The Ohrid line was a
narrow gauge railway line in what is now the
Republic of North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...
. It ran to a gauge of .
The route was:
Skopje
Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre.
The territory of Sk ...
–
Gostivar
Gostivar ( mk, Гостивар , Albanian and Turkish: ''Gostivar''), is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is one of the largest municipalities in the country with a population of 81,042, and the town also ...
–
Kičevo –
Podmolje -
Ohrid
Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...
, a distance of .
The section from Skopje - Gostivar was
converted to
standard gauge in the 1950s. The remaining lines were closed altogether in 1966.
The standard gauge line now runs as far as Kičevo.
Immediately before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the area of
Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia (Macedonian and sr, Вардарска Македонија, ''Vardarska Makedonija'') was the name given to the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (1912–1918) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) roughly corresponding to to ...
was part of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
, rather than
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. During the war it came under
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
occupation. The railway was built as part of a military railway during this occupation and so was built to the Bulgarian
Feldbahn
A , or , is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry () and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth an ...
standards, rather than the
Bosnian gauge
Bosnian-gauge railways are railways with track gauge of . These were found extensively in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as a standardised form of narrow gauge. The name is also used for lines of the same gauge outside Bosnia, for example in ...
of the Austro-Hungarian railways that would later become so well known as part of narrow gauge railways in
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
.
Construction of the line between
Gradsko and
Drenovo began on 26 February 1916.
Construction of the Ohrid line began that summer and by 1923 the line ran from the General Hanris station (today Gorce Petrov) on the western edge of Skopje, through to Ohrid.
![Tenderska lokomotiva](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Tenderska_lokomotiva.JPG)
The railway was operated by a number of
0-8-0T from German
Heeresfeldbahn, described as the
JŽ 99.4 class.
1948, the beginning of the separatist
Informbiro period
The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...
, was a period of new investment in the line. The line to Kičevo was lifted and relaid as standard gauge, opening to Gostivar on 25 May 1952, and Kičevo in 1969.
Conversion beyond this, to Ohrid, never took place, and by this point the narrow gauge line had been closed.
One Brigadelok and three coaches are preserved outdoors at Kičevo. 99.4.084 is outside the
railway museum
A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives ( steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic ...
in
Belgrade. Another locomotive, 99.4.025 (
Vulkan
Vulkan is a low- overhead, cross-platform API, open standard for 3D graphics and computing. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Vulkan is intended to offer higher perfor ...
3129 of 1917) was preserved for some years at the Lisice depot, in south-eastern Skopje.
In the 1930s, the Italians considered this route for part of an integrated rail route from the
Adriatic coast in
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
to the west of
Lake Ohrid
Lake Ohrid ( mk, Охридско Езеро , al, Liqeni i Ohrit , also referred as ''Liqeni i Pogradecit'';) is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of E ...
, through
Podmolje and on to
Tetovo
Tetovo ( mk, Тетово, , sq, Tetovë/Tetova) is a city in the northwestern part of North Macedonia, built on the foothills of Šar Mountain and divided by the Pena River. The municipality of Tetovo covers an area of at above sea level, w ...
and Skopje.
In the 21st century, Albanian rail services ran as far as
Pogradec
Pogradec () is the eleventh most populous city in Albania and the capital of the eponymous municipality. It is located on a narrow plain between two mountain chains along the southwestern banks of the Lake of Ohrid. Its climate is profoundly in ...
, on the southern coast of the lake. Plans have been discussed to link this through to the old Ohrid route, and further to Skopje,
although this now appears unlikely.
See also
*
2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways
Two foot and 600 mm gauge railways are narrow gauge railways with track gauges of and , respectively. Railways with similar, less common track gauges, such as and , are grouped with 2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways.
Overview
...
*
Narrow-gauge railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Most Bosnian-gauge railway lines were built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Several gauge railways were planned in order to link the extensive narrow-gauge railways in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unti ...
*
Narrow gauge railways in Albania
References
External links
* , Robert Legrand (1972)
* , period photographs of the line
{{Europe in topic, Narrow gauge railways in, state=collapsed
600 mm gauge railways
Narrow gauge railways in North Macedonia
Rail transport in North Macedonia
Railway lines in Yugoslavia
Ohrid