I'm not an expert on North African rail lines except I can say there just not much there. If there were lines they would of been built by the French, Italians, maybe British and I don't think any would be narrow gauged three footers. They'd be standard or metered. The scraping sounds unlikely seeing that there was a demand for narrow gauge equipment-- remember Baldwin made some 3' engines after WWII. I don't think they would of went to the expense of re-gauging #9. Where would they do it-- in Hawaii? No-- I think it went to the PI as a 3' 0-8-0. Our Japanese brothers have been exploring that region for a long time and photographing it extensively-- maybe some of them have something concrete to add to the mystery. An article in Trains might shed new evidence on "who killed old number nine?"