The Forgotten Railways of the Middle East

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[@AvB.83]

"For various complex reasons, that mostly boiled down to a bit of a dick measuring contest..." That can be said about a whole lot of wars to be honest.

[@mtacoustic1]

Was assigned to northern Saudi Arabia in the early 80's & got a chance to do a tour of the remains of the Hejaz railway. Some parts of rail were still intact, while other parts only had a roadbed. Every 10k or so was the remains of a Turkish guard station. Lots of tunnels and bridges were still very much intact. Some areas had wreckage of train cars caused by saboteurs in WWI. Most interesting was Madain Salah, where railroad shops were located; including an abandoned engine still on a lift. Very interesting indeed!

[@KujoTV]

When I was in Riyadh there use to be a lot of self printed day trip pamphlets laying around, that would guide you to old forgotten rail stations. I always wondered where they came from and why they were abandoned.

[@That_Thicc_Cat]

I love it when you guys cover railroad stuff

[@t.g.2777]

I like trains (oncoming train noise)

[@joshuaescopete]

Would love to see the history of the U.S Balloon Corps during the Civil War. I love early aviation history and am fascinated to know more about America’s first air force.

[@vaudevillian7]

Likewise

[@samlaine3315]

That would be amazing!!

[@joseybryant7577]

Highly recommend a video by Phil Edwards, covering this very topic.

[@vaudevillian7]

Pleasantly surprised to see this video, I made a diorama of an ambush of the Hejaz railway by TE Lawrence in 1917 (at Halat Ammar), it’s currently in the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres should anyone want to see it (it’s not my greatest work but still happy enough with it for the time I had)

[@sandybarnes887]

As a Newfoundlander, that field means a lot

[@vaudevillian7]

@@sandybarnes887 absolutely, the Somme too - especially Beaumont Hamel, visited the Newfoundland Memorial Park there sometime ago

[@JackLowry1313]

I just took the train from Aswan to Alexandria via Cairo. 3 weeks ago I didn't know those railroads existed.

[@leeroyloke8415]

The agreement that ruined the Middle East, huh? That sounds like something to be covered for the "Into The Shadows" channel as you did with the Partition of India into modern-day India and Pakistan.

[@--enyo--]

Yup, would watch for sure. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much.

[@Kaltagstar96]

I was going to say in a separate comment, as a Brit, I can't believe how unbelievably bad we are at drawing up borders for countries in terms of actually benefiting the people who live there. I don't know if we botched the Sykes Agreement or the Ratcliffe Lines up worse?

[@mubeenshahid16]

​@@Kaltagstar96wisely said

[@alexius23]

Worth noting, some of the trains blown by Lawrence as still rusting in the sun…

[@foxtailedcritter]

My man talking about rail way roads, trains and shizz. But still I listen. This guy would make a perfect history teacher.

[@nikolaiboogaloo4592]

No furrys allowed

[@nikolaiboogaloo4592]

I retract that statement if you’ve found these channels then clearly you’re a furry of class and may stay

[@Valthoran90]

I would love to see a Biographics on T.E. Lawrence, especially since you mentioned him here.

[@ThomasCallahanJr]

I used to drive over the Hejaz railway everyday. “Lawrence in Arabia” is an excellent book that talks a lot about these rail lines!

[@duncancurtis1758]

Kaboom.

[@ThomasCallahanJr]

@@duncancurtis1758 exactly

[@yadavnitish1220]

you should make a video on Indian railways you are too good at your presentation

[@raptor2265]

It would be nice to see these railways restored to operating condition, or at least salvaged to build new railways. That’s a whole lot of iron and steel sitting around that could be put to better use than just getting covered in sand. Railroads are arguably the most efficient form of overland transportation and trade (aside from pipeline, but not everything can be sent through a pipe)

[@RamonInNZ]

They're mostly all gone, very few hints that were railroads in the landscape...

[@Zakster90]

Do you know it also had a railway Simon? The overseas Highway which was the original 7 mile bridge was actually a passenger/cargo train

[@roostercogburn7129]

Fact boy back another great episode

[@davemcegan1827]

Simon could make a new channel dedicated to the worlds great empires, hell he could a single channel on the British Empire 🤪🤪🤪

[@kylarstern7627]

Give it a Day or Two.

[@jackrabbithmb]

Simon could do a full channel on the life of a grain of salt and still make it interesting

[@shuritgaming8038]

Dude all ready has enough channels any more and he's gonna run out of flash clones

[@Bubbaist]

I just got back from Oman, and I’m very impressed. They manage to stay out of the conflicts in the Middle East, except as mediators. They’ve also done a remarkable job of modernizing what had been an economic basket case before 1970, while not becoming a sea of glass and steel like the other Gulf states. You might want to consider an episode about it.

[@michaelhughes9553]

Wow, this triggered the ferroequinologist hidden in me. Well done!

[@luckyverri3374]

one of my favorite episodes across the Whistlerplex.

[@thcdreams654]

Been working a lot, haven't had much free time, working out too. So I've been listening to a lot of your channels. Thank you and the crew for all the entertainment.

[@James-zh6nf]

DO MUSKRAT FALLS!!! Mega dam in the middle of nowhere like 5 billion over budget!!!

[@user-kj8yl6sn2z]

During the reign of King Saud, there was an idea to restore the railways linking the Levant to the Hejaz region Currently, there is a plan to connect the Arab Gulf states with railways And linking the cities of the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia to the city of Jeddah, after the success of the railway project in northern Saudi Arabia Perhaps the railways in northern Saudi Arabia will be linked to the Iraqi city of Basra, whenever the project is economically feasible There is a Hejaz Railway Museum in Al-Ula

[@chriseradley6083]

An interesting project to cover would be Canada's St Helen's Island - the island built to host the World's Fair in the 1960s en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helen%27s_Island

[@user-kj8yl6sn2z]

The Tapline project is one of the important projects that have been forgotten, and it was important in transporting oil to Lebanon, and then exporting it to the world Among its benefits was the settlement of a number of Bedouins, which formed new cities in Saudi Arabia

[@starcapture3040]

Saudi barbaria

[@ML-fc3je]

I haven't seen you for awhile but by all that is holy and divine did you grow one heck of a beautiful beard.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@keirangrant1607]

So what Simon is saying is that governments can be just as bad as us regular people at paying their creditors? But they always seem to get more loans and I end up wit a -500 credit score......Seems legit

[@vesawuoristo4162]

Well governments are very different than individuals.

[@keirangrant1607]

@@vesawuoristo4162 Yes but they can still be just as bad as us with their $

[@larryfolloway6335]

@@keirangrant1607 No they’re bad with our money while their personal bank accounts get fatter.

[@keirangrant1607]

@@larryfolloway6335 lol......makes sense

[@--enyo--]

Wow, this was incredibly interesting.

[@pagehallccmp6728]

I think that's your best yet.

[@mattday8208]

I went to Lebanon and every now and then you would come across a bit of old track and see an old engine rusting away, marooned on just a few metres of line.

[@cyrilio]

Could you do a video about the Dutch rail mega project through the ‘Green Heart’? Aka the ‘HSL tunnel’.

[@infermitori1248]

Hejaz Railway yeah....., perhaps the nahrawan canal

[@torso99]

i allways thought railways was a 1000 iq solution compaired to roadmap cars

[@oceania68]

I could have accumulated all that in three words: fear and greed. But your story telling was much more enticingly interesting. 😉

[@dave_h_8742]

Thanks for this as I always wondered about where the railways went after being forced to watch Laurence of Arabia my my mum 😀

[@helpmereach45ksubswithoutvideo]

These videos is the thing we need

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:05 - Chapter 1 - The sublime porte 9:20 - Chapter 2 - The decay 14:05 - Chapter 3 - The legacy of empire - Chapter 4 - - Chapter 5 - - Chapter 6 -

[@Abadox20]

There were lots of bright stars in that rail network. One example is the part of the network that passes through Lebanon, where the LT line was the first railroad line that passes through the mountains in the world going from Beirut to Damascus. The same locomotives were then used in Switzerland given the common geographical traits.

[@ponyote]

Nice railway you got there, guvnah. Shame if something were to ... happen to it.

[@pyeitme508]

WOW!

[@JJ-si4qh]

My travels have convinced me that most countries are incapable of maintaining any semblance of infrastructure, even if it was given to them for free by a foreign nation.

[@twocvbloke]

So, in that part of the world, war caused the decay of the railways, but here in blighty, it was the politicians, namely Beeching and Thatcher who took away transportation from the working class to keep it all for the uppers instead, where the money was...

[@JohnnyAFG81]

I don’t think the Middle East will find peace in my lifetime let alone come together and agree on a rail system.

[@Healingharp88]

Does anyone else hear the voice of the narrator from 'History of the Entire World I Guess' when Simon says Seljuk Turks?

[@Outside85]

I was hoping for a mention of the Iranian rail network, which seems to be a thing to behold.

[@brettd3206]

My grandfather helped build railways in the Palestine following WWI as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He contracted 2 types of malaria while stationed there and only survived after extended hospital stays in Cairo, Alexandria, and London.

[@matthewcombs5387]

Iran has a famous rail system

[@vesawuoristo4162]

Even more simplified , humans.

[@vladimirrizescu6360]

Please do a video on the Berlin flak towers

[@mmilller452]

Have u done a biographics on te Laurence?

[@Combat-Wombat]

I'd understood a "shameless plug" but blasting it's volume to the moon? C'mon I never thought I'd see You dropping to level of cable trickstery

[@patinsley]

205th!!!

[@paulsnickles2420]

👍👍👍

[@sanderschuringa1]

You missed the Etihad Rail! Almost finished.. major railroad system in the UAE

[@BigboiiTone]

"The middle east is becoming a more peaceful place" Taliban: am i a joke to you?

[@jonnyg9330]

If you played battlefield 1 you know all about trains in the Middle East 😂

[@centredoorplugsthornton4112]

Train service from Istanbul to Baghdad and Tehran stopped as far back as 1981. Some time back a weekly Ankara-Tehran train began. Saudi Arabia has 2 Dammam-Riyadh lines, a direct one for passenger service and a longer one for freight that was the original rail line. Much newer lines include one from Riyadh to the Jordanian border and a high speed line Medina-Mecca. United Arab Emirates has had remarkable rail development, a new freight network and metro systems in Dubai.

[@liuxaun8385]

#bringbacktheottomanempire2022

[@nebaicita]

This is reason ww1 ww2 the uk did not want to lose sinai fee pass..Hamburg to Bagdad full oil

[@mamarussellthepie3995]

"You're going to be broke in a couple of decades" - China and their silk road be like xd

[@EpoxyCircus]

Who wrote this episode? A State school grad?

[@MR2Davjohn]

The agreement that ruined the Middle East occurred many years before the Ottoman Empire. Partitioning India and Pakistan sounds like a Geographic episode.

[@MsZeeZed]

03:15 that’s a weird set of maps. Flips between C20th western european borders C19th and back again.

[@sandybarnes887]

Back again? I don't see it

[@chriskuzianik9507]

While the Colonial powers have initial blame for the borders of nations in the Middle East, those nations have had 80-100 years to set things straight. But they haven't, because they're too busy with petty cultural and theological disputes.

[@user-kj8yl6sn2z]

Khomeini, did he rule Iran with a French or an Arab plane? Is France still the sponsor of the survival of the state of Lebanon, or has Lebanon been able to remain a sovereign state because of its weakness and sectarian divisions? Was Iraq destroyed by Saddam or by Western occupation? Was Syria destroyed by itself or was Russia destroyed? Was Libya stable or after the intervention of Western forces and Turkey? Words can be released, but the reality is different from what I said Western interventions did not stop in the past, they were for religious or economic reasons, but now they are interfering even in social and cultural matters, and they want the world to be a copy of liberal American values, and this is not compatible with Muslims at all.

[@edletain385]

WW-1 American trench railway film clips? Really? These off-topic as possible. They were installed, and then removed and installed elsewhere often weekly.

[@countdown8486]

Congrats on being early and finding this comment 🎉

[@johnnywindsor183]

Yeah who killed them ? Britain and France

[@geoffreycharles6330]

The Greeks and thr other Balkan nations wouldn't be very happy ti hear the Ottomans built tolerant government institutions.

[@Pepsi_Addicted]

first

[@warrenjohnknight.9831]

And then again now the CCP had a great deal for so many country's, they obviously learnt that from the British and French then,

[@shatbad2960]

Israel has a lot to answer for.

[@mizrahiwithattitude2733]

no it doesnt lol

[@keirangrant1607]

Politics and religion.....the death of peace and progress.....

[@8772884]

All the problems come from the British empire 😅😅

[@danielm3711]

Middle-east was never ruled by Ottoman Turks entirely, 1/2~2/3 if we remove Afghanistan (central asia) and Pakistan (south asia) and add Egypt (African) to the middle-east definition. Middle-east (loose definition ) was divided between the Iranian empires (Safavid, Afshar, Zandie, Ghjar) and the Ottomans. (for short periods, afghan dynasties like Durani ). It's right there in the maps you are showing. Modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Dubai, Bahrain, and Kuwait were under Iranian rule. Iran's borders were never directly defined by colonial powers but in interaction with its neighbours: Ottomans, Russians, and Afghans (Durani). The first Iranian railway was opened in 1883, and they are fully in use. They played a critical role in the Russian victory in WW2. And gave the nickname victory bridge to Iran

[@mcfireballs3491]

Beta

[@cplinstructor]

Palestine? Where is that? There is no country with that name.

[@thanksfernuthin]

Typical. You say the interest rate the British and French empires gave to the Turkish empire was horrible... without saying what that rate was. You also make it sound like the Turkish empire was taken advantage of by this interest rate as though the Turkish empire was a toddler without it's own agency. This contempt for European empires that has been drilled into the West won't even allow for the fact that other empires were just as guilty of whatever you'd tar the European ones for. That's pretty messed up. This self loathing trait didn't just happen. It was planned and executed. Again, typical.

[@geoffreycharles6330]

Who planned and executed it?

[@Primal-Weed]

Keep crying princess…. It’s hilarious.

[@thanksfernuthin]

@@geoffreycharles6330 If someone offers a loan they plan and execute it. If someone agrees to the loan and takes the money then that was their decision. Loans aren't instruments of Satan. They've been used to grow businesses and economies for centuries. I'd sure like to know what this outrageous percentage was.

[@kaltaron1284]

In 1875 their debt was £200,000,000, with annual interest and amortization payments of £12,000,000 which comes down to 6% which is a lot for a country to pay. Also this interest was more than half the national revenue.

[@thanksfernuthin]

@@kaltaron1284 Thanks for the info. It caused me to search on it myself. I found 4% and the numbers weren't nearly that high. Possibly what you looked at was adjusted for inflation. The Ottoman Empire was loaned five million pounds in 1855 for instance. But this is my main point... people and governments need to be able to make contracts with each other. As long as there was no force involved, what's the problem? The Turkish Empire decided to take the loan. They didn't have to. If they fucked up it's on them. Not those that offered the loan. The British and French empires did bad things. So did the Ottoman. Why are French and British empires singled out for special admonishment?

[@beachboy0505]

An excellent video BUT: contrary to what historians/ political commentators say, the people in the Middle East are very happy with these small artificial countries. The British gave some of these to France but took it back in WW2. They became independent countries and developed their own nationalism. For hundreds of years, various empires ruled over. them and treated them as slaves. They don’t want these interconnected railways or this will invite dangerous invaders. Each of these countries are happy with their oil wells. The people of the Middle East had their greatest moments 1100 years ago. That time has gone.

[@eaphantom9214]

Oooh! All Too often, we always we think of Islam and hydrocarbons when discussing the middle east, but NOT HERE! 👏👏😃🚂🚃🚃