Trans-Iranian Railway
Trans-Iranian Railway | |
---|---|
standard gauge | |
Official name | Trans-Iranian Railway |
Location | Iran |
Criteria | Cultural: (ii)(iv) |
Reference | 1585 |
Inscription | 2021 (44th Session) |
The Trans-Iranian Railway (
The original 1938 Bandar Shahpur-to-Bandar Shah route was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2021.[4]
Before World War I: the Russian scheme
The idea of a railway connecting the
To build the railway the problem of raising enough capital to fund the project was discussed. The
A Trans-Iranian Railway Consortium was formed by December 1910, consisting of twelve major Russian banks. Nine of these banks came to an agreement with major
When Arthur von Gwinner, Chief Manager of Deutsche Bank and the Baghdad Railway, announced plans to build a section of the railway connecting Baghdad to Khanaqin by 1916, the Russians moved quickly to secure British support and French investments in the Société d'Etudes.[9] The Russians were primarily concerned with the construction of the northern section of the line, extending from Astara to Tehran, while the British were more concerned with the southern section, since they already dominated the southern region and the Persian Gulf.[10]
Meanwhile, the
The outcome of the Balkan Wars caused Russian and Britain to accept the probability of war with the Central Powers in the near future, suggesting the necessity of strong
By June 1914 surveys for the Enzeli-Tehran section had begun, and by 1915 the results of the Astara-Tehran part of the railway were completed and published. Still, progress on the railway was slow. Then, a few days after the outbreak of World War I, Russia repudiated its obligation to build the Tehran-Khanaqin line under the Potsdam Agreement.[13]
After World War I
After the substantial interruption of World War I, the project for constructing a standard-gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) railway across Iran was initiated by Reza Shah Pahlavi as part of numerous reforms contributing to the drastic modernization of Iran that occurred over the two decades between World War I and World War II. Although technically independent, Iran was still a financially devastated and weak country. Yet the decade of the thirties brought the emergence of an economic market, a drastic increase in modern industries, a rise in exports, and an increase in agricultural output.[14]
Initially, British and Russian observers considered the implantation of railways as the ultimate solution to the immense transportation problems Iran faced due to sparsely settled population, the lack of rivers, high mountains, and inhospitable desert regions of the country. Many Americans and British opposed the Trans-Iranian Railway, suggesting more efficient and less expensive modes of transportation, such as the U.S. Army's Motor Transport Service, which hauled about a fourth of the volume hauled by the railway to the Soviet border. Some British critics, including General Percy Sykes, opposed the railway because it ran north to south, rather than from west to east. The west to east route was preferred because it would allow the British direct access to their military bases in India and Mesopotamia, and at the same time, avoiding the threat of commercial loss of profit to Russia and any foreign rival.
There were also Iranians opposed to the building of the railway as well, believing that the money could instead be much more effectively used on roads.[15] However, if a cabinet minister was caught criticizing the extensive tax burden the railway produced, he could be placed in prison on counts of being a British collaborator, decidedly attempting to keep Iran backwards for his own financial and strategic goals.[16]
While it may seem logical to attribute the reduction in transportation prices to the Trans-Iranian Railway, in reality it contributed minimally. Although much opposition to the railway was politically and financially motivated, the railway was an expensive tax-burden, costing Iran 2,195,180,700 rials through 1938-1939.[17] The majority of capital used to fund the railway was provided through taxes on goods such as sugar and tea, produced in plants set up by the industries ministry, as part of Reza Shah Pahlavi's reform movement.[16]
Construction
In 1924 the American company Ulen negotiated with Prime minister
In the following years Reza who became Shah in 1925 had legislation passed in parliament which secured internal Iranian funding for the railway project from taxes levied on consumption of sugar and other goods thus excluding a new round of external debts that had bogged down the rulers of Iran before World War I.
In further negotiations it was agreed first to construct 2 test lines starting from the northern and the southern end of the projected Transiranian Railroad in order to establish cost for an agreement on the whole line. Against competing interests from other countries the Americans decided to form a joint venture with German companies.
From 1927 an international syndicate called "Syndicat du Chemin du Fer en Perse" consisting of the American Ulen and Company and a German "Konsortium für Bauausführungen in Persien" (formed by 3 German companies
In April 1933 Iran concluded a contract with the Danish firm Kampsax. Kampsax at that time was active in railway construction in Turkey and the Shah followed the Turkish recommendation which had the additional advantage of bringing in a company from a small country which posed no political risk for Iranian independence. Kampsax subcontracted the project in 43 lots to companies from Europe, the USA and Iran. Kampsax engineers supervised the works on each lot, the works being coordinated from the head office in Tehran. The contract required Kampsax to complete the line by May 1939. Kampsax completed the project under-budget and ahead of schedule, with it being formally opened throughout on 26 August 1938.[21]
The first official steam locomotive conductor to ride the line was an Iranian named Hossein Orang.[22]
The first lines passed through formidable mountains. Long stretches have gradients of up to 1 in 36
Engineering and geological challenges
Various geological problems were encountered, requiring abandonment of some tunnels and realignment of the route through different terrain:
- A tunnel through a salt dome was abandoned because the disrupted water table would erode away the salt.
- A tunnel started through apparently solid rock was abandoned after it encountered powdery gypsum that filled the excavation as quickly as it was dug out.
- A tunnel through pumice could not be blasted and could not be dug as the picks and shovels became stuck.
- A tunnel encountered a large "void" or cavern in the mountain that required a bridge within the tunnel.
- Poor fresh water supplies made mixing of long-lasting mortar and concrete problematic.
- Large bridges such as the Veresk Bridge were necessary to cross the Alborz mountains.
Locomotives
In 1936
German manufacturers supplied 65 steam locomotives for the opening of the line in 1938.[27] 49 were 2-8-0 Consolidations: 24 from Krupp forming class 41.11, 16 from Henschel & Son forming class 41.35 and nine from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen forming class 41.51. The other 16 were Henschel 2-10-0 Decapods forming class 51.01.[26]
The Trans-Iranian acquired 10 of the locomotives that Kampsax had used to build the line.
World War II
British and Soviet operation 1941–42
The British and Russians initially stated their reason for invading Iran was the Iranian government's failure to rid the country of Germans, who supposedly were planning an eventual coup d'etat.[28] Yet there were other reasons for the invasion, and the Trans-Iranian Railways key location as part of the so-called "Persian Corridor" was one of the primary reasons for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in World War II. Despite Reza Shah's attempts to remain neutral, the allies decided it would be most effective to remove Reza Shah from the throne, using his young son,[29] instead to assist in their use of the Trans-Iranian Railway to transport oil to Britain, and supplies to the Soviet Union.[30]
In August 1941 Soviet, British and
The RE expanded freight capacity by building new railway yards at
Locomotives
The Southern Division locomotive depot at
US and Soviet operation 1942–45
In December 1942 the US Army Transportation Corps (USATC) replaced the British and Empire force operating the Southern Division.[35][36] In 165 miles (266 km) the line has 144 tunnels, in which smoke and oil fumes created harsh working conditions for steam locomotive crews. A limited water supply throughout the route and the hot climate of the southern plains formed further difficulties for steam locomotive operation.[25] The USATC therefore considered diesel-electric locomotives more suitable and requisitioned the 13 ALCO RS-1s built and had them converted to ALCO RSD-1 1,000 horsepower Co-Co locomotives.[35] An additional 44 RSD-1s were built for use in Iran. These totalled only 57 locomotives so initially they were used to operate only the southern part of the Southern Division between Bandar Shahpur and Andimeshk.[25]
For traffic between Andimeshk and Tehran the USATC brought 91 S200 Class steam locomotives, designated class 42.400 in the Iranian State Railways numbering system. The USATC also introduced another 3,000 freight cars.[25] In April 1943 [35] another 18 ALCO RSD-1's entered service,[26] enabling the USATC to return some LMS 2-8-0s to the British Middle East Command[24] and extend diesel operation northwards, reaching Qom by September 1943 and regularly serving Tehran by May 1944.[37] The USATC further increased freight traffic so that in 1944 it averaged 6,489 tons per day.[31]
"Aid to Russia" traffic ceased by May 1945 and in June the USATC withdrew its RSD-1's [37] and returned control to the British authorities. Shortly afterwards the British restored the line to Iranian State Railways,[33] the predecessor to the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways.
After World War II
The railway was extended from Bandar Shah to Gorgan in 1961.[2]
In 2014, the
See also
- International Rankings of Iran in Transportation
- Transport in Iran
- Islamic Republic of Iran Railways
- Railway electrification in Iran
- Ladislaus von Rabcewicz
References
- ^ Wright, p. 367
- ^ a b De Planhol, X. (1988). "Bandar-e Šāh". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. III. pp. 688–689. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
- ^ Abrahamian, p. 133
- ^ "Trans-Iranian Railway gains UNESCO World Heritage status". Tehran Times. 25 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ Spring, pp. 60-61
- ^ Spring, p. 61
- ^ Spring pp. 63-64
- ^ Spring pp. 64-65
- ^ Spring pp. 71-72
- ^ Spring pp. 74-75
- ^ Spring pp. 73-74
- ^ Spring pp. 78, 80
- ^ Spring, p. 81
- ^ Clawson, pp. 235-236
- ^ Clawson, pp. 241-243
- ^ a b Abrahamian, p.77
- ^ Clawson, p. 243
- ^ for the following cf DeNovo, John A: American Interests and policies in the Middle East, Univ of Minnesota 1963, p 297ff via google books
- ^ Pohl, 1999, pp. 189 ff
- ^ In January 1930 the Shah undertook an inspection of the American part. After heavy rains the Shah's train twice went off the tracks and finally the tracks were washed away resulting in the king being forced to stay for days in Ahvaz until the rains subsided. Afterwards payment of due instalments stalled and Ulen terminated the contract. DeNovo p 300 f
- ^ Kauffeldt p. 167
- ^ Abrahamian, pp.72-73
- ^ Hughes, p. 101
- ^ a b c d e Tourret, 1976, p.4
- ^ a b c d Tourret, 1977, p. 86
- ^ a b c d e f g Hughes, p. 107
- ^ Hughes, p. 112
- ^ Wright, p. 237
- ^ Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi
- ^ a b Abrahamian, p. 97
- ^ a b Hughes, p. 105
- ^ Clawson, p. 241
- ^ a b Tourret, 1976, p. 31
- ^ Hughes, p. 111
- ^ a b c Tourret, 1976, p. 5
- ^ "They Helped Russia to Victory". The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate. NSW: National Library of Australia. 28 April 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ^ a b Tourret, 1977, p. 87
- ^ "North-South Transnational Corridor". Railway Technology. railway-technology.com. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-521-82139-1.
- .
- Hughes, Hugh (1981). Middle East Railways. Harrow: Continental Railway Circle. pp. 101–113. ISBN 0-9503469-7-7.
- ISBN 3-406-45339-2.
- Spring, D.W. (1976). "The Trans-Persian Railway Project and Anglo-Russian Relations, 1909–14". Slavonic & East European Review. 54 (1): 60–82.
- Tourret, R. (1977). United States Army Transportation Corps Locomotives. Abingdon: Tourret Publishing. ISBN 0-905878-01-9.
- Tourret, R. (1976). War Department Locomotives. Abingdon: Tourret Publishing. ISBN 0-905878-00-0.
- JSTOR 20029156.
- Saba, Francesco (1995). "Entreprises italiennes, travaux publics et stratégies nationales en Perse durant les années trente : Impresit et le chemin de fer transiranien" [Italian companies, public works and national strategy in Persia during the thirties : Impresit and the Trans-Iranian Railway]. Histoire, Économie et Société (in French). 14 (2). Paris: Editions C.D.U. et S.E.D.E.S.: 385–395. .
- Kauffeldt, Jonas (26 May 2006). Danes, Orientalism and the Modern Middle East: Perspectives from the Nordic Periphery (Ph.D.). Florida State University. Docket Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 3293. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
Further reading
- Koyagi, Mikiya (2021). Iran in Motion: Mobility, Space, and the Trans-Iranian Railway. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1503613133.