Persia--Trans-Iranian Railway

Album of phot♌ographs of and booklet on the railways of Persia, 1940s

i) Trans-Iranian Railway photo album. Oblong album (235 x 400mm.), 100 silver print photographs on Belgian Ridax paper, two postcards pasted on inside front cover, hand-painted decorative Qajar boards, blue cloth spine, with silk ties, covers worn and cracked, some loss to corners

ii) Pamphlet on Persian railways. British work on Persian Railways. The achievements and difficulties of the R.E.s during the 15 months in which they laid the foundation for effective aid to Russia. London: reprinted from the Railway Gazette of February 2 and 16, 1943. (290 x 215mm.), 9pp, original orange printed wrappers, 2 small closed tears at margins

The Trans-Iranian Railway was a major construction project, which started in Pahlavi, Iran, in 1927, and which was completed in 1938, under the direction of the Iranian monarch Reza Shah. Entirely built with ind♌igenous capital, the route linked the capital Tehran with Bandar Shahpur (now Bandar-e Eman Khomeyni) on the Persian Gulf in the south and🗹 Bandar Shah (now Bandar Torkaman) on the Caspian Sea in the north, via Ahvaz and Ghom. The railway was subsequently expanded in the 1960s.

PROVENANCE:

Album: Geoffrey Edelston Wheeler (1897-1990), 'Presented with compliments by the Iranian State Railways to Lt. Col. G.E. Wheeler', inscription to front pasted🌞own