Kabul
Darulaman railway coach
A photo of unknown date and origin showing a person stood by a train on the Kabul to Darulaman narrow gauge railway.
Kabul – Darulaman railway locomotive photo
Another photograph of one of the Henschel steam locomotives on the Kabul – Darulaman railway has been found, in the book “Джанг: Восстание в Афганистане” (War: Uprising in Afghanistan) by journalist Евгений Шуан (Yevgeniy Shuan) which was published in Leningrad in 1930.
AFGHANISTAN’S ONLY STEAM TRAIN (RUNS BETWEEN KABUL AND DAR-UL-AMAN).
The picture was spotted by Markus Hauser, who alerted me to it. His full thread is worth a read, with a lot of interesting pictures of 1920s Afghanistan from the book.
Latest additions to The Pamir Archive:
Евгений Шуан
Джанг: Восстание в Афганистане
[Ленинград]: Прибой, 1930. – 246, [2] с.: ил., портр.-> Another rare and interesting account of Afghanistan by the only European journalist in Afghanistan in 1929.
(Джанг = War) pic.twitter.com/QQzDivkJLP
— Markus Hauser (@hausibek) February 11, 2021
Colourised photo of Darulaman train
Someone has written a bot which automatically colourises photos that are sent to it via Twitter. This is what it did with a photograph of the Darualman railway. Note that this is just for fun, and it is not intended to be historically accurate!
I colorized your image using #openfaas in 4.1 seconds #dockercon pic.twitter.com/R6AgKlyGOb
— Colorise Bot (@colorisebot) November 5, 2017
Kabul trolleybus photos
Some photos of the Kabul trolleybuses, which according to the text ran from 9 February 1979 to 20 April 1992. More information about the Kabul trolleybuses here.
Kabul New City light rail plan
A light rail line is included in the plans for Kabul New City, a proposed a new city 1.5 times larger than the existing one which would be developed between Bagram Airbase and Kabul International Airport.1
Accordng to Dehsabz-Barikab City Development Authority, “there is a LRT line planned on the main city road at the mid term development period”2
References
- The Master Plan – Strategic Plan, DCDA ↩
-
@andrew_grantham Yeah, there is a LRT line planned on the main city road at the mid term development period.
— Kabul New City (@KNC_DCDA) May 20, 2015
Kabul quarry railway plan
And we are going to put down twelve miles of railway to reach a marble quarry, where the Ameer is going to quarry marble to build a new Cabul with.
Frank H Clemence, in an interview with the Liverpool Post which is quoted in the article “A Cheshire man at Cabul” in the Cheshire Observer of Saturday 20 January 1894.
Does anyone know whether this railway was ever built?
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.
1974 Kabul steam locomotive photo
There is a photo of a “Henschel engine of the first railway at Kabul, stored at Darulaman, 1974” by Dr Wolfram Koehler at the Trains-Worldexpresses website (which also has lots of other interesting pictures of trains in Asia).
Tramway near Kabul
Another historical Afghan railway to add to the collection! I have found photographic evidence of a narrow gauge tramway in Kabul in 1904.