Back Hejaz Railway ACE خط حديد الحجاز Arabic Хижәз тимер юлы Bashkir Хиджазка железница Bulgarian হেজাজ রেলওয়ে Bengali/Bangla Ferrocarril del Hijaz Catalan ھێڵی ئاسنینی حیجاز CKB Hidžázská dráha Czech Rheilffordd Hejaz Welsh Hijaz-jernbanen Danish

Hejaz railway

Hejaz railway
سكة حديد الحجاز (Arabic)
حجاز دمیریولی (Ottoman Turkish)
Hejaz Railway Station in Medina
Overview
Other name(s)Hedjaz railway
Native nameArabic: سِكَّة حَدِيد الحِجَاز
Ottoman Turkish: حجاز دمیریولی
LocaleSouthern Syria, Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia
Termini
Service
Operator(s)
History
Opened1908 (1908)
Closed1920 (1920)
Technical
Track length1,320 km (820 mi)
Track gauge1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in)
Minimum radius100 m (328 ft)
Maximum incline1.8 ‰ (0.18 %)
The railway in 1908
Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) in Switzerland built a class of ten 2-8-0 locomotives for the Hejaz railway in 1912, numbered 87–96. They were later renumbered 150–159. Several were captured in 1918 by British and Empire forces or transferred in 1927 to Palestine Railways, which had taken over the Hejaz railway's Jezreel Valley branch in 1920. 153 (formerly 90) was transferred in 1927 and is pictured on the Jezreel Valley railway in 1946.
The boiler for an SLM locomotive being unloaded at the port of Haifa, c. 1913

The Hejaz railway (also spelled Hedjaz or Hijaz; Arabic: سِكَّة حَدِيد الحِجَاز sikkat ḥadīd al-ḥijāz or Arabic: الخَط الحَدِيدِي الحِجَازِي, Ottoman Turkish: حجاز دمیریولی, Turkish: Hicaz Demiryolu) was a narrow-gauge railway (1,050 mm / 3 ft 5+11⁄32 in track gauge) that ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of modern-day Saudi Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea. The project was ordered by the Ottoman sultan in March 1900.[1]

It was a part of the Ottoman railway network and the original goal was to extend the line from the Haydarpaşa Terminal in Kadıköy, Istanbul beyond Damascus to the Islamic holy city of Mecca. However, construction was interrupted due to the outbreak of World War I, and it reached only to Medina, 400 kilometres (250 mi) short of Mecca. The completed Damascus to Medina section was 1,300 kilometres (810 mi). It was the only railway completely built and operated by the Ottoman Empire.

The main purpose of the railway was to establish a connection between Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Islamic Caliphate, and Hejaz in Arabia, the site of the holiest shrines of Islam and Mecca, the destination of the Hajj annual pilgrimage. Other objectives were to improve the economic and political integration of the distant Arabian provinces into the Ottoman state, and to facilitate the transportation of military forces.

  1. ^ "Hejaz Railway Description". whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 29 July 2024.

Developed by StudentB