Narrow-gauge railways in Serbia

Most Serbian railway lines were built as a result of an expansion of railway networks by Austro-Hungarians. Several 760 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ in) gauge railways were planned to link the extensive narrow gauge railways in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in 1912 several of these were constructed, the first ones in Eastern Serbia:

• in 1882, a primarily industrial, though occasionally used for passenger transport, 12 km long 600 mm wide gauge track from Majdanpek copper processing plant to Velike Livade built by the "Serbian Copper & Iron Co" (official name in English, most stock holders were British). First run on the track was in June 1882.^[1]
• in 1888, the 82 km long dual purpose (industrial and passenger transport) 760 mm gauge track from Vrška Čuka mine to the port of Radujevac on the Danube, built by the Societé Anonyme "L'Industrielle Serbe" registered at Brussels in Belgian, French, (Austro-)Hungarian, and Serbian ownership (in order of the percentage of stock owned).,^[2][3]

In the 1920s the network was extended from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade.

• Boljevac–Metovnica–Zajecar; 42 km, closed 1980
• Šabac–Banja Koviljača narrow gauge railway in Western Serbia, opened in 1910. In 1950 the railway was replaced with a standard gauge line, the old narrow gauge line was used for its construction and closed after completion.
• Sarajevo–Belgrade narrow gauge railway, the Bosnian part closed in 1974, the last common carrier traffic on the Serbian part of the railway was the Lajkovac–Mladenovac line which ceased activities in 1983. It was partly reconstructed in 2003 as the Šargan Eight heritage railway.
• Priboj, a terminus station on a branch line of the Bosna Railway from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Zrenjanin–Jimbolia narrow gauge railway, 68 km, 1899–1968. Had a short tramway section in Zrenjanin, which was closed in 1932. Rediredcted to Srpska Klarija (now part of Radojevo) after World War 1.

References