Rečkovská lesní dráha

Rečkovská lesní dráha Rečkov Forest Railway
Route length:	25.96 km
Gauge :	760 mm ( Bosnian gauge )
Maximum slope :	54.75  ‰
Legend Grief Strassdorf Protectorate border (1938–1945) Radechov Ebersbach – Bakov nad Jizerou railway line Rečkov (sawmill)

The Rečkovská lesní dráha (German: Forest Railway Rečkov) was a forest railway with 760 mm gauge at Bělá pod Bezdězem (Weißwasser) in what was then Bohemia and later Czechoslovakia . It began at the sawmill in Rečkov near Bakov nad Jizerou, which still exists today, and led via Strassdorf (Strážov) to Kummer (Hradčany). It opened up the former Gräflich von Waldsteinsche forest district for wood removal.

history

Rečkov sawmill

In 1910, Count Adolf von Waldstein decided to build the forest railway. Because of a heavy infestation by pine owls , the infested wood had to be removed quickly to prevent further damage. In 1913 Orenstein & Koppel was entrusted with the planning, construction and delivery of the rolling stock. In 1914, operations could begin. In 1925, the last stage from the Strassdorf hunting lodge to the end point was opened to traffic 200 meters before Kummer.

After 1945 the sawmill and the narrow-gauge railway were nationalized and became the property of the Czechoslovak state. From 1947 onwards, most of the forest area crossed by the forest railway lay within the Ralsko military training area . In the same year a fire destroyed the cutting mill in Rečkov. In 1950 the traffic on the forest railway was stopped and the facilities dismantled. Only the former track planum remained, which was later partly included in the forest road network.

Route description

Shortly after Rečkov, the route runs under the Bakov nad Jizerou – Bělá pod Bezdězem railway line .

The 25.96-kilometer route began at the cutting mill in Rečkov, led through the Černá rokle gorge and through the districts of Bělá pod Bezdězem, Radechov and Strassdorf to the Dreizipfel forest house in Kummer. An originally planned continuation through the Kummergebirge (Hradčanské stěny) to Srní u České Lípy (Rehdörfel) was not carried out.

Loading stations with sidings were located west of Radechov, near Strassdorf and at the end of the route. The water supplies for the locomotives could be replenished there. The depot was in Rečkov. Apart from the underpass under the railway line at Rečkov and two stream bridges at Strassdorf, there were no engineering structures .

vehicles

Personnel in front of the locomotive delivered by Krauss in Linz in 1914

Two steam locomotives and more than 30 two-axle wagons were available to operate the forest railway. The first machine, which was only coupled twice, was acquired by the Graeflich von Waldsteinsche Forest Administration in 1914 from Krauss in Linz. A second, triple-coupled one was delivered in 1915 with the serial number 7063 by Orenstein & Koppel in Prague- Vysočany. This locomotive came to Považská lesná železnica in Slovakia in 1950 . Most recently it ran at Kysucko-oravská lesná železnica , where it was retired and scrapped in 1974. There were some wagons with benches for school trips - especially for the forest school located in the Bělá pod Bezdězem chateau. The forest railway later acquired a diesel locomotive.

In its heyday from 1928 to 1930, the forest railway transported 120,000 cubic meters of raw wood annually for processing in the mansion's own sawmill in Rečkov. In the 1920s and 1930s, up to four pairs of trains ran daily. They usually consisted of five pairs of turntable wagons for transporting logs and were up to 150 meters long. Driving the trains required five people: a locomotive driver, a stoker and three brakemen . During the Great Depression was driven with only a brakeman, who was supported by the heater. In the dry season, every train was followed by a pedal trolley equipped with big claps in order to smother fires started by the steam locomotive.

swell

• Jan Kobr: Rečkovská lesní dráha procházela celým Ralskem . Ed .: State forest enterprise Vojenské lesy a statky ČR [VLS]. 2015 (Czech, article on a publicly accessible display board on Mariánská cesta on the area of ​​the former Ralsko military training area ).

Web links

Commons : Rečkovská lesní dráha  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Dnešní Ralsko
• Description on historiemimone.cz (Czech)
• Photos of the current condition

Individual evidence

1. ^ Považská Lesná Železnica. on pospichal.net
2. ↑ Kysucko oravská lesna železnica. on pospichal.net.