Narrow gauge railways in Ukraine

ZIM railcar on the bridge over Pivdennyi Buh on Haivoron narrow gauge railway.

Various 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge railways operate in Ukraine as common carrier, industrial railway or Children railways.

750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge common carrier

Lines in Carpathian-Ukraine ^[1]

• Beregovo region network, around 200 km, initially built during the Hungarian Empire at the gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) and regauged to 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) when Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union
• Uzhgorod region, 35 km, built at the gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) and regauged to 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in).

Antonivka system in West-Ukraine

• Built around 1900 at the gauge of 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) ^[2]

Central Ukraine ^[3]

• Haivoron network, built around 1900 at the gauge of 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in), 703 km.^[4]
• Novopoltavka railways
• Vapniarka railways, 140 km, built at the 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) gauge by Germany, later regauged to 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in)

750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge industry, agricultural and forest railways

Industrial, peat, sugar and forestry lines ^[5]

• Mykhailivka sugar railway,1932-1990.
• Okhtyrka sugar railway, 56 km, 1940-1999.
• Potash industrial lines, 49 km, 1933 - 2003.
• Smyha peat railways
• Teresva forestry railway, 138 km, built at the gauge of 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) and regauged to 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) (Between the two World Wars the region was a part of Czechoslovakia) and back to 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in).
• Vygoda system, 180 km of forest railways

750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) Pioneer railways

Ten pioneer or children railways exist in various cities.^[6]

• Dnipropetrovsk pioneer railway, 2 km in the Globy Park in Dnipropetrovsk, opened in 1936.
• Donetsk pioneer railway, 2 km in the Leninist Komsomol Park in Donetsk, opened in 1972.
• Yevpatoria pioneer railway near Yevpatoria on the Crimea Peninsula, opened around 1990, abandoned.
• Kharkiv pioneer railway, 4 km in the northern part of Kharkiv, opened in 1940.
• Kiev pioneer railway, 3 km in the Syretskij Park in Kiev, opened in 1953.
• Lutsk pioneer railway in Lutsk, built 1952-1954.
• Lviv pioneer railway, 1,9 km in the Strijskij Park in Lviv
• Uzhhorod pioneer railway on the bank of the River Uzh in Uzhhorod, opened in 1947.
• Rivne pioneer railway, 2 km, in Rivne, opened in 1949.
• Zaporože pioneer railway, 9 km, between the main railway station of Zaporizhia and the River Dnieper, opened in 1972.

References