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Narrow-gauge railways in Finland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lovisa–Wesijärvi Railway (LWR) 2-8-0 steam locomotive number 6 (built in 1909) in running order on Jokioinen Museum Railway, Finland.

The vast majority of Finnish narrow-gauge railways were owned and operated by private companies. There are only a few instances where narrow-gauge railways were in direct connection with each other, and those interchanges did not last for long. The railways never formed a regional rail traffic network, but were only focused on maintaining connections between the national Russian-gauge railway network and the off-line industries.

Some railways were closed due to competition from the roads, others were converted to 1,524 mm (5 ft) Russian gauge.

Common carriers

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Other lines were notably shorter. The common gauges were 600 mm (1 ft 11+58 in) and 750 mm (2 ft 5+12 in), with a few railways built with 785 mm (2 ft 6+2932 in) and 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+38 in) gauges.

Tourist and heritage lines

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Narrow-gauge tourist and heritage lines of 600 mm (1 ft 11+58 in) gauge and 750 mm (2 ft 5+12 in) narrow gauge still operate.[1]

Other

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  • Rokua railway, 900 mm (2 ft 11+716 in), 3.3 km (2.1 mi), line connecting a hotel with a fitness center

References

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  1. ^ of preserved narrow gauge railways in Finland Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine A visitors guide to Nordic (Scandinavian) narrow gauge railways