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

 

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

This next installment covering the Railways of Iran deals with 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

 

Thank you, interesting. The loco at the top of the page is one of the 200 2-8-2s built by US mfrs (Baldwin in the case of 42.450) for the British War Department. Some of these were later sent to China as part of the UK's contribution to the UNRRA effort.

 

Thank you for the reply Huochemi. I hope, in due course, to write something about the locomotives on the network in Iran. There were a large number of imports during the war years - both steam and diesel traction.

 

There was a two part article in the Railway Gazette for February 1945 "British Work on Persian Railways 1942", which I can send you if you would like. I suspect there is material in the Civils (ICE) library too but probably not currently accessible.

 

Thank you.
I have managed to access on ICE article, I think through jstor. I would really appreciate a copy of the Railway Gazette articles. Thank you.
Best wishes
Roger

 

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

 

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

 

Many thanks for this fascinating insight into the railways in a relatively poorly known (to many of us) neck of the woods. Thanks too to @huochemi for his additional info.

 

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

 

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/railways-in-iran-part-9-foreign-articles-collection-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/railways-in-iran-part-8-foreign-articles-collection-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/railways-in-iran-part-5-from-1980-to-1999

 

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/railways-in-iran-part-12-photographs-from-the-second-world-war

 

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/2020/04/2...ections-on-irans-railways-in-the-21st-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/railways-in-iran-part-10-motive-power

 

This is another post in a series about the railways of Iran. It focuses on a narrow gauge system, some 40 miles in total length, which served the Abadan Oil Depot and refinery. Available information is sparse. ....

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

 

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

 

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