{"id":5689,"date":"2013-01-01T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T00:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/?page_id=5689"},"modified":"2022-06-08T22:33:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T21:33:42","slug":"mashin-khana","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/mashin-khana\/","title":{"rendered":"Mashin Khana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The state arsenal and factory in Kabul had a narrow gauge &#8220;portable railway&#8221; supplied by Leeds company John Fowler &#038; Co.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-5689-1' id='fnref-5689-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(5689)'>1<\/a><\/sup> Fowler produced 60 cm gauge portable light railway equipment, initially under an agreement with French engineer Paul Decauville. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/rail\/af-mashinkhana-inside.jpg\" alt=\"Mashin Khana, Kabul\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Kabul factory known as the Mashin Khana (machine house) was established by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, with Englishman Thomas Salter Pyne as his engineering advisor.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-5689-2' id='fnref-5689-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(5689)'>2<\/a><\/sup> <sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-5689-3' id='fnref-5689-3' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(5689)'>3<\/a><\/sup> Pyne had previously been an overseas representative of Fowler, and later received British and Afghan honours for diplomatic work.<\/p>\n<p>Books could probably be written both about the factory, which was the amir&#8217;s attempt to buy-in an industrial revolution, and about Salter Pyne himself. As it is, little has turned up about the railway so far. <\/p>\n<h3>Link<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kabularsenal.com\/history-of-the-arsenal\">A Brief History of the Kabul Arsenal<\/a>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com\/kabul-book\">THE EMIR\u2019S NEW RIFLES: A History of the Kabul Arsenal, 1885 \u2013 1925<\/a>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-5689'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-5689-1'> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leedsengine.info\/leeds\/histjf.asp\">A Brief History of John Fowler &#038; Co<\/a>, Kris Ward, LeedsEngine.info<\/a> <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-5689-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-5689-2'> For a detailed history, see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg-e.org\/hanifi\/chapter4.html\">Capital Concentrations and Coordinations: Peshawar Subsidies and Kabul Workshops<\/a>, in <em>Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier<\/em> by Shah Mahmoud Hanifi. <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-5689-2'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-5689-3'> For discussion of the weapons produced there, see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firearmscollecting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/From-Kabul-to-Khyber-rev4.pdf\">The Mashin Khana, The History of the Kabul State Arsenal<\/a>, Firearmscollecting.com <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-5689-3'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state arsenal and factory in Kabul had a narrow gauge &#8220;portable railway&#8221; supplied by Leeds company John Fowler &#038; Co.1 Fowler produced 60 cm gauge portable light railway equipment, initially under an agreement with French engineer Paul Decauville. The Kabul factory known as the Mashin Khana (machine house) was established by Amir Abdur Rahman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5689","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5689"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7713,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5689\/revisions\/7713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}