Iran Railways

[itfcfan]

There was an international passenger train between Almaty (KZ) - Tashkent (UZ) - Tehran (IR). According to reports, it ran only once! That was back in 2002. I researched the topic in 2005 when I was in Iran.

Here's an excerpt of information I found at the time:

According to Samuel Rachdi/ Fahrplancenter, a run with 3 sleepers Tehran - Tashkent - Almaty started in March 2002. From Uzbekistan problems with the provision of locomotives were reported and some windows were smashed. According to turksib.com, starting of the train service Almaty - Tehran was “postponed definitely” in May 2002, nevertheless Cook Overseas Timetable of 2005 mentioned it as a once-weekly express Tehran - Turkmenabad - Tashkent - Almaty, but at least in that year it did not run. Later no service from Iran to Turkmenistan was listed and passengers had to change train at the border station Serakhs.

https://www.trains-worldexpresses.com/300/306.htm

To my knowledge, no passenger service has run across the line since then. There are international passenger trains between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. I think the main barrier to restarting this would be Turkmenistan, given they have poor relations with the neighbouring countries and appear to have little desire for external links. If the situation in Turkmenistan were to change and this service were to operate it would be a great experience. I can't find the source, but I've read about (optimistic) plans to run an Almaty - Istanbul passenger service via Tehran. Beijing to Istanbul with two changes! Now that would be a journey...

 

[mailbyrail]

The specialist international urban transport website skyscrapercity.com has some of its many city features detailing developments in Iran
There's plenty of fascinating news from major cities around the globe as well

Tehran - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/tehran-public-transport.708048/page-37
Mashhad - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/mashhad-public-transport.1554418/
Tabriz - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/tabriz-l-public-transport.1542618/
Isfahan - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/isfahan-public-transport.711686/
Shiraz - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/shiraz-public-transport.1762950/
Kermanshah - https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/kermanshah-public-transport.786214/

 

[rogerfarnworth]

Thank you.

 

[rogerfarnworth]

This is probably my penultimate post on the railways of Iran. I want, at some stage to review what is known about the railways which served the Oil fields in the South of Iran and a final installment. This post looks at the various forms of motive power on the railways of Iran since the first line was built before the turn of the 20th Century. I cannot guarantee that this survey is completely comprehensive. .......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/06/30/railways-in-iran-part-10-motive-power

We have already noted in this series that Iran had a very limited railway network at the turn of the 20th century. Essentially just one railway line which was of a narrow gauge and was no more than 6 miles long. Glyn Williams says that the line, as built, … was approximately 5.5 miles in length and had two branch lines of 2.5 miles in length. [22]


Its roster of locomotives was limited to five in total. And details of these can be found on the manufacturer’s listings, as tabulated below. [21] The full article is in french. The locomotives were built in Belgium by La Tubize.

 

[superalbs]

This is probably my penultimate post on the railways of Iran. I want, at some stage to review what is known about the railways which served the Oil fields in the South of Iran and a final installment. This post looks at the various forms of motive power on the railways of Iran since the first line was built before the turn of the 20th Century. I cannot guarantee that this survey is completely comprehensive. .......

Railways in Iran – Part 10 – Motive Power

Early Iranian Locomotives We have already noted in this series that Iran had a very limited railway network at the turn of the 20th century. Essentially just one railway line which was of a narrow …

rogerfarnworth.com

I love this post, awesome!

 

[rogerfarnworth]

I love this post, awesome!

Thank you.

 

[Taunton]

I wonder how "through" this service was, given the change of gauge. There's such a through container train freight service portrayed currently between China and Germany. In fact there are two changes of vehicle, onto and off Russian gauge, at the border points, the containers being moved over. Not the normal understanding of through train at all. Likewise there have been passenger services portrayed as through, overlooking the little matter of changing between trains, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Soviet/Russian railways have long had some vehicles that run through, but they need adaptations to change bogies readily, only a limited number of both passenger and freight vehicles are so done. You don't normally take a bogie off and put another one on, including all the brake rigging, dynamo charging, etc, in a few minutes without both being specially configured to do so. I wonder if the Turkmen Railways got any of these on the breakup of the old SZD. The Soviets have a long understanding of the various issues, it being seen there as one of the principal contributors to defeating the German invasion in 1941-5, that there were no Soviet gauge rail vehicles available to them.

 

[IR History]

Hi Roger

Thank you for your very interesting articles on Trans Iranian railway. Those are a great source for this matter.

It's more than 8 years, I have been researching specifically the history of this line and the section was built between 1927 and 1938. I think this railway has a unique feature that makes it very special and attractive. Trans Iranian Railway although officially is not a European railway but undoubtedly it’s a European industrial heritage in railway industry in the world. Due to the global situation resulting from the 1929 Wall Street crisis and its effects on Europe, a large number of European contractors, engineers and workers were in disarray. At the same time, the new king in Iran was impatient to have a railway and unlike Turkey, which was interested in getting more work done by the domestic force, Persian king emphasis was on speed, which led to the influx of companies, master engineers, and even simple labor from Europe to Iran. This collection left an all-European railway in the design and execution of more than a thousand kilometres that cannot be found in any other country in the world, not even Europe itself. Contractors, factories, engineers and workers from more than twenty European countries were directly involved in project and built one of the world's toughest railroads in less than six years in an incredible amount of time.

For me, but beyond the very attractive technical features, the human connection that was formed through this project is very attractive and I am always looking to discover traces of this relationship.The people involved in the project, their lives, the story of their participation in the project and the relics and traces they may have left. Those who traveled this distance with great hope and aspiration and worked and lived in the most remote areas for several years, and those who lost their lives and never returned home. Living camps, places of worship, service roads, etc., although not now part of the project, but a deep sense of humanity can be sought in them

In my opinion, this part of project deserves more attention, and of course, it is very difficult to find related documents due to the fact that more than eighty years have passed since the end of that. A photograph, a letter, a memoir and any memento from that time can be helpful for this purpose

 

[rogerfarnworth]

The comments are much appreciated!

 

[IR History]

Thank you for your attention

On the same subject as you know, the hardest section of the southern part of Trans Iranian railway was handed over to the British companies NMK (consortium of three companies) and Costain. Here is a very attractive part that includes Rough stone walls, the tallest tunnel in the south (the second longest in the entire rout) the narrow valleys of the Dez River, several bridges on it and a service road built in the roughest mountains of the route. I visited this section for the first time six years ago. As an archaeologist, I try to capture as much as possible the behavior of the project staff from the works they left behind, for example in Lot Six, which was built by the NMK. There, on top of a service road barrier, I came across an interesting plate that was still in good condition. The plate was carefully constructed and installed with full attention to detail, while it was to be installed on a temporary road that remains unused after the construction of the railway. This can be considered as a sign of the contractor's accuracy and the importance they attached to their work!

following photos of my archive are related to this section.

service road on the cliff!


service road



service road barrier with NMK plate



NMK plate detail


Another interesting point in this Lot is the presence of Edward Sykes, the son of the famous English politician, Sir Percy Sykes, as one of the NMK directors. His memento of this presence is 27 pieces of photographs whose descriptions can be guessed to be very valuable:

https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/mec/MEChandlists/Edward-Sykes-Collection.pdf

Biographical history: Sykes, Edward Molesworth (1910-1992) Born 10 January 1910. Third son of Sir Percy and Lady Sykes (née Evelyn Seton). Educated Rugby School and St Johns College, Oxford. Qualified Chartered Accountant. 1935 employed by NMK Danish firm building section of railway from Abadan to Tehran. During World War II served in Intelligence Corps, seconded to Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) and served in Isfahan and Hamadan as Vice-Consul. Whilst in S.O.E he worked as liaison with the Bakhtiari and Qashqai tribes, to prepare them to resist the Germans if they broke through Stalingrad and into Persia and the oilfields. Following demobilisation joined Consulting Engineers, Sir Alexander Gibbs Partners. 1946 economic survey for Syrian Government. 1947 economic survey for Lebanese Government. 1948 with Gibbs to Tehran to work on water supply. After leaving Gibbs, worked in Paris and U.K. on contracts in India, Pakistan and Turkey. Married Naomi Stevens in 1945; 2 sons, 2 daughters. Died 16 July 1992.

This collection is in Oxford University: St Antony's College: Middle East Center Archive.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to see these photos yet. Has anyone seen them and how can they be checked?

 

[rogerfarnworth]

Thank you!

Very interesting!

 

[rogerfarnworth]

This is my final post in a series about the railways of Iran. It focuses on a narrow gauge system, some 40 miles in total length, which served the Abadan Oil Depot and refinery. Available information is sparse. ....

Railways in Iran – Part 11 – Anglo-Persian Oil Company Ltd.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was founded in 1908 after the discovery of a large oil field in the South of what is now Iran. [2] Masjid-i-Sulaiman was the location where oil was first discov…

rogerfarnworth.com

 

[rogerfarnworth]

Since first posting about APOC/AIOC on 19th November, a number of people have pointed me to considerably more information about the 2ft 6in gauge and the 3ft gauge railways that served different part of the Company's network in Iran. If the original post of the 19th November was of interest it has now been significantly extended.

The link remains the same so the original more limited text cannot easily be accessed. It has been subsumed in the newer version on the same link. Just for convenience I have repeated the link here:

Railways in Iran – Part 11 – Anglo-Persian Oil Company Ltd.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was founded in 1908 after the discovery of a large oil field in the South of what is now Iran. [2] Masjid-i-Sulaiman was the location where oil was first discov…

rogerfarnworth.com