If the industrial development in Eskişehir would have been narrated in a legend, it would probably begin like “....In the beginning, as far as the eye could see, stretched the well-irrigated and fertile plains of Eskişehir” and would follow like this:

“…. One day,two lines of steel divided this great plain into halves. Than, an iron car, angrily breathing out steam, came and passed by over these steel bars. With time everybody became aware that places far away were not so far anymore with this new iron car; the earth and the sky changed, people changed and they started to do new things…”

The passing of the İstanbul – Baghdad Railway Line through Eskişehir in 1894 was not a legendary, but it was certainly the cause of great changes in the socio-economic structure of the town and provided the initial impetus for the development of industrialization in the region.

The first railway transportation started in England in 1825 and spread over in the following 25 years to whole Europe and the introduction of the railways to the Ottoman Empire, which was spread over 3 continents, was rather early when compared with other technological innovations. But, the whole length of the railway line in the vast lands of the Ottomans in 1866 was only 519 km. And, only one third of this line was in Anatolia, the remaining section of 389 km was between Constanza - Danube and Varna – Ruse.

The Ottoman Government wanted a railway connection between Haydarpaşa and Baghdad and therefore made a request to the European countries to pass the railway line that would connect Europe with India from İstanbul.

In this connection the Haydarpaşa-İzmit section of the Anatolia-Baghdad Railway Line in the Marmara Sea basin was constructed and put into service at the end of the XIX. century in 1886.

The construction and managing privilege of the railway line between İzmit and Ankara was given to Anatolia Ottoman Railway Company with an imperial edict dated October 8, 1888.

The same railway company established with German capital constructed and put into operation the railway lines between Eskişehir and Konya and between Alayunt and Kütahya with another privilege dated 15 February 1893.

The construction of the railway line from Eskişehir to Konya started on August 31, 1893 and reached Konya on July 29, 1896.

During the construction works a small maintenance and repair workshop named Anatolia-Ottoman Rail Company was established in Eskişehir in 1894 by the Germans to realize the repair and maintenance of steam locomotives and wagons used in the Anatolia-Baghdad Railway Line. The foundation of today’s TÜLOMSAŞ has been laid down by this way. Small-scale repairs of locomotives, coaches and freight cars have been done in this workshop, the boilers of steam locomotives were sent to Germany for repair and all spare parts were imported from other countries.