AndrewGrantham.co.uk

There are some very interesting comments about Iraqi Republic Railways from Mark Hemphill on the Trains magazine forum, gving an overview of IRR since the invasion, and what has happened since.

The IRR was never destroyed like a Lawrence of Arabia film. It was looted badly, however - the block signal system was wiped out for the copper, all the spare parts and tools were taken, structures were stripped to naked shells sans windows, doors, wire, and plumbing, and in some cases dismantled for the bricks, and a lot of locomotives and wagons were stripped out. In the first few weeks after the war, the Bagdad-Basra-Umm Qasr main stem was restored to operation thanks to the dedication, moxie, and can-do attitude of Lt. Col Bob Pelletier, USA reserve, whose regular job is corridor manager for UP. “Sheik Bob” figured out how to get the IRR people paid, how to get the US Military out of the way, and gave the IRR people the legal umbrella they needed to get back to work. [Mark Hemphill in "Iraq Railroad Status" thread, 2008-02-28]

He points out that Reconstruction work was performed almost 100% by the IRR itself and Iraqi contractors engaged by the U.S. Government, Project & Contracting Office, under the program management and funding disbursed by the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office. There are also details of what is currently running.

IRR railwaymen are as good as railroaders you will find in any country, and better in some aspects.

Here is another informative posting from him.

The April 2008 issue of Railway Gazette International has a long feature on the Dubai metro by Dominic Ellis, detailing the construction of what will be the world’s longest driverless metro. Read it here (but without the pretty pictures which you get in the magazine).

I’ve acquired a copy of the newly-published book Pillboxes in Britain & Ireland, by Mike Osbourne. While it doesn’t cover sound mirrors, it is an excellent and comprehensive book on pillbox design and development, with typologies, plans, photographs and details of the theory and use of pillboxen. It is well worth any connoisseur of concrete defensive structures getting hold of a copy.

While we’re at it, I’ll also mention another good recent read, the new Osprey book on Armored Trains. I would review it, but this review says it all pretty well.

Unfortunately the book doesn’t mention the armoured train in Sarajevo.

David Angus of the Seaham online community history project www.east-durham.co.uk has tracked down the probable location of the Seaham sound mirror, though cautions “it is at least 55 years since I saw it and then only once.”

He’s found two men who agree on the location shown below. Apparently the mirror may have been used for shooting practice by the local Home Guard during World War II.

Sadly it would appear it is no longer in existence; when it did exist it looked something like the surviving Sunderland mirror.

Azizi Hotak Rail Ops

Originally uploaded by holdemhill

Some more photos of Hatyratan, taken by Donald Hill.

Not very exciting, but railway-related (I think).

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Providing relief to PSUS namely RITES Ltd. And IRCON International Ltd. – on outstanding due for project executed in Iraq in 1980’s on deferred payment basis

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its approval for providing the relief against the outstanding dues of RITES Ltd. and IRCON International Ltd. on outstanding dues for projects executed in Iraq in 1980’s on deferred payment basis in the following manner:

(i) RITES and IRCON will be paid the balance amounts as per the approved exchange rate of Rs.47.86 per US$ at which private exporters were paid, to maintain the parity in treatment of all the exporters;

(ii) RITES and IRCON will be paid balance amounts of Rs.117.75 crore and Rs.16.06 crore respectively in cash through additional budget allocation provided by Ministry of Finance to M/o Railways for this purpose and

(iii) RITES and IRCON will be paid interest in cash @ 8.75% per annum effective from 1st October 2001 on Rs.117.75 crore and Rs.16.06 crore respectively till principal and interest both are paid by additional budget allocation in addition to above stated balance amount of Rs.117.75 crore and Rs.16.06 crore.

It would project the creditability of the Government to help exporters: solve liquidity problem of project exporters who have faced unprecedented situation due to their money being held up; increase competitiveness of Indian project exporters to bid in international market; maintain parity in treatment among all the exporters, and facilitate to determine best share value for forthcoming IPOs.

Simon Darvill has found four more industrial locos which were supplied to Afghanistan - and two of them survive in Europe.

Ruhrtaler seem to have delivered more locos to the same Mahipar project as the other Ruhrtalers. However these were delivered to Siemens-Bauunion GmbH, München. They were 3800 and 3812-4 of 1965. They were of the same G 60 O/V type, and 600 mm gauge.

The Siemens website describes Siemens-Bauunion.

Siemens-Bauunion GmbH was founded in 1921 as a subsidiary of Siemens & Halske AG and Siemens-Schuckertwerke GmbH. Previously the Siemens parent companies had contracted out the civil engineering works necessary for the building of power plants, tramways and subways to external companies, but because they worked with these companies they had their own experienced staff of civil engineers and building workers. In order to make better use of this potential and to be in a position to offer large-scale building projects from a single source, it was clear that the parent companies would have to have their own construction company. In the 1920s, Siemens-Bauunion was responsible for the building of numerous hydroelectric power plants and subways (Athens, Buenos Aires). Much of the motorway construction in the 1930s was also carried out by the Bauunion. In 1972 Siemens sold the company to Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG.

Loco 3800 went back to Austria and was used by a company called Bauhof AKB in Bludenz. It then went to Kärntner Museumsbahn as their number 284. It is now at the Montan- und Werksbahnmuseum in Graz, Austria.

Number 3814 also came back for use by Hochtief Bauunternehmung, on Frankfurt/Main’s U-Bahnbaustelle Bf Westend project [lines U6/U7?]. It was in use here by 1987, then went to the same two preservation sites, numbered 285.

There are details of the locos at Werkbahn.de (in German), which also mentions the Kabul steam locos. It seems the Montan- und Werksbahnmuseum (Mountain and Industrial Railway Museum) in Graz is not currently open to the public.

Anyone got an pictures of these locos?

Various e-mails have arrived this week telling me that the sound mirror in East Beach Road at Selsey in Sussex which was up for sale has been bought. Known locally as the Listening Post, this acoustic mirror is unique as the only one to have been converted into a house! The garden was in a bit of state - it “looked like a jungle” says one local - but apparently it is now being cleared.

The Selsey Community Website records

The Listening Post was in April 1999 [12 March 1999 according to Images of England] recognised as a Grade 2 Listed building. During the 1st World War a listening post was built in Selsey at East Beach to provide early warning of approaching Zepplins. The structure took the form of an “acoustic mirror” which was built of concrete and shaped like a modern satellite dish. The structure survived and is currently the subject of great interest due to its rarity.

Roger Whitehead has a couple of photos of it on Flickr.

The relevant Images of England page says:

SZ 5289 SE SELSEY EAST BEACH ROAD (North side) 23/10031 Number 2, The Listening Post II Sound mirror, now incorporated within house. 1916, converted into house by late 1930s. Sound mirror built of reinforced concrete, the shuttered lifts to the exterior clearly visible. House has slate-clad stud walls and corrugated asbestos roof, with 2-window front and window inserted into left-side wall; extensions to rear and right. INTERIOR: curved profile to mirror wall. HISTORY: This house incorporates a complete example of a sound mirror, built in 1916 (recorded as under construction in March of that year) and one of a series of listening posts built for the Admiralty along the south-east and north-east coasts. The attacks by the German Fleet on east coast ports in December 1914 had alerted the Admiralty to the need to provide early warning of future raids, soon underlined by the threat posed by Zeppellins to British ports and urban areas. The sound signal was reflected by the dish, via a duty observer armed with a stethoscope, to a microphone which enabled the course of the intruder to be plotted. These signal stations thus formed a precursor to the development of radar from 1936. Due to the obsolescence of the technology from the late 1930s, and later coastal clearance work and urbanisation, very few examples (such as Fulwell in Sunderland and the Hythe/Dungeness group in Kent) have survived. It also bears a very direct relationship, through its form and design, to its intended use and thus its technological and historical context. Source: (Chichester Observer, March 1916).