Skopje – Ohrid railway line
| Skopje – Ohrid | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Route in Koch and Opitz's
Railway and Transport Atlas of Europe, 1926 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | More than 167 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Skopje - Ohrid railway was a narrow-gauge railway in what is now North Macedonia . It had a track width (track) of 600 mm. The more than 167 km long route ran from Skopje via Gostivar , Kičevo and Podmole to Ohrid.
history
Shortly before the First World War , Vardar Macedonia was part of the Kingdom of Serbia and was therefore not part of Austria-Hungary . During the war it was occupied by Tsarist Bulgaria . During the occupation, the railway line was built as part of a military field railway with the Bulgarian gauge of 600 mm instead of the Bosnian gauge of 760 mm, which is common on the Austro-Hungarian railways and for which later Yugoslavia was so famous. Construction of the section from Gradsko to Drenovo began on February 26, 1916. Construction of the line to Ohrid began in the summer of 1916 and in 1923 traffic from the General Hanris train station (now Gjorče Petrov ) on the western edge of Skopje to Ohrid began.
On the route several vierfachgekuppelte were heeresfeldbahn - Brigade locomotives later JŽ class used 99.4. During the separatist Informbiro period from 1948, investments were made again in the line. The narrow-gauge railway between Skopje and Kičevo has been replaced by a normal-gauge line that partially follows the old route . The new line went into operation on May 25, 1952 to Gostivar and in 1969 to Kičevo and is still in operation today. The remaining narrow-gauge line was closed in 1966.
In the 1930s the Italians considered integrating this route into the railway line from the Adriatic coast in Albania along the west bank of Lake Ohrid via Podmole and Tetovo to Skopje. In 1961, the railway took 17¾ hours to cover the 167 km route from Gostivar (departure 8:58 a.m.) to Ohrid (arrival 0:46 a.m.).
Today the Albanian Railway ends in Pogradec , on the north bank of the lake. There are again plans to extend it along the old route to Skopje, but this is so far unlikely.
Rail vehicles
The Henschel -Brigadelok JŽ 99.4.053 with the serial number 15079 1917 and three cars are as in Kičevo Monument issued under the stars. The locomotive JŽ 99.4.084 is in front of the Belgrade Railway Museum . The volcano locomotive JŽ 99.4.025 with the serial number 3129 from 1917 was kept for several years in the depot in Lisice , a south-eastern suburb of Skopje.
Web links
- Ohrid Express on YouTube , Robert Legrand (1972)
- Brigade locomotives on YouTube , contemporary photos of the railway line
- The 60cm Ohrid line in 1965 by Charlie Lewis
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b timetable .
- ↑ a b The 60cm Ohrid line in 1965 .
- ^ Construction of the 600 mm line 1916 year .
- ↑ a b c Narrow gauge in Macedonia . Archived from the original on February 3, 2007.
- ↑ a b c Steam Relics in Macedonia . 2008.
- ^ Macedonia . Bradt Travel Guides. 2012.
- ^ A b Nicky Gardner: No trains to Lake Ohrid . May 28, 2012.
Coordinates: 41 ° 47 ′ 42 ″ N , 20 ° 55 ′ 5 ″ E