Trans-Sahara Railroad is built, 1930s

[Doug M.]

No, really. The T-S Railroad was a serious project, and it could have happened.

It was -- if you were French -- an obvious idea: run a rail line south through Algeria to sub-Saharan Africa, all the way to Timbuktu on the Niger River, then southwest to Bamako and eventually, Dakar. You'd avoid the long run around through the Atlantic (dominated by, ahem, the Royal Navy). You'd be able to bring trainloads of stuff from the Sahel and the upper Niger valley straight up to the Mediterranean. Dakar would be just a few days from Marseilles!

It was first proposed in the 1870s, and popped up again every couple of decades. Got seriously considered in the early 1900s; reached the Parliamentary study-and-report stage in 1928. Got within arm's reach of actually happening then, but the Great Depression intervened. Then in 1941, the Vichy government decided to build it to show that France was still, you know, virile and stuff. They actually laid a few miles of track before Vichy closed up shop.

In between, some bits actually got built: a line from Oran south to Colomb-Bechar, deep in the interior of Algeria, and another line north from Dakar to Bamako in what's now Mali. (Both lines are still in use today.) That just left a couple of thousand kilometers in between. Okay, a couple of thousand very hot, rocky and sandy kilometers.

So let's say (handwave) that the prewar Third Republic gets seriously interested in this. The Italian invasion of Libya is a precipitating incident -- OTL the French were more than a bit annoyed by this -- and ground is broken in January 1914.

Well, various things intervene, and construction is halted for almost a decade. But once the project has been started, it's going to be very hard to kill. So, more construction in the 1920s, a pause for the Great Depression, then a final effort in the 1930s, with a golden spike somewhere in what's now southern Mali in 1937.

Now what?

-- There's no way this thing is ever going to make any money. Maintenance costs are going to be off the scale. Parts of Senegal are suitable for plantation agriculture, but that will still go out by Dakar. Mali can produce dryland crops and meat from herds, but those either won't produce much profit or won't travel well. Irrigation agriculture for export on the upper Niger is probably a non-starter. Mineral resources, there aren't a lot besides rock salt. (Really.)

But hey, la gloire.

And then in 1940, there's a direct land connection from Vichy French North Africa to Dakar.

Thoughts?


Doug M.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

I know the French used forced labor and native military units to build railroads, but would it really be sustainable to drag huge reluctant labor gangs to the middle of Sahara? I mean the mortality rate would be high as hell.

 

[carlton_bach]

I know the French used forced labor and native military units to build railroads, but would it really be sustainable to drag huge reluctant labor gangs to the middle of Sahara? I mean the mortality rate would be high as hell.

Why would that stop them? Look at the stuff they did build. The real problem, I think, is financing. This thing isn't going to make money, so the government needs some other reason to do it. The 1930s aren't a good time for white elephants, what with the funds needed for defense and the economic crisis eating up tax receipts.

Might it exist as a kind of make-work project? If France goes in for that kind of stuff, it would be an obvious project to give jobs - of sorts - to tens of thousands of French Algerians.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

Why would that stop them? Look at the stuff they did build. The real problem, I think, is financing. This thing isn't going to make money, so the government needs some other reason to do it. The 1930s aren't a good time for white elephants, what with the funds needed for defense and the economic crisis eating up tax receipts.

Might it exist as a kind of make-work project? If France goes in for that kind of stuff, it would be an obvious project to give jobs - of sorts - to tens of thousands of French Algerians.

Hmm, using African forced labor gangs would probably still be the cheapest way. Of course there was the ILO resolution of 1930 that prohibited the Colonial Powers to force natives to work far from their homes, but both France and Belgium tended to break it occasionally.

I agree that it wouldn't be profitable enough for the government to attempt it in the 30s, with the high cost of the project.

 

[Doug M.]

This is why I have it starting before WWI, and taking over 20 years to finish. I think that's a stretch, but not ridiculous -- once such a high-profile prestige project had started, there'd be a strong incentive to continue.

The knock-ons in WWII are potentially interesting.


Doug M.

 

[Mike Stearns]

This is why I have it starting before WWI, and taking over 20 years to finish. I think that's a stretch, but not ridiculous -- once such a high-profile prestige project had started, there'd be a strong incentive to continue.

The knock-ons in WWII are potentially interesting.


Doug M.

I agree. He who controls the railroad controls North Africa.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

Hmm, perhaps the French even can stop the Saharan slave raids on their territory some decades earlier than OTL.

 

[TapReflex]

What about the Sahara itself?

Where there any protections against warping or dessicatation of metal and wood components?

Fauna would likely take advantage of this, with animals looking for a place to hide from the shade.

If a railcar runs over a Fennec Fox nesting in the rails, and then derails, what will happen to the people on board?

 

[Gridley]

What about the Sahara itself?

Where there any protections against warping or dessicatation of metal and wood components?

If a railcar runs over a Fennec Fox nesting in the rails, and then derails, what will happen to the people on board?

Hmm. Wikipedia says concrete ties were first proposed (by a Frenchman, even!) in 1877. Perhaps they could be used?

I don't think running over a fox is going to generally derail even a European 1930's era train. For that matter, wouldn't the fox run away?

I'd really hate to be the fireman on a steam locomotive running through the Sahara in daylight. You'd need a second water tender just for the crew!

 

[Alex Richards]

Here's a thought, tie this in to the Cape-Cairo railway actually getting finished in a single gague (the only bit missing today is Wau-Kampala, though the bit from Khatoumb to Wau is in disrepair, and there's a lot of different gagues). This would presumably require only that the Alexandria-Aswan section and Kampala-Dar es Salaam require changing to the Cape gague (not essential) as well as finishing off the missing section.

With two north-South railways, and various other plans for east-West railways (such as Djibouti-CAR-Cameroon today), we have the basis for a unified trans-continental rail system. Add in the Orient Express and the Trans-Asian railway, and we could be looking at London-Singapore/Cape Town by 2010.

 

[The Vulture]

As a side note, this is going to be remembered as an incredible feat of engineering and a triumph of the human spirit. They'll probably make all sorts of movies with Kirk Douglas about it.

 

[wolf_brother]

Politically, does this tie French North Africa and French West Africa together after WWII?

 

[Doug M.]

As a side note, this is going to be remembered as an incredible feat of engineering and a triumph of the human spirit.

That's why Vichy France absolutely loved the idea. They were looking for something to restore the nation's pride in itself, and prove that France! was still a virile and glorious nation! So they jumped on the Trans-Sahara Railroad.

They actually started to lay track. (Dragooning thousands of native laborers, of course.) Got some tens of kms down. Then Vichy hit the iceberg and the project was abandoned.

But it was totally doable with early 20th century technology. Sort of the mirror image of the Trans-Siberian.


Doug M.

 

[Doug M.]

Some possible knock-ons in WWII:

1) Churchill cancels the attack on Dakar, since it's no longer a matter of picking off an isolated colony; even if the port of Dakar falls quickly, Vichy can still move reinforcements to Senegal via the railroad.

2) Dakar now becomes more attractive as a U-boat base, since spare parts, fuel, and replacement personnel can be shipped in directly. OTL the Germans briefly considered it, but decided it wasn't worth violating Vichy neutrality. TTL, I think they'd consider it more seriously.

3) The US, which OTL was twitchy about Vichy Dakar, TTL is really unhappy -- probably not enough to divert Torch, but enough to make us much more engaged in the region.

4) Senegalese tirailleurs can be used to reinforce French North Africa. This is a couple of divisions of decent soldiers: light infantry, but OTL they acquitted themselves very well in both World Wars.

A reasonable question is whether Vichy would want to do this; I'd say the answer is "maybe". If they did, you could have some very confused Americans at Torch. ('Wait, these guys aren't Germans...')

5) If the line has been extended through Niger and then south, then Gabon, French Equatorial Africa and French West Sudan (Chad) may not go Free French. That one is pretty big, actually. OTL these colonies gave DeGaulle a base, some troops, and the ability to claim with a straight face that he was something more than a British puppet. TTL, maybe not. Big knock-ons there.

(On the other hand, OTL a couple of these colonies toppled into Free French hands with ridiculous ease, suggesting they were strongly predisposed that way.)

Things it probably won't change: the war in Africa from 1940 to 1942. The rail line could bring all sorts of supplies from Senegal -- food, clothes, even vegetable oils for use as fuels. And Rommel would doubtless love to have these supplies. But the rail line would end in Oran, a long way from the front. OTL Vichy North Africa was pretty useless to the Germans and Italians; the rail line probably wouldn't change that.

Overall this seems like a nontrivial PITA for the Allies. Oh, the Germans won't be any sort of threat, and by the end of 1942 they won't be able to use Dakar as a submarine or air base. But OTL, Dakar was a major staging area for the war in North Africa. From December 1942 through the middle of 1942, US troops and supplies poured into Senegal and were relayed by air to the North African theater. (The route was far more roundabout, but much safer -- by late 1942, air patrols had made the coastal waters of the New World very dangerous for U-Boats, so convoys could hug the coast south to Brazil, then dash across the Atlantic's narrow waist in a couple of days. Going directly to North Africa was considered less good.) So, TTL we've noticeably crimped Ike and Monty's logistics.

I'm sure there are more; those are just off the top of my head. But overall, it seems a small but noticeable happy for the Axis.


Doug M.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

2) Dakar now becomes more attractive as a U-boat base, since spare parts, fuel, and replacement personnel can be shipped in directly. OTL the Germans briefly considered it, but decided it wasn't worth violating Vichy neutrality. TTL, I think they'd consider it more seriously.

AFAIK, NO Vichy base was used as a U-boot base, why would Senegal be?

Or am I wrong?

iOTL, Vichy claimed to be neutral (ja, ha, ha) but AFAIK limited its direct military support of the Nazis to deniable actions. The US was quite taken with this, and was semi-supportive of them. (There was a US ambassador to Vichy, for instance, and IIRC Roosevelt tried hard to keep Vichy friendly at least until Torch.)

 

[TheGingerninja41]

Here's a thought, tie this in to the Cape-Cairo railway actually getting finished in a single gague (the only bit missing today is Wau-Kampala, though the bit from Khatoumb to Wau is in disrepair, and there's a lot of different gagues). This would presumably require only that the Alexandria-Aswan section and Kampala-Dar es Salaam require changing to the Cape gague (not essential) as well as finishing off the missing section.

With two north-South railways, and various other plans for east-West railways (such as Djibouti-CAR-Cameroon today), we have the basis for a unified trans-continental rail system. Add in the Orient Express and the Trans-Asian railway, and we could be looking at London-Singapore/Cape Town by 2010.

railways wank lol?

 

[Whanztastic]

This is from EdT's Fight and Be Right

 

[The Sandman]

Well, one question would be whether the French ran a coastal extension along the Mediterranean. If so, then the rail line might run through Tunisia, with the possibility of the Germans and Italians forcing an extension into Libya. At the very least, they would be able to ship food and other sundries from Dakar to Tripoli, and if the Italians were inspired to try a crazy prewar project of their own in response then the Germans might have a railhead at Benghazi or Tobruk when they head into Egypt.

 

[Doug M.]

Nice map!

OTL, the rail line from Dakar inland to Bamako, in what's now Mali, was built before WWI. (That's a few hundred km west and south of Timbuktu). A line into central Algeria was built in stages; by the 1930s it had reached fairly deep into the northern Sahara.

So, basically about half of the line shown here was constructed OTL. It's the middle part -- about 2,000 km, almost all in the Sahara -- that's AH territory.


Doug M.

 

[Alex Richards]

railways wank lol?

Essentially, the only bits not currently built are a small stretch of the Trans-Asian railway through Burma (though you can get a diversion into China), and a stretch encompassing about half the Sudan in the Cape-Cairo. Several different guages of course, but there are trains now being developed which can even handle that.

And if there's a 'railway race' started by the French and British competing (Trans-Saharan, then Cape-Cairo, then extending Trans-Saharan round to Gabon, Istanbul-Cairo, Istanbul-Baghdad-Tehran etc.), it's quite possible that more of these sort of projects could end up being built.