From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Feb 25 2010 - 08:49:00 EST
http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/headlines/Jennie-reaches-destination-after-epic.6103470.jp
Jennie reaches destination after epic train journey
Published Date: 25 February 2010
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 buADVERTISEMENTt 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
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----