Children's railway

Kolejka Parkowa Maltanka (Park Railway Maltanka) in Poznań, Poland (600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) gauge).

Steam Locomotive on Kiev Children's Railway, Ukraine, 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge.

A children's railway is an extracurricular educational institution, where teenagers learn railway professions. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. The world's first children's railway was opened in Gorky Park, Moscow,^[1] in 1932. At the breakup of the USSR, 52 children's railways existed in the country.

Many children's railways are still functioning in post-Soviet states and Eastern European countries. Many exhibit railway technology not seen anymore on the main lines and can be seen as heritage railways. Even though few exceptions exist, most children's railways built in the communist block have a track gauge of at least 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in)^[2] and can carry full size narrow gauge rolling stock.

List of children's railways

There are children's railways situated in following cities:

Armenia Yerevan Children's railway Belarus Children's Railroad (Minsk) Bulgaria Plovdiv[3] Kardzhali China Harbin Cuba Camagüey, Parque Camilo Cienfuegos Havana, Parque Lenin (not operating) Havana, Havana Zoo Georgia Tbilisi Germany Parkeisenbahn Wuhlheide,[4] Berlin, Wuhlheide Bernburg, Krumbholzallee Parkeisenbahn Chemnitz,[5] Chemnitz, Küchwald Cottbus Eliaspark - Fürst-Pückler-Park Branitz Crispendorf, Ferienland Dresdner Parkeisenbahn, Dresden, Großer Garten Parkeisenbahn Gera,[6] Gera, Tierpark Goerlitzer Parkeisenbahn,[7] Görlitz, An der Landskronbrauerei Die Parkeisenbahn Peißnitzexpress,[8] Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Peißnitzinsel Leipziger Parkeisenbahn, Leipzig-Wahren, Auensee Magdeburg, Rotehornpark, until 1967 Parkeisenbahn Plauen,[9] Plauen, Syratal Vatterode, Vatteröder Teich, out of operation Hungary Budapest Pécs Tiszakécske (suspended since 2009) Kazakhstan Almaty Karaganda Pavlodar (now defunct) Shymkent Lithuania Ignalina Poland Chorzów, Silesian Culture and Recreation Park Poznań, Park Railway Maltanka (now run by the city) Russia Kp4-447 Southern St.Peterburg Children's Railway with tender from Kch4-332. Taken at Molodejnaya Station at the North end of the line Chelyabinsk Chita Ekaterinburg Irkutsk Kazan Kemerovo Khabarovsk Krasnoyarsk Kratovo Kurgan Liski Nizhny Novgorod Novomoskovsk Novosibirsk Orenburg Penza Rostov-Na-Donu Sankt-Petersburg Svobodny Tyumen Ufa Vladikavkaz Volgograd Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Yaroslavl Slovakia Kindereisenbahn Košice, Košice Turkmenistan Ashgabat Ukraine Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Kharkiv Kiev Lutsk Lviv Rivne Zaporizhia Uzbekistan Jizzakh Tashkent

See also

• Ridable miniature railway
• Backyard railroad
• Train ride
• Garden railway

References

1. Children's railways: Gorky Park, Moscow (Russian)
2. de:Pioniereisenbahn
3. http://web.railfriends.org/EN/Childrens%20Railway/index.htm
4. http://www.parkeisenbahn.de/BPE/
5. http://www.parkeisenbahn-chemnitz.de
6. http://www.gera.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=15569&_nav_id1=10267&_nav_id2=10272
7. http://www.goerlitzerparkeisenbahn.de/
8. http://www.pe-halle.de/
9. http://www.parkeisenbahn-plauen.de

External links

• Children's railways of the USSR (Russian)
• railways.id.ru (English)
• (Hungarian)
• (Hungarian)
• (Hungarian)