The Afghanistan Railway Authority (AfRA), following the creation of Afghanistan Country Code, for the first time in history of the country, has created Codes for the Afghanistan Railway Stations on the International Railway System Database.
This comes as a result of AfRA’s membership to the International Union of Railways (UIC) as well as the Organisation of Cooperation of Railways (OSJD).
The Station Codes will allow importers/exporters to book freight from anywhere in the world which was previously not possible, and bookings were made using neighbouring countries’ codes.
Source: Afghanistan Railway Authority Facebook page, 27 September 2014
Author: Andrew Grantham
The Duchess of Pantulicon and the Candahar – Cabul Tramway
From the 1879 novel The Honourable Ella, A Tale of Foxshire, page 96, Book III, by William Ulick O’Connor Cuffe, 4th Earl of Desart.
As far as I know there never was a Candahar-Cabul Tramway Company (Limited)…
Of course Lord Lorton found no difficulty
in suiting himself with dinner companions
at the Club, and, as it happened, the men
near whom he sat were all of that new-
class which has lately sprung up in Lon-
don ; the mixture of man of fashion with
man of business — half Belgrave Square,
half Stock Exchange — one pocket full of
invitations to balls, the other stuffed with
coupons and bills at three months ; swells
in the City ; City men in the West End ;
laughed at in Capel Court because of their
fine-gentlemanism, and in Hyde Park be-
cause of their money-grubbing ; the mules
of social life, of no particular breed, but
useful ; not quite so good-looking as horses,
and not quite so ugly as asses. Dining
with Alderman Grundy, they talk of the
Duchess of Pantulicon’s last little party.
Dining with Her Grace, they awe her by
their intimate knowledge of the remote
future of the Candahar-Cabul Tramway
Company (Limited). A grand invention
of our “idle day,” but liable to wear out.
And there are some so dense as not to
regret this want of stability !
Kushka border crossing photo
An old (1979?) photo of the Soviet-Afghan border at Kushka, showing the railway.
Chaman, Shela Bagh and Gulistan stations in 1895
Photo taken by William Henry Jackson and published in Harper’s Weekly, 1895, now available on the Library of Congress website.
Railway station at Chaman, near Kojak Tunnel.
Gulistan Station on the Great Military Railway.
Although labelled as “Gulistan Station on the Great Military Railway, at entrance to Kojak Tunnel”, this is actually Shela Bagh station.
In Afghanistan there are several 2 ft gauge railways…
A very interesting claim that there were some 2 foot gauge railways in Afghanistan in 1894 (one may have been at the Mashin Khana royal arsenal in Kabul).
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.
Narrow-gauge railways.
Wednesday, 25th July, 1894.
J Harris in the Chair:
This 2-ft. line is also established in Madagascar where the French rule, it is also in Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Siberia. It was introduced there by Skobeloff. When he was meditating the invasion of India he had this introduced, and I may state that the Russian troops were seen using one of those railways on the frontier for military purposes before the British knew anything about it. When the outposts observed it they reported it to the Commander-in-Chief and he telegraphed to the War Office. The War Office ordered railways of this sort to be sent out straight. They were sent over mountains on the backs of elephants to the frontier. In Afghanistan there are several 2-ft. railways.
Source: Narrow-gauge railways, Minutes of Evidence at the railway standing committee, Victoria, Australia.
1950s Kabul electric tram plan
In November 1950 Machinery Lloyd reported:
Tramways for Kabul
Preliminary plans have been worked out for the development of an electric tramway system for Kabul which should open possibilities for the sale of British equipment. The pro
Source: Machinery Lloyd, p151, 25 November 1950, Volume 22 Issue 3, Continental & Overseas Organisation Ltd
Google Books doesn’t show any more of the article than this snippet.
And not long afterwards, Foreign Commerce Weekly said:
A tramway company for Kabul was formed in August to develop an electric trolley service when current is available with the completion of the Sarobi power project.
Source: Foreign Commerce Weekly, p15, 19 February 1951, Volumes 42 No 8, US Department of Commerce
Kabul never got an electric tramway, however it did have a trolleybus system, with Czechoslovakian equipment.
1950s Afghan coal mine film
“1950s Afghanistan Coal Mine, Miners At Work, Industry – Rare 16mm Footage” from Kinolibrary, which is “an independent archive film agency based in East London. Supplying high quality, rare and inspiring archive footage to documentary makers, ad agencies and museums”.
The video features some narrow gauge V-tipper wagons.
Map of the Russian Central Asian Railway
A map of the Trans-Caspian Railway from page 149 of the book “Russia’s railway advance into Central Asia” by George Dobson (W.H. Allen & Co, London, 1890).
Railway “Just like pushing a knife into my vitals”
The Amir of Afghanistan’s colourful and often-quoted description of British railway expansion towards his country being like a knife in his vitals comes from his autobiography.
having cut a tunnel through the Khojak Hill they were pushing the rail line into my country just like pushing a knife into my vitals
Source: The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, volume 2, page 159
The Khojak Tunnel is on the Chaman Extension Railway, which opened in September 1891 to link Quetta with Chaman on the Afghan frontier. Chaman would have been the starting point for the construction of a British railway to Kandahar, had the military situation required it.
The book The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, G.C.B., G.C.S.I. (John Murray, London, 1900; reprinted in 1980), is nominally the autobiography of the monarch known as the “Iron Amir” who ruled Afghanistan from 1880 to his death on 1 October 1901.
However the introduction to the 1980 reprint by Malcolm E Yapp suggests the book was written by state secretary Sultan Mahomed Khan, who travelled England to study at Christ’s College in Cambridge where he wrote a dissertation on the laws of Afghanistan. Sultan Mahomed Khan corresponded with the Amir while writing the book, but the Amir died before seeing the finished work.
Yapp calls the book “a careful piece of propaganda designed to present the Amir to British readers in the most favourable light”. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan “it was better for the Amir’s reputation that he did not appear as the author.”
Yapp notes that the Amir “was absorbed by the latest mechanical contrivances (he claimed to mend all the watches in Kabul) and had a vast store of miscellaneous items of information.”
He was “a man of depth and complexity. […] On the one hand he murdered his opponents with a relish which bordered on the sadistic and on the other he could spend hours arranging flowers in vases.”
Osama and Bush on a train
This thing actually exists… an Operation Enduring Freedom “Get Osama” model railway wagon.
The O-gauge model features Osama bin Laden on a flying carpet, and George W Bush riding a missile, Strangelove style: The war against terrorism is not for the weary. When the leader of the free world mounts his trusty missile, the bad guys need to watch out. He always gets his man.