600 mm - gauge From : Ed Baltrusch Information gathered from various sources and summed up here: This gauge was mainly found in France, Germany in the late 1800's/early 1900's and in the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. Their main purpose was military transports. Military officials very soon recognized the importance of small, but effective railroads for their purposes. This goes especially for the French who might well be called the inventor of 600 mm-gauge. Messrs. Décauville mainly built their railway lines in the VOIE DECAUVILLE. The first ever Mallets had been built for 600 mm and were exposed at the World Fair 1889 in Paris, France. The gauge of 600 mm was also found in Africa; especially in the former German colonies: 1897 the cattle-plague broke out in German-Southwest-Africa. Due to this disease most of the oxen needed to drag the heavy covered wagons died and the officials started to build a light railway line to Windhuk in September the same year. It reached this town 1902, which is a reasonable building speed for a distance of 382 kilometers. In the first years already 30,000 metric tons of goods were handled. 1904 the rebellion of the Hereros began and it was not until 1906 before this battle was ended. At that time, the railway contributed very much to the transport of the then German troops. At the same time the privately owned Otavi Railway was from Otavi to the mines of Tsumeb. During WWI the railway was converted to cape-gauge(1,067 mm). Up to the beginning of this conversion, the overall length of the German 600-mm gauge railway in Soutwest-Africa reached approx. 1,055 kilometers. South Africa The South African Railway & Harbours owns and still runs a net of nearly 800 miles (or 1300 kilometers) in this gauge. Compared to the other mainlines in Kap-gauge (1,067 mm), this gauge is very narrow; the reason for this having been very low budgets and not difficult landscape as one might think. The railway serves mainly the fruit companies and fruit farmers. At harvest time, very long and heavy trains are rolling; loaded with the world-famous Granny-Smith apples. Locos hauling these trains are mainly huge Beyer-Garratt locomotives ( 4-6-2 + 2-6-4) and heavy locos of the locomotive-works Franco-Belge (2 8-2). India The Darjeeling Railways obviously are not at all aware of personnel related problems. To operate one steam-loco, a crew of 6 men is required: 2 are riding on the front boiler-platform. Their duty is to sand the rails. 1 is the engineer 1 shovels coal which is chopped to handy pieces by another 2 men riding the tender. There are still steam locos running on this railway line. As far as my records go this is the only 2'-railway line left in India. Colorado,USA The Gilpin Tramway (running from 1887 to 1917) connected the miner cities Black Hawk and Central City ( 26 miles). This railway transported gold-ore and gold-bars only. The smallest "Shay"-class ever having been built ran on this railway. Germany Most German narrow gauge railways were built in 750 mm gauge. This equivalents to 2.27 feet if my calculation is right. They have mainly been built in the counties of Schwaben (nowadays Baden-Wurthemberg), Saxony, Prussia, Pommern (today part of Poland) and Mecklenburg. In the east German counties like parts of Prussia, Pommern, and Mecklenburg this gauge had been chosen for economic reasons. In Saxony, hills and very narrow curves made this gauge the preferred choice. While Mallet-class locos ran in Schwaben (South-Germany), Meyer-class locos ran in Saxony. Nearly all railway lines were built and managed by private investors and served local interests. Most of them were closed after World War 2 due to the rising competition by automobiles. Some lines were taken over by the stately owned railway companies: the "Deutsche Bundesbahn" in western Germany and the "Deutsche Reichsbahn" in eastern Germany. Due to the fact that the state railways also started to think more economically, more and more of the narrow gauge lines were closed. So, trains like the "Fiery Elias","Duck Hunter", or the "Puffy" disappeared from the railway scene and exist only as photos in the railway archives. The most famous narrow gauge line left is the "Zoje" called line from Mügeln to Oschatz in Saxony. It runs through a lovely landscape and, although it was closed down for a couple of months, is in complete running order again. It serves many small industries and even started passenger service again! This concludes my excursion to narrow gauge railways. It is certainly not comprehensive but then I don't claim to be a railway history specialist . Erhard Baltrusch