Narrow-gauge railways in Hungary

The former Austria-Hungary empire had a narrow-gauge rail network thousands of kilometres in length, most of it using Bosnian gauge 760 mm (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in) or 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge, constructed between 1870 and 1920. Landlords, mines, agricultural and forest estates established their own branch lines which, as they united into regional networks, increasingly played a role in regional passenger traffic. Following the Treaty of Trianon some railways were cut by the new border, many remained on the territory of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Due to a lack of intact roads, following World War II in many places narrow-gauge railway was the only reasonable way to get around. In 1968 the Communist government started to implement a policy to dismantle the narrow-gauge network in favour of road traffic. Freight haulage on the few remaining lines continued to decline until 1990 from when a patchwork of railways was gradually taken over by associations and forest managements for tourist purposes. State Railways operated narrow-gauge railways at Nyíregyháza and Kecskemét that played a role in regional transport until December 2009.

Main article: Rail transport in Hungary
Mátra railway in Gyöngyös
Kecskemét narrow-gauge network

Most railways have a track gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in), unless otherwise specified.

Common carrier railways
  • Kecskemét narrow-gauge network (no operation since 2009)
  • Nyíregyháza narrow-gauge network (no operation since 2009)
  • Balatonfenyves Narrow Gauge Railway

Forest railways
Kemence Forest Railway and narrow-gauge museum

Children's railways
  • Budapest Children's railway, the 760 mm (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in) Gyermekvasút.[1][2]
  • Mecsek Children's railway, Pécs
  • Tiszakécske Children's railway (Suspended in 2009)
  • Széchenyi Museum Railway (operated by children)

Heritage railways
  • Szalajka-Eisenbahn Szilvasvarad – Szalajka-völgy, tourist railway in a national park, 5 km, part of former extensive Felsőtárkány Forest Railway
  • Széchenyi Museum Railway
  • Vál Valley Light Railway
gollark: Oh! Right.
gollark: ... I have forgotten the new feature I was going to add, alas.
gollark: Anyway, if you can figure out *how to* exploit that, enjoy.
gollark: I think PotatOS does some of that itself anyway.
gollark: Did I just now say now twice in one clause?

References
  1. Children's Railway
  2. Zsuzsi Scenic Railway Debrecen
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.