Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

RUSSIAN RAILWAYS IN CENTRAL ASIA. 379 men proved themselves ready pupils, and all worked in six-hour shifts with such good will that in fourteen months rail-head was advanced 352 miles from Kizil Arvat to Merv, the “ Queen of the World,” as it is named by Eastern poets. The Russians had captured the town, after little opposition, in 1884. When the first locomotive steamed into this solitary oasis in a vast desert, Russia had ensured for herself the command of an important avenue between north and south. She had driven a wedge in between the Turco- mans and the Afghans ; and in order to over- come the latter, a line some 200 miles long was built to the political frontier of Afghan- istan, and material there collected to advance the rails to the very walls of Herat itself if an opportunity should offer. This branch towards the “ Key of India ” is the most jealously guarded section of the whole system. No foreigners find a seat in its rolling-stock. From Merv the main line was continued, after the men had made holiday for a few weeks, in a north-east direction, to Chardjui on the great river Oxus, now usually named the Amu Darya. Here the engineers were con- big bridge-building proposition. Bridging the Oxus. fronted with a At this point the river has a width of about 3,000 yards. To carry a railway across a channel which at times is filled by a turbulent stream was no light task. A steel bridge being out of the question at the time, several thousands of long piles were driven down into the mud to form trestles, on which were laid the longitudinal beams for the rails. The cost of materials was £44,000 ; the time occupied in getting it all into position only six months, so that the builders may be credited with a very fine performance. As a fire could, by destroying the structure, isolate the eastern section of the railway from the Caspian base, six fire stations were distributed over the bridge, and patrols guarded it constantly day and night, observing special vigilance after the passage of a “ Devil’s Chariot,” by which uncomplimentary title the locomotive was known among the natives. Shortly after the completion of the bridge it was discovered that a steamer, intended to take a Russian general on an exploring expedition up-stream, had been left below the bridge, which accordingly had to be cut through to permit its passage. This operation impaired considerably the stability of a structure none too firm origin- ally ; so, as soon as conditions permitted, the wooden work was replaced by steel piles and girders. To the north-east of the Oxus the rails were advanced first to Bokhara, where anti-Euro- pean feeling still showed itself so strongly that the city was avoided—a branch line afterwards linked it up to Samarcand the system—and then to Sam- arcand, the old capital of Central Asia in the palmy days of the great conqueror Timur, whose tomb is still one of the greatest wonders of the district. This city, situated some 934 miles from the Caspian, welcomed the railway more kindly than did the Bokhariots, and decked itself out bravely to receive the first train. A regular service between Samarcand and the Caspian was inaugurated in 1888. For the second time railroad construction ceased. General Annenkoff received from the Tsar as recognition of his work a letter of the warmest thanks and the diamond Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. It is sad to relate that this great engineer’s name was subsequently associated with some ugly stories of peculation —the curse of the Russian public services— and that he ended his days under a cloud, if not in actual disgrace. Ten years passed, and then began to move again. The Merv-Kuschk branch, to which reference has been made al- ready, was taken in hand, and the main line extended Tchernayevo—whence a branch runs north the Russians A new Caspian Terminus. eastwards to