(Above) Five men sleep as the sunrises, wrapped in thick, fleece blankets to stop the fine black iron ore dust coating the bottom of the wagon while trying to keep warm as the temperature drops to 5°c overnight.
(Right) Luggage is lowered down from an empty freight car in Choum, the only stop on the 20 hour 750km long journey, where most passengers climb down from the freight cars. From Choum a shared taxi to the closest town, Atar, takes three hours and is where many passengers are aiming to get to once off the train. Taxi drivers wait as the train stops and help unload luggage before strapping it to the outside of their car or bus. Because of the remotness of the towns and the length of time it takes to get to them many of the passengers take the train as few times as possible so when they do make the journey a huge amount of luggage ussually accompanies them .