Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways

Archive News

CURRENT NEWS (2024)
Updates on information regarding industrial and commercial narrow gauge railway operations around Europe.

This section contains updates on narrow gauge sites (industrial/commercial, not preserved) still operating, or news regarding closures confirmed from recent vists or in the railway press. Please feel free to contribute to these pages and ensure a broad cross section of railways and countries are featured. Click on the thumbnail pictures to see a larger picture.

The most recent reports will be at the top

GERMANY: June 2024
With thanks to Christoph Leiter and Frank Pfeiffer for additional information to assist with this German summary

Torfwerk Uchte, Uchte
(Gauge: 600mm)
The site was operating normally with 2 or 3 trains in use at any one time, being double headed by the Schöma locos. Loading was taking place in at least 2 areas deep in the moor. Rather than coming back and being parked at the works at the end of the day as previously, the trains seem to be usually left out on the moors after work. The company are reported to have licences to extract peat for some time yet, and a new road crossing has recently been put in to reach new fields to the south of the works.

Another rake of empties heads out to the moors with the works just visible in the background through the trees.

Torfwerk Meiners, Lichtenmoor
(Gauge: 600mm)
This railway ceased operation in 2021, but currently all the track, wagons, and machinery are still all in place but very overgrown.

The unloading platfrom and elevators on the edge of the moors are slowly disappearing in the undergrowth. Lorries would arrive under the elevator to the left for loading with fresh peat. No bagging or processing was done at this site.

Torfwerk Meiners, Borstel
(Gauge: 600mm)
No peat trains were running over a period of at least a couple of days due to track repairs to the main running line. Just the usual yard shunter 23 (Diema No.2591/1963) was in use with Diema 60 (No.2553/1962) assisting with the track maintenance. However, a large number of full wagons were at the works waiting tipping, suggesting this was only a temporary lull in activity.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

GERMANY: June 2024
ASB Grünland, Neustadt
(Gauge: 900mm)
This railway is still in use on the northern side of the Mardorf to Neustadt road. Due to the location of the tracks and also increased security to prevent access to the moors, operations are not easy to observe. Both the road crossings are still in place but are both long disused and no work is being carried out on the south side of the road.

One of the large yellow Schöma locos was observed travelling out to the moors with a rake of large bogie peat wagons.

Euflor, Humuswerk Lichtenmoor
(Gauge: 600mm)
This site has been winding down operations recently and when visited peat transport had just about finished. The longer line turning south to the moors is now all overgrown and recent loading had taken place at the end of the main line. There appeared to be only a small stock of peat left to move and recent reports suggest that this will not be started again until the autumn. Once completed the railway is due to close by the end of the year. .

The main loco here is Schöma No.5911/2004. It was parked outside the loco shed and was currently being used for the retrieval of equipment from the moors. Some of the older locos have already been sold.

Torfwerk Neustadt, Schneeren
(Gauge: 600mm)
This site was running normally and peat is now only being harvested from the western section of the moors with the previous branch of the railway to the east now disused. At least 6 elderly Diema locos are still in daily use bringing in the trains, with others on the moors and at the works out of use. It takes 4 of the locos to haul the full trains up the gradient back to the works and a further 2 are in use for shunting.

After a lot of sanding up the gradient the loaded train arrives back at the works with 3 Diema locos at the front and one bringing up the rear.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

GERMANY: June 2024
Torfwerk Böske, Arkeburg
(Gauge: 600mm)
This site was working normally when visited, although operations finished around 12:00 as it was a Friday, which is not unusual for many of the companies visited. All peat fields to the north are exhausted and have been naturalised, so the main line travels a significant distance south to reach the working peat fields. Both milled peat and block peat appear to be transported.

Torfwerk Schöninghsdorf, Klasmann Deilmann
(Gauge: 900mm)
Traffic levels are much lower than previously seen here because of the reduction of available peat within Rühlermoor. As well as Rühlermoor, there are still small reserves of peat on moors to the west of the Schöninghsdorf tipplers and a couple of loaded trains of 4 wheel wagons on the edge of the moor were awaiting unloading.

The entrance to the moors immediately to the west of the works appears to be busy. Diema No.12 here waits to pull the train the last few yards into the works for unloading.

Gross Heseper, Klasmann Deilmann
(Gauge: 900mm)
Long lines of the 8 wheeled bogie wagons were seen in the works. The tracks leading from the works had not been used for a number of weeks at least. This means that the tracks leading south out of Rühlermoor were also derelict as they were now only in use to access the Gross Heseper tipplers. All previous track from the railway south towards Dalum has been completely removed. With the roads now resurfaced and the trackbeds significantly overgrown, there is now little trace that any railways ever existed in Dalumer moor and Heseper moor.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

GERMANY: June 2024
Rühlermoor oilfield, Twist, Exxon Mobil
(Gauge: 900mm)
Only one of the large Schöma locos was seen in use (No.32), which was hauling one of the hot water tankers to a mobile drilling rig of just off the main Torfwerk Strasse road in the south of the site. Two of the smaller Schömas (No.25 and No.27) were in use hauling 2 flat wagons with excavators and on track maintenance respectively. There appeared to be a reduced level of activity across the site compared to previous years.

Schömas 25 and 27 heading back home to the compounds down the main road Torfwerk Strasse.

Rühlermoor oilfield, Twist, Klasmann Deilmann
(Gauge: 900mm)
All peat harvesting and transport appeared to have recently finished on the south side of the Rühlermoor site. The temporary lines on the last peat field had recently been removed following the final trains only about 2 weeks before. The last two fields to be worked out were now being re-landscaped and will be allowed to flood.

The track formation can still be clearly see on the above photo but all evidence of the rail operations into this pit will be removed over the next few weeks.
On the northern side of the site, only one remaining peat stock pile was seen, with temporary tracks and an excavator in position for loading. However no peat trains ran on the day visited. It is unclear how long this remaining peat may take to clear, and following this it may signal the end of peat operations on these moors. The only Klasmann train seen on the visit was a track demolition train taking up tracks on another temporary line on a now exhausted pit on the north section of the site. There is just one rail crossing over the main Rühlermoor road, where originally there had been 3.

Rühlermoor oilfield, Twist, Jan Kwade
(Gauge: 900mm)
The Jan Kwade Diema (Die Wilde 13) was available for use, attached to a flat wagon in the Jan Kwade compound but not used on the day of the visit. The other two locos were now stored off the tracks and look unlikely to be used here again.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

GERMANY: June 2024
Torfwerk Warmsen, Warmsen
(Gauge: 600mm)
The site was operational but no peat transport was being carried out for another 2 weeks due to the condition of the peat stocks on the moor. The 3 Diema locos used for the main line work were at the head of a rake of empty wagons ready for use once the condition of the peat was ready for processing.

Torfwerk Schwegermoor, bohmte
(Gauge: 600mm)
The railway appeared to be running as normal. Peat transport was taking place from the loading area of Abbau Hinnenkamp, but the other loading areas were not checked out. Two of the large tracked loaders were in use, with the 2 usual Schömas stationed here shunting the loaded wagons to the run round loop for collection. Peat operations here do not appear to be under any immediate threat.

Erden & Substratwerk Tabeling, Telbrake
(Gauge: 600mm)
This site was visited on a Friday, and no peat was being transported, but the rails suggested that it was in regular use with the mainline Schöma loco attached to a rake of wagons ready for work.

The main line loco Schöma 6504 of 2012. a number of these Type CHL-20G locos are running on the German peat railways.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

GERMANY: June 2024
Holthaus and Fortmann Torfwerk, Lohne
(Gauge: 600mm)
This site was working normally with up to a couple of journeys to the moors per day, however it does not work every day. The trains are hauled by the relatively new Schöma (No. 5577/1998) which is now hydraulically connected to a Diema built in 1957, converted last year in the workshops. This allows more wagons to be pulled up the incline to the works dispensing with the need to break the train into 2 sections to haul the loaded wagons back up the gradient. One of the oldest locos on site (Schöma 323/1937) is unfortunately now laid up at the end of a siding.

Above: Heading out to the moors on the downgradient a short distance out from the works.

Torfwerk Haskamp, Lohne
(Gauge: 600mm)
As previously reported, the works had now closed and all track lifted by March this year, except where embedded in concrete. when visited, a Diema (No.2435/1961) was still at the end of the siding by the sheds. This loco and others inside the sheds are due for collection as all have now been purchased. All the works buildings are scheduled for demolition before the end of the summer.

Diema No.2435/1961 waiting for collection.

Torfwerk Bokern and Riesselmann, Lohne
(Gauge: 600mm)
Although the line ceased running well over a year ago, recent reports suggested that one loco was still in use to push wagons into the tippler that were being loaded from a stockpile in the yard. However the rails around the wagons and loco suggested that this had not happened for a long time.

Schöma No.3013 built in 1968 is the only potentially operational loco on site. The 5 other locos are disppearing into the undergrowth on a siding at the back of the works.

(Posted 14.06.2024 Source: Steve Thomason)

IRELAND: April 2024
Bord Na Mona
(Gauge: 3ft)
The 29th March 2024 was the date reported that the final peat train was bought in by Bord na Mona. This finally ends the transportation of peat by narrow gauge railway for power generation, horticutlure and heating after nearly 100 years.

Sadly now a scene of the past from the Boora network in 2004 as the 3ft gauge peat railways of Bord na Mona fade into history.

(Posted 20.04.2024 Source: various)

ROMANIA: May 2024
CFI Lonea
(Gauge: 760mm)
It has just been flagged that the earthquake in Romania last year on the 14th February 2023 affected the area around Petrosani, the epicentre being 2km northwest of Lelesti. At least 484 houses and two churches were damaged in Gorj County. This caused significant damage to the Lonea to Petrila coal railway. The scenes at the time suggested that the foundations of the railway in at least one location had been undermined causing subsidence and would need significant groundworks to rebuild the trackbed. The photo is courtesy of adevarul.ro from last year. It looks as though the work to reinstate the railway was never completed as the mine was one of the last two in the coal mining region and was already planned for closure by the end of 2024, so operations came to an abrupt end.

Photo courtesy of adevarul.ro

(Posted 24.05.2024 Source: Romania News Channel)

GERMANY: May 2024
Torfwerk Bernhard Haskamp
(Gauge: 600mm)
As more and more of the torfbahnen of Germany close, the latest casualty is Torfwerk Haskamp at Lohne. The last peat was brought in for unloading in February this year. The dismantling of the railway was already underway at the start of March and by mid-March was all the rails had been taken up. The works and buidlings are due for demolishing by the end of summer.

The works of Torfwerk Haskamp seen in May 2023.

(Posted 24.05.2024 Source: Christoph Leiter)

GERMANY: February 2024
Rühlermoor, Klasmann-Deilmann
(Gauge: 900mm)

Schöma locos No. 83 and 84 with the large bogie wagons reverse carefully down onto a small harvesting area in the north west of the Rühlermoor oilfields. Taken on the 24th May 2023 by Steve Thomason.

During recent years the extensive 900mm gauge railway operated by Klasmann-Deilmann around Hesepermoor, Rühlermoor, Dalumermoor, and Provinzialmoor has been slowly cut back as the peat producing areas have been shrinking.
In 2016 the last branches on Hesepermoor and Dalumermoor finally creased, leaving a few areas on Rühlermoor, and Provinzialmoor. It is now reported that the licences for peat extraction will be expiring by the end of this year and in some areas the heaps of drying peat are required to be removed as early as May this year.
Currently the areas still known to be in peat production and using the railway comprise of a small area to the west of the Schöningshdorf works, and the peat fields between the oil wells south of the Rühlermoor road.
At this stage it is difficult to say when the last peat trains will run in Rühlermoor, but unless the Schöningshdorf works and the Heseper Works start to import peat from elsewhere, peat production at both sites will end. However as Klasmann-Deilmann has a number of other sites in Germany still producing peat, there is the possibility that peat might be brought in by road transport for processing there.
Although the harvesting and transport of peat by narrow gauge railway seems to be nearing an end at Rühlermoor, the oil industry will still need to use the 900mm gauge railway for the maintenance of the oil well heads across the moors. This is due to a 5 tonne weight limit for road vehicles on the unstable moors so any heavy machinery must be moved by rail.

(Posted 09.02.2024 Source: Bart Donker)

Schöma locos 6120/2006 and 6119/2006 double heading a loaded train along Nordstrasse, the main east-west road in Rühlermoor on the way to Schöningshdorf Works on Südstrasse. Taken on the 24th May 2023 by Steve Thomason.

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Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways