The Čierny Hron Railway (in Slovak: ''Čiernohronská železnica'' or ''ČHŽ'') is a

narrow gauge railway 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 ...

in the

Slovak Ore Mountains The Slovak Ore Mountains ( , , ) are an extensive mountain range within the Carpathian Mountains, located mostly in Slovakia's Spiš and Gemer region, with a small part in northern Hungary. It is the largest mountain range in Slovakia. Geomorph ...

, built as a

forest railway A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felling, felled Trunk (botany), logs to sawmills or railway stations. ...

for

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksČierny Balog Čierny Balog (until 1888 also Balog or Čierny Hronec; ) is a municipality in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. History The first written record of the settlement in the area dates back to 1607 when the Emperor ...

and Hronec. The network was extended to transport wood from the forests and by the middle of the 20th century the railway had a total length of 131,97 km, the most extensive forestry railway network in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. On 19 July 1927, passenger traffic was permitted on the railway between Čierny Balog and Hronec, which operated until 1962. The railway was closed in 1982, but it has been granted national heritage status since. During the following few years it was repaired by enthusiasts and re-opened in 1992 as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

for tourists. The line is now 17 km long: Chvatimech - Hronec -

Čierny Balog Čierny Balog (until 1888 also Balog or Čierny Hronec; ) is a municipality in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. History The first written record of the settlement in the area dates back to 1607 when the Emperor ...

- Vydrovo. The line is believed to be the only railway in the world to pass through the middle of a football stadium, the tracks running along the front of a grandstand at the stadium belonging to the TJ Tatran Čierny Balog club. In 2021 the railway acquired the existing rolling stock from the Waldenburg railway in Switzerland.

Motive Power

References

External links

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Official site

ČHŽ Railway Map

Photo collection of heritage railway operations on the ČHŽ

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cierny Hron Railway Railway lines in Slovakia Heritage railways in Slovakia 760 mm gauge railways in Slovakia Forest railways

Motive Power

See also

References

External links