Railway Damas – Hama et Prolongements

[Damascus–] Rayak – Aleppo
Route length:	343 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Country:	Syria
Legend 0 Rayak transition to the Lebanon Railway 11 Abruk 24 Baalbek 29 Iaat 36 Maqne 45 Chaat 60 Labue 66 El-Ain 80 Ras Baalbek 96 Qaa 111 Al-Qusayr narrow-gauge railway to Hermel 127 Qattinah 134 Dar-el-Ukara 136 New line from Damascus 136 207 Change of kilometers 205 Homs 2 205 0 Change of kilometers 202 from Homs 1 4th to Tartus 10 from Homs Siding from Homs 1 25 174 Change of kilometers Re-routing 170 Nahb Natsa realignment 161 Re-routing 157 Birin 153 Kafr Behem 144 Hama Hama DHP after Mhardé 131 Kamkhanah 120 Suran 112 Kevkeb 99 Al-Hamdaniyah 82 Umm-er-Ryim 75 Sendschar 69 Al-Avja 57 Abu ad-Dhour 48 Teledschin 42 Atschane Garbiyé 28 Hamidiye 14th Abbot of Ard-al-Bayad (quarry) from Latakia 7th Al-Wadahi 0 Aleppo Damacen train station 0 Aleppo Baghdad train station Baghdad Railway

The Société Ottomane du Chemin de fer Damas-Hamah et Prolongements (DHP) was a French company and emerged from the merger of the Société des Chemins de fer Ottomans economiques de Beyrouth-Damas-Hauran with a Belgian company at the end of the 19th century.

society

The DHP was the owner of various Ottoman concessions for railway lines in what is now Syria and Lebanon .

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  Obligation of 500 francs from Soc. Ottoman du Chemin de Fer de Damas-Hamah et Prolongements of June 10, 1902

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  Locomotive delivered to DHP by Maffei in 1910

stretch

The DHP took over from its predecessor by Damascus outgoing Hauranbahn and the Lebanon track , both mm in the gauge 1050th

Lebanon Railway

→ Main article : Lebanon Railway

The Lebanon Railway crosses the Lebanon Mountains and Anti-Lebanon . It is 143 km long. Crossing the mountains was technically complex, with switchbacks and 33 km of rack and pinion sections . The speeds to be achieved and the load to be attached per train were strictly limited and the capacity of the train was therefore low.

The Lebanon Railway was destroyed on the Lebanese side during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990. On the Syrian side, operations have largely ceased, with the exception of a smaller section operated by tourists between El Hamé (km 12), Judeidet Al Qadi and Ain Fijé (km 22).

Hauran Railway

→ Main article : Hauran Railway

When the Ottoman Empire planned the Hejaz Railway , it tried to buy up the Hauran Railway, but this failed due to the excessive demands of the DHP. The Hejaz Railway was laid in parallel and there were two rival lines between Damascus and Muzeirib up until the First World War . Although the neighboring Hejaz Railway also chose the 1050 mm gauge, there was never a track connection due to the competitive situation between the two railways before the First World War .

The Hauran Railway was dismantled at the beginning of the First World War in order to reuse the material for driving the railway in Palestine in the direction of the Suez Canal to be attacked.

Rayak – Aleppo

Baalbek railway station , built in 1902 with German help

The route from Damascus to Hama from which the DHP was named did not exist in this form. In order to connect to the Baghdad Railway coming from the north, this line was made in standard gauge. In order to save a few kilometers of track, however, it was not led directly from Hama to Damascus, but via Baalbek to Rayak on the Lebanon Railway. Because of the different track widths, all goods had to be reloaded and all passengers had to change. This transferred the capacity bottlenecks on the narrow-gauge railway to the entire connection.

The continuous Rayak – Aleppo connection could be used from 1906. In Aleppo there was a connection to the Baghdad Railway from 1915.

Homs – Tripoli

Homs – Tripoli
Country:	Syria , Lebanon
Route length:	104 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend 0.0 Homs 1 after Homs 2, Rayak and Damascus 4.0 to Aleppo 6.5 Khirbet al-Tiyen 11 Al-Chansa Reallocation to bypass Lebanon 30th Umm Qameh 34 El Amader 47 56 Tall Kalakh 67.2 0 Aakkar to Tartus 10 Tall Abbas 24 El-Aabde 32 El Minie 35 refinery 37 El-El-Beddaui 41 Tripoli to the port of Tripoli, to Beirut

In 1911 the DHP built a line from Tripoli to Homs . Its eastern part is still partially used today by the Homs – Tartus connection of the Syrian Railway . The branch in the direction of Lebanon took place at Aakkar station . The line was destroyed on the Lebanese side during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990. The junction can still be seen at Aakkar station, but the tracks have been removed. The part of the route that ran over Lebanese territory was replaced by a bypass that runs exclusively on Syrian territory.

First World War and the aftermath

At the beginning of the First World War, all foreign railways owned by companies that were based in now hostile countries were confiscated, including the DHP railways. The operation of the railways with 1050 mm gauge was transferred to the Hejaz Railway.

After the war, Syria became a League of Nations mandate given to France . The French administration restituted the DHP and also transferred the operation of the Hejaz Railway lines in Syria - despite massive protests by the population, who saw it as a violation of the Hejaz Railway's status as a religious foundation ( Waqf ). From then on, French was the language of the railways in Syria - right down to the timetables.

The Société d'Exploitation des Chemins de fer Bozanti - Alep - Nissibin et Prolongements (BANP), which had operated the French-influenced parts of the Baghdad Railway in Syria and Turkey since 1921 , was founded after the Turkish state railway Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD ) had taken over the Baghdad Railway to Fevzipaşa , dissolved on July 1, 1933. The DHP received the operating rights for the Syrian section of the Baghdad Railway and the Turkish section between Çobanbey and Nusaybin , while the infrastructure was organized in its own stock company , the Cenup Demiryolları .

The End

In 1956, Syria nationalized its railways. The DHP went into the Chemins de fer Syriens (CFS). The operation of its 1050 mm lines was transferred to the Hejaz Railway.

See also

• Railroad in Syria

literature

• Benno Bickel: Baghdad Railway Timeline. In: Jürgen Franzke (Ed.): Bagdadbahn and Hedjazbahn. German railway history in the Middle East. Tümmel, Nürnberg 2003, ISBN 3-921590-05-1 , pp. 160–162.
• Johannes Müller: Syria and the Hejaz Railway. Röhr, Krefeld 1989, ISBN 3-88490-177-X ( Steam & Travel, Überseeische Bahnen 1989, 1).
• Dieter Noll (Ed.): The Hejaz Railway. A German railway in the desert. German Society for Railway History, Werl 1995, ISBN 3-921700-68-X .
• Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas and historical summary. Volume 8: The Middle East and Caucasus. World Rail Atlas Ltd., London 2006, ISBN 954-12-0128-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The route in the Homs area follows today's operating procedures.