Narrow-gauge railways in former Spanish Morocco
There have been narrow-gauge railways which used 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in), 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) and 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauges.
The older rail network was in Melilla–Nador area, only later to join with another, the Ceuta–Tetuan railway line and short harbour construction lines at the Larache Harbour on the Atlantic seaboard.
After the Treaty of Algeciras signed in April 1906, where the northern part of Morocco was placed under Spanish administration, the Spanish started to develop this mineral-rich area. The Spanish Line (Compañía Transatlántica Española) had been formed in Spain as early as in 1881 by Spanish businessman Antonio López y López. The main idea was to develop the harbours in northern Morocco to carry more Spanish–Moroccan trade via harbours of Larache, Tanger, Ceuta and Melilla.
At Melilla the Junta de Obras del Puerto de Melilla started at ones extensive building of harbour to carry mineral traffic overseas, mainly to Spain. With new harbour installations the company built also 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) gauge local 4.1 km harbour line from Melilla Harbour to Sidi-Musa, later extended to the total length of 7 km as demanded by Spanish military.
The Junta de Obras and the Compañía Transatlántica were merged to form a new company, the Junta de Fomento de Melilla in December 1911.
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