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Iran Railways

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This is the first of what I hope will be a few articles about the Railways of Iran. It focusses on the first line built between Tehran and Rey and operating from 1888 to around 1960-61.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/23/railways-in-iran-part-1-tehran-to-rey-1888

I have been reading old copies of the Railway Magazine from the 1950s and 1960s. The old small format magazines somehow seem more attractive than the glossy larger format modern magazines, perhaps that is a sign of ageing!

In the January 1963 edition of the magazine there is a long article about the railways of Iran which is based on a visit in 1961 to Iran by M.H. Baker MA.

Until the 1930s, Iran was relatively isolated, but from around 1865 various European Countries had sought concessions to construct railways but the Imperial government continued to value isolation above integration.
 
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I think it's a shame that when it comes to discussing international rail travel, how Iran all too often seems to get overlooked. I was interested in particular when I watched a few YouTube videos about their sleeper trains.
 
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This is the next installment covering the Railways of Iran. ......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/24/railways-in-iran-part-2-the-1910-to-1945

The Trans-Iranian Railway - When completed, the Trans-Iranian Railway was an immense achievement. It ran for 850 miles and linked the South and North of the country. For the first time the northern agricultural lands and the Caspian Sea ports would be linked to ports and oilfields in the south. It linked the capital Tehran with the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. The railway connected Bandar Shah (now: Bandar Torkaman) in the north and Bandar Shahpur (now: Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni) in the south via Ahvaz, Ghom and Tehran.
 

MarcVD

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The track between Tehran and Bandar Torkaman is very similar to the Gotthard in Switzerland in terms of technical achievement and solutions deployed. There is even one site looking very much like the site of Wassen, on the Gotthard northern ramp. I have been to Iran already (by train of course) but did not have the chance to visit this marvel. I hope I will be able to see it some day.
 

Calthrop

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This is the first of what I hope will be a few articles about the Railways of Iran. It focusses on the first line built between Tehran and Rey and operating from 1888 to around 1960-61.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/23/railways-in-iran-part-1-tehran-to-rey-1888

Concerning the n/g Tehran -- Rey railway: as ever, fascinating. I first heard of this line's existence, via the Railway Magazine article by M. Baker which you mention, with pictures therefrom. A shame that it is not still running: one takes it that if so, it would be on a "heritage" basis -- no offence meant to Iran and its people, but one feels that such things are probably low on their list of priorities.

A query concerning this line: your article cites a gauge for it, of 800mm. I've seen claims for its being metre-gauge, instead -- these, from Peter Allen (see below); and -- via Googling "Tehran -- Rey narrow gauge railway" -- from that present-day tireless "railway archaeologist" Thomas Kautzor, who took a look at the line's remnants a few years ago.

Peter Allen mentions the line in his superb book On the Old Lines -- with a delightful photograph. This, from a visit during a brief spell in Tehran in 1957. He had long known of the line's existence; but in the absence of information then in any way recent, he was hoping against hope that it might still be running -- was joyful to discover that it was: though only on Fridays and holy days, and supposedly threatened with imminent closure. Quoting from the book: "So on my only Friday in Tehran I went down to the station, and there by a great stroke of luck the train was in the station, leaving within five minutes, a metre-gauge half-tram, half-train headed by this preposterous green Belgian tank engine built by Tubize of Charleroi in 1887 and packed with the devout ready for the evening run to the mosque."

I also recall from reading, long ago -- by an Iranian lady who had moved to live in the West -- a memoir of her childhood, which included a mention of travelling between Tehran and the mosque / shrine at Rey, by the narrow-gauge line. I always feel weirdly reassured by such passing references in the writings of people who are definitely not railway enthusiasts: dispels the occasional niggling anxiety that just perhaps, all of us folk are in the eccentric / barking mad zone, living in an elaborate fantasy world of our own devising and creation :s ... I had to smile at the author's describing the line as a "little monorail" -- presumably she meant, single as opposed to double track. Though no doubt very talented in her own field (what that was, I forget -- my encounter with her book was many decades ago), it would seem that the lady was not greatly au fait with the finer points of railway matters.
 
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Hi Calthrop. ...

I took my lead on the 800mm gauge from here. .... https://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/iran.html .... I think I also saw it mentioned at this gauge elsewhere. It would be good to confirm whether this is right, or not. I too saw the 1000mm gauge in an article by Thomas Kautzor. I perhaps need to do a little more research. I wonder whether that might be best checked by looking at the records of the Belgian locomotive builder?

Best wishes

Roger
 
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I have managed to download a .pdf file and this contains information about the locomotives. It appears that the track gauge was 1000mm. I have changed the text of my article to suit. .........

http://www.museedelaporte.be/patrimoine/?p=1655&pdf=1655

Liste des locomotives Tubize livrées pour la Perse (Iran)

Tableau des locomotives Tubize livrées pour la Perse
n° Année Voie Essieux Destinataire
662 1887 1000 Cn2t / 0-6-0T Shah Abdul Azim pour CF et Tramways en Perse, Téhéran-Rey « 1 »
663 1887 1000 Cn2t / 0-6-0T Shah Abdul Azim pour CF et Tramways en Perse, Téhéran-Rey « 2 »
664 1887 1000 Cn2t / 0-6-0T Shah Abdul Azim pour CF et Tramways en Perse, Téhéran-Rey « 3 »
665 1887 1000 Cn2t / 0-6-0T Shah Abdul Azim pour CF et Tramways en Perse, Téhéran-Rey « 4 »
1436 1905 1000 Cn2t / 0-6-0T Shah Abdul Azim pour CF et Tramways en Perse, Téhéran-Rey « 5 »

Source : liste établie par Sébastien Jarne Cn2t = 3 essieux moteurs, vapeur saturée, 2 cylindres, tender
 

Gag Halfrunt

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I had to smile at the author's describing the line as a "little monorail" -- presumably she meant, single as opposed to double track.

If the book was translated into English, perhaps it was a misunderstanding by the translator.
 

Calthrop

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If the book was translated into English, perhaps it was a misunderstanding by the translator.

I think the Iranian lady -- largely out-of-sympathy with things in her native country, and consequently long settled in Britain -- wrote her book in English "from the get-go"; but as said, all long ago from my point of view, so perhaps not.
 
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Calthrop

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The gauge puzzle seems now sorted -- @rogerfarnworth, thanks for investigation and passing-on thereof.

The 800mm and metre gauges do seem rather confusable, "in both directions". Poland had at one time, one solitary 800mm gauge system, north and south of Warsaw -- all 800mm elements long-vanished. It connected / overlapped with another system on the -- more common in those parts -- metre gauge; and has at times been inaccurately described in various publications, as metre gauge.
 

D6700

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Here's an interesting German-made documentary (in English) about the Trans-Iranian Railway:

 
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After the War, Iran's railways experienced a period of relative stagnation. Significant developments did not occur until the 1950s.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/28/railways-in-iran-part-3-1945-to-the-1960s

The Cambridge History of Iran - Volume 1, which was published in 1968 says that after shortages disappeared a pattern became established, and by 1968, railways provided the basic freight-transport service from the Persian Gulf ports to Tehran and the eastern Caspian Sea region. The authors said, "Branch lines have been extended to Tabriz and Mashhad (Meshed), mitigating to a high degree the relative decline of these cities since 1925. A 120 mile westward extension of the railway line from Tabriz, now being built under the sponsorship of the Central Treaty Organization, will connect the Iranian and Turkish railways. (It was completed between Tehran and Tabriz by 1960.) An eastward extension from Qum, south of Tehran, is now complete as far as Yazd (but not by 1961 when Baker visited) and will ultimately connect with the Pakistan railway system in Baluchistan. During World War I a line of this system (then part of India) was extended as far as Zahidin in Iran, a short distance from the border. Service to Zahidin is provided by Pakistan National Railways, but there is no regular schedule." The line when built was 5ft. 6in. gauge.
 

NicholasNCE

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Many thanks for these very interesting articles, which I'm going to be reading carefully over the next few days.

For someone like me who has an interest in both Iran and the railways it's great to see a mention of Iranian railways here, a very interesting system both historically and technically which is constantly expanding to serve country's vast territory, Rasht being the city most recently linked up in late 2019 I believe.

Having travelled by train from Tabriz to Istanbul in 2018 via the 1970's Tabriz-Van line I'll be particularly interested in your next article as I've found it quite hard to find information about its construction.
 

MarcVD

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Rasht being the city most recently linked up in late 2019 I believe.

Yes but this new line will only deliver its full potential when it will be completed up north to the border with Azerbaijan. The existing connection at Jolfa is currently totally useless as the line is now blocked at both sides by the war.

What I found way more exciting is the connection to Zahedan, finally allowing to travel by train all the way to India. If only crossing Pakistan was reasonably safe, and a decent service available between Zahedan and Quetta, I would have done that trip already.
 
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The rule of the Shah in the 1970s became increasingly authoritarian. The royal family appropriated a large amount of the country's income for themselves and gradually the clerics became less and less content with the ruling classes. The result, as we know, was major political change at the end of the decade.

My recollections of the 1960s are vague. As a child I was almost entirely focussed on my immediate environment. The 1970s were a different matter. Events in the Middle East and in Iran began to intrude on my childhood. New of conflicts in Palestine and in the wider region became part of my consciousness.

Many of us will be aware that Shah left Iran for exile in January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar who was an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran to be greeted by several million Iranians.

The railways continued to serve the country and saw some significant developments during the decade.

I hope you find this next article interesting. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/30/railways-in-iran-part-4-1970s
 
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While undertaking the research for these articles on the railways in Iran. I was delighted to find some material in a number of European language posted on a thread about the Railways of Iran on the SJK Postvagen forum. This next post is numbered out of sequence as I have already begun work of the period from the 1980s onwards, but the material is really interesting (in my view). I have had to use Google Translate to get the first draft of the different papers referred to in the link article and then I have had to clarify or paraphrase a number of things to make the text work in English. ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/03/railways-in-iran-part-6-foreign-articles-collection-a
 
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I seem to have quite a number of unfinished articles on the Railways of Iran. Some are taking longer than others to complete. This is Part 9!

I still have parts 5, 7 and 8 to complete and I hope that there will be at least 3 others to follow.

This post includes two articles from journals in other countries translated for an English audience.

 
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To finish the collection of translated articles from other sources, this post focuses on chapters from a book written in Danish in the 1930s about the filming of a documentary about the building of the Tran-Iranian Railway. ......

 
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After the Revolution. ......

This next post brings the story of the Railways of Iran up to the Millenium. ....

 
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One of the joys of doing research is discovering little gems in surprising places. This happened to me just recently as I was searching for information and particularly for images associated with the railways of Iran up to the end of the Second World War. The result is this next article which I have agreed with Lancaster City Museum and the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum. ......

 
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mailbyrail

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Even though the country is emerging from major corona virus suffering and US sanctions, the Iranian Transport Minister has today announced plans to build another 1,200km of new lines. 2,000 carriages and locos are under construction for delivery in the next twelve months as the country's railways continue to modernise and expand.
All cross border services have resumed after the corona virus lockdown except into Turkmenistan which has closed all its borders.
 
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Yes, maibyrail, progress is amazing. I have to admit to being surprised by the developing situation in Iran. I am just about to post the next installment on Iran's railways.
 
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As mailbyrail says, moderisation and expansion of the netwrok in Iran moves forward at a pace.

This next post gives some insight into what is being achieved. I must acknowledge that it is not a comprehensive report on Iran's Railways in the 21st Century, merely a snapshot of what has been happening.

 
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MarcVD

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Even though the country is emerging from major corona virus suffering and US sanctions, the Iranian Transport Minister has today announced plans to build another 1,200km of new lines. 2,000 carriages and locos are under construction for delivery in the next twelve months as the country's railways continue to modernise and expand.
All cross border services have resumed after the corona virus lockdown except into Turkmenistan which has closed all its borders.

Be careful that there is sometimes a long way between what the countrý announces officially and what it realizes...

Also, as far as I know, there isn't any cross border service between Iran and Turkmenistan anyway. No passenger train crosses the border of this country, in any direction.

And finally, be aware that PressTV is essentially a publisher of fake news.
 

mailbyrail

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You may be correct there is no passenger train from Iran to Turkmenistan, but there is a direct railway which you can see on the openrailwaymap.org

The wikipedia details for Turkmenistan says there is a line to Iran from Turkmenistan
Links to Iran
In 1996, Mashhad–Sarakhs extension connected Iran to Turkmenistan,as part of the Silk Road railway to link to the landlocked Central Asian Countries.Former states of the Soviet Union have railways using a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in) Russian gauge,thus the Iranian Railways maintain break-of-gauge services at borders to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan,and beyond brief wide-track rail segments to the border crossing.

The Turkmenistan post office issued a stamp to mark the opening
1588191779410.png
 

MarcVD

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There are two lines between Iran and Turkmenistan.
Chronologically, the first one is the one mentioned above.
The second one is more recent, it is this new line Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan that goes along the eastern shore of the caspian sea.
None of those lines carry cross-border passenger traffic.
The first one has a twice a day train from Mashhad to Serhaks, just short of the border. And there is a twice-weekly (I think) train from the
other side of the border (Sarhaks) to Ashgabat. I already considered crossing that border but it seems complicated, to say the least.
The second line is in fact connected to the original trans-iranian railway line at Gorgan, but passenger traffic ends there and does not go further north.
Both connections are change-of-gauge. No idea how successful they are in terms of freight traffic. The first one was supposed to connect landlocked
Turkmenistan to the international waters at Bandar Abbas. The second one targets the persian gulf, but with a lot of hard-to-cross mountains in between.
 

mailbyrail

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Turkmenistan issued 6 blocks of stamps in 2014 marking the start of the diurect Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway.
One clearly shows the route of the lines.
If you can find them, they will cost several hundred Euro!
1588238747488.png
 
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