Railways of Iraq

Turkish locomotive and rolling stock manufacturer Tülomsas has built another five new locomotives for Iraqi Republic Railways. They were handed over to IRR in a ceremony at Ankara railway station in Turkey on 24 December 2008.

Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yildrim, General Director of Turkish state railway TCDD Süleyman Karaman and Iraq’s Minister of Transportation Amer Abdul Jabar Ismail were at the event.

The four-axle FP DH7000B diesel-hydraulic shunting locos are rated at 700 hp, weigh 67 tonnes and are flame-proof for use in refineries.

Tülomsas has now supplied to IRR with a total of 31 locos: previous orders covered 12 x DH12000 1200 hp diesel-hydraulic Bo-Bo locomotives, and 14 x DH10000 of 1050 hp.

See The export attack from Tülomsas, a press release dated 2008-12-24.

Newsweek has a 19 December 2008 report A Railway’s Painful Rebirth by Jessica Ramirez.

There is another video of the Baghdad commuter service - including cab views, Chinese and Turkish built locos, sheep, and motorists with a cavalier attitude to level crossing safety.

… Iraq’s railways, which came to a halt during the war, have reopened two lines in the last two months. There is now a Friday train to Samarra and a commuter train, Baghdad’s first, which makes two round trips a day between the Central Baghdad Station and the District of Dora. Railway workers consider these the first signs of progress for an industry trying to recover from the looting, murders and bombings that ravaged it after the U.S-led invasion. In a larger sense, they also reflect the long-term impact of conflict and the struggle to get a country back on track.

The November 2008 issue of French magazine Le Rail has a two-page article Bagdad aura-t-elle finalement son métro?, looking at the history of plans for a metro in Baghdad.

The map of Ligne 1 du métro appears to show the Central station — Dora comuter train, rather than Line 1 as previously proposed.

The railway station at Al Qa’im near the Syrian border has been used as a US military base, but was handed back to Iraq in October.

The Daily Telegraph had an Iraq insurgency: Defending the railroads on October 12 2007, describing activities on the railway in the area.

Warlords Turn Over Camp Al Qaim; Railroad to Open After Five Years of Closure

By Lance Cpl. Joshua Murray
Regimental Combat Team 5

CAMP AL QA’IM, Iraq – The Warlords of the Jump Platoon, Task Force 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5 arrived, Oct. 13, 2008, to a barren camp.

The once bustling base, which Marines of the battalion called home for the first five months of their deployment, housed nothing more than a small guard force, stationary train cars rusting on the rails and empty buildings, which is just how the Marines wanted it.

Major Gen. Martin Post, deputy commanding general, Multi-National Force - West, visited the camp, previously known as Al Qa’im Railway Station 22, to return the base to Iraqi officials following more than five years of U.S. military presence.

“It’s good for me to be back at Al Qa’im,” said Post. “Not only are we turning over here, later this year we will also be turning [over] the Haditha Dam facility. We will also be turning over Camp Fallujah to the Iraqis.”

The railroad here was shut down in early 2003 and was used as a camp for coalition forces within the Al Qa’im region. Despite being a necessary base for coalition forces, shutting down the railway here delayed the use of a vital means of transportation for local citizens and slowed the shipment of minerals from nearby factories.

“The train station will help to transport materials from a phosphate plant, cement factory and transport passengers,” said Insaief Jaseem Mohammed, the Iraqi Railroad chief of region at the renamed Al Qa’im Railway Station 22. “This will help the factories and the passengers. The cost to transport passengers will go down.”

The factories, crippled temporarily by the loss of their reliable and most cost-effective means of shipment, have waited patiently for the return of their railway.

“The functioning of the railroad is really being anticipated in this area,” said Paul Schemel, liaison officer in Al Qa’im with the state department’s embedded Provisional Reconstruction Team. “The phosphate factory employs 4,000 people, and the cement factory employs 2,000 people. They both rely on the railroad to get their supplies and material out to the rest of the country and to get raw materials in.”

The turn over of the base signifies the accomplishment of one of 2nd Bn., 2nd Marines’ key goals during their deployment: ensuring the self reliance of the people in the Al Qa’im region. Work will continue regarding the improvement of the railway with the hopes of increasing resource trading and industrial prosperity in the region.

“Bringing this railroad back onto line is going to be a key factor in the economic development of this region,” Schemel said. “Ultimately it could be a key link between [Al Qa’im], Syria and the Mediterranean, which is something we hope for long term.”

Source: DVIDS News, 2008-10-20

The October 20 2008 thread “Railfanning in Iraq” on Trainboard has some photos taken by ConrailDan in Al Diwaniyah, about sixty miles south of Baghdad, in 2003.

The photos (you might need to register to see them) include a DES3100 loco. These were built in Czechoslovakia by CKD Praha as a tropicalised variant of their T669.

There are also pictures of yellow machines, and a T-55 tank on a flat wagon.

From what I remember the Iraqis had pretty good track with concrete ties. I even got to see one train travel over the rails. It was one engine and about twenty covered hoppers
Source: Railfanning in Iraq on Trainboard