Palestine Railways

Palestine Railways (سكة حديد فلسطين)

Palestine Railways or in Arabic: سكة حديد فلسطين, Palestine Railways: Contemporary Hebrew: מסילות ברזל פלשתינה (א"י) “Palestine (Land of Israel) Railways” or רכבות ארץ-ישראל “Land of Israel Railways”: in present-day Hebrew: הרכבת המנדטורית “Mandate Railways” was a government-owned railway company that ran all public railways in the League of Nations mandate territory of Palestine from 1920 until 1948. Its main line linked El Kantara in Egypt with Haifa. Branches served Jaffa, Jerusalem, Acre and the Jezreel Valley.

Palestine Railways Background and Predecessors

Jaffa–Jerusalem Railway

The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, funded by Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements, was the first railway to be built in Palestine. Construction started on 31 March 1890 and the line opened on 26 September 1892. It was built to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) with many tight curves and a ruling gradient of 2% (1 in 50). The eastern part of the line, in the Judean hills between Dayr Aban and Jerusalem, is particularly steep and winding. The "J&J"'s first locomotives were a fleet of five 2-6-0 Mogul tender locomotives from Baldwin in the USA, delivered in 1890 and 1892. On a number of occasions the Baldwins' six-coupled driving wheels either spread the rails or became derailed on tight curves. As traffic increased the J&J obtained four 0-4-4-0 Mallet articulated locomotives from Borsig in Germany, delivered between 1904 and 1914. The Mallets were intended to deliver greater tractive effort without spreading the rails, but they too suffered a number of derailments.

In 1915, during World War I, the Ottoman Army widened the track gauge between Lydda and Jerusalem to 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) to allow through running with the Hejaz railway and removed the track between Lydda and Jaffa for military use elsewhere.

In 1921, the British Government of Palestine seriously considered electrifying the line. Pinhas Rutenberg, the electricity concessionaire of Palestine, had been backed by High Commissioner Samuel in suggesting that the electrification of the line would not only be profitable but also crucial for the successful electrification of the country as a whole. However the Colonial Office backed off, fearing the heavy costs of this project

Jezreel Valley Railway

This was a branch of the Hejaz railway between Haifa and Daraa in southern Syria where it joined the Hejaz main line. Construction began at Haifa in 1902 and was completed at Daraa in 1905. The Jezreel Valley line, like the Hejaz main line, was built to 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in). Construction of a branch from Afula on the Jezreel Valley line to Jerusalem had begun in 1908 and reached Nablus by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Ottoman Military Railways

The Ottoman Empire needed to supply its forces holding the border of Palestine against British and Empire forces in Egypt. The planned railway from Nablus through hilly country to Jerusalem could not be completed in time, so from 1915 the German railway engineer Heinrich August Meißner oversaw the building of a 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) line westwards from El Mas'udiya to Tulkarm. From Tulkarm the terrain became much easier and a line was built northwards to Hadera and southwards to Lydda where it joined the J&J and later became known as the Eastern Railway. It used the widened J&J track (see above) as far as Wadi Surar where it branched southwards towards the Ottoman front line. By October 1915 the line was operational as far south as Beersheba. A branch was also built from Et Tine just south of Wadi Surar to Deir Seneid, where it branched again to Beit Hanoun and Huj near Gaza. The Ottomans also extended the railway to Beersheba into Sinai as far as Kusseima.

Sinai Military Railway

The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) of British and British Empire units was formed in March 1916. It began building the standard gauge Sinai Military Railway from El Kantara on the Suez Canal across Sinai, reaching Romani by May 1916, El Arish in January 1917 and Rafah in March 1917.

The SMR borrowed rolling stock and 70 locomotives from Egyptian State Railways including 20 Robert Stephenson & Co. 0-6-0s, 20 Baldwin 2-6-0s and 15 Baldwin 4-4-0s. The SMR also acquired seven small shunting locomotives: two 0-6-0ST saddle tanks built in 1900 and 1902 that J. Aird & Co. had been using on a civil engineering project in Egypt (probably the Assiut Barrage), four 0-6-0ST's that had been built in 1917 for the Inland Waterways and Docks Department in Britain and one German 0-6-0WT that was part of the cargo of a merchant ship that the Royal Navy captured in 1914. The German locomotive had been built by Hanomag in Hanover in 1913 and all the saddle tanks had been built by Manning Wardle in Leeds, England.

Palestine Military Railway

The EEF captured Beersheba in October 1917 and Gaza in November. EEF engineers extended the SMR to Deir Seneid by the end of November 1917 and a branch to Beersheba by May 1918. From Deir Seneid, EEF engineers worked northwards converting the Ottoman tracks to standard gauge, reaching Lydda by February 1918, converting the branch to Jerusalem by June and continuing as far as Tulkarm on the Eastern Railway. From there they built the standard gauge line on a new route northwest to the coast and then northwards, reaching Haifa by the end of 1918.

As the EEF advanced into Palestine it formed a new organisation, the Palestine Military Railway, to operate the various railways of various gauges that came under its control. Royal Engineers units restored Palestine's railways to working condition. The PMR laid a number of temporary 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge lines, including one between Lydda and Jaffa on the J&J trackbed from which the Ottoman army had removed the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge track in 1915. The PMR borrowed several 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) locomotives to work the 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in) narrow gauge tracks, which were a very tight fit.

Palestine Railways Overview

Palestine Railways Headquarters: Khoury House, Haifa
Palestine Railways Locale: British Mandate of Palestine, northern coast of Sinai
Palestine Railways Dates of Operation: 1920–1948
Palestine Railways Predecessor: Sinai Military Railway, Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, Jezreel Valley and Acre branches of Hejaz railway
Palestine Railways Successor Israel: Israel Railways
Palestine Railways Egypt: Egyptian National Railways
Palestine Railways Track Gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge,
and 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in)
Palestine Railways Previous Gauge: 1,050 mm (3 ft 5+11⁄32 in)