Bosnian gauge

Track gauges

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Broad   Breitspurbahn 3,000 mm (9 ft 10 1⁄8 in)   Brunel 2,140 mm (7 ft 1⁄4 in)   Indian 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)   Iberian 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 21⁄32 in)   Irish 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)   Pennsylvania 1,588 mm 1,581 mm (5 ft 2 1⁄2 in) (5 ft 2 1⁄4 in)   Russian 1,524 mm 1,520 mm (5 ft) (4 ft 11 27⁄32)   Standard 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Narrow   Scotch 1,372 mm (4 ft 6 in)   Cape 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)   Metre 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)   Three foot, 900mm and Swedish three foot 914 mm 900 mm 891 mm (3 ft) (2 ft 11 7⁄16) (2 ft11 3⁄32) in   2 ft 6 in, Bosnian and 750 mm 762 mm 760 mm 750 mm (2 ft 6 in) (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in) (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in)   2 ft and 600mm 610 mm 600 mm 597 mm (2 ft) (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) (1 ft 11 1⁄2 in) Minimum   Fifteen-inch 381 mm (15 in)
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Bosnian gauge refers to railways with a track gauge of 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in).^[1][2] It was used 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 Austria.^[3] This track gauge is very similar to the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) and 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge.

History

After a British proposal the 1878 Berlin Congress permitted Austria-Hungary to occupy and govern Bosnia-Herzegovina instead of Turkey, the 190 km long Brod - Zenica military railway was built to support maneuvers and supply troops. It was completed in 1879, using the 760 mm temporary tracks and rolling stock used during the construction of the recently finished Temesvár-Orsova line. The Zenica - Sarajevo extension opened in 1882, with a loading gauge the same as that used on 1000 mm gauge railways, which was thought to be sufficient for general traffic including passenger services.^[4]

Narrow gauge railway that once reached Dubrovnik, southern Croatia (photo from 1967).

The Brod - Zenica - Sarajevo Bosna Bahn provided the basis for the narrow gauge railway network which was later established in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In barely two decades a national 760 mm network was built. By the 1890s this stretched through Mostar to the Dalmatian border at Metkovic, and to Gruž, a suburb of Dubrovnik, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. This narrow gauge main line carried much heavier traffic than many of the minor standard gauge main lines across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the time of their introduction, the Bosnia-Herzegovian National Railways' 2-4-2 express locomotives of 1894-96 were the fastest narrow gauge locomotives in Europe, with a 60 km/h permitted top speed.^[4]

The establishment of the fast-growing network, whose length by the start of the 20th centuries exceeded 1000 km making it the once largest interconnected narrow gauge network^[4] in Europe, secured a high reputation for the Monarchy's engineering corps amongst international professional circles.

It was the success of the Bosnian narrow gauge net which gave impetus after the turn of the century to the large-scale building of 760 mm gauge lines across all other territories of the Monarchy. The technical solutions pioneered there were used later on all the narrow gauge railways of Austria-Hungary.^[4][5]

Summary

See also

• List of town tramway systems in Croatia
• Sarajevo Tramway

References

External links

• History of Bosnian railways