Photographs from the American Embassy in Kabul, which has a Flickr site with lots more pictures of the Hairatan Rail Line Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on May 25.
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Photos of Mazar-i-Sharif railway under construction
At last – photographs proving the railway is really happening!
They are from Isafmedia, and were taken on May 25 when Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda visited the construction works.
Railway line from Hairatan Mazar-e-Sharif Hits final stage
The new railway line from Termez to Mazar-e-Sharif will be 75 kilometres long.
The Governor of Balkh Province, Atta Mohammed Noor, during his speech.
Kabul railway coach photo
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.
Amazingly, the locomotives have survived, though only the underframes of the coaches remain.
Some photos of Hayratan
Some June 2008 photos of Hayratan by Mathias Schroeder.
And some March 2007 photos of the Friendship Bridge by Conrad Blything
- Friendship Bridge Uzbekistan & Afghanistan Border – in case anyone is passing, a comment on the page adds “if you like to visit this place you can find tasty fried fish with cold drinks at river Amo side”.
- Friendship Bridge, Afghanistan looking Towards Uzbekistan
An old locomotive at the Kabul Museum
Found 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).
Photos of the Kabul steam locos and coaches in 1971
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)
1927 Locomotive
Another picture of one of the steam locos in the Darulaman museum. It was actually made by Henschel in Germany, rather than in Britain.