"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٣‎٨‎٧] (٨٦٢/٧٧٦)

RAILWAYS 605
(m. 25-6) it crosses steppe-desert, except between Sumaicha (m. 37-8)
and Balad, where there is a fair amount of cultivation. The line runs
almost level throughout and is of first-class standard.
(ii) Samarra to Baiji. The line in this section, almost completed at
the Armistice in 1918, keeps along the riverain foot of the Jazira
escarpment until at mile 93 it crosses the old Ishaqi canal and climbs
to the plateau. Several branches of the Wadi Jibin are bridged, but
the longest span is 40 feet. Beyond Tikrit station, which is in open
country 2 miles west of the town, the line to Baiji is laid over the
desert surface except at a few places where embankments are necessary.
Built originally against time, mostly by Arab labour and Turkish
prisoners of war, it was poorly ballasted at first, but is probably now
first class.
(iii) Baiji to Mosul. Full details are not yet available of this section.
The original line from Baiji to Sharqat was unsatisfactory, and a new
alinement was taken when the line to Qaiyara was reconstructed after
1936. The line keeps close along the south-west foot of Jabal Mak-
hul, crossing many culverts and small bridges, and climbs gradually
from 450 feet above sea-level at Baiji to nearly 800 feet at the Tulul al
Baq pass (m. 174) by which it crosses the north-western shoulder of
Jabal Mak-hul. The descent on the north is over very broken ground,
and there are many bridges, mostly small, before Jarnaf(Jirnaf) station
(m. 196) is reached. The largest bridge is a steel construction, with
a single span of 120 feet, over the Wadi Jirnaf. It was in the broken
ground near the mouth of this wadi that the last Turkish army on the
Tigris was forced to surrender at the end of October 1918 (p. 285).
The Wadi Murr is crossed by a 40-foot single-span bridge before the
line reaches Qaiyara station and oilfield, where it passes within sight
of the river. 1 About 4 miles beyond the station another 120-foot
single-span bridge takes the line over the deep Wadi Qasab. Thence
to Mosul the ground is much broken. Bridges are mostly small, but
6 miles short of Mosul the line passes through the Albu Saif tunnel,
1,100 yards long.
(iv) Mosul to Tel Kotchek. Beyond Mosul the ground traversed is
broken by streams and wadis until Tel al Hugna (m. 2957) is passed;
the line keeps close along the northern foot of the Jabal Atshan and
1 Neither the alinement nor the stations between Tulul al Baq and Mosul are
correctly shown on the official quarter-inch map (I- 38 B, 2 nd ed. 1942 ). In particular,
Jarnaf and Qaiyara are shown 4 and 6 miles too far north respectively. According to
official railway mileages, Jarnaf should be near the marching post of the same name;
Qaiyara should be 3 miles south of the Wadi Qasab instead of 3 miles north of it.
Jarnaf is spelt Jirnaf on the quarter-inch maps.