Latest updates

The most recent updates from my various webpages. To keep up-to-date on the topics covered, follow @andrew_grantham on Twitter for railways (and other things which interest me), and @ConcreteEar for sound mirrors and suchlike.

Railways of Afghanistan

If you thought Afghanistan was bereft of railroads, read on for a story of international intrigue, invasion plans, the Great Game, and powers imperial and hydro-electric.

  • New Bukhara and Proletarabad 22 December 2018
    An interesting pair of articles about Kagan/New Bukhara in Uzbekistan and the railways there. Kagan. Part 1: New Bukhara Kagan. Part 2: Proletarabad
  • Railway octopus 21 December 2018
    Worth a link just for the headline: Greater Central Asia to be entangled by railway octopus, by Victoria Panfilova, columnist of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, specially for Vestnik Kavkaza, 19 December 2019.
  • Programme of the opening ceremony of the Khyber Railway 25 November 2018
    A copy of the programme for the official opening of the Khyber Pass railway on 2 November 1925.
  • Afghanistan Railway Authority on Twitter 30 October 2018
    The Afghanistan Railway Authority’s hitherto dormant Twitter account sprang into life today. انتقال کالاها از طریق خط آهن بندر حیرتان اداره خط آهن افغانستان زمینه واردات و صادرات کالاها را از طریق بند …
  • Turkmenistan by train 12 October 2018
    An article about travelling around Turkmenistan by train, from Wilbur’s Travels’ On Track website. With all too rare photos of Turkmen railways.

Sound mirrors

Follow @ConcreteEar on Twitter for sound mirror news and updates.

  • Sound mirror photos on the BBC website 7 January 2019
    Black and white photos of the sound mirrors by Joe Pettet-Smith on the BBC News website. More than 100 years ago acoustic mirrors along the coast of England were used to detect the sound of approachin …
  • Photographing the Kilnsea sound mirror 30 September 2018
    Martin Fuge shows how he photographed the Kilnsea sound mirror. His other landscape photography videos are worth watching as well.
  • Sound mirrors in the Financial Times 24 July 2018
    An article about sound mirrors by the security and defence editor of the Financial Times. Forgotten, dilapidated and, in one case, buried by the local council as an eyesore; these smooth, spherical co …
  • Dungeness sound mirror open day 7 July 2018
    Thank you to all 350 visitors who came to support our open day. Good turn out considering this weekends sporting events… The next one is on the 1st September! @RSPB_SouthEast @concreteear pic.twitter. …
  • Sound mirrors in The Telegraph 30 April 2018
    Today they’re usually called ‘sound mirrors’ or ‘listening ears’ – and to a certain sort of person they are one of the holy grails of aircraft surveillance. The ‘big ears’ of Kent built to keep Blight …

Railways of Iraq

  • PC class streamlined loco photo 25 June 2018
  • Pictures of Baghdad Central station 29 November 2016
    BBC report In pictures: The crown jewel of Iraq’s railway. See if you can spot the steam loco in the second and the last photos.
  • Mobile friendly 13 April 2015
    I have changed this website’s WordPress theme, so hopefully it should now be more mobile device friendly. Let me know if anything doesn’t work. Meanwhile, I would recommend following “Historical Railw …
  • New coaches for Iraqi Republic Railways 16 January 2015
    Tüvasaş has built 14 coaches for Iraqi Republic Railways, including 2 sleeping, 4 couchette and 2 restaurant cars pic.twitter.com/CM4IdLrKvC — Railway Gazette (@railwaygazette) January 14, 2015
  • Derailment response vehicle for IRR 29 September 2014
    One of 7 Zagro derailment response vehicles ordered by Iraqi Republic Railways, on show at #InnoTrans pic.twitter.com/J0HmL5iUER — Railway Gazette (@railwaygazette) September 26, 2014

Other – travel and similar

If God had intended us to fly, He would never have given us the railways.