Court procession of the Shah of Persia

Reza Shah Pahlavi and the then Crown Prince and later Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at the window of a saloon car of the first court train

Two saloon car sets served one after the other as the court train of the Shah of Persia .

prehistory

With the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway , a long-distance line was created in Iran for the first time , which was under Iranian administration and touched the capital, Tehran . Even before the delivery of the first court train , inspection trips by Reza Shah Pahlavi on the railway line still under construction are occupied. It is not known which cars were used for this.

Court train of Reza Shah Pahlavi

Appropriately, however, a court train for the Shah of Persia was necessary. A first court train, ultimately consisting of five saloon cars, was procured from 1935. Three saloon cars were built by the Swedish company Kockums . These were supplemented by two more cars. The order to build these two cars went to the Deutsche Wagenbauvereinigung , an association of German wagon builders. The carriages were built by Linke-Hofmann-Busch in 1937 : These were a saloon car with an additional center entry and a baggage and follower car.

After the change of the throne in 1941 and the end of World War II , the train was modernized for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . At least two of the vehicles have been preserved in a museum.

Court train of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

In the second half of the 1950s, a new four-car court train was commissioned for Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Wegmann & Co. received this order in Kassel . The train was built in 1957/1958. The most striking vehicle of this set was a pulpit car at the end of the train. This train has been preserved as a museum and is stored in a hall in Tehran.

literature

• Paul Dost: The red carpet. History of State Trains and Salon Cars. Stuttgart 1965.
• Johannes Glöckner: Splendor down to the cutlery. Salon car for the Shah . In: Lok Magazin. Volume 41, No. 252 9 / (2002). ISSN 0458-1822, pp. 52-53.

Web links

swell

• Federal Archives, Signature B 121/902: B 121 Headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, (F) vehicles for rail and road traffic, (Fw) wagons: Construction of a saloon train for the Shah of Persia by the Wegmann company, Kassel. - Construction supervision. Duration 1957 to 1958 .

photos

• Car of the first court train (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Interior view of a saloon car (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Pulpit car, exterior view (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Pulpit car, exterior view (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Pulpit of the pulpit car - interior view (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Luggage and / or car transport wagons of the court train (Photo: Alessandro Albé).
• Factory plate ( Wegmann + Co - Kassel - Germany ) (Photo: Alessandro Albé).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dost, p. 273.
2. ↑ Dost, p. 273; Glöckner, p. 52.
3. ↑ Glöckner, p. 52f.
4. ↑ Photo : One of the surviving wagons from the old court train;
   Photo : A car of the old train can be seen in the background on the right;
   Photo : A carriage of the old train can be seen in the background on the left.
   (All photos: Alessandro Albé)
5. ↑ Glöckner, p. 52f.