This narrow gauge railroad ran from the Shah-do-Shamshira to Darulaman
; a photograph taken in 1926 at the Williams Afghan Media Project website. It is the same photo as the one from German magazine Uhu in February 1930, although Uhu cropped the edges.
Posts Tagged ‘steam loco’
Darulaman railway in 1926
Sunday, December 26th, 2010Kabul to Darulaman railway in 1930
Sunday, November 21st, 2010“Train en afghanistan 1930” is a photograph of the Kabul to Darulaman railway, scanned from French magazine Sciences et Voyages No. 533 of 3 April 1930 by “Jean-Pierre 60″.
The original caption says Il existe, en Afghanistan, quelques kilomètres de voies ferrées. La photographie represente une station de chemin de fer
[There are, in Afghanistan, a few kilometres of railway. The photograph shows a railway station].
The locomotive has a headlight, which doesn’t appear on earlier pictures.
Steam loco at the National Museum of Afghanistan
Thursday, November 4th, 2010The Museum And The Palace
at the From UBC to Kabul blog by Brian Platt has some photographs of the Kabul museum and its plinthed Henschel steam locomotive which were taken on 30 October 2010. One of the locos with a collapsed cab is also visible in one of the shots.
After wondering around inside for a while, I explored the outside yard of the museum. The most interesting piece was this, the rusted-out body of a steam engine. It’s from the 1920s when Amanullah, the leader of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, worked his ass off to modernize the country.
…
However, Amanullah’s policies were attacked viciously by various conservative factions in Afghanistan, and eventually he was forced into exile in Europe. All that’s left of his grand train visions are sitting on the lawn of the National Museum.
Source: From UBC to Kabul, 2010-11-03
Pakistan Railways steam photos
Monday, March 29th, 2010
The April 2010 issue of British Railways Illustrated magazine has an article with lots of photographs of the Khyber Pass line taken by Gavin Morrison in the 1970s. There is a companion article about Pakistani narrow gauge in the April 2010 Railway Bylines, with basically the same text but different pictures.
The text isn’t especially detailed, being a brief description of the visit, rather than a history of the lines, but there are some very nice pictures of steam engines in action in spectacular scenery.
Sadly the Khyber Pass line is now out of action, with sections having been washed away and revival seemingly a distant prospect – unless the Chinese decide to rebuild and extend it to serve their Afghan copper mining concession at Aynak.
The 2’6″ gauge railway from Bostan to Zhob (Fort Sandeman) has closed. The track was lifted by the authorities to prevent (further) theft, although the government has announced plans to rebuild it as a 1676 mm gauge line and construct a 150 km extension to Dera Ismail Khan, cutting 400 km from the distance by rail between Quetta and Peshawar.
Steam engine diplomacy
Thursday, January 14th, 2010The politics behind “Pakistan’s gift of a steam engine to UK in 1981 and the interesting story of this loco’s arrival in Manchester” at All Things Pakistan.
The Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester has a page on the loco, Vulcan Foundry 4-4-0 works no. 3064 of 1911, while The Vulcan Foundry Newton-le-Willows “electronic museum” has information on other Vulcan Foundry survivors.
An old locomotive at the Kabul Museum
Sunday, December 13th, 2009Found on Flickr.
Photo of the Day: 4 August 2009
An old locomotive at the Kabul Museum.
One of the first three locomotives in Afghanistan, imported by King Amanullah Khan in the 1920s, is now on display at the Kabul Museum.
A US$ 120 million grant from the Asian Development Bank is due to be used for railway development in Afghanistan.
A feasibility study will be conducted for a rail route connecting the northern town of Hairatan, which borders Uzbekistan, to the western province of Herat. Another route under study will be between Shirkhan Bandar in Kunduz province, which borders Tajikistan, and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country.
Afghanistan is a landlocked country with no railways.
Photo: Fardin Waezi (UNAMA).
Photo of displayed Kabul loco
Sunday, May 17th, 2009“Not something you would expect!” says wandering photographer Bob McIntosh, who took a nice photograph of the plinthed Henschel steam locomotive in Darulaman, near Kabul.
He also has a picture of a grain silo, which shows part of the defunct trolley bus route in Kabul.
A correpsondent called Ramon writes that The engine put on display must be engine no. 19680 or 19681. These two were reported to be kept in the shed for a long time. The 3rd engine has no. 19691, it is the last one in the row outside the museum.
Der Spiegel on King Amanullah’s visit to Berlin
Sunday, March 8th, 2009Potentaten als Bittsteller (PDF) is a 2001 article about Afghanistan in Der Spiegel.
There is a 1989 photo of the steam engines at Darulaman. The text says:
Amanullah holte deutsche Firmen und Ingenieure ins Land. Sie errichteten Straßen, Brücken, Staudämme und eine königliche Residenz sowie Prachtbauten in Darulaman, einem Vorort von Kabul. Dort sollte auch eine deutsche Eisenbahn fahren, als Lieblingsspielzeug des Potentaten. Die mit dem Schiff nach Bombay transportierten Lokomotiven wurden von Elefanten über enge Passstraßen durch den Hindukusch geschleppt, ein paar hundert Meter Schienenwege verlegt. Noch nach über 20 Jahren Bürgerkriegswirren und der Zerstörung Kabuls standen dort auf einem von Disteln und Dornenbüschen überwucherten Anger drei verrostete Dampfloks und das Fahrgestell eines Reisewaggons „Made in Germany“.
Whch is something vaguely approximating to:
Amanullah sought German companies and engineers into the country. They built roads, bridges, dams
and royal palace in Darulaman, a suburb of Kabul. There should also be a German rail travel, a favourite toy of potentates. The locomtives were transported by ship to Mumbai and then pulled by elephant in passes through the Hindu Kush, where a couple of hundred metres of rail were laid [not sure I've got that translation quite right!]. Yet after more than 20 years of civil war turmoil and the destruction of Kabul, there overgrown by thistles and thorn bushes are three rusty steam engines and the carriage labelled “Made in Germany”.
There is a description (in German) of King Amanullah’s visit to Berlin in 1928.
Die politischen Konsultationen verliefen wenig ergiebig. Der Potentat trat als Bittsteller auf. Er brauche Geld, eröffnete der junge König sogleich dem greisen Reichspräsidenten, „Geld zur Entwicklung meines Landes“. Auch wolle er Eisenbahnen bauen. Bei den Eisenbahnen mahnte Hindenburg zur Vorsicht („wenig rentable Unternehmen“), und über besondere Geldmittel verfüge er leider nicht. Aber Deutschland sei gern bereit, Afghanistan „tüchtige Leute“ zur Verfügung zu stellen.
The political consultations were low yielding. The potentate appeared as a supplicant. He needed money, the young king immediately told the aged President [Hindenberg], ‘money to develop my country.” He even wanted to build railways. Hindenburg warned to be cautious about railways (“little profitable business”), and did not have funds. But Germany was happy to provide “capable people”.
(better translations gratefully accepted!)
Photos of the Kabul steam locos and coaches in 1971
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Burkhard Puetz was in Afghanistan in 1971. He took these photographs showing two of the 2′ 6″ gauge Henschel steam locomotives from the Kabul to Darulaman railway still in their shed, and also the remains of the carriages outside.
(Photos © Burkhard Puetz)
The third loco identified
Friday, March 14th, 2008Simon Darvill has identified the “third” steam locomotive in Kabul. It is Henschel 19691 of 1923. The entry for it (and for 19680-1) is “Ferrostaal for Kabul-Darulaman, Afghanistan, British India”.
Meanwhile, a blogger in Kabul called Liz went to visit the Kabul museum last month, and provides links describing the revival of the museum. There is also a big photo of the plinthed loco in the snow.
