Kemence Forest Museum Railway

The Kemence Forest Museum Railway (Hungarian: Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút) is a narrow gauge railway in northern Hungary.[1][2] It is operated by volunteers during weekends between late March and late October.[3]

Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút
Overview
OwnerIpoly Erdő Zrt.
TerminiKemence
Feketevölgy
Stations5
Service
Operator(s)Kisvasutak Baráti Köre Egyesület
History
Opened1910
Technical
Track length7.2 km (4.5 mi)
Track gauge600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in)
Operating speed15 km/h (9.3 mph)

History

The forest railway
Halyagos terminus in 1991

The first railway line in Kemence was laid in 1910 between Kemence and Királyháza. The Csarnavölgy line, that is still in operation, was opened in 1913. After the two main lines were opened, several other minor railroads were constructed, most of them serving only some years.

Every line was created to continuously slope in the direction of the village, therefore horses (and later locomotives) were required only to distribute the empty carriages in the morning, and then, when the cars were loaded, they were only needed to be braked by a brakeman, the gravity successfully carried the cars down.[4]

Throughout its history before 2000, the Kemence Forest Railway was never meant to transport passengers. There were no settlements around the railroad, and the forestry was not interested in creating a tourist railway.

The first bridge in 1986, before the flood damages

The widespread of forestal roads meant that the railway has a dark future ahead itself. In 1968, the Királyháza line was abandoned. The last remaining Csarnavölgy line survived it with 22 years, officially closing in 1992, however, it had almost no function in its last years. However, the tracks remained, and the forestry didn't sell it.

A disastrous decade

After its abandonment, the conditions were fastly declining. In the last few years, only one locomotive remained viable. The track conditions became poor, with some of the rails being stolen.

The first bridge in 2002, shortly before its restoration

In 1995, a flood damaged two of the bridges and some of the railroad embankment, and an even stronger one in 1999 destroyed almost everything in the valley, ruining all bridges except one, while only the tracks in the village's outer parts survived.[5]

New times

Seeing the saddening fate of the railway, volunteers decided to save this unique railway. From 1 January 2000, the Kisvasutak Baráti Köre Egyesület[6] ("Association of Narrow Gauge Railway Friends") loans the track and the properties from the forestry.

This was the first time the Kemence railway – renamed to its current name, Kemence Forest Museum Railway, referring to the museal rolling stock, most of which was saved from other 600 mm gauge railways that ceased to exist – became a tourist railway.

In the first four years, the railway operated in a short, but after the flood, intactly remained 1.8 km section between Kemence and Godóvár-Strand. After restoring three bridges and several stolen sections, the line was extended with another additional 1.8 km, to the now defunct Pityur-rétje station. Feketevölgy station was reached in 2009, and its second platform was built in 2015.

Today

In January 2017, the railway is 4.1 kilometers long, with an additional 3.1 km waiting for renovation.

Electric locomotive in front of the depot, with a homemade passenger car

The rolling stock is very heterogeneous: the locomotives are mostly consisting of MD-40 locomotives either originating to Kemence, or found and saved from defunct railways, but you can find Ue-28 and MV engines as well, and Kemence is the sole forest railway in Hungary where electric (El-9) locomotives can be found. The passenger cars are mostly locally built.[7]

References
  1. Dante Mena (1 June 2006). Adventure Guide to Hungary. Hunter Publishing, Inc. pp. 257–8. ISBN 978-1-58843-576-7.
  2. Ulrike Pröbstl; Veronika Wirth; Birgit H. M. Elands; Simon Bell (23 April 2010). Management of Recreation and Nature Based Tourism in European Forests. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 257. ISBN 978-3-642-03145-8.
  3. "Kemencei Erdei Vasút, 2016". Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút (in Hungarian). 8 December 2015.
  4. "A kezdetek". Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút (in Hungarian).
  5. "A háború után". Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút (in Hungarian).
  6. "Tájékoztató a KBK-ról". Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút (in Hungarian).
  7. "Kemence/Járművek". Kemencei Erdei Múzeumvasút (in Hungarian).

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