List of narrow gauge railways

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This is a list of narrow gauge railways . The list is an example and can only show an outline of existing and disused routes.

Europe

Germany

In Germany , narrow-gauge railways had their heyday from the 1880s until the development of the truck . They were used in large numbers as field railways or forest railways . In the mountains , for example in the Harz Mountains , they were used because of difficult terrain. A few narrow-gauge lines in Germany were shut down and dismantled even before the Second World War. In the summer of 1945, the Soviet Union dismantled 435.28 km of narrow-gauge lines on the Western Pomeranian small and branch lines as a reparation payment by September 1945. Later, many narrow-gauge lines in Germany were shut down and dismantled, initially mainly in the Federal Republic, and from around 1960 also increasingly in the GDR. The few remaining narrow-gauge railways in Germany are now mostly used for tourist purposes or as museum railways.

Baden-Württemberg

Bavaria

Berlin

Brandenburg

Hesse

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Lower Saxony

North Rhine-Westphalia

Rhineland-Palatinate

Saxony

Saxony-Anhalt

While the narrow-gauge railway Walkenried Braunlage / Spruce (stretch (Brunnenbach mill) -Sorge fir, see also Niedersachsen) was operated from 1899 to 1963 exist, nor the Mansfeld Mining Railway , the oldest operational narrow-gauge railway in Germany in the role of heritage railway and the Harz narrow gauge railways consisting from Selketalbahn , Harzquerbahn and Brockenbahn with 1000 mm gauge. They form the largest remaining narrow-gauge network in Germany. The meter-gauge industrial railway in Halle (Saale) was shut down in 1992. Also in Halle (Saale) there was the Pfännernliche coal railway built in 1875/76 (gauge 900 mm).

Schleswig-Holstein

The northernmost federal state has long since lost the railways on Amrum (900 mm) and Sylt (meter gauge) . After the construction of the Flensburg circular railway , narrow-gauge circular railway networks quickly developed in the former districts of Eckernförde , Rendsburg and Norderdithmarschen , which are also a thing of the past. With the cession of North Schleswig in 1920, the circular path to Als , the Apenrader Kreisbahn and the Haderslebener Kreisbahn went to Denmark and were later closed. The Niebüll – Dagebüll line , which is still in operation today, was opened as a 1000 mm railway in 1895 and switched to standard gauge in 1926.

Only two narrow-gauge material tracks from the Office for Rural Areas (ALR) to the Halligen Nordstrandischmoor (field railway track) and Oland and Langeneß (900 mm) are still in operation.

Thuringia

Austria

For military reasons, the Austrian narrow-gauge railways were almost exclusively laid out in the Bosnian gauge of 760 mm. The meter gauge was mainly used in tram-like electric local trains and cog railways. Several routes are still in operation today as regular public transport providers, and museum railways have been built on some disused routes.

Track width 1000 mm

Track width 900 mm

Track 760 mm

Track width 750 mm

Track 600 mm

Track width 381 mm

Switzerland

Kleine Scheidegg station with the Jungfrau Railway trains .
Overview map of the narrow-gauge railway lines in Switzerland.

In Switzerland , narrow-gauge railways are mostly meter-gauge and distributed across the country. In several cases you cross the national border . Many of them have been electric since they opened. In the Alps , within the main Alpine ridge, there is a continuous meter-gauge network stretching from Valais to Graubünden , which is operated entirely by the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway (MGB) with mixed adhesion and cogwheel operation and by the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) in full adhesion operation. Very early on, narrow-gauge railways opened up mountains for up-and-coming tourism , such as the Monte Generoso or the Jungfraujoch . Tourism also first led to luxury and later to panorama trains on the meter-gauge railways . The Montreux-Berner Oberland-Bahn (MOB) played a pioneering role here , first with the Golden Mountain Pullman Express and then with panorama cars. Many smaller meter gauge railways, particularly in western Switzerland , in the Central Plateau and in the Eastern developed parallel to population growth in the urban areas into efficient transport companies of public transport , some with S-Bahn -like suburban traffic. Thus, the promoted regional transport Bern-Solothurn (RBS) more passengers on meter gauge as MGB and RhB together.

In addition to the meter gauge, other gauges are also common in Switzerland: 600 millimeters mostly for field railways operated as museum railways, 800 millimeters for cogwheel mountain railways and 900 millimeters for temporary factory railways in tunnel construction, some of which can be quite extensive.

Albania

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria only the 122.6 km long route of the Rhodope Railway (Septemvri – Dobrinishte) is in operation. Due to its route through the mountains, the Rhodope Railway itself is compared with railways in the Alps and is also known as the "Rhaetian Railway of the Balkans".

Denmark

With the assignment of North Schleswig in 1920, the circular path went to Als , the Apenrader Kreisbahn and the Haderslebener Kreisbahn to Denmark. All three railways were later closed.

Finland

France

Two railcars of the Chemin de fer du Blanc-Argent
Le Fayet station with the Saint-Gervais – Vallorcine train
The Cerdagne line at Villefranche de Conflent

Greece

In Greece there was an extensive meter gauge network on the Peloponnese , which among other things connects Corinth and Patras and enables a tour around the entire peninsula. The conversion to standard gauge has been completed between Athens and Kiato. Also on the Peloponnese is the 750 mm-gauge railway line Diakopto – Kalavryta , which also has sections with rack and pinion. The Thessalian meter- gauge railway from Volos to Kalambaka was converted to standard gauge by 2001, and the line from Volos to Velestino was closed. The Pelion Railway with a gauge of 600 mm was put back into operation as a tourist railway in two sections .

Ireland

Iceland

In Iceland, the Reykjavík port railway operated between 1917 and 1928 with a gauge of 900 mm.

Italy

SSIF railcar in Domodossola

There were also numerous other narrow-gauge railways in Italy. There were also some trams that used either 1000 mm, 950 mm or less often 1100 mm gauge.

Yugoslavia and successor states

The support tender locomotives of the series IIIa4 type Klose of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian State Railways (JDŽ 189-013, Sarajevo 1965)
Bosnian-Herzegovinian State Railways, class IIIb5 express locomotive No. 152, later JDŽ 73
Express locomotive JDŽ 85-008 in the narrow-gauge railway station Sarajevo, Aug. 1965

In Bosnia and Herzegovina , from 1878 ( Berlin Congress : Berlin Peace), the Austrian military administration built a supply railway from Bosanski Brod to Sarajevo , from which a wide network of narrow-gauge railways in the so-called Bosnian gauge developed under the administration of Austria-Hungary (760 mm). After the First World War, connected to the Serbian narrow-gauge network in the same gauge, an extensive network of main railways on narrow gauge, on which express trains also ran , was created between Belgrade and Dubrovnik , as well as between northern Bosnia and Montenegro .

In addition, there were numerous forest railways and industrial railways in the same gauge.

However, all lines were replaced or discontinued by newly built standard gauge lines by the 1970s at the latest. Today, a rebuilt section of the Šarganska osmica (Šargan Eight) at the Šargan Pass in western Serbia is in operation as a museum railway . Subsequently, the section of the Bosnian Eastern Railway to Višegrad was rebuilt in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina .

Routes in the Bosnian track (selection):

Track 600 mm:

Latvia

Lithuania

Malta

Netherlands

North Macedonia

Poland

In Poland , up to around 1990, there were sometimes very extensive narrow-gauge networks in almost all parts of the country; the 1000 mm and 750 mm gauges were particularly widespread. Most of the railways have been shut down in the years since 1990, but museum operations are still offered on some remaining routes.

Portugal

Mixed train in Tua , 1993

→ See: List of railway lines in Portugal for closed narrow-gauge railway lines

Romania

  • Wassertalbahn (Vișeu de Sus, forest railway in forest operation, still largely in operation)
  • Washed in Transylvania ; 760 mm, last section Sibiu - Agnita since autumn 2001 without traffic
  • Fieni – Moroeni (works railway for Heidelberg cement)
  • Petrila-Lonea; 760 mm (factory line for coal transport)

Sweden

In Sweden, narrow-gauge lines have been built since 1873, predominantly in the typical Swedish gauge of 891 mm (equivalent to three Swedish feet). Some of the networks built by private operators reached considerable sizes.

Slovakia

Spain

Tren de Sóller - Mallorca

There are several narrow-gauge networks in Spain . The meter-gauge network of FEVE and EuskoTren is very extensive and, at around 1200 km, one of the longest European narrow-gauge networks .

Czech Republic

Turkey

Ukraine

Hungary

Museum train at Kecskemét
Kecskemét depot
Narrow gauge museum and forest railway Kemence

Most have a track width of 760 mm, the tourist use is gaining in importance.

United Kingdom

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Belarus

Cyprus

On the island of Cyprus there was the narrow-gauge, state-run Cyprus Government Railway from 1904 to 1951 from the port of Famagusta via Nicosia to the port of Morphou . The gauge was 762 mm (2 '6 "). In addition, the Cyprus Mines Corporation Mineral Railway existed with the same gauge . This line was discontinued when the border was drawn in 1974.

Africa

A train on the Welsh Highland Railway UK . The Garratt locomotive was introduced from South Africa in 1997 ( SAR class NGG 16 , 610 mm gauge).

Narrow gauge railways are widespread in Africa and were built there by the respective colonial powers. An example is the line connecting Abidjan with Ouagadougou and Kayes ( Abidjan-Niger Railway ). In southern Africa, the Cape Gauge is to be seen as a supra-regional "standard gauge" in which the high-quality route network was built. Branch lines were often built with a gauge of 610 mm; the stretch from Port Elizabeth to Avontuur is 283 km, the longest stretch of this gauge in the world.

Algeria

Egypt

Libya

Madagascar

Asia

Armenia

middle East

In the Middle East there were several lines with a gauge of 1,050 mm: the Hejaz Railway and its branch lines, the Lebanon Railway and the Hauran Railway connected to it :

and as already mentioned the Lebanonbahn and the Hauranbahn .

South East Asia

With a total length of over 13,000 km, narrow-gauge railways are also widespread in the countries of the rear Indian peninsula . In Thailand , Myanmar , Cambodia and Singapore , the entire long-distance railway network is designed in meter gauge , as is the case in Vietnam and Malaysia , where a standard-gauge line still exists. In addition, some sections of the route in the north of Vietnam are dual- track. In China there is the meter-gauge line in the city and the surrounding area of Kunming . The one runs from China to Vietnam, but is no longer fully in service.

China

Hong Kong

The Sha Tau Kok Railway (610 mm) and ran in the northern New Territories of Hong Kong from Fanling to Sha Tau Kok.

India

In India there is a rail network of 3794 km in length with a gauge of only 610 mm (24 inches ) or 762 mm (30 inches). The meter gauge network there is considerably more extensive, but it is increasingly being converted to the Indian broad gauge.

Indonesia

Japan

Most of the Japanese railways are built in Cape Gauge. As a result, Japan has one of the largest narrow-gauge networks in the world.

Laos

The Don Det – Don Khon railway line (1000 mm) was the first and, for a long time, the only operational railway in Laos.

Malaysia

North Korea

Taiwan

Australia and New Zealand

Australia

Locomotive 6A of the Puffing Billy Railway in Belgrave

Nauru

The Nauru narrow-gauge railway (610 mm) transports phosphate from the interior of the island of Nauru to the piers on the west coast of the island.

New Zealand

America

Argentina

After the nationalization of the entire Argentine railway network by the Peron government around 1948, the so-called Belgrano Railway was created. It consisted of the entire 1000 mm network of all Argentinian local railways, which, however, all connected to the capital Buenos Aires. In 1992, under the Menem government, the entire Belgrano network, with a few exceptions, was shut down. All the buildings, lines and tracks still exist, but are in extremely poor condition today. Numerous rolling stock such as steam locomotives can still be found, but they are scattered everywhere and also in an almost hopeless condition; little was painstakingly saved by railroad enthusiasts.

  • Ferrocarril Ocampo in the province of Chaco and northeast of the province of Santa Fe in Argentina.
  • Ferrocarril de Península Valdés (Peninsula Railway Valdés) between the city of Puerto Pirámides and the Salinas Grandes in the province of Chubut (1901–1920).
  • Factory line from Las Palmas from the Las Palmas sugar factory near La Leonesa to the port of Puerto Las Palmas on the Paraguay River in the Chaco province.

Barbados

Chile

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Falkland Islands

Colombia

Cuba

Mexico

St. Kitts and Nevis

Suriname

Uruguay

United States

Russia

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Werner Hormann: On the historical-geographical significance of the Vorpommern small and secondary railways, p. 173. In: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald (ed.): Pommern - history, culture, science. 1st Colloquium on Pomeranian History, November 13-15 , 1990, Greifswald 1991, ISBN 3-86006-038-4 .
  2. ^ Reisseckbahn out of service after severe weather, ORF.at from August 2, 2014