{"id":295,"date":"2008-04-24T20:32:45","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T19:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ccgi.ajg41.plus.com\/?page_id=295"},"modified":"2012-09-08T10:47:43","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T10:47:43","slug":"railway-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/railway-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi railway history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/images\/iraq\/taurusposter.jpg\" width=\"92\" height=\"144\" alt=\"[Poster advertising the Taurus Express]\" class=\"alignright\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This a page of random odds and sods, rather than a real history, I&#8217;m afraid.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/html\/B\/BaghdadR1.asp\">Brief history of the Baghdad railway<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pearcedale.com\/c&#038;b\/DL.html#Iraq\" title=\"World-wide 30-inch gauge railways\">Two foot six gauge railways in Iraq<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.1uptravel.com\/country-guide-study\/iraq\/iraq59.html\">Railroad section of <cite>Country Study &amp; Country Guide for Iraq<\/cite><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.naqshbandi.org\/ottomans\/khalifa\/baghdad_railway.htm\">Baghdad Railway<\/a>. <q>In 1902 the Ottoman government granted a German firm the concession to lay new track eastward from Ankara to Baghdad.<\/q><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/public.deutsche-bank.de\/global\/db\/historische.nsf\/doc\/EKAN-4PKMYU\/$file\/e01010113.html\"><q>1903 Signing of the franchise to<br \/>\nbuild the Baghdad Railway<\/q><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>History of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trainsofturkey.com\/hist_baghdad.htm\">Baghdad railway<\/a>, on the comprehensive <cite>Trains of Turkey<\/cite> website.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yale.edu\/lawweb\/avalon\/mideast\/sykes.htm\">Sykes-Picot Agreement<\/a> of 1916 mentions railways in (what is now) Iraq and its neighbours.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bankgeschichte.de\/bag_main.html\">Von Stambul nach Bagdad &#8211; Die Geschichte einer ber&uuml;hmten Eisenbahn<\/a>. History and photos of the Berlin to Baghdad project (it&#8217;s in German, but the pictures are well worth a look even if you can&#8217;t read the text).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/images\/rail\/orient-express-poster-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"Railway poster\" title=\"Railway poster advertising the Orient Express\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\"  class=\"alignright\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1903-03-03 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.obarchive.com\/english\/as-baghdat-railway.html\">Deutsche Bank granted 99 year Ottoman concession for Ankara &#8211; Baghdad line<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1920-04-01 Transfered from military to civil administration.<\/li>\n<li>1923-04-10 Adminstered by Iraqi authorities.<\/li>\n<li>1936[1935?]-03 Sold to Iraqi government for GBP494 000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nThe book <cite>Middle East Railways<\/cite> by Hugh Hughes mentions that: <q>A very interesting metre-gauge link was established at Maqil in December 1943 &#8230; The line led to exchange sidings at Tanuma on the east bank from where a standard gauge railway was built to the Iraqi border and on to join the Iranian system<\/q>. This link closed July 1945. The Iranian line<br \/>\n(operational from 1943 to 1945) ran to a junction at Hoseyniyeh with<br \/>\nthe Ahwaz &#8211; Khorramshahr line (commssioned in May 1942).\n<\/p>\n<p>\nOdds from the Iraq entry in <cite>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica<\/cite>:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>German firms were awarded a concession to build a railway from Anatolia to Baghdad before WWI. Britain protested, in case it threatened British interests. <\/li>\n<li>The Iraqi government purchsed the railways from British control in 1935 [March 1936, according to <cite>Middle East Railways<\/cite>]. The Baiji Tal &#8211; Kucuk section, the final missing link between the Gulf and Europe, was completed in 1938.<\/li>\n<li><q cite=\"Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica\">A 340 mile line has been constructed by a Brazilian company to link up with Syrian railways<\/q><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<q>Railway construction began in Iraq in 1902, part of the Berlin &#8211; Baghdad project, seen as a standard gauge through route. After the British invasion of 1914, Basra &#8211; Baghdad was built with surplus metre gauge equipment from India, and Iraq has a similar length now of both gauges. 2 529 km, 19 steam locos, 163 Diesels, 4 DMUs, 240 carriages, 3 280 wagons, 1 377 staff.<\/q><br \/> <cite>World Atlas of Railways (OS Nock, 1978)<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This a page of random odds and sods, rather than a real history, I&#8217;m afraid. Brief history of the Baghdad railway. Two foot six gauge railways in Iraq. Railroad section of Country Study &amp; Country Guide for Iraq. Baghdad Railway. In 1902 the Ottoman government granted a German firm the concession to lay new track [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":70,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2379,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295\/revisions\/2379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/iraq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}