The Rufisque tramway (

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

''Le Decauville Municipal de Rufisque'') was a long, hand-operated

light railway A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to ...

with

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges ...

s of and in

Rufisque Rufisque (; Wolof: Tëngeéj) is a city in the Dakar region of western Senegal, at the base of the Cap-Vert Peninsula east of Dakar, the capital. It has a population of 295,459 (2023 census).

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

History

Around 1860, at least around and in 1867 around of unpeeled

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s were shipped in the port of Rufisque, which were brought there by camel.Roger Pasquier
''Villes du Sénégal au XIXe siècle.''
1960. p. 405, 413, 420 & 423.^{p. 405} According to more recent estimates, this figure could have been more than by 1880. In order to simplify transport, the first manually operated Decauville Railway was laid in the city around 1880.Abdoulaye Gaye
''Valorisation du patrimoine industriel de la ville de Rufisque, sauvegarde et transmission : quel impact sur le développement local ? Le cas de l’ex usine Bata – Valuation of the industrial heritage of the city of Rufisque, backup and transmission: what impact on local development? The case of the former Bata factory.''
2013/14. p. 98. Initially, individual peanut trading companies, known as escales, installed the rails for various light railways on their own initiative for their own needs, but later the company's own tram systems were consolidated into a municipal system.Paul Edward Pheffer
''Railroads and Aspects of Social Change in Senegal, 1878-1933.''
University of Pennsylvania. 1975. S. 386. From 1883 there was also a railway from Rufisque to

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

.^{S. 413} Because of the insufficient water depth in the harbour for ocean-going vessels, small boats transported the sacked

s from the quay to the ships anchored outside the city. A 1200-ton ship needed four days in Rufisque to pick up a full load, one day more than in the deep-sea port of Dakar. Around 1905 it was decided to build a long pier. A toll of two francs had to be paid to transport a ton of peanuts on the Decauville inner-city railway. This toll, which was the main source of income for the city budget, amounted to three francs after the construction of the pier, because economic competition with Dakar no longer played a significant role for Rufisque since then.Daniel Castillo Hidalgo
''External Trade and Port Hierarchy in Senegal. A case of Economic Clustering in the Global Periphery (1880-1939).''
In: ''Tempo,'' Band 21, Nr. 37, Niterói, Januar/Juni 2015. From 1902 the economic situation in Rufisque worsened because Dakar, to the northwest, became the capital of

French West Africa French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...

, after and due to the construction of a deep sea port and the metre gauge railway, which made it more accessible than before.''Histoire - La ville de Rufisque et l'arachide.''
/ref> The population of Rufisque nevertheless increased during this period from 4500 in 1866 to 8000 in 1891 and 15,000 in 1914.^{p. 420} In 1910, 1660 ships docked at Rufisque, importing and exporting . The most important import was

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

.''Histoire - La ville de Rufisque et l'arachide.''
/ref>

Old post cards

Senegal - Rufisque - Un Secco d'Arachides en plein air.jpg, Open-air peanuts dump Senegal - Rufisque - Mise des Arachides en sace.jpg , Packing into sacks Senegal - Rufisque - Rue Demoby (Coll Marcel Freres, Rufisque).jpg, Rue Demoby Senegal - Rufisque - Place Gaston Belingard.jpg, Place Gaston Belingard Senegal - Rufisque - Rue Faidherbe.jpg, Rue Faidherbe Senegal - Rufisque - Le Parc aux Arachides a la Gare.png, At right 400-mm-gauge Decauville at station

References

{{coord, 14.715001, -17.272388, region:SN_type:building, display=title, name=Rue Nationale Rail transport in Senegal Rufisque 400 mm gauge railways 600 mm gauge railways