Yup. The nice thing about Balkan coal though, is that its relatively close to the population centers likely to supply the empire with industrial labor. Coal delivered via train would fairly easily power the factories of Sofia and Instanbul, while barges from Varga, Burgas (or even Salonika) could ship coal Izimar and the other port cities along the Mediterranean coast.
Yes. And not to mention, the demand for railroad would be high. The Ottomans would build a bridge between the European and Asian part of Istanbul, and then the railroad would go through the bridge.
From the European side of Istanbul, the railroad would go to Salonika, Burgas and Sofia.
From the Asian side of Istanbul, the railroad would go to Izmir, and then Adana, and then Antioch, and then it would split to two. One would go to to Mosul and then to Baghdad, the other would go first to Beruit, then to Jerusalem, then to Gaza, and finally, it would split to two: one would go to Alexandria, the other to Cairo.
This railroad would accelerate the influx of workers from the rural areas to the urban areas all the way in the Empire.
Istanbul would become the modern-day London of it's day: only 50% of the population would be Turkish... the rest would be all sorts of minorities: Arabs
(Egyptians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese), Kurds, Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Jews, and even Black Africans
(from Sudan) etc.
Just like in Japan's case, the Ottoman Empire would get visitors as well: British, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. businessmen looking to make money in the Ottoman Empire.
In the end, the Ottoman Empire could turn out to be extremely rich, rich enough to make education reform
(therefore, increasing the literacy rate from about 30% to about 80% or 90%), create a decent army, and go for colonization.
I bet the Turks would go for annexing nearby North African states, or colonizing Somalia
and/or Ethiopia. Maybe the Turks would go for unifying the Arabian Peninsula,
and/or even annexing Persia.
