September 28th 2015 – Jezreel valley railway, Israel

September 28th, 2015
Beit She’an, Israel

Hi,
Yep, Jezreel valley railway again =) (and not for the last time =).
After the last episode, in which we looked along the old railway from Haifa to Kfar Yehoshua, I decided to skip the to Beit She’an.
I did it because I wasn’t sure I would find much and because I was without Atzva (she is in Ethiopia volunteering for “Engineers without borders” =). If I was with Atzva and we would haven’t find anything – she would have got mad. Well, I find pretty much =).
The new Valley railway will stop in Bet she’an, so no works has been done on that route of the rail. I ended the tour in Gesher and made a small jump to visit a friend.

Take Care
Gad

Beit She’an New train station, last stop for the new valley railway

Beit she’an old train station. The buildings been renovated and stand near the new train station.
The old rails were thrown aside =/.
This is where our journey begins.

The Water tank tower of the old station and the new valley railway in front.

One of the buildings of the old train station, and behind an industrial complex that its building haven’t finished.

Bike lane for the new train station.

   The old buildings and the new train station and and the new railways.
These is where the new Valley railway will end for new.

The railway station building on 1935

Now we play ‘hide and seek’ – looking for the route of train going down from Beit She’an.
You can see the water drain tunnel and if you look close you can see the slope she went down on.

Standing on the slope, you can see the route of the train (on both sides).

Water tunnel below the valley railway route.
Today, structures are built for 50 years. This one is over an hundred and looks good =)

That’s a surprise!
Those steel plates are part of the railway =)

Yeah!!!
A slipper! that’s is the part that the part of the track that sets on the ground and the rails attached to. Pretty old (1907 =)

Another water tunnel and Hamdia Kibbutz on the background.

Yeah!!!
Cutting for the train – I think of the massive earth work that are made on the new Valley train on one hand, and on the fact that it was all made by hand (and I cannot finish my small cistern)… =/ Wow!!!
That’s a piece of the rails with it’s sleepers =)

I scared away couple of Gazelles
See if you can find them =)

Here they are!

Another piece and rails and sleepers.
Look how they are connected. Try to recognize the route of the train.

That Snake skins made me think, maybe it wasn’t such a smart move to hike here with sandals..

The railway bridge over Issachar valley.

Looking south and north from the top of the bridge Looking West to the valley. Looking West to the valley. valley railway

Along the years, the rails and the sleepers were dissembled and were used for different proposes. For a fence for example =)

The trails around Newe Ur
Basically, one of the colleague workers lives here, and he said nothing from the railway was left here. In the entrance to the Kibbutz, on a trail maps, you can see the railway route (dashed white line)

The railway route crossing the access road to Newe Ur (looking North and South)

That’s a nice discovery =)
They haven’t taken all the rails and sleepers 😉
In fact, the left pretty much.

Far away in the horizon?
It is the railway bridge over Tavor stream =)

The railway bridge over Tavor stream.
It was built in 1904, from Limestone. It is the twin brother of the bridge in Gesher (which made out of Basalt).
Like the all railway, the design was made by Gottlieb Schumacher and was built by Ottoman soldiers.
The bridge was renovated in 2009.

Looking South and North over the bridge

Looking East and West over the stream (End of the water and it still has water =).

North to the bridge – a fishing pool (I was glad to jump into it, but it isn’t that nice when you get closer).

The bridge from North-East

The Yardint from the other side of the Jordan River, from