The Railways of Iran

This is the first of what I hope will be a few articles about the Railways of Iran. It focusses on the first line built between Tehran and Rey and operating from 1888 to around 1960-61.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/23/ra ... o-rey-1888

I have been reading old copies of the Railway Magazine from the 1950s and 1960s. The old small format magazines somehow seem more attractive than the glossy larger format modern magazines, perhaps that is a sign of ageing!

In the January 1963 edition of the magazine there is a long article about the railways of Iran which is based on a visit in 1961 to Iran by M.H. Baker MA.

Until the 1930s, Iran was relatively isolated, but from around 1865 various European Countries had sought concessions to construct railways but the Imperial government continued to value isolation above integration.

This is the next installment covering the Railways of Iran. ......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/24/ra ... 10-to-1945

The Trans-Iranian Railway - When completed, the Trans-Iranian Railway was an immense achievement. It ran for 850 miles and linked the South and North of the country. For the first time the northern agricultural lands and the Caspian Sea ports would be linked to ports and oilfields in the south. It linked the capital Tehran with the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. The railway connected Bandar Shah (now: Bandar Torkaman) in the north and Bandar Shahpur (now: Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni) in the south via Ahvaz, Ghom and Tehran.

Interesting read, Roger, on a country that fascinates me.
My impression on reading the war time material , was that Iran was the "Poland" of the Middle East, at the mercy of both sides.

Hi David,

It seems so, Yes. Although the country ultimately benefited from the resources expended. However, it was badly treated in the period up to the Revolution by those in power at the time.

Bets wishes
Roger

The rule of the Shah in the 1970s became increasingly authoritarian. The royal family appropriated a large amount of the country's income for themselves and gradually the clerics became less and less content with the ruling classes. The result, as we know, was major political change at the end of the decade.

My recollections of the 1960s are vague. As a child I was almost entirely focussed on my immediate environment. The 1970s were a different matter. Events in the Middle East and in Iran began to intrude on my childhood. New of conflicts in Palestine and in the wider region became part of my consciousness.

Many of us will be aware that Shah left Iran for exile in January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar who was an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran to be greeted by several million Iranians.

The railways continued to serve the country and saw some significant developments during the decade.

I hope you find this next article interesting. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/30/ra ... rt-4-1970s

Thanks Roger. Interesting .
I'll look forward to the eighties, when I tried to visit Iran , but was turned back at the border. i'll save that story for your Eighties installment !

While undertaking the research for these articles on the railways in Iran. I was delighted to find some material in a number of European language posted on a thread about the Railways of Iran on the SJK Postvagen forum. This next post is numbered out of sequence as I have already begun work of the period from the 1980s onwards, but the material is really interesting (in my view). I have had to use Google Translate to get the first draft of the different papers referred to in the link article and then I have had to clarify or paraphrase a number of things to make the text work in English. ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/03/ra ... llection-a

I seem to have quite a number of unfinished articles on the Railways of Iran. Some are taking longer than others to complete. This is Part 9!

I still have parts 5, 7 and 8 to complete and I hope that there will be at least 3 others to follow.

This post includes two articles from journals in other countries translated for an English audience.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/10/ra ... llection-c

To finish the collection of translated articles from other sources, this post focuses on chapters from a book written in Danish in the 1930s about the filming of a documentary about the building of the Tran-Iranian Railway. ......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13/ra ... llection-b

After the Revolution. ......

This next post brings the story of the Railways of Iran up to the Millenium. ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13/ra ... 80-to-1999

Thanks Roger, I am looking forward to reading . Despite been in lockdown (though i am also a essential business , so are doing a bit), i don't seem to have much spare time. But looking forward to reading these.

One of the joys of doing research is discovering little gems in surprising places. This happened to me just recently as I was searching for information and particularly for images associated with the railways of Iran up to the end of the Second World War. The result is this next article which I have agreed with Lancaster City Museum and the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum. ......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13/ra ... -world-war

This next post gives some insight into the rail network in Iran at the moment. I must acknowledge that it is not a comprehensive report on Iran's Railways in the 21st Century, merely a snapshot of what has been happening.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/25/ra ... st-century

This is probably my penultimate post on the railways of Iran. I want, at some stage to review what is known about the railways which served the Oil fields in the South of Iran and a final installment. This post looks at the various forms of motive power on the railways of Iran since the first line was built before the turn of the 20th Century. I cannot guarantee that this survey is completely comprehensive. .......

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/06/30/ra ... tive-power

We have already noted in this series that Iran had a very limited railway network at the turn of the 20th century. Essentially just one railway line which was of a narrow gauge and was no more than 6 miles long. Glyn Williams says that the line, as built, … was approximately 5.5 miles in length and had two branch lines of 2.5 miles in length. [22]

Its roster of locomotives was limited to five in total. And details of these can be found on the manufacturer’s listings, as tabulated below. [21] The full article is in french. The locomotives were built in Belgium by La Tubize.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company which became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and then BP maintained a number of narrow gauge lines. This post covers a 2ft 6in gauge line (The Dar-I-Khazineh Fields Railway) providing access to the first oilfield in the Middle East and a 3ft gauge line which served its refinery at Abadan.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/11/19/ra ... ompany-ltd