Rivnens’ka Dytiacha Zaliznytsia (Rivne Children’s Railway)
Rivne Children’s Railway is one of the eight railways of this type, which were preserved in Ukraine and are still functioning. The railway workers of the Railway Line Division No. 7 of the Kovel railways were responsible for the construction. The local inhabitants helped them to carry out the works. By the way, during the first few years of functioning this railway was called Mala Kovelska (Small Kovel Railway), then the name changed to Mala Rovenska (Small Rivne Railway), and nowadays it is Rivnens’ka Dytiacha Zaliznytsia (Rivne Children’s Railway).
Attraction for children.
In the centre of the city of Rivne, on the territory of Hydropark, along the Ustia River.
50.61961, 26.23867
1 km
On May 9, 1949, this narrow-gauge railway started working in Rivne for the first time and it is functioning until today. The total operational length of the tracks is 2.5 km; it is a dead end, starting from “Partyzanska” station (vul. Soborna) and ending with “Ozerna” station (vul. Basivkutska). It’s interesting that the railway personnel that serve passengers are children studying in the “Yunyi zaliznychnyk” railway club.
This phenomenon of children’s railways or pioneer railways was one of the trends, which originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times, particularly in 1930s. The idea of building children’s narrow-gauge railways swept across the USSR and the small copies of real railways appeared in almost every regional centre. However, the main idea was not related to entertaining children. For the huge territory of the USSR railway was an essential element of the infrastructure. Hence, the overall objective was organising extracurricular educational institutions, where teenagers interested in rail transport could learn railway professions and afterwards work on real railways.
Rivne Children’s Railway has worked on a continuous basis, almost without any breaks. There was just a short shut-down during the reconstructions for the 700th anniversary of the city, from 1980 till 1982.
Throughout the years of the Children’s Railway existence, 30,000 children have studied here, they have totally mastered 16 professions. Currently the crew uses TU2-137 locomotive, 2 Pafawag railroad cars, and 2 cargo platforms to transport passengers, so this railway can be seen as heritage railways.
Sources:
1. https://radiotrek.rv.ua/news/11_220971.html
2. http://retrorivne.com.ua/na-zelenij-vognik-do-rivnenskoi-ditjachoi-zaliznici/
- Number of Hillforts: - 3
- Number of Springs: - 3
- Number of Attractions: - 6
- Number of Monuments: - 2