A trailer had been provided to help, but as soon as it got on to the sand it sank up to the axles, and the amount Of trouble necessitated in digging it out more than counter—balanced any other advantages it possessed. It was nearly dark by the time that we had finished. Then, needless to say, the lorry had to go and get stuck in the sand in attempting to turn round. We all got out and and pushed, and succeeded in getting it on the road once more. Then we hurried up. At one place the road had a sudden dip followed by as sharp a rise. We took it with such a pace that the whole lorry left the ground and came down with no end of a bang on the opposite rise. Tt gave us some shaking, but it was something to think that we had had the first flight in a three-ton lorry. When we got back to the Iron Foundry tea was over and our share had disappeared with it.
Once back in camp at Heliopolis i.e. the aerodrome, we lost no time in getting out into the town. I did not see a great deal of it, but what there was seemed to be well set out. A novel feature consisted of three open-air cinematagraphs designed to amuse the frequenters of three open air cafes. Generally they entertained twice as many outsiders.
By way of a break, I did messorderly next day. After the hangar fatigue, it was quite a rest. That, coupled with pay, made things appear in a much better light. However, I was on the same old job next day. This time , however, it took us all day to sort out one hangar, as the parts had to be hunted for all over the foundry.
It was the day after this that the Sergeant Major told me to pack my kit and be ready to proceed to Ismailia to act as a clerk. Needless to say, I packed and waited for the order to move. It did not come, so I hung on till the next day, and had a complete rest. Still there was nothing doing. I did not get any order, and at 7 0'clock began to wonder what had gone wrong. I spent the night in a lorry, and went next morning to see what was matter. Up at the camp there was a mild surprise when I arrived. Apparently an order to go had miscarried, so I went by the next train.
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