File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎24r] (56/834)

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NOTES.
Hejaz Railway, Abu Naam to Bowat.
Our railway route report is so deficient in detail south of
el-Ala, that all and any information about the track thence to
Medina is welcome. Lieut. A T . W. Clayton, M.C., who has been
attached till lately to Slierif Abdullah’s army, has visited the line
on various occasions between the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hamdh bridge, just north
of Abu Naam station, and a point north, but within sight, of
Bowat—a stretch of about seventy-one kilometres, or rather under
forty-five miles. He sends, under date October 9 , some notes.
4'he main bridge crosses Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hamdh, which has been
ascending parallel with the line from Jedahah, about one
and a quarter miles north of Abu Naam. This bridge
is of solid masonry with fourteen arches, twelve to fifteen
feet in height. Just north of it, where the mountains come
down close to the rails on the east, is a Turkish post with
entrenchments, sangars, and sand-bagged huts. South of it the
line passes over three culverts, the first of three arches, the
second of four and the third of three (square-topped), before
reaching Abu Naam, where a fresh block of hills, behind which
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hamdh bears away from the track, approaches on the east.
The line makes a considerable south-westward curve between the
main bridge and the station.
From Abu Naam the south-westward direction is maintained
for some two and a half miles to a point known as el-Magrah,
whence the line turns south along the bottom of a shallow valley
averaging seven to eight miles in breadth. The slope on either
hand towards the distant hills is very gradual but steepest on the
east. The level is broken only by a few stony undulations a few
feet high, until after Stabl Antar station is passed. Just south
of this point the foothills of Jebel Antar on the west approach
within two miles and are continued to the line by a succession
of isolated stony kopjes, on one of which is a Turkish post.
The valley then opens out both east and west, but most on
the west, into the plain of Jurf Lankomi, in the south-west
of which, under the flank of Jebel Akrad, lies the Teitad
oasis. The line runs on due south descending gradually to Bueir,
the most important of the stations hereabout. North of the
station, about 250 yards away, are a culvert and a Turkish post ;
and barracks and tanks succeed on the left hand till the station
is reached, ft has a sand-bagged pumping-station, some sheds
and a house for the O.C.—all joined up by trenches.’ Water
carried from here supplies the underground reservoirs of Stabl
Antar, Bir Nasif, and Bowat.
Continuing from Bueir the railway runs on south over very
flat and open country for about nine miles. Then hills close in
both east and west and the line has to traverse a narrow pass and
descend by a corkscrew curve to the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hamdh again, which