The Small West Siberian Railway or Novosibirsk Children's Railway (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Малая Западно-Сибирская железная дорога, ''Malaya Zapadno-Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga'') is a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

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 or petrol ...

in the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n city

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

. The first section of the railway line was opened on 4 June 2005 as one of the many

children's railway A children's railway or pioneer railway is an extracurricular educational institution, where children interested in rail transport can learn railway professions. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. T ...

s in

. It is still in use every day in summer except Mondays.

Route

So far the track has a length of . It has five stations.Новосибирск - Новосибирская детская железная дорога.
(Russian). Downloaded on 6 November 2016.

History

The decision to build a children's railway in Novosibirsk, was announced in August 2003 by the

West Siberian Railway West Siberian Railway (russian: Западно-Сибирская железная дорога, Zapadno-Sibirskaya zheleznaya doroga) is a Rail operator of Russian Railways and part of the Great Trans-Siberian Railway crossing the Omsk, Novosibir ...

together with the city council of Novosibirsk, when the foundation stone was laid in

Zayeltsovsky Park Zayeltsovsky Park is a park in Zayeltsovsky District of Novosibirsk, Russia. It was created in 1932. The park is located in Zayeltsovsky Pine Forest. It borders Ob River and Sukharka Microdistrict to the southwest. Description The park organi ...

, although the planning had not yet been fully completed. The design of the track was contracted to the institutions Sibgiprotrans and Zheldorproekt. On 4 June 2005 the first phase of the children's railway with a length of was inaugurated. It was formally taken in use on 30 June 2005 by the Director of the West Siberian Railway as the 23rd children's railway of Russia. The first phase contained a more than long steel pier, the stations Zoopark and Sportivnaya, a training centre at the Sportivnaya station as well as the halt Razyezd Eltsovskiy. In summer 2005 only one train operated. The train had one locomotive at each end, and could change direction without de-coupling the locomotives. On 14 November 2005 the President of the Russian Railways

Vladimir Yakunin Vladimir Ivanovich Yakunin (russian: Владимир Иванович Якунин; born 30 June 1948) is a Russian businessman and close Vladimir Putin confidant. He was president of Russian Railways from June 2005 to August 2015. In March 2 ...

visited the railway. Starting from 6 August 2006 the second phase with a length of was constructed by the Russian Railways and the city council. The second phase contains a more than long steel pier, two bridges, Zayeltsovskiy Park Station and Razyezd Lokomotiv Halt. In 2015 the railway announced at its 10th anniversary that it had transported more than 480,000 passengers.

Rolling stock

Locomotives

The children's railway operates three TU7A diesel locomotives with a power of 294 kW (400 hp) each and a weight of 24 t as well as a newer

TU10 diesel locomotive The locomotives TU10 (Russian language, Russian TУ10) of the Russian Railways (RŽD) are narrow gauge diesel locomotives for children's railways. History The children's railways or pioneer railways were used for extracurricular education, wher ...

with a power of 170 kW (230 hp). Their serial numbers are as follows: * TU7A diesel locomotive – № 3338, № 3339 and № 3343 *

– № TU10-006

Carriages

There are also six passenger carriages of Type 20,0011 and 048-051 „Metrovagonmash“ () and three of Type 43-0011 Kambarka () an eight-wheeler flat waggon for track maintenance -.in use. Each train has three passenger carriages. Each car has 36 seats at a weight of 11.0 or 12.5 t and a length from buffer to buffer of and a width of . The trains have the names „Skazka“ (Сказка, ''Fairy tale''), „Yunost“ (Юность, ''Youth''), „Sibiryak“ (Сибиряк, ''Sibirian'') and „Mechta“ (Мечта, ''Dream'').

Operation

The trains run daily with the exception of Mondays during the season from 1 June to 30 September. Заельцовский бор - детская железная дорога.JPG, Modified diesel locomotives Novosibirsk Park Railway 07-2016 img5.jpg, Small diesel locomotive Novosibirsk Park Railway 07-2016 img6.jpg, Passenger carriage Novosibirsk Park Railway 07-2016 img7.jpg, Modified diesel locomotive Novosibirsk Park Railway 07-2016 img2.jpg, Track

References

{{Coord, 55.053286, 82.837413, display=title Children's railways Rail transport in Siberia 750 mm gauge railways in Russia Zayeltsovsky City District, Novosibirsk 2005 establishments in Russia