Samsun – Çarşamba railway line

Samsun – Çarşamba
Route Samsun – Çarşamba (orange)
Route length:	37 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend Alaçam - never finished Bafra - never finished Ondokuzmayis - never finished Depot at the port of Samsun Samsun Samsun port Route Sivas – Samsun to Sivas Route to Azot Çarşamba station - out of order Terms - never completed

The Samsun – Çarşamba ( Turkish: Samsun-Çarşamba Demiyol Hattı ) railway was a 37 km long narrow-gauge railway from Samsun to Çarşamba in Turkey.

history

Steam locomotive No. 34801
Col. Mahmut Zeytinoglu around 1970.

The first discussions about the construction of a coastal line connecting the plains of Çarşamba and Bafra with the port of Samsun arose during the planning of the Sivas – Samsun railway line . It was suggested to proceed in two phases: first from Samsun to Çarşamba and then from Samsun to Bafra. The first plans for the Samsun-Çarşamba railway were drafted in 1873, and the decision to build the Samsun-Bafra railway was made in 1890.

The plans were not realized during the Ottoman period, but only reapplied in the Republican period. A contract between the tobacco exporters Nemlizadeler and Nafia Nezareti aimed to connect the ports of Çarşamba and Bafra with the port of Samsun, with construction starting on December 6, 1923. Nemlizadeler founded the Samsun Coastal Railways Turkish Incorporated Company ( Turkish: Samsun Sahil Demiryolları Türk Anonim Şirketi ).

In 1924, the Nemlizadeler family, who had become rich through the tobacco trade, received a 75-year concession to build a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 750 mm from Alaçam via Bafra , Samsun , Çarşamba to Terme . The groundbreaking ceremony was carried out by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with a silver pickaxe and shovel on September 16, 1924 in Samsun. The route was supposed to be 150 km long, but only the 37 km long section from Samsun to Çarşamba was built and put into operation. The railway line was opened in 1926.

The railway line was completed and officially opened on September 1, 1926. The railway company wanted to start building the Samsun-Bafra line in 1927, but in 1928 the family ran into financial difficulties and the remaining sections of the railway line were not built.

Turkey's state railway company, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD) took over the line in 1929. The narrow-gauge railway line was shut down in 1971 as the last Turkish narrow-gauge railway. On October 29, 1980 the line was reopened as a 38.5 km long standard gauge railway .

Locomotives

A total of four coal-fired steam locomotives were used, which were built by Krauss and Henschel in Germany from 1924 :

Wheel alignment	1'C't
Empty weight	22.2 t
Service weight	28.4 t
Driving wheel set	ø900 mm
Wheelset	ø680 mm
Number of cylinders	2
drilling	ø340mm
Hub	450 mm
pressure	11.8 bar
Heating area of the firebox	34.4 m²
Heating surface of the superheater	15.1 m²
Grate surface	1.0 m²

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Abidin Temizer (Mehmet Akif Ersoy University): Black Sea Port-cities, 1780s-1910s. Version of September 30, 2016, accessed on November 6, 2016 from Google Webcache: {{Webarchive | text = Black Sea Port-cities, 1780s-1910s. | url = http: //blacksea.gr/en/cities/samsun/4-2-1/ | wayback = 20161106114127 | archiv-bot = 2018-03-31 13:22:03 InternetArchiveBot}}.
2. ↑ Samsun Çarşamba: Terme ve Yine Samsun Bafra ve Alaçam'a Temdid Edilecek Demiryolu Mukavelenamesi, Şartnamesi ve Samsun Sahil Demiryolları Türk Anonim Şirketi Nizamname-i Dâhiliyesi, İstanbul 1340.
3. ↑ Ipek Calislar: Madam Atatürk: The First Lady of Modern Turkey. Saqi, 2013. Chapter 27, second page below.
4. ^ ^{A b} Jean-Patrick Charrey: Samsun Çarşamba. (Trains of Turkey)
5. ^ Benno Bickel, Karl-Wilhelm Koch, Florian Schmidt: Steam under the half moon. The last years of steam operation in Turkey , Verlag Röhr, Krefeld 1987, ISBN 3-88490-183-4 , p. 17.
6. ↑ Jean-Patrick Charrey: 34801 to 34804. (Trains of Turkey)