File 3142/1903 'Hedjaz Railway' [‎59v] (125/488)

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This is an important feature as all coal is now imported for the line from Cardiff,
only a small quantity being obtained from the Turkish mines of Heraklia on the
Black Sea.
The latter is found too smoky and liable to choke the tubes and is used mixecW
with Cardiff in small quantities. ^
The reserves of coal at Haifa are ridiculously small, and through the improvidence
of the administration it has actually happened that the Haifa-Damascus branch stopped
working for forty-eight hours owing to the non-arrival of a steamer at Haifa. Only
by borrowing from the French Company and from a British steamer in the harbour
could traffic be resumed.
M. Gaudin is now urging the administration to keep a reserve of at least
6,000 tons.
The annual consumption for the line is from 20,000 to 25,000 tons per annum.
A steamer unloading at Haifa Pier can discharge 300 tons of coal a-day in fine
weather, which can only be trusted to occur in the summer months.
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Coal Supply.
Defensive Station Buildings.
The station buildings south of Tebuk are built on a special plan, with loopholes
to enable the ten men usually found at a station to stand a siege from Arab raiders.
The usual building is of stone, 11 metres by 12 metres, containiug four rooms,
others are slightly larger and contain six rooms. The only entrance is by an iron
door leading into a small courtyard on which the windows of the living room open.
In the floor of this is a masonry cistern, or well, if such supply is obtainable.
Provisions for fourteen days are stored in one of the rooms.
The walls are loopholed at a height of 8 feet above the ground.
The building is 5 metres high, and near the roof are some small windows 50 c.m.
square.
The flat roof can be ascended from the courtyard by iron battens let into the wall.
The wall at the top is only 50 c.m. high and is without loopholes, so that firing
would be onlv from the loopholes below.
There is a verandah in front of the door, which seems a weak point.
The latrine is in a loopholed projecting part, and is on the dry earth system.
Receipts.
The receipts last year amounted as far as could be ascertained, to nearly
£ T. 100,000, and it is said that the traffic receipts on the paying sections up to
Amman just balance the working expenses of the whole as far as Maan, the southern
extension to Tebuk not included, this remaining entirely under military control.
Revenue.
The present revenue produced by the Hejaz stamp tax and other sources amounted,
according to Meisner Pasha’s estimate, to £ T. 350,000, or 8,750,000 fr. per annum!
and this amount he counted on as available for construction purposes.
Cost of Construction.—The Section in the Yarmuk Valley.
The cost per kilometre of the present Arabian sections has been kept at £ T. 1.400.
including the purchase of rolling-stock, and it was proposed not to continue building
bridges over the dry wadis of Arabia but trust to the chance of the line being washed
away at long intervals by rain floods, so that now he thought the construction & expenses
might be kept a little below this figure.
Meisner Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. estimated that £ T. 3,000,000 had been spent on the construction
of the whole line up to the present.
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