Sakhalin Children's Railway
| Sakhalin Children's Railway | |
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 TU10 -005 diesel locomotive
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 Route
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| Route length: | 2.2 km |
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) |
The Children's Railway Sakhalin ( Russian Южно-Сахалинская детская железная дорога , Yuzhno-Sachalinskaja detskaja schelesnaja doroga ) is a narrow-gauge miniature railway in the Russian city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Sakhalin Oblast . The 2.0 km long ring-shaped railway, from which a 200 m long siding branches off to the depot, was opened on June 6, 1954 as one of the many children's railways in the Soviet Union and is still in operation today.
Route
Because of the steep slopes, the alignment was very complex. The route crosses a river over two steel bridges with large spans of 9 and 15 meters.
On the eastern section of the route there is the Komsomolskaja station (станция Комсомольская) and on the western section the Pioneer stop (остановочный пункт Пионер) each with wooden station buildings and, in the case of the stop, also with a wooden platform. Along the Komsomolskaya Way, the route runs along a lake just a few meters from its shore. Because of the risk of erosion, a 1.73 meter high concrete retaining wall was built here in the mid-1970s at a distance of one and a half to two meters from the tracks.
history
The planning of the railway line began in 1953. The idea for this was supported by the regional party and the Komsomol , but the implementation was extremely slow. At their own risk, young people restored a steam locomotive and wagons, prepared the signaling and the necessary equipment. The progress of the construction work was supported by the members of the Komsomol and followed with great interest by the head of the South Sakhalin Railways General Director Michail Olona. On June 6, 1954, the route was inaugurated in the Park for Culture and Recreation named after the cosmonaut Yuri Alexejewitsch Gagarin . As it became known only 40 years later, Nikita Khrushchev , the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU allegedly reacted very disapprovingly to the construction of the Sakhalin children's railway, as he considered it a ruthless waste of public funds. In the first year the route was driven counter-clockwise. In the following year, 1955, the trains went in the opposite direction. To do this, the steam locomotive had to be turned, for which the young railroad workers and their trainers built a temporary track triangle . The UK-159-238 steam locomotive was initially used until it was decommissioned in 1959.
First, an electric token system was used, later a semi-automatic locking system and finally the line was the first children's railway in the country to be equipped with automatic locking. From 1971 the diesel locomotive TU2 -029 and from 1982 the diesel locomotive TU2 -127 were used. In 2009 the TU7A -3351 and several wagons were procured and in 2011 the diesel locomotive of the TU10 -005.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 46 ° 57 ′ 57.57 " N , 142 ° 45 ′ 13.47" E