Afghan railroads, past, present and future
A video of the Amo Hairatan Oil Refinery. There are no trains in the video as far as I can see, but a railway siding features from 09:54 and 10:18.
According to its website, Amo Hairatan Refinery LLC was registered in Afghanistan in 2012 by a partnership between citizens of Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. The plant was built on 4 hectares land, and has a monthly capacity of 15,000 tons of Afghan crude, which can be converted into diesel, gasoline, kerosene and furnace fuel oil.
Chris Austin, Afghanistan Country Director for the UK’s Department for International Development, tweets a picture of Naibabad station (bottom left).
Great to go to #Mazar_e_Sharif to see how #UKaid is helping improve roads, rail and electricity in #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/SelwaHC6dv
— Chris Austin (@ChrisAustinDFID) September 1, 2015
Naibabad Railway junction, Mazar Sharif, Afghanistan, pic.twitter.com/IFNHCHUH24
— Md. Mohsin Almaji (@bizurani) June 19, 2015
North Afghanistan Railway Study (NARS) Project- Some @EarthBeauties of Sample Collection-Air, Noise and Water Sample. pic.twitter.com/4amaePoE5f
— Md. Mohsin Almaji (@bizurani) June 20, 2015
Surface Water Sample Collection From Aqcha River for NARS Project. pic.twitter.com/Hv02xpNgbv
— Md. Mohsin Almaji (@bizurani) June 20, 2015
The Asian Development Bank has published this rather fine photo, captioned:
Railway terminal in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, January 5, 2014. The railway has provided easy transportation for oil, wood, flour, wheat, asphalt and other important products
There is what looks like a TEM2 diesel locomotive in the background.
Despite the date in the caption, the metadata says the picture was taken on 19 December 2013, by Jawad Jalali (presumably this Afghan photographer).
That looks rather like a passenger station, despite the Uzbekistan to Mazar-i-Sharif railway being freight only.
Gliding over #Afghanistan's first railway, a 75km line that goes from Mazar-e-Sharif to #Uzbekistan. pic.twitter.com/6UTCQTa7wK
— Elissa Mirzaei (@ElissaMirzaei) November 12, 2014
The Dutch ambassador to Afghanistan tweets about a book by Khalil Wedad which includes photos by a Dutch railway engineer who worked in the country in the 1920s.
1/2 A century of Afghan history: book by Khalil Wedad with photo's from 1928 by Dutch railway engineer Adrianus Maas pic.twitter.com/GuMwSHp9ik
— Henk Jan Bakker (@HenkJanBakker3) April 1, 2015
2/2 Maas was invited by King Amanullah. Honored by presence of his daughter princess India. pic.twitter.com/X43mz2qwLQ
— Henk Jan Bakker (@HenkJanBakker3) April 1, 2015
A couple of photos of the Khyber Railway at the British museum website. As is all too common in Britain, the terms and conditions of the website are written in complicated legalese and don’t really give a clear answer to the question “can I use the image on my own website?”, so here are links instead.
Bagiari Cutting through the Khyber Pass
Photograph of a railway engine [2287] stopped in a narrow defile in the Khyber Pass (NWFP, Pakistan) with two persons standing next to it, one a local man and the other a European identified in the caption as Dr E S Appleby. A third local man stands on the front of the engine itself.
Photograph of a railway engine [2287] stopped at Jamrud Station (NWFP, Pakistan) at the eastern end of the Khyber Pass. Dr E S Appleby and ‘Guard’ Garlick said to be in the scene. The station name is visible in the photo.
Watercolour depicting construction of Khojak tunnel, in Balochistan in 1880 by Rayner C Barker, CIE.
The UK’s National Army Museum has this rather good photo of The opening of the Khyber railway, 1925. Photograph by Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973), India, North West Frontier, 1925. NAM Image Number 118645.
The text says:
The Khyber Pass Railway from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened on 4 November 1925. Built to allow easier movement of troops to the frontier, the railway climbed more than 1,200 metres (3,900 feet) through 34 tunnels and 92 bridges, and culverts to reach Landi Kotal.
An old (1979?) photo of the Soviet-Afghan border at Kushka, showing the railway.