The Railways of Iran

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous & Oddities' started by Roger Farnworth, Mar 23, 2020.

  1. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    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/railways-in-iran-part-1-tehran-to-rey-1888

     
  2. ianvolvo46

    ianvolvo46 Staff Member Moderator

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    I shall follow this with interest. I lived in Iran on and off from 1973 until 1978 (the dawn of the revolution) i was living in andemeshk near Dezful when my father visited. I flew up and collected him from Merhabad airport in Teheran and we caught the train down through Qom (great toffee as well as mosque) and across what i called the Copper mountains to Ahwaz before jeeping it back to Andemeshk ...(the spelling may be incorrect but you'll get the places) :thumbup:
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2020
  3. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    Hopefully the next post will be of interest!
     
  4. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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

    This next installment covers the period up to the end of the Second World War. ...

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/03/24/railways-in-iran-part-2-the-1910-to-1945

     
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  5. ianvolvo46

    ianvolvo46 Staff Member Moderator

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    Fascinating i realise now we might have disembarked at Dezful (my mind was fuzzy on that memory) spectacular scenery through the mountains anyway .. thanks Roger

    Ian vt
     
  6. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    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/railways-in-iran-part-3-1945-to-the-1960s


     
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  7. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    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.

    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/railways-in-iran-part-4-1970s
     
  8. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    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/railways-in-iran-part-6-foreign-articles-collection-a
     
  9. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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  10. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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  11. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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  12. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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  13. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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  14. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    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/railways-in-iran-part-10-motive-power
     
  15. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    Last edited: Nov 28, 2020
  16. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    Since first posting about APOC/AIOC on 19th November, a number of people have pointed me to considerably more information about the 2ft 6in gauge and the 3ft gauge railways that served different part of the Company's network in Iran. If the original post of the 19th November was of interest it has now been significantly extended.

    The link remains the same so the original more limited text cannot easily be accessed. It has been subsumed in the newer version on the same link. Just for convenience I have repeated the link here:

    http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/11/19/railways-in-iran-part-11-anglo-persian-oil-company-ltd
     
  17. Roger Farnworth

    Roger Farnworth Full Member

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    Recently, reading old copies of BackTrack magazine, I came across an article which included memories from an Army engineer of time spent in Iran in the early 1940s and in the same issue of the magazine a short note about the involvement of the GWR in Iran.

    These seemed to be fitting items for an addendum to this series of articles. This is the link to the new post.

    https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/09/14/railways-in-iran-an-addendum
     
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  18. Chris Doroszenko

    Chris Doroszenko Lost in the spare room Full Member

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    Wow dude...wouldn't be surprised if you were on an intelligence list after all the info you were able to collect on the rail network. :giggle:
    Definitely worth reading in ones spare time.:thumbup:
     

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