Draft:Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway

Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway — one of the largest and most ambitious railway networks in Russia, finally dismantled in 2007. The road passed in the Beloretsky District, the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Katav-Ivanovsky District of the Chelyabinsk oblast.

Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway
Overview
Locale	Bashkortostan, Russia
Termini	Beloretsk
Service
Type	Narrow-gauge railway
Operator(s)	Beloretsk Iron and Steel Works
History
Opened	1912
Closed	2002
Technical
Line length	400 kilometres (250 mi)
Track gauge	750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in)

History

The first section of the narrow-gauge railway from the Zaprudovka station, located near the Katav-Ivanovsky plant (since 1939 - the city of Katav-Ivanovsk) through Tirlyan to the Beloretsky plant was opened in 1912. The Beloretsk railway became an outstanding achievement of engineering. For the old factory villages through which it passed, the arrival of the train meant a rebirth.

With the advent of the railway, the life of the ancient metallurgical plant was transformed. The village around it grew and turned into the city of Beloretsk.

Construction of other narrow gauge railway lines soon began. From Shushpa station in 1912 - 1914 a branch line was built to the Crane Swamp, where peat extraction began. There was not enough labor here at that time, so Chinese hired workers were brought in to build this 18-kilometer-long section.

Then a large construction project unfolded to the south and west of Beloretsk. In 1924, the Beloretsk – Tukan line was opened. The plant was connected to sources of raw materials by the most reliable and cheapest means of communication. Later, from Tukan, the main center of iron ore mining, small branches were laid to the south - to the quarries near the villages of Western Maygashlya and Tara, and to the west, to the village of Zigaza (timber was exported from there).

After the arrival of the rail track in Tukan, all the forces of the builders were thrown onto the Inzer line. It began at the Ishlya station, ran mainly along the Bolshoi Inzer River, then along a pass section it descended to the Manyava River, which merges with the Small Inzer. After this branch was put into operation, trains with limestone and timber began to travel from Inzer to Beloretsk.

In the 60s, the first broad gauge line came to Beloretsk, which came from the south, from Magnitogorsk. In connection with this, a decision was made to close the section from Zaprudovka (Katav-Ivanovsk) to kilometer 87 (Verkhnearshinsky). The villages that existed on the Zaprudovskaya branch were evicted.

Despite the liquidation of the Beloretsk-Zaprudovka line, the lines to the north and south of the city were still in operation. They transported ore from Tukan, fuel, and metallurgical products from Tirlyan. Passenger trains continued to run regularly; for residents of many villages lost in the mountains, the narrow gauge still remained the “road of life” - there were no roads there. The Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway was one of the advanced narrow-gauge networks of the USSR. For some time, mainline diesel locomotives TU2 dominated among the locomotives here.

In the 1970s, construction of an isolated broad gauge railway from the concentrator to the iron ore mines began in Tukan. The rolling stock for it was delivered to Tukan along the Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway, on narrow-gauge bogies. In addition, the transportation of wide-gauge cars for repairs to Tirlyan, where the locomotive and car repair depot was located, was mastered.

Every year, the Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway became more and more famous among the few Soviet enthusiasts and railway researchers. There were few other similar networks left, and such wooden passenger cars as here were difficult to find anywhere else in our country. Foreigners came to the distant Urals, admiring the carriages, diesel locomotives and the architecture of ancient station buildings. In most European countries and in the USA, roads like this do not exist. The Beloretsk narrow-gauge railway seemed to them a real miracle.

In 1991, she stopped the passenger train along the route Beloretsk - Ishlya. The inhabitants of Tukan traveled to the village by bus to the Ishlya, then Tukan - Ishlya transplanted the train, which was preserved until 1993. A wide track in Tukan from the beginning of the 1990s no longer operated, and gradually disassembled. In 1997, the lines from Tukan to the East were also disassembled, in Zigaza, and south, to Tar and Maigashlya. In 2002, the Beloretsky Metallurgical Plant moved to the management of "Mechel". And almost immediately, the management of the plant issued a decree on the refusal of transportation on a narrow rut and the elimination of the railway. This happened at the time when preparations for the 90th anniversary were actively conducted.

By the fall of 2003, the plots of Ishlya - Tukan and Tyrylane were dismantled - 87 kilometers. As of the end of 2003, the line from Beloretsk to Tirlyan remained alive. It was irregular movement - mainly the removal of rolling stock from the Tyrlyan on scrap metal. Periodically, Beloretska in Tyrylane also delivered fuel oil for the boiler room.

As of May 2006, the rails lay only on the Beloretsk - Kathayka, a length of about 8 kilometers. This site was unsuitable for movement (there were breaks).

The last plot of Beloretskoye Uzbocole Railway (from Beloretsk to Katayki) was disassembled in spring-summer 2007. As of August 13, 2007, there were still small sections of the paths on the territory of the former station Beloretsk. In the near future, they were supposed to be removed manually (without the use of diesel locomotive). The issue of installing as monuments of one diesel locomotive and a reconstructed passenger car with an inscription "90 years of BC" was discussed.

As of August 2, 2011, the GR-231 locomotive monument and the TU7A-3323 diesel locomotive monument remained in Beloretsk, they stood nearby. Passenger car with the inscription "90 years of BZD", contrary to the initial plans, did not save

Links

• «The site of the railroad» S. Bolashenko (archived copy)