Adunis to Mambiza Railway
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| Adunis-Mambiza Railway | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Type | High-speed rail Heavy rail |
| Status | Operational |
| Termini | Adunis, Tsabara Mambiza, Garambura |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge |
| Electrification | 25 kV 50/60 Hz AC |
The Adunis to Mambiza Railway, also known as the Trans-Bahian Railway and historically known as either the 'Adunis to Sainte-Germaine Railway' or the 'Imperial Rail', is a semi-complete railway linking eastern and western Bahia by way of the Ténéré desert. The construction of the railway began in the late 19th century under the supervision of Grégoire Cuvillier, Governor of Atudée. The main line was completed by 1922, with a planned modification and second line halting due to the Great War.
Original Main Line
The Adunis to Sainte-Germaine Railway, as it was originally known, originates from the Trans-Coian Imperial Railway plan concieved of and championed by Grégoire Cuvillier, the Gaullican colonial governor of Atudée in the late 19th century. Cuvillier proposed a railway from Adunis in the then-Gaullican colony of Atudée in Rahelia to Sainte-Germaine in Baséland in Bahia, crossing the Ténéré Desert and modern Behera into the the Gaullican colony of Haute-Gond (modern Yemet), before following the rough course of the Gonda River to the coast at Sainte-Germaine in Baséland. Although initial survey work was conducted in Atudée and the neighbouring colony of Ténéré in the 1870s and early 1880s, the project was reduced to the Ténéré Railway as Cuvillier's influence did not extend to the Bahian colonies and the Gaullican metropole viewed the project as too expensive.
The outbreak of the Sougoulie across Bahia in the late 1880s and the War of the Desert in Behera in the late 1880s changed the situation. The lack of infrastructure in the inland areas of Haute-Gond made the country difficult to bring back fully under Gaullican control, while the Ténéré Railway played a key role in the ability of the Gaullican military to depose Qamar VI and expeditions from Gaullica's Bahian colonies in the conflict were limited due to the extreme difficulty of supplying large forces so far from infrastructure.
Cuvillier presented the plan for the Trans-Coian Imperial Railway again in March 1890, and with the experiences of Gaullica in wars in the 1880s fresh in the minds of many, was able to successfully argue for the commencement of construction of the Adunis to Mambiza Railway. Survey work would begin in December 1890. Survey and construction work would last over three decades until 1922. Although the Hamadan and Beheran portions of the railway were finished relatively quickly by 1900 under the guidance of Cuvillier and his experienced engineers who had worked previously on the Ténéré Railway, work on the Bahian stretches of the railway was far slower.
Nicaise Carrel, governors of Baséland from 1881 to 1906, saw the completion of Baséland's section of the railway by 1905, having needed to wait for survey work in the neighbouring colony of Haute-Gond to conclude before they were able to begin construction in 1899. By comparison, the Haute-Gond section of the line, which was the longest, took until 1922 to complete, taking over a decade longer than originally planned. The Haute-Gond section of the line was plagued by difficulties, from the Butchers of the Boual, a pair of man-eating lions that supposedly killed at least thirty black workers in four months from March to July 1911 to flesh-eating maggots, dysentry, smallpox and exaustion causing an average death and desertion rate of 150 workers per month. Around 40,000 workers are alledged to have died in the line's construction or have fled into the jungle to escape the harsh conditions over the 22 years it was under construction.
From completion in 1922 until Gaullica's surrender in 1934 in the Great War, the line was operated by the Compagnie du Chemin de fer Impérial (CCI). As part of the peace treaty, Gaullica's colonial empire was split between Werania and Estmere. The CCI was formed into the Joint Imperial Railway Company (JIRC), with half of the company owned by the Weranian and Estmerish governments.
The section of the line that passed through East Riziland was nationalised by Vudzijena Nhema in 1957 to block exports from the white-ruled Federation of Obergond from using the railway. The East Riziland Rail Company controlled the eastern-most part of the line until the Garamburan War of Independence in 1969, after which the line came under the control of [Garamburan stuff goes here]
The east-central section of the line remained under the control of the JIRC under the Weranian colony of Obergond, the Federation of Obergond and the Federation of Yemet until 1963 when it was nationalised under the Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft Yemet (MEGY) which owns this section of the line to the present day. The line suffered extensive damage during the Yemeti Bush War which was only partially repaired by the outbreak of the First Yemeti Civil War and remains in an extremely poor condition to the present day, with limited sections operational.
The central section of the line through Behera (fate of the Beheran section of the line here)
The western section of the line through Tsabara (fate of Tsabaran section here)
Southern/Mabifian Spur Line
A planned second route was conceived by the governor of Meyrout, xx, in the late 1910s while the main line of the railway was nearing completion. Survey work was completed, but construction was initially delayed by the outbreak of the Great War. After Gaullican victories in Bahia, large numbers of prisoners of war were captured and forced to work on constructing the line from the capital of Behera, Amassine to the Mabifian coast at Bertholdsville (now Ouagedji) which was finished by the war's end. After the end of the war, the line was given to the JIRC. The line was nationalised under the Mabifian Democratic Republic in 1944. The line was badly damaged in the Mabifian civil war in the 1970s and remains in a poor but operational condition to the present day.
Lehir Spur Line
The Lehir Spur Line was the last part of the railway constructed, being planned under the CCI in 1925 but construction was delayed until the end of the Great War. The JIRC commenced construction soon after the end of the Great War in 1936 with support from the Weranian government and the colonial government of Obergond and branched off from the main Adunis to Mambiza line at Toroge, from where it extended northwards to Debre Marqos (now Lehir). Consruction was finished in 1944. The railway was put the control of the JIRC and remained so under the Weranian colony of Obergond, the Federation of Obergond and the Federation of Yemet until 1963 when it was nationalised under the Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft Yemet (MEGY) which owns this section of the line to the present day. The line is operational but is in poor condition.