Perhaps someone not near as ignorant as I can advise as to the state and equipment of Afghanistan railways. If steam is still there, perhaps our unusual and obsolete skills may have strategic value. If so, I am certainly prepared to assist if necessary and I hope others on this board might also.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> Perhaps someone not near as ignorant as I
> can advise as to the state and equipment of
> Afghanistan railways. If steam is still
> there, perhaps our unusual and obsolete
> skills may have strategic value. If so, I am
> certainly prepared to assist if necessary
> and I hope others on this board might also.

> Dave

Dave:

I searched the internet this morning but couldn't find much information. Rob Dickinson's "International Working Steam Locomotives" doesn't even have a listing. Several pages say Afghanistan has NO railways, but several other pages have this listing:

Railways:

total: 24.6 km
broad gauge: 9.6 km 1.524-m gauge from Gushgy (Turkmenistan) to Towraghondi; 15 km 1.524-m gauge from Termiz (Uzbekistan) to Kheyrabad transshipment point on south bank of Amu Darya

24.6 km isn't much. I do recall hearing about a TV news report in the early 90's showing a working steamer somewhere in the mountains of the country.

Good Steaming,
Hugh Odom


The Ultimate Steam Page
whodom@awod.com

Dave -

Afghanistan has never had a railway, and is practically the only country of any size to be, er, distinguished in such a fashion.

There are railway lines to the Afghan border in Pakistan from Peshawar (up the Khyber Pass) and Quetta, and a line actually follows the border from eastern Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan into Tajikistan.

But nothing really inside the country itself. The "Gushgy" reference from Hugh can be found on modern maps as Kushka in Turkmenistan,
but the line was operated by the Russians / USSR.

JAC

I do recall hearing
> about a TV news report in the early 90's
> showing a working steamer somewhere in the
> mountains of the country.

Hugh -

you probably saw a report on the Khyber Pass line, which reopened for tourism after the Soviets left Afghanistan. It features large 2-8-0s (one on each end of the train), military escorts, etc.; the stations and bridges feature fortifications as well.

The actual snippets of Russian trackage you mention are not in mountainous areas.

The Khyber Pass line was built by the British from Peshawar to the border (Landi Khotal) to provide a quick way to ferry troops and military supplies in case of an Afghan attack on what was then India. It was never a commercial railway (i.e. hauling passengers or freight on a schedule) to my knowledge - such commerce as there is is done on the parallel road. It is likely that it was used to ferry supplies during the Afghan-Soviet war, as we were supplying the Pakistanis who then supplied the Afghans.

Trips up the line for tours in the 90s were always heavily guarded, and troops were sent up days in advance and rode the trains as well. (The risk to tourists were not Afghans, of course, but Pakistani bands of highwaymen. The Khyber has long been known as one of the most dangerous travel routes in the world.)

One tradition is that those living on the Khyber can ride any Khyber train for free, and on those rare occasions when tour groups did ride up the pass, locals would hop onto moving trains and joyride.

JAC

> Perhaps someone not near as ignorant as I
> can advise as to the state and equipment of
> Afghanistan railways. If steam is still
> there, perhaps our unusual and obsolete
> skills may have strategic value. If so, I am
> certainly prepared to assist if necessary
> and I hope others on this board might also.

> Dave

DAVE, what have you been smoking besides those cigars. You think you have a lack of facilities in Savannah, imagine what it is like in Afghanistan. You know why Osama bin Laden chose Afghanistan to hide, from the pictures I've seen it is the closest thing to hell around.
Paul



phess@webkorner.com

Paul - remember Spencer back in the '80's? We had to pool our pocket change to buy a gallon of paint to paint a car with no running water in the roundhouse at all to clean the brush with and one electrical outlet a quarter mile of drop cord away.

Savannah hasn't quite got the facilities Spencer has today, but the shop is practical and turning out a lot of good work on a daily basis now. Come on down and check it out.

No, just he cigars (on rare occasion only). I am sure it would be very much the guerilla railroading common to logging lines in the depression in the outback of this country but with the added attraction of getting shot at.

I am just tiring of the meaningless empty symbolic gestures we have been undertaking and since i am (thankfully) too old for cannon fodder these days, I would be happy to make a concrete contribution if I could.

Moot point anyhow as it seems there are no railroads there at all, or if there were the Soviets laid them low some time back.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net