Wyhoda forest railway
| Wyhoda forest railway | |
|---|---|
 Route network (as of April 2010)
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| Route length: | 40 km |
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) |
The Wyhoda Forest Railway is a forest railway in southwest Ukraine in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast . The starting point and operating center is the urban-type Wyhoda settlement, which gives it its name . The railway serves to develop the forest areas southwest of Wyhoda. Today the route is only operated for freight traffic , public passenger traffic has been suspended since the 1990s, apart from tourist trips. In the absence of roads, the railway sometimes offers the only access to logging sites in the mountains.
history
The foundations of today's network were laid in the 1920s with the opening of two railways in the valleys of the Mysunka (Мизунка) and Switscha rivers . At that time, after the First World War, the region had only just passed from Austria-Hungary to Poland . In the years before that, short lines to the sawmills built in the 1890s in what was then Wygoda had already been in operation and their expansion was a done deal, but the war had prevented these projects from being completed. As early as 1883 there was a connection to the standard-gauge railway network in Wyhoda by the local line Dolina-Wygoda . The forest railways, which were combined into one operation after the Second World War , experienced their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s under Soviet administration . A massive expansion of forestry led to a generous expansion of the route network to a length of around 180 kilometers. With the end of the Soviet Union, however, the star of the railway also fell. Obligations to save, lack of funds and severe storm damage caused the route network to shrink again. After severe flood damage in the summer of 1998, the network fell into two parts when the route through the Switscha valley was closed. An isolated remnant section of the Switscha Valley route remained in operation in the mountains until 2009. Today only the route in the Mysunka valley is used. The track is owned by Uniplyt , which also owns the sawmill in Wyhoda. Traffic takes place several times a week as required.
The trains of the Waldbahn have been carried by diesel locomotives since the 1970s . For that currently are locomotives of the series ТУ4 (TU4) ТУ8 (TU8) and ТУ8Г (TU8G) are available. A 2004 modernized rail bus of the series ТУ6П (TU6P) serves tourist traffic, which is marketed under the name Karpatskyj Tramwaj . In addition to these vehicles , there are a number of different draisines that are used for personnel transport and route repair.
tourism
Well-frequented excursion traffic has now established itself on the route. Every Saturday there are excursions with several stops along the way through the Mysunka valley.
literature
- Wendelin, Wolfram: Karpatendampf, Volume 3, Die Waldbahn Vyhoda , L'viv, 2006.
Web links
- Route description and picture gallery (Russian)
- Picture gallery (Russian)
- Picture gallery of the island operation in the upper Switscha Valley (Russian)