Iran Railways

[RogerFarnworth]

The first instalment about Iran's Railways was about a narrow gauge line near Tehran

This is the next installment covering the Railways of Iran and. Covers the period up to the end of the Second World War. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/24...e-1910-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.

[RogerFarnworth]

After the War, Iran's railways experienced a period of relative stagnation. Significant developments did not occur until the 1950s.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/28...5-to-the-1960s

The Cambridge History of Iran - Volume 1, which was published in 1968 says that after shortages disappeared a pattern became established, and by 1968, railways provided the basic freight-transport service from the Persian Gulf ports to Tehran and the eastern Caspian Sea region. The authors said, "Branch lines have been extended to Tabriz and Mashhad (Meshed), mitigating to a high degree the relative decline of these cities since 1925. A 120 mile westward extension of the railway line from Tabriz, now being built under the sponsorship of the Central Treaty Organization, will connect the Iranian and Turkish railways. (It was completed between Tehran and Tabriz by 1960.) An eastward extension from Qum, south of Tehran, is now complete as far as Yazd (but not by 1961 when Baker visited) and will ultimately connect with the Pakistan railway system in Baluchistan. During World War I a line of this system (then part of India) was extended as far as Zahidin in Iran, a short distance from the border. Service to Zahidin is provided by Pakistan National Railways, but there is no regular schedule." The line when built was 5ft. 6in. gauge.

[RogerFarnworth]

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...n-part-4-1970s

[RogerFarnworth]

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...s-collection-a

[RogerFarnworth]

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...s-collection-c

[RogerFarnworth]

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...s-collection-b

[RogerFarnworth]

After the Revolution. ......

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

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/04/13...m-1980-to-1999

[RogerFarnworth]

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...cond-world-war

[RogerFarnworth]

This next post gives some insight into what is being achieved 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...e-21st-century

[RogerFarnworth]

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...0-motive-power