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Light railways used on construction sites experienced their first heydays in Europe between the end of the 19th century and WW-I during the major construction projects of the national railroad networks.
Already around 1870 the building-contractor Polensky & Zoellner made use of locomotives on silesian railroad construction-sites. At least one 0-4-0T locomotive is known. During construction of the bavarian "Ludwigs-Nord-Sued-Bahn" in 1853 a cut near Harbatzhofen, between Lindau and Kempten, had to be constructed. During this project a light railway with man-powered wooden dump-cars was used to move the huge amounts of earth.
To faciliate the often tremendous earth work needed especially in mountainous regions, extensive constructions were necessary to transport workers, soil, and construction material to and from the construction-site. Some of these former construction-railroad routes still serve today as trails.
In 1888 light railways also were used on the construction of the "Nord-Ostsee-Kanal". The newly developed steel tip-cars were used here for the first time, and their higher capacity and durability proved to be advantageous over the cheaper wooden dump-cars when employed in greater earth-moving projects.
During the construction of the high-bridge near Hochdorn, Germany, in 1913 light railways were used to transport a total of 5,320,000 m³ (4,067,000 cu.yd.) Earth and 16,500 m³ (12,600 cu.yd.) concrete. From 1927 to 1932 the Mittelland-Kanal was constructed in Germany using light railways to move 12,000,000 m³ (9,174,000 cu.yd.) earth.
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Tunnel-construction was and is up to nowadays a typical operation of light rialways. One example is a tunnel. that was constructed between Stuttgart and the Bodensee in a water-supply project in the sixties. More recent is the tunnel construction-site near Frutigen in Switzerland, where a light railway is used in the year 1997 to aid in this construction within the major swiss project BAHN 2000 (RAILROAD 2000).
All photos on this page are taken at this tunnel-site, and have been kindly submitted by Mr Johan de Reuver from The Netherlands.
A revival of light railways after WW-I started with the construction of the german state-highways in the thirties. The construction of these highways was positively decided on by passing a law about the foundation of an "Operation State Highway" on June 27th 1933. This state-owned enterprise had no economical restrictions, since it followed mostly military goals under the guise of national economic assistance. So the contractors could make use of technical equipment like light railways and human workers from the state-labour-service in any extend they wanted, without consideration for costs. The light railways were not only employed in construction and transportation of supplies, earth etc., but also were used in some cases to carry the workers several miles from home to work and back.
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Any major construction project up to the end of WW-II required the aid of light railways.
For example the construction of the power stations (1919 to 1930) at Ismaning and Finsing, both in the vicinity of Munic, would have been unconceivable without the use of light railways. Alone to carry the workers at the Finsing-site, a 19 km (12 mi.) long 600 mm gauge (23-5/8" ga.) line was constructed between a tram-stop at Munic and the construction site. During construction, between 1920 and 1924, this line carried a total of 2.47 million passengers, making 700 persons daily in either direction.
A last, but often overlooked field of operation for construction railroads, are extensiv archaeological diggings. For example the diggings at the "Fuerstenhuegel Hohmichele" man-powered tip-cars were utilized. The diggings at "Feddersen Wierde" near Bremerhaven were so extensive that they even used diesel locomotives.
After the end of WW-II the construction-railroads first were used as so-called "ruins-railways" to clean up the bombed cities. The fast developement of trucks and construction machinery that started in the sixties replaced more and more light railways, so they are nearly unknown today.
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