Astrakhan-Baku Railroad Oil Transporting Capaity

[Lars]

[Split from "Deutsche Reichsbahn [DRB]"]


OK. This is not about the Reichsbahn but I suppose that all the trains buffs are here, so I´ll have a go:

I´m trying to find out what the oil transporting capacity of the Astrakhan-Baku railroad was. The railroad was finished mid-1942, AFAIR, and the Germans only discovered it a few months later. Here is a story about what happended when a long range patrol encountered the railroad:


"Leutnant Jürgen Schliep, the commander of the armored car company, had
likewise set out with his patrol on September 13. His route ran south of the large
road. His main task was to find out if- as prisoners had stated - there was in fact
a usable rail line from Kizlyar to Astrakhan which was not indicated on any maps.
It was most important that they find out about this oil rail line, which could also
have been used for transporting troops.

Schliep found the rail line. He related: "From a distance we saw a group of
fifty to sixty civilians who were working on the railway embankment. The line
consisted of a single track and was framed on both sides by a sand wall. Though
the guard bolted when we appeared, we were greeted joyfully by the remaining
civilian workers. The group consisted of Ukrainian families, old men, women
and children, who had been forcibly evacuated. They had been working here for
months. Many of the Ukrainians spoke German and we were welcomed as
liberators."

The soldiers were still talking with the Ukrainians when a smoke cloud
suddenly appeared in the south. "A train," shouted the workers.

Schliep brought his armored cars into position behind a sandy knoll. Then an
endlessly-long freight train with oil and gasoline cars came wheezing toward the
station. Two locomotives were pulling the train. Six shots from the 20mm cannon
and the locomotives blew apart. Steam sprayed from the boilers and glowing
coals whirled through the air. The train stopped. Car after car went up in flames.
"Damn, that lovely gas," grumbled the gunners.

The engineers were about to blow up the station building when the telephone
rang. Startled, they stood up. "Man, that scared the hell out of me," sighed
UnteroffizierEngh of the repair squad. But then he thought quickly and called to
Schliep: "Herr Leutnant, telephone!"

Schliep immediately grasped the situation and ran into the hut with his
interpreter. Grinning, the interpreter took the phone: "Stanzia senseli, natshalnik."
"Da, da, tovarich," he said reassuringly.

On the other end of the line was the Astrakhan freight depot. Astrakhan! The
southern end of the A-A Line (Astrakhan-Arkhangelsk), the objective of the war
against Russia. The spearhead of the German Wehrmacht had Astrakhan on the
telephone. The supervisor in Astrakhan wanted to know if the oil train from Baku
had passed yet. The opposite train had been waiting in a siding near Bassy for an
hour already.

An opposite train! The interpreter tried to convince the comrade in Astrakhan
that he should send the other train. But this piece of advice made the man in
Astrakhan suspicious. He asked a few questions and the inexpert answers he
received seemed to justify his suspicion.

He berated the imposter and cursed furiously. Finally the interpreter gave up
the game and said: "Just wait, little father, we'll be in Astrakhan soon."

At this the comrade in Astrakhan shouted the worst Russian curse he knew
into the receiver and hung up. Thus he couldn't hear how, two minutes later, the
wooden station at Senseli blew up with the aid of two explosive charges."

Ok. So, the German encountered an "endlessly-long freight train with oil and gasoline cars" with two locomotives pulling the train. What I would like to know is a guess on how much oil this train carried and what the daily capacity of the rail road was. If that capacity was 2700 tonnes per day then that would be 1 mio. tonnes per year, if it was 5400 tonnes daily, then it was 2 mio. tonnes per day, etc.

Big question. Try anyway!


http://216.198.255.120/germanpart/astrachan.htm

[Jon G.]

Counter question: how much does a cubic meter of oil weigh? How about a cubic meter of gasoline? The calculation is not quite as straightforward as you think, but try the really cool Crude Converter

I would expect about 25 cubic meters of oil/gas/etc. in a 40s era rail car, but that's a ballpark estimate only, I know little of Soviet-ear tank cars. Multiply until you reach 'endlessly long'

2700 tons load in a single train would be heavy also by today's standards, but not completely out of the question. Overall capacity of the line would depend on many things: number and length of sidings and quality/quantity of signals equipment and availability of rolling stock. There is mention of a train waiting at a siding for an hour 'already' in the text you quote.

[Lars]

Shrek,

Thanks. Your answer points in the direction that the Astrakan-Baku railroad had a multiple million tonnes per year of oil transporting capacity. Like I wrote, it would only require 2700 tonnes transported per day to get 1 mio. tonnes of yearly transport.

If a tank-railcar could take 25 tonnes, it would require about 110 tank-railcars passing per day to get 1 mio. tonnes yearly.

220 tank-railcars passing per day = 2 mio. tonnes yearly.

etc.

Given that every drop of oil Baku produced (about 20 mio tonnes per year) was precious for the Soviets, the Germans were idiots not to cut the rail-road. What a missed opportunity.