Khojak Railway tunnel, Baluchistan.

Shelabagh end of Khojak Tunnel. Chaman Extension 1888-1891. A very good 10¾ x 8½ ins photograph showing the impressive castellated and towered western entrance to this important tunnel on the Chaman Extension Railway linking Quetta with Chaman on the border with Afghanistan. The reverse of the old card album leaf has a 10 x 8 image titled Railway Slide over Khojak constructed for use while the Khojak Tunnel was being built. The tunnel is almost 2½ miles long and was a hugely significant feat of railway engineering in the inhospitable climate of that part of the North West Frontier of India, now Pakistan. This print is signed in the negative Bremner who may probably have produced the other too. Quetta is now the capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. nov26/2

Provenance: This leaf came from a broken album which was put together by Surgeon John Blackburn Smith of the Bombay Medical Service who was serving in Baluchistan 1891=93.