Curious to know if any of the railroad system that was in Iraq has been restored and back operating again? Who rebuilt it and do we know of any cost figures? Is there any passenger service?
Trains magazine in July and September 2004 had then current articles on the railroad in Iraq.
Thanks, have read those. Just wonder if there are any further developments for the rail service that was destroyed in the last war that might have more current information. Didn’t know if any of our “retraining” efforts being performed by the US military has included rebuilding the rail system.
News about Iraq’s railroads:
A couple other sites that may have info:
Forum contributor OS had some Senior managerial influences on the operations of the Iraq Railways for a period of time and has some real ‘wild’ stories about what it took to operate the system as best they could. I haven’t seen OS around for quite some time.
The IRR was never destroyed like a Lawrence of Arabia film. It was looted badly, however – the block signal system was wiped out for the copper, all the spare parts and tools were taken, structures were stripped to naked shells sans windows, doors, wire, and plumbing, and in some cases dismantled for the bricks, and a lot of locomotives and wagons were stripped out. In the first few weeks after the war, the Bagdad-Basra-Umm Qasr main stem was restored to operation thanks to the dedication, moxie, and can-do attitude of Lt. Col Bob Pelletier, USA reserve, whose regular job is corridor manager for UP. “Sheik Bob” figured out how to get the IRR people paid, how to get the US Military out of the way, and gave the IRR people the legal umbrella they needed to get back to work. Operations were quickly extended from Baghad to Mosul and Rabiya, and Baghdad to Al Qaim and Akashat. The Bayji-Tikrit line was severed in the invasion and still is not in operation (see below). In 2004, that fell apart as the law-and-order vacuum created by the invasion was filled by all sorts of local mafias. Operations were fitfully restored in 2005-06, and now the situation is much improved because the local mafias are now reconstitutued as “the government” … at least on a regional basis … and the economic system, which is pretty weird by our standards but works for them, is returning to functionality.
Portions of the Iraqi Republic Railways are in regular operation at present as follows:
- Manifest freight Rabiya-Mosul, 1-2 trains daily (Rabiya is the interchange at the Syrian Border with Chemin De Fer Syriana, or CFS; the business is food and consumer goods that originate on TCDD in Turkey, or import flour and wheat from T
The U.S. Military did not provide a training program. There are stories floating around that the Army’s remnant Railroad Battalions were activated and “ran the railroad in Iraq,” a fiction that has been created by a few Walter Mittys who managed to get themselves into Iraq as reservists or KBR contractors who had absolutely no involvement with the IRR, or hid out inside their FOB because it was dangerous out there, but now are passing themselves off as tough guys who took big risks to tell our beknighted friends how to run a railroad. Rick Degman, who served as the IRR’s Deputy Rail Advisor in 2005, ran into one of these goofs on a steam fan trip last year, and called him on it. The guy decided he had better get off the train mid-trip.
Actually the IRR railwaymen are as good as railroaders you will find in any country, and better in some aspects. Certain technologies new to Iraq they have received focused training on – such as the maintenance and computer programming for the flash-butt welders and the tampers, and for the microwave system and train-control system. Our conclusion after each class is that the IRR men are faster, smarter, and better students than the attendees sent for the same training by U.S. railroads. Not a good comment on us.
We tried at various times to get the USA to reactivate one of the rail battalions but we were never successful. Their primary role would have been to give the IRR an “American face” in order to keep the U.S. government and military at arm’s length so the Iraqi railwaymen could get things done and run trains.
MWH
MWH …
Glad to see you back!
…Hello Mark. Best wishes to you.
Great to hear from you again Mark!
Mark, thank you for your cogent update.
“KBR” Contractor?
Mark, welcome back!! I truly enjoy reading your posts, and have missed seeing you on here. We all definitely learn from your posts!
Hey Mark, great to see you back! Thanks for the great info. Sounds like of all things we are doing over there, we have a good start to getting this working again.
Nice update.
Good thing the guy got off the train when he did as Degman could hardly have been blamed if he had helped him off the train during a run at track speed.
Having gotten the story from articles, correspondence and some conversation with Degman, Gordon Mott and Mark Hemphill, I have to say that they achieved a remarkable success with the rebuilding of the IRR. It is probable that they spent more time outside the “safety” of the US Embassy Compound than the next 50 US civilians assigned to that post. In addition to the daily menu of IED’s, assasins, kidnappers, launched grenades, rockets and mortar fire, they also had to battle a totally unfunctional bureaucracy. Getting any task accomplished required an array of approvals from people in US agencies who, in the parlance of the military, probably didn’t give a rat’s behind if the railroad ever ran again.
IMO the Iraq Railroad could be considered one of the very few reconstruction projects that came anywhere close to being a success.
The army did reactivate a railroad battalion they were based out of Chicago and they trained for several months and were about to be deployed but at the last minute the army changed thier mind and disbanded it an Engineer I work with was in it and showed me pics from chicago when he was training, so there is some truth to the rumors its just they were never actually deployed
There is only one railway battalion remaining in the Army, and it’s a reserve unit with headquarters in Milwaukee, WI. It has two companies directly assigned (1150th and 1152nd) and two that would be gained upon mobilization (1151st and 226th).
757th Transportation Battalion (Railway)
Milwaukee USARC
4850 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53218-3400
1150th Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Phillip H. Sheridan USARC
3155 Blackhawk Drive
Fort Sheridan, IL 60037-1289
Det 1
Granite City USARC
Building 331
1230 First Street
Granite City, IL 62040-1801
1151st Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Adrian B. Rhodes AFRC
2144 Lake Shore Drive
Wilmington, NC 28401-7297
Det 1
Blue Grass Army Depot USARC
2091 Kingston Highway
Richmond, KY 40475-5001
Det 2
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point
Southport, NC 28461-7800
1152nd Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
Milwaukee USARC
4850 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53218-3400
Det 1
Fort McCoy Complex
2010 South 8th Street
Fort McCoy, WI 54656-5136
226th Transportation Company (Railway Operating)
West