Latest updates

The most recent updates from my various webpages.

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.

  • Work to start on Turkmenistan – Afghanistan rail link 3 June 2013
    “Presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan to participate in starting construction of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway” reports Turkmenistan.ru. It looks like the a ceremony to m …
  • ECO train update 26 May 2013
    I’ve recently received some details of the status of the ECO container train plans, from OTIF: The idea was introduced in 2008 at the summit of ECO heads of state in Iran, and a trial run from I …
  • Unofficial Iranian Railways site relaunched 9 May 2013
    Johannes Heger from Austria has completely updated his unofficial Iranian Railways website, which was at www.msedv.com/rai but is now at www.iranrail.net. There is information about passenger travel, …
  • Tracks, drugs and rolling stock 26 April 2013
    An article at The Bug Pit, UN: NDN An Express Train For Afghan Drug Traffickers, draws attention to an October 2012 report from the UN Office on Drugs & Crime, Misuse of Licit Trade for Opiate Tra …
  • Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan sign railway construction MoU 20 March 2013
    MoU of Railway Construction Signed between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan March 20, 2013- On his first day of the visit, President Hamid Karzai attended a trilateral summit held in Ashgabat …

Sound mirrors

  • The Inkling on sound mirrors 14 January 2013
    Listen up: sound mirrors and the fear of flying by Patrick Sykes at The Inkling, 14 January 2013. Probably the only thing The Prodigy, Tacita Dean, and military defence enthusiasts have in common, sou …
  • Bombing the Channel Ports 13 December 2012
    The Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror appears in the 1941 watercolour “Bombing the Channel Ports” by war artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942). Bombing the Channel Ports© IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 15 …
  • Sound mirror for sale 10 December 2012
    Boulby Barns Farm is for sale, along with its sound mirror. Offers in the region of £695 000. Within the paddock is a Grade II listed Listening Post dating from around 1916 and used to detect app …
  • Denge sound mirrors video 16 September 2012
    ‘Sound Mirrors’ -Denge, Dungeness, Kent. by Morgan O’Donovan Sound Mirrors explores the monumental remnants of a dead-end technology and the people who visit them. The three concrete …
  • Historvirus on sound mirrors 14 September 2012
    Denge Sound Mirrors page at Historvirus.

Railways of Iraq

Other – travel and similar

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

  • Railway photography in Nazi Germany 4 April 2013
    Given the outbreaks of anti-photography paranoia which have occurred in Britain in recent years, I was amused to stumble across this 1938 Railway Gazette article “Amateur railway photography in …
  • The Museum of Army Transport rail-ripper 15 March 2013
    Museum of Army Transport, Beverley: German railroad-plough
  • Great Patriotic War museum rail hook 14 March 2013
    A replica of a Second World War rail-ripper hook wagon is included in the outdoor display area at the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow. A sign explains: The “Hook” combi …
  • Oakham level crossing signal box 17 October 2012
    Built in 1899 to Midland Railway design 2b, the Grade II listed signal box at Oakham in Rutland achieved fame as the prototype for the Airfix plastic kit, now made by Dapol (catalogue no.C006). On 22 …
  • Trains in Poland in 2002 17 October 2012
    A few badly-scanned pictures of railways in Poland, taken when I was touring the country with a PKP Polrail pass in August 2002. PKP emblem on a steam loco at Wolsztyn. I’m taking an early holid …