International Railroad Discussion > Turkey Tuesday

In March of 2006 I spent some time in Gazientep in the far southeast of Turkey where we were using the Turkish Railway (TCDD) facilities to test Iraqi train control equipment.  The first six photos are from the really interesting 26-hour train trip from Istanbul to Gazientep.

1.  Our train in rugged country near Bayirkoy.  The consist was of all older equipment, non-air conditioned.  It was late March and the temperatures moderate so I really appreciated the drop-down windows.  I've forgotten how far the electrification extended, perhaps to Eskisehir.
2.  TCDD 33 005 - Bilecik 4/10/06.  The Class 33 are EMD GT26CW-2's with 16-645E3C prime movers rated at 3,300hp.  They awere Turkish-built under license from EMD beginning in 2003.
3.  TCDD 24 245 - Kutahya 4/10/06.  The Class 24 were built in Turkey under license from MTE and use a Pielstick V16 prime mover rated at 2,400hp.  They were built starting in 1970 and replaced the estimated 700 steam locomotives still operating in Turkey at that time.  The Pielstick engine is LOUD.

. . . . continued 

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4.  Most stations that I saw were of this basic design.  This one is Durak.
5.  There were exactly 50 tunnels that we passed through (possibly more that we passed through during the night), mostly Gumus and Durak.
6.  We finally arrived in Gazientep.

I'll do another post later of more pure locomotives shots!

Gordon

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Excellent, thanks!

Very impressive!  

Photo 1 is as deep of a slot canyon as I have ever seen with a train in it.  Though maybe not as steep as the Royal Gorge in Colorado.  

I think I found it, using a combination of Google Maps, OpenTopoMap, and OpenRailwayMap.  

Location
https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=30.0053495&y=40.1860712&z=15
https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=40.188151904882496&lon=30.01810312271118&zoom=15
https://opentopomap.org/#map=15/40.17946/-329.99200
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1804999,30.0102797,1848m/data=!3m1!1e3

Rough measurements from OpenTopoMap, the peaks on the gorge are 600m, river level is 220 m, and it is about 1000 m from peak to peak across the gorge.  So, each side has a 380m drop over 500 m.  Less than a 45 degree angle overall.  But, obviously, it is a lot steeper than that immediately adjacent to the river.  It looks like a knife sharpener.  

Compared to the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River in Colorado -- River level 1760m, canyon lip level 2100 m, 340 m deep.  Only 500 m from lip to lip.  So drops 340 m over 250m, steeper than a 45 degree angle!  And steeper than Gmott's gorge in Turkey.  
https://opentopomap.org/#map=15/38.47032/-465.30632

StreetView of the groge from the freeway, appears to be the same place.   
https://goo.gl/maps/YfFUiFMAPfz6Hnoq8

And from the south end of the gorge.  You can see the conventional speed rail line in the foreground, and the high speed rail line sailing above the river as it goes from tunnel to tunnel.  
https://goo.gl/maps/a55sgnfS39tCky6v5
Another high speed/conventional speed over-under, just 1/2 kilometer south.  
https://goo.gl/maps/ygn3WcUKehJYt6rb7

Even more interesting, this is the one and only railroad route across Turkey.  Mainline from Istanbul to Ankara.  I have not been to Turkey, but I know it is mountainous and plateau-y.  But I'm surprosed that the only decent route to engineer a rail line runs through places like this!
https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=40.287906612507406&lon=30.56121826171875&zoom=8

And, as you can see on the various maps, the high speed rail tracks from Ankara to Istanbul follow this same route, but are in a tunnel for most of the routing in this area.  

So the rest of this part of Turkey must be mountainous indeed!

Thanks for sharing, 
Ted in OR



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/21 22:06 by gobbl3gook.