Elephants carrying locomotives through the Bolan Pass

March 28th, 2010

Posted by Robert Grauman at Practical Machinist is an article about railway construction during the Great Game which appeared in 15 August 1885, issue of Scientific American, having originally appeared in French magazine L’Ilustration. I guess it is now out of copyright, so I’ll post it here too.

The Bolan pass is now in Pakistan.

An English military railway

Sketch of elephants carrying dismantled railway locomotives in the Bolan Pass
“The English army has succeeded in establishing a portable railway on several points of the Bolan Pass. This railroad is of the Decauville system, formed in sections of small steel rails, which can be put down or taken up very quickly. This ingenious railway - which has been used considerably for work on the Panama Canal and for the transportation of sugar cane in Australia and Java - has become the indispensable means of transport in all wars. It is at present being used in Tonquin and Madagascar by the French army, and is also being used on the Red Sea by the Italian army. When the Russian government commenced the war in Turkestan, in 1882, it bought one hundred versts, or about 66 miles, of the Decauville railroad, which Gen. Skobeleff used with great success for the transportation of potable water and for all the provisions for his army. This railroad was taken up as the army marched forward, and when the Russians advanced recently, in Afghanistan, the little railway appeared at the advance posts, and was described to the English army by the officers who watched the operations for the Afghans. An order for a similar apparatus was given by the English government to M. Decauville, directions being given that the road should be of the same type as that furnished to the Russians. The object of this was, probably, that any sections of road which might be captured from the Russians during the war could be used by the English. In this last order there was one problem which was very difficult to solve; all the material had to be carried by elephants, and they wanted a locomotive. M. Decauville had the locomotive made in two parts, the larger of which weighed on 3,978 pounds, the greatest weight that an elephant can carry.”

“This episode of the Anglo-Russian conflict, illustrated in the annexed cut, is a great conquest for our national industry, for the works of M. Decauville are at Petit-Bourg, that is, in France, and only an hour from Paris. They cover about 20 acres on the bank of the Seine, and adjoin the P.L.M. The great hall is 525 feet long by 525 feet deep. The material is brought in at both ends (at one end the rails and steel for the road, and at the other end the sheet metal and iron for the cars), and the manufactured products are taken out at the middle, loaded in the cars of the P.L.M Co. In July, 1884, the works of Petit-Bourg attained their greatest development, with a thousand workmen, and 350 machines, which do the work of 3,000 men. Among others, there are four painting machines, which do the work of 60 painters. Three thousand cars and 93 miles of road are produced each month.”
Source: Scientific American, 15 August 1885, quoted at Practical Machinist’s Antique Machinery and History forum 2010-02-26

Wagons delayed in Uzbekistan

March 25th, 2010

“according to the note, about 1000 units of railway cargo intended for Tajikistan and Afghanistan have been detained in the territory of Uzbekistan within two months.”

“S. Shoislamov explained that the delay of cargoes is connected with busy cargo transportation traffic to Afghanistan.
Source: gazeta.kz, 2010-03-25

Mazar-i-Sharif line to be extended to Dara-i-Sauf

March 21st, 2010

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Work on railway line to begin soon: Officials from Uzbekistan and Afghanistan have agreed to launch construction work on a 75-kilometre railway line, linking Mazar-i-Sharif with the Hairatan dry port.

An agreement to the effect was reached at talks between the two sides on January 16.

The construction of another railway line — linking the airport in Mazar-i-Sharif to Dara-i-Sauf district of neighbouring Samangan province — would be launched in the second phase, he revealed.

[more]

Source: South Asian Outlook quoting Pajhwok Afghan News, 2010-02-??

Copper mine delayed

March 14th, 2010

Production at the Aynak mine in Afghanistan, in which Jiangxi owns a stake, will probably start from 2013 or 2014 instead of 2012, Li also said. Initial geological studies on the project weren’t detailed enough and more work needs to be done, he said.
Source: Bloomberg/Business Week 2010-03-05

Kabul railway coach photo

March 7th, 2010

Abandoned railway coach in Kabul

Google’s archive of photos from Life has this one (above) captioned “Deserted Afghan railway car after failure to begin rail system”.

Dated 1938 in the caption, the picture shows an overgrown bogie coach from the short-lived narrow gauge railway which ran for 7 km between Kabul and Darulaman.

The number painted at each end is “2″ - a vehicle number, or a class number? The coach is noticeably longer than one in labeled “1″ in this picture below, which was taken by Wilhelm Rieck in 1923 and is said to show the first train, so perhaps it is a class number, with the bigger coach being second class.

The Life photo shows another coach at the back, apparently a lighter colour, which is presumably the first class car. But is there a third vehicle as well, in front of that one?

This picture below appeared in the February 1930 issue of the German magazine UHU, and shows two coaches plus some wagons.

Train at Darulaman

Amazingly, the locomotives have survived, though only the underframes of the coaches remain.

Polish magazine article

March 1st, 2010

The March 2010 issue of Polish magazine Świat Kolei has an article on Afghan railways based on this website, “Kolej-widmo w Afganistanie” by Andrew Grantham and Marek Graff, p28-9.

“The tribes were very restive and hostile”

February 28th, 2010

I’ve just been re-reading a fascinating book I found whilst browsing dusty shelves in a bookshop in Rawalpindi when I was last in Pakistan (1997). It is called “Adventure Through Khyber” by Victor Bayley … His task: to design and supervise the construction of a railway through the Khyber Pass, a railway which would eventually link far off Bombay to the Afghanistan Border at Landi Khana.

More…

Cost of road transport

February 23rd, 2010

Writing in Viewpoint: Measuring success in Afghanistan, Fotini Christia, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has recently spent time in Afghanistan researching conflict and development says:

The cost of transporting goods is increased by violence and the chances of being attacked on the roads. If transport costs on a route were to fall it would be a positive sign.

In 2007 Afghanistan’s lorry drivers’ union estimated that each vehicle pays more than $6,500 (£4,216) annually in taxes and bribes extorted on Afghanistan’s roads.

Such costs are an important measure of the security situation.

Visit of their Majesties the King and Queen of Afghanistan to Swindon Works

February 21st, 2010

Swindon Local Studies Collection has an image of the commemorative booklet containing an illustrated history of Swindon works in Persian which was produced when King Amanullah visited the Great Western Railway’s works on 21 March 1928.

The Queen did not attend as had been planned: “it was understood that the Royal lady was too fatigued to bear the journey” reported Railway Gazette on 23 March 1928.

The booklet included portraits of the GWR’s Chairman, Deputy Chairman, General Manager and Chief Mechanical Engineer.

British Pathe has some old film KING AMANULLAH IN SWINDON:

Royalty. Amir of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan visits England. The Amir and his entourage visit a railroad engine factory. Dark but interesting footage. The group watches a worker using a gun to spray paint or some sealant on a railroad freight car; the man wears a mask to protect himself from chemicals. The men walk by a locomotive rotating on a turntable outside factory. Interior: they walk through large space w/ many sets of train wheels lined up. Heavy machinery moving another set of wheels overhead. Next; they gather around a finished locomotive. Exterior again;the group walking along beside train. Entering train coach. This visit is probably from 1921 [sic]; when A.K. signed a treaty w/ Great Britain.

I suspect 1921 should say 1928, making it the same as the visit above and as listed by the British Film Institute.

There is also a photo The King of Afghanistan visits the Swindon railway works, Wiltshire, 1928 at the Science & Society Picture Library.