Stars & Stripes in Hairatan

A report from Stars & Stripes about US support for the development of rail capabilities at Hairatan. US Army Captain Donald Moyer “estimates that Afghan rail is still at least a decade away from being self-sufficient”.

There are some good aerial photos of the railway facilities, including an unusual view of a TEM2 seen from high above.

[…]
In their 10 months at Port Hairaton, the five rail team members say that while much has improved, it’s been challenging to get Afghans to buy into the concept of the railroad as part of an interconnected transportation system, instead of an independent entity. Their work has been slowed, too, by bureaucracy: Several ministries are trying to have a say about the future of Afghan rail.
[More…]

Source: Work on Afghanistan’s sole rail line falls to five soldiers, Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes, 24 May 2014

Rail developments in northern Afghanistan

An interesting article about the Uzbekistan – Hayratan – Mazar-i-Sharif railway from the Fayetteville Observer: U.S. works to get Afghans on track with rail network, Drew Brooks, Fay Observer, 2 May 2014.

The article is well worth a read. Some highlights:

  • About 4 600 wagons a month use the line between the border and Mazar-e-Sharif.
  • More than 90% of the fuel used by coalition forces enters Afghanistan by rail through Hayratan.
  • The railway from Camp Marmal near Mazar-i-Sharif is a “secondary outlet” for military equipment leaving for ports in Latvia or Estonia.
  • The line is a “major thoroughfare” for coalition military equipment being shipped to Germany or France, but has only carried about 600 to 700 US containers
  • The line is operated by Uzbekistan as part of a bilateral agreement. The Uzbek government – not Afghanistan – collects money from the imports.
  • Afghanistan is expected to eventually take control of the line.
  • Afghanistan has already assumed responsibility for some tasks and purchased its first two locomotives [does anyone know what they are?].
  • The international co-operation that helped create the line is seen as integral to the development of a larger network.
  • “This is the safest place in all of Afghanistan.”

There are also a couple of photos, including a good aerial view of the area around the Friendship Bridge.

Finally: “The idea of a transportation network is a new idea for them,” Hakey said before motioning to a small wooden tabletop. “Back home, you have a lot of interest groups, there are rail fans. Here, you could probably lay out all the photos of Afghan rail on this table.”

Friendship Bridge opening photographs

A Russian-language photograph archive with images of the official opening ceremony for the Friendship bridge between the USSR and Afghanistan on 12 May 1982, and associated events including a tree-planting ceremony on the previous day.

The photos include a view of the bridge decorated with large photos of Soviet and Afghan bigwigs – I think they are Brezhnev on the left and Afghanistan’s President Karmal on the right(?).

Edmund Rich railway and campaign archive for sale

If anyone has US$25,000 to spare, there is this for sale at The Wayfarer’s Bookshop in Canada:

Unique Extensive & Historically Important Photograph and Document Archive of Edmund Rich, Summarizing his Service as the Official Surveyor of the British Colonial Forces in the North-West Frontier in 1905-1909, and Containing Excellent First-Hand Accounts of the Bazar Valley and Mohmand Campaigns of 1908, as well as a Detailed Survey of the Khyber Pass for the Planned Kabul River Railway and of the District between Malakand, Swat River and Dir.

It includes “several interesting photos of the working survey team under Rich’s command” and of a “railway camp on the Kabul River, 3 miles from Warsak”.

Another similar – or is it the same? – archive collection was sold in December 2012.

Having recently spent a bit of time in various archive collections (sadly I don’t have US$25k to see this one!) I’m currently writing up some notes to update the webpage about the Kabul River Railway scheme. More information has come to light since the page was first written, and while this has answered a number of questions, it has also raised others. Watch this space!

ADB article on Mazar-i-Sharif railway construction project

The Asian Development Bank has published an article Innovative Project Management and Coordination Speed Up Afghanistan Railway Project. This describes how the Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif line was “completed in record time” – basically by building on existing plans, awarding a turnkey contact, and chucking plenty of money at it.

The January 2014 article, Issue 51 in ADB’s Knowledge Showcases series, is by Balabhaskara Reddy Bathula, senior transport specialist at ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. He was the project officer involved in the entire process, from technical assistance processing to construction and “operationalizing” of the line.

Worth a read.

New York Times on the National Museum of Afghanistan

The New York Times has a very interesting article about the National Museum of Afghanistan, which mentions the steam engines (and links to this website; *waves* to the sudden spike in visitors).

While the emphasis is on the ancient, there are more modern artifacts as well — including several rusting steam locomotives in the gardens. “We have them to remind people that at the end of the 19th century, Afghanistan had railroads, while at the end of the 20th, it did not,” Mr. [museum director Omara Khan] Masoudi said.

Source: Saving Relics, Afghans Defy the Taliban. Rod Nordlandjan, New York Times, 12 January 2014

While there were almost certainly no operational railways in the closing days of the 20th century, were there any at the end of the 19th century? It is possible there was something in a factory in Kabul, but I’m not sure whether there were any others. The steam locomotives in the National Museum of Afghanistan date from the 1920s.