EP 4 – Iran As I knew it : Train Journey Khorramshahr to Tehran

By Colonel V K Bali, Retd

The two days break after the Sea journey, enabled us to visit the historical city of Basra and do sightseeing in Khorramshahr. Next we were on way to Tehran which was around 960 km and the train journey would reach us there by next day afternoon.

All this time there were so many new things for us children to see….the people, food, languages,cities etc and now this beautiful train. Those days the Railways in Iran were certainly very modern looking and atleast two generations ahead of the Indian Railways design wise and lookwise.

We had travelled from Delhi to Bombay by the Indian railways to board the Iran bound ship.The Indian train we had travelled was from a British Raj era, vintage one but then it had its own charm. The First Class bogey was largely wooden by construction with each cabin having its own entrance and attached toilet.

The cabin was very spacious with furniture with sofa and beds and included a Centre table too. It had window curtains, water flasks and a dressing mirror on the wall. The waiter came from the pantry car and took orders for meals and would knock on the door every two hours or so to check if we needed anything.

Although there was a pantry car where one could go for a sit down meal at a train halt and come back at the next halt,my dad preferred meals served in the cabin itself. The bearer brought the food, laid the table and reappeared at the next halt to take away crockery and clear the table..very comfortable and stylish.

The two days journey from New Delhi to Bombay was great fun and the weather had been very pleasant. Those days all trains in India were pulled by steam engines with all their thunder, hissing and hooting. No wonder the typical smell of engine smoke hung everywhere throughout the journey. In Comparison, the Iranian train looked very sleek, modern and shining clean. Soon after we boarded, I waited for the thrilling noise and fury of the steam engine hooking up with our train to start but there was no such activity … nothing.When asked, we were just told that the train would be leaving in next fifteen minutes. I kept wondering, how?.

Finally, Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked my father as to when would our train engine connect up with the train, he told me that engine was already connected and ready. However since there was no smoke billowing out from the train engine, I still had my doubts. My father then explained to me that the train engine was quite different and instead of a steam engine it was a diesel engine, which I couldn’t understand.

Then the train started moving out and soon picked up speed. It was very fast unlike our Indian trains…some time later the train TT walked in and checked our tickets and got chatting with dad who could speak Persian fluently. Pointing towards me the TT laughed and volunteered to take me around for a walk inside the train.

This was a huge surprise for me again…one could walk in from one bogey to another through a narrow connecting path unlike our Indian trains. The first thing I did was walk up to the train engine at the next train stoppage to have a good look at this “Smokeless” engine.

We reached Tehran at lunchtime next day and got down at the very posh railway station and were driven to our hotel overlooking the famed Firdousi circle traffic island. Tehran, the Paris of the Middle East, was beautiful, modern and far ahead of its time with high mountains up north and Caspian Sea beyond it just about half day car journey.

We were to stay for a few days here before proceeding to Zahedan by bus via Mashad.