The Far East Children's Railway (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Дальневосточная детская железная дорога, ''Dalwenostotschnaja detskaja schelesnaja doroga'') is a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by Diesel engine, ...

in the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n town of

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

. The railway was opened on 19 May, 1958, as one of many pioneer railways in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and is still in use.

History

The railway was built by volunteers, after it had been initiated by

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

and the public. It was inaugurated on 19 May, 1958. Initially, a circular loop with a length of surrounded the park of a

Sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated from , ''sovetskoye khozyaystvo''; ) was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted w ...

. The passengers were transported by a

railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine. It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. O ...

and four open wooden body carriages with 15 seats each. The rails were of Type P-18. The railbus was replaced by a steam locomotive Type 159 with serial number 6421 in 1959.ДЖД — Хабаровск
/ref> It is displayed on a

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

at the Pionerskaja railway station. Also in 1959, the track was extended along Karl Marx Street by heavier 3A rails up to a length of . In 1965, four

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

metal passenger cars with 38 seats each were delivered by

Pafawag Pafawag (Państwowa Fabryka Wagonów) ( English: National Rail Carriage Factory) is a Polish locomotive manufacturer based in Wrocław. The company became part of Adtranz in 1997 as Adtranz Pafawag, and in 2001 part of Bombardier Transportation. . ...

. The Pionerskaja railway station was built in 1967, approximately 600 m from the main track. The steam locomotive was replaced in 1968 by a ТУ2 diesel locomotive. The station building was built in 1972. On the ground floor it houses offices, a workshop, a waiting room and a classroom equipped with visual aids. A maintenance depot with a pit was built in 1979.The

carriages were replaced in 1986 by carriages of type PV51 by the

n Demikhovo Machinebuilding Plant, and from 1987 more modern ТУ7 diesel locomotives were used. In 1999, the children's railway was reconstructed. The first refurbishment phase was completed on 25 May 2000. A repair and training building was erected near the Pionerskaja railway station, the 3A rails were replaced by heavier R-50 rails and signal and communications systems were upgraded.

Rolling stock

Locomotives

The following diesel locomotives are currently being used: *

TU7 diesel locomotive TU7 (ТУ7) - Soviet, later Russian diesel locomotive for gauge – . History The TU7 () was developed in 1971–1972 at the Kambarka Engineering Works to replace the aging locomotive classes TU4 () and TU2 (ТУ2). There were 3,361 locomotives ...

s – № 2611 and 2612 * TU10 diesel locomotive – № TU10-017Новый тепловоз ТУ-10 «Колибри» позволит юным железнодорожникам овладевать профессией машиниста в более комфортных условиях
(Russian).

Carriages

Three passenger carriages VP750, six metal-framed passenger carriages PV51 and four flatbed goods waggons are operational.

References

{{Coord, 48.507528, 135.101495, display=title Children's railways in Russia Rail transport in the Russian Far East Passenger rail transport in Russia 750 mm gauge railways in Russia Khabarovsk Railway lines opened in 1958