British military railways in Palestine
The British military railways in Palestine (Palestine Military Railways) were created during the advance of British troops in World War I from Egypt to what was then still Ottoman Palestine .
prehistory
Historical conditions
The first Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal in February 1915 was averted by the British troops - but nothing more, despite the supply problems on the Ottoman side. Harsh criticism in England that the retreating Ottoman units were not even properly pursued led to a more offensive stance by troops stationed on the Canal. But it wasn't until a year later, in February or March 1916, that construction of the Sinai Military Railway (SMR), later the Sinai Railway, began.
Technical conditions
The railway was driven from Egypt and based on the local technical standards, in particular the normal gauge of 1435 mm. The connection to the Egyptian network was made by a temporary swing bridge over the Suez Canal near El Qantara (Arabic: "bridge"). The Sinai terrain was favorable for railway construction. The water supply and sand drifts were problematic. The latter had to be constantly fought against: the sand migrated both over the tracks and under the tracks, which caused considerable operational difficulties.
Military conditions
The British military attached great importance to carrying out the advance against the Ottoman troops only on the basis of a solid supply . The construction of the railway therefore proceeded much more slowly than that on the Ottoman side (see: Ottoman military railway in Palestine ). El Arish was reached in early 1917, and in April the top of the line was 16 km from Gaza in Deyr el-Belah . Since the attack was not progressing there, a branch line was driven from Rafah in the direction of Be'er Sheva (60 km) to better serve the expanding front and to bypass Gaza to the east.
vehicles
Initially, vehicles from the ( Egyptian State Railways - ESR) were used. The locomotives suffered from the primitive maintenance conditions and constantly had to be replaced. It included 25 older C-wheel arrangement locomotives, built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in the mid-19th century. There were also 20 1'C and 10 B'B from Baldwin (Philadelphia). Von Franco-Belge drove 8 machines with the wheel arrangement C and 4 with the wheel arrangement 1'B in the service of the SMR. There were also other machines from the Egyptian State Railways. From the first years of operation of the line, especially during the war, the records of the locomotives used are only incomplete. Initially, when the Ottoman troops were still nearby, three armored trains were used to protect the route in Sinai, which were moved by gasoline-powered locomotives from Manning Wardle and placed in the middle of the trains.
Supplementary field track (762 mm)
From Deir el Belah a field railway with a gauge of 762 mm (2ft 6 ') was laid parallel to the front line, initially 19 km long, later extended to 23 km . Like a second track (dismantled again in 1923/24) between El Qantara and Rafah, it served the logistical preparation of the main attack on the Ottoman troops. In addition, all preparations were made so that after a successful advance the railway construction in the north could keep pace with the advance of the troops. In particular, appropriate pioneer units were formed.
Steam locomotives from the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) with a C wheel arrangement were used on the 762 mm gauge . In addition, there were locomotives equipped with gasoline engines (wheel arrangement: B) from the Avonside Engine Company .
Advance into Palestine
Military situation
The offensive began in October 1917. On October 31, Beersheba was captured, which happened so quickly that the Ottoman troops could neither withdraw nor destroy their infrastructure. Gaza fell a week later. The railway engineer troops began their work immediately.
| Lod – Sinai | |
|---|---|
| Route length: | 60 km |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
Driving through Palestine
On May 3, 1918, the British military railroad came from Rafah to Beersheba. Part of the Ottoman track bed of the 1050 mm gauge of the Hejaz Railway was reused. As early as November 28, 1917, the coastline in Dayr al-Sunayd reached the enemy’s 1,050 mm route. There were problems using these routes for British purposes as the Ottoman Military Railroad had managed to take most of their locomotives with them when they withdrew. Finally, the British organized a total of 9 Cape Gauge B'B locomotives (3'6 "/ 1067 mm) from the Luxor-Aswan Railway and from Sudan , locomotives with a gauge that was a little too large for a 1050 mm track . nevertheless used the relatively light superstructure, the Ottoman forces had erected tolerated apparently: the rails were forced apart by the machines in mid-November occupied the Britons. Nahal Soreq (Wadi es Sarar) the Talbahnhof the way to Jerusalem , that on 9 December was handed over.
The standard gauge line reached Lod in February 1918. The route here no longer followed the instructions given by the Ottoman Military Railways with the detour via Wadi Surar. Rather, the direct connection between Dayr as-Sunayd and Lod was chosen. A number of narrow-gauge railways were laid from Lod to the front. It thus became the most important railway junction in the Middle East .
Supplementary field tracks (600 mm)
Jerusalem - Bira
Between April and September a field railway was built from Jerusalem in 600 mm gauge to Bira , but by the time it was completed it was overtaken by the military events and only operated for a few months.
Lod - Jaffa
On the old track bed of the Jaffa – Jerusalem railway (J&J line) on the section from Lod to Jaffa , which was dismantled for material extraction during the war, there was now a 600 mm field railway, which continued to the port of Jaffa and the one with a branch to Jenkin's Hill , east of today's Herzlija and some sidings from these lines.
vehicles
Little is known about the 600 mm gauge locomotives. 2'C steam locomotives from both Baldwin and Hunslet were used. There were also 45 petrol-powered tractors “Crewe” and “Simplex”. The "Crewe" machines were Ford Model T with track-running wheels and were not very successful in use.
Supplementary field track (762 mm)
A 2'6 "gauge (762 mm) line was built from Lod in a northerly direction to Ras el Ain (today: Rosh HaAjin). The line largely followed the Ottoman military railway Maṣʿūdiyya – Sinai . A branch from Kafr led from this line Djinnis via Beit Nabala to al-Lubban , another branch ended in Tireh .
British military railways in Palestine
The various British military railways were finally combined in 1918 to form the Palestine Military Railways (PMR).
stretch
Lod was the most important railway junction in the Middle East at the end of the First World War . Four gauges met for a short time at Lod station: 600 mm to Jaffa, 762 mm to Tireh and Lubban, 1050 mm to Jerusalem (back in service since the end of January 1918), and the standard-gauge Eastern Railway via Hadera to Haifa (November 1920 opened), El Qantara and Cairo . In Haifa, the track of the standard gauge railway reached the station of the Hejaz Railway - from 1937 Haifa East - at the end of 1918 or in January 1919.
Re-gauging
This operationally unsatisfactory situation should be remedied. During the war, the J&J line to Jerusalem began to be converted to standard gauge. This was done from Lod first with a three- rail track that led to Artuf . This work was completed within a month at the end of March 1918. The rest of the route was tackled at the end of April. Here the traffic was interrupted for 8 hours a day, a corresponding piece of the narrow gauge was torn out, the superstructure renewed, the track in standard gauge, but the narrow gauge track was laid again in between, so that a four-rail track was created. The sidings were designed as three-rail tracks. The narrow-gauge operation then continued over the route. On June 15, normal gauge operation could then begin on the entire route.
Furthermore, the route of the military railway Maṣʿūdiyya – Sinai from Nachal Soreq (Wadi es Surar) to Beersheba ( Be'er Scheva ) was re-gauged to 1435 mm between May and July 1918, although operations were stopped three months later. The last Ottoman tracks south of Beersheba were only dismantled in 1924, but have not been used since the war.
The Lod - Jaffa section of the J&J line, on the other hand, was changed from 600 mm to 1435 mm in September 1920 and put into operation on October 6th. The section Jaffa train station - Jaffa port remained in operation in 600 mm until 1927 and was demolished in 1929 before it was replaced by regular gauge. This remainder of the 600 mm railway was owned by the city of Jaffa and was operated by two locomotives with internal combustion engines, which hauled goods on 4 to 8 flat cars through narrow streets and backyards to the Jaffa train station. The little train was called "Terezina" - an Arabicized form of "Draisine".
vehicles
The PMR received locomotives about 30 years old from English stocks: 36 machines with the C wheel arrangement from the London and South Western Railway , there under the designation 0395, and 42 machines with the same wheel arrangement from the London and North Western Railway - most of them after briefly serving in France . Six of the locomotives on the London & South Western Railway were delivered to Mesopotamia a short time later , where they eventually ran for the Iraqi State Railways . The remaining machines were decommissioned in the 1920s and 1930s. A machine with the C wheel arrangement from Hanomag (serial number 6788) is more of a curiosity . Confiscated by the British Navy during delivery to the high seas, it was assigned to the PMR and already in 1928 retired as a single item that was difficult to maintain.
As early as 1918, during the last months of the war, the PMR began to adapt to traffic in peacetime. Above all, they needed modern, less fault-prone locomotives. England, exhausted by her war efforts, could not deliver them. The order for the 2'C locomotives with tender went to Baldwin, USA. The first 10 were delivered in April 1919. They remained in service for 40 years, unless they were previously damaged in the Second World War or by terrorist attacks in such a way that they had to be decommissioned. No. 901 of this series was the last steam locomotive to run in Israel until the end of the 1950s.
The first PMR passenger cars for civil traffic came from England: 13 from the London & South Western, 17 from the Midland Railway . Already converted for medical service in England, they were converted again for passenger traffic after the war in Palestine.
resolution
When the Ottoman Empire dissolved after the First World War and the borders in the Middle East were redrawn, the British Mandate of Palestine emerged . The associated railway, formed from the tracks lying more or less by chance in this territory, were the Palestine Railways (PR). They were launched on October 1, 1920 and took over the operation of the British Military Railways in Palestine (Palestine Military Railways - PMR).
literature
- Paul Cotterell: The Railways of Palestine and Israel. Tourret Books, Abingdon 1986, ISBN 0-905878-04-3 .
- Walter Rothschild : Arthur Kirby and the last years of Palestine Railways: 1945–1948 , Berlin: Selbstverlag, 2009, plus London King's College Diss., 2009.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Coterell, p. 28, shows a photograph of this operating state.