The Borkumer Kleinbahn is a narrow gauge railway on the German island of
Borkum
Borkum ( nds, Borkum, Börkum) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist.
Geography
Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait ...
in the North Sea. It is the oldest island railway (german: Inselbahn) in Germany, beginning operation in 1888.
Line
The long line connects the port with the town of Borkum.
It is
double tracked since the early 20th century.
History
In 1879, tracks for a
horse-drawn railway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, ...
line were laid for the construction of a new lighthouse. The tracks were converted for locomotive-hauled trains about 10 years later,
and the line opened in 1888 as a successor of the horsedrawn line.
The network reached its peak length in 1938,
with a track length of about .
The line celebrated its 125th anniversary on June 15, 2013.
[
]
Rolling stock
The fleet consists of multiple passenger cars, diesel locomotives, steam locomotives and a
Wismar railbus
The 'Hanover version' of the Wismar railbus (''Wismarer Schienenbus'') was developed in the early 1930s as a light railbus for economical passenger services on branch lines in Germany.
History
As early as the 1920s, light branch lines (the so ...
, which was built in 1940.
A steam locomotive from the
Bäderbahn Molli
The Molli (''German: Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn "Molli"''; short: MBB; also: Molli Bahn or Mollibahn) is a narrow-gauge steam-powered railway in Mecklenburg, Germany, running on gauge track. It operates between Bad Doberan, Heiligendamm and Kü ...
is scheduled to run on the line in summer 2019.
Both Bäderbahn Molli and the Borkumer Kleinbahn have the same track gauge.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Transport in Lower Saxony
900 mm gauge railways in Germany
Borkum