Shymkent Children's Railway

Shymkent Children's Railway
Diesel locomotive TU2 -112
Route
Route length:	6 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend Sportivnaya (Спортивная) 42 ° 20 ′ 16 "N, 69 ° 35 ′ 37" E 7 level crossings Turar Ryskulov 42 ° 20 ′ 52 "N, 69 ° 35 ′ 58" E 3 level crossings Dendropark (Дендропарк) 42 ° 22 ′ 7 "N, 69 ° 37 ′ 23" E 42 ° 22 ′ 9 ″ N, 69 ° 37 ′ 25 ″ E Tulpar (Тулпар) 42 ° 22 ′ 22 "N, 69 ° 37 ′ 34" E

The Children's Railway Shymkent ( Russian Чимкентская детская железная дорога им. Героя Советского Союза Гани Муратбаева , Tschimkentskaja detskaja schelesnaja doroga in Geroja Sowetskowo Sojusa Gani Muratbajewa. ) Is a narrow-gauge miniature railway in Shymkent in Kazakhstan . The track with a track width of 750 mm has a length of six kilometers. It has two stations. The line opened in May 1980 as one of the many pioneer railroads in the Soviet Union .

history

The children's railway was designed and built by volunteers from various organizations from autumn 1979, the International Year of the Child . The station was designed by the Schymkenter Yushgorsel Project Institute (Южгорсельпроект) and the tunnel and cable-stayed bridge by the Giprofosfor Institute (Гипрофосфор). The architecture of the station buildings in the spirit of national traditions was nominated for the Lenin Prize. Tulpar train station is reminiscent of a funny camel that, for some reason, has the snout of a lion cub, although Tulpar is actually a winged horse from the works of Kazakh folklore. In February 1980 the first train passed the children's railway line on a trial basis, and regular traffic began in May of the same year.

Route

State of preservation of the tracks, 2017

The children's railway connects the northern part of the city with a recreation area, in which there is an arboretum with an artificial lake and a zoo. The train goes from Sportivnaya (Спортивная) station at the stadium via Chadschi Mukan (Хаджи Мукан) to Tulpar station (Тулпар) at the entrance to the zoo. Initially, the children's railway was almost the only way to reach this recreational area, which was used by 176,000 passengers from May to September of the first year of operation.

The route has a complex elevation profile: Immediately after the overpass behind Sportivnaya, an almost two-kilometer climb begins, on which the route goes through two sharp bends. There is a 20-30 meter long tunnel, a cable-stayed bridge and another bridge.

Rail vehicles

Diesel locomotive TU2 -112 and two PW51 cars, 2017

One class TU2 diesel locomotive comes from the Alma-Ata children's railway, the other from the Achpolimetall mining and smelting works (Ачполиметалл) in Kentau . Two PW51 cars from the Demichowsk mechanical engineering plant are currently in use for passenger transport. The older Pafawag cars are stored in the Sportivnaya station, some of the PW51 cars are in reserve. One of the two locomotives, the TU2-269, was taken out of service and used as a spare part dispenser for the second diesel locomotive. Nevertheless, there is an acute shortage of spare parts for the locomotive on the road. In the summer of 2003 the line was temporarily shut down twice for a long time due to the failure of a locomotive. In 2010 the Schymkent children's railway was still in operation, and significantly longer than in previous years, as the operating season began in April.

Web links

Commons : Schymkent Children's Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Дмитрий Сутягин (Dmitry Sutyagin): Детские железные дороги СССР - История и современность: Караганда. 2000-2015. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} С. Болашенко: ЧИМКЕНТСКАЯ ДЕТСКАЯ ЖЕЛЕЗНАЯ ДОРОГА. Retrieved November 12, 2017.

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap