Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways

Archive News

CURRENT NEWS (2025)
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: May 2025

Westermoor/Küstenkanal Region;

Surwold Baustoffwerke (750mm gauge) The sand railway here was noted to be in normal use with the first train leaving the works at 8.15 am.

Griendstveen, Esterwegen (900mm) situated by the Küsten Kanal has ceased, with the tipper disused and empty peat wagons scattered around. Some locos were still present. The remaining peat they have in the Westermoor is now transported out by Klasmann-Deilmann to their Sedelsberg works.

3 of the older locos at Klasmann-Deilmann Vehnemoor standing on the last remains of the track leading the the workshops. Seen in May 2025.

Klasmann-Deilmann Sedelsberg (600mm gauge) do not appear to have any peat left in their own fields. Besides the peat from the Griendtsveen fields going to Sedelsberg, there is peat coming in by ship. This is loaded in lorries and taken to the Klasmann-Deilmann unloading point beside the Küsten Kanal at the B401. Here the peat is loaded in narrow gauge wagons and transported back to the works at Sedelsberg. This unique situation will continue for maybe 12 months until the equipment can be changed to allow lorries to be tipped in the yard. This process was not observed on the visit so it is not clear how frequent this is.

Griendtsveen Scharrel, Brinkmann Torfwerk (600mm) was seen to be working normally and their concession appears to be valid for another 4 years.

Werner Koch Ramsloh, Moorkultur Ramsloh (600mm gauge) was confirmed to be working as usual.

Klasmann-Deilmann Edewechterdamm, Werk Vehnemoor, (900mm gauge) This site was confirmed as ceased. By May all the track had been taken up right up to the workshops where a few yards still remained with some locos that had not found new homes yet. During the visit peat wagons were observed being cut up for scrap.

Griendtsveen Edewechterdamm (900mm gauge) This works should be in use for a further 6 years or more and some modernisation has taken place at the unloading yard. A trio of locos from Klasmann-Deilmann are now in use here, allowing trains of 20 wagons to be operated. Harvesting is being carried out in a former Klasmann-Deilmann field, south east of Husbäke. Peat is unloaded in the works and is still loaded directly into the Küsten Kanal barges. The railway was found not to be in daily use and may be dependent on when the barges arrive which in the past has been on a couple of specific days of the week.

In the above photo the ex-Klasmann-Deilmann locos are seen in use at Griendtsveen Edewechterdamm hauling a loaded train off the moors.

(Posted 05.06.2025 Source: Bart Donker)

GERMANY: May 2025

Rühlermoor Region;

Klasmann-Deilmann, Schöninghsdorf; (900mm gauge) In the northern part of Rühlermoor, there was a small pile of peat left in one field along Nordstrasse 1. Besides these leftovers (just a few trainloads), the peat transport here has finished. The last peat in the oilfields south of the main road was transported in May 2024 and the tracks have all been lifted.

The field to the west of the Schöninghsdorf works is still operational but there is only one big ridge of peat on the northern edge of the field, and the rest of this field is already starting to flood. Locos 8 and 9 have been sold to the oil company of Neptune (previously Gas de France) working on the oil fields. They are repainted in the standard light grey livery and have the numbers 33 (ex 8) and 34 (ex 9).

In May 2025 the rebuilt Schöma No.22 stands by one of the oil wellheads in Rühlermoor.

The Rühlermoor Loco No.22 which was the last loco in green livery is now broken up. The frame, cab, and hood are in the workshops. It had a problem with the axles and since there were no parts available, the company took the disused loco 21 and rebuilt it with parts of loco 22. Bearing in mind how this loco has been rebuilt, it is surprising that it now has the number 22 (See photo left) and the Schöma builders plate of the original loco 22 in its cab.

(Posted 05.06.2025 Source: Bart Donker)

DENMARK: May 2025

Østerbygaard Trout farm
(Gauge: 600mm)

The line running east from the shewd now disused.

Østerbygaard Dambrug was reported last year as one of possibly two fish farm railways still in use in Denmark. When visited on the 13th May it was found that some of the track had now fallen out of use but the site was still operating. The track to the east of the main buildings is now out of use, but the tracks and fish ponds to the west of the main shed are still working. A couple of the Grimstrup trolleys have been abandonned, but at least one is still working.

(Posted 18.05.2025 Source: Nils-Peter Morley)

One of the trolleys still in use when seen on May 13th 2025.

GERMANY: March 2025

Heemsen-Lichtenmoor, Stender
(Gauge: 750mm)

In June 2003, the 4 elderly Schöma locos were still hard at work. Schöma 881 seen above was built in 1947 and was performing daily line duties, seen here hauling a full train back along the picturesque roadside route.

At Heemsen near Nienburg, the area of Lichtenmoor had two railways operating to transport peat. The 600mm railway operated by Karl Meiners closed down in 2021. However, most of the railway infrastructure is still present even after 4 years out of use.
The second works currently managed by Stender (previously owned by Euflor) uses a 750mm gauge railway. Regular peat trains had stopped towards the end of last year as the works slowly wound up its operations. There were still the remains of a final peat stockpile that needed clearing next to the end of the main line. The final journey to the moors to clear this peat was made on Thursday the 6th March. The usual line loco Schöma 5911 from 2004 was used with the standard rake of metal bodied peat wagons. Schöma 1005 (1948) was also attached to help with the shunting on the moors. It apparently just took one trip to clear the remaining peat, and that represented the end of peat transport on Lichtenmoor.
In the short term the 750mm line will still be used occasionally to take fuel for machinery on the moors that will be used to carry out restoration work. After this the rails will be taken up and the old peat processing buildings will be demolished. Only two locos are currently on site now and these along with the previous 3 Schöma locos will all be finding new homes.

(Posted 18.03.2025 Source: Christoph Leiter)

In May 2010, the new Schöma seen above had been at the site for 6 years, and the older timber wagons were still in use. The train is negotiating the 90 degree turn onto the straight run to the moors along the moor road. At this point behind the camera there were still old rails in place from many years previously when the line took a different route to the moors.

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Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways