In the north of Moravia, in the region of Jesenicko, you can find the only narrow gauge railway conducted by Czech Railways. The railway connects Tremesna in Silesia (linkage to usual railway from Krnov to Jesenik) with Osoblaha which lies near the border with Poland. It's 20,218 km long, since 1991 and the maximum speed is 40km/h (originally 30km/h.) Service is by diesel train seven times daily year round and in July and August there is one additional return steam train on Saturdays and Sundays.

Construction of narrow gauge railway with the gauge of 260 mm started in the spring 1898. Urged by Fulstejn's peasant and mayor Anton Seidel, who was elected to regional assembly in 1894 and in 1897 to Austrian imperial council, they started to built railway from Tremesna to Osoblaha in the middle of 90's. Already authorized (by imperial council), the gauge of the railway was changed to the current 760 mm. Some deputies of Osoblaha city (until 1945 Osoblaha had a status of a city) preferred a railway connection with Rasselwitz (today: Raclawice Slazski in Poland; however, in those days Prussia was beet-growing base for Osoblaha's sugar refinery because the beet wasn't grown at Osoblazsko and connection with Raclawice would be a chance to get to upper Silesian railway system).

Although the "Bohnla" became target of gibes, the narrow gauge railway proved its ability and it became a blessing for this fertile and economically well developed region. The railway was passed for operation on 12th December 1898 and on 14th December the regular public transport started. At first there were three pairs of mixed trains. For easier reloading, trailers for transport of usual gauge cars were used since the beginning. On 20th December 1898, the railway became property of CSD.

Quite long ride periods were successfully shorten with the arrival of new diesel trains in 1928. The railway survived Second World War without any major damage.

Arrival of new diesel engines type T 47 in year 1958 brought substantial change in the operation of this railway and later also new carriages were built which meant farewell to steam operation (16th December 1960) and also scrapping or preserving the original car fleet.

The government seriously considered abolition of this railway three times in post war period - at the end of the 50's, in 70's and last in 1985; its last reconstruction postponed this abolition sine die. But operation was then limited just to passenger transport. In 1997 Goods transport was limited to coal transport and now is totally canceled. The last big interference to the life of this railway was reconstruction of the permanent way which happened between years 1985-1988 and during which the old top was replaced with new top with rails type S 49, which are normally more used on standard gauge railways.

The railway fromn Olomouc-Krnov with branches to Opava and Jindrichov was put into operation in 1872. A year later, the railway was extended to Polish Glubczyce. Thanks to this, the villages all around started to develop quicker. Osoblaha needed connection with the railway because of the need to transport agricultural products and the sugar refinery needed transport of raw materials. Sugar refinery wanted a connection with railway Prudnik-Glubczyce, as it was just 4-6 km away.

After several years of bargaining and squabbling because of the border, a connection from Mesto Albrechtice to Osoblaha was approved. In June 1897 there was the last change of plan and the last adjustment of the connection of the railway in Tremesna because of finance. In January 1898 the definite version was approved and they started building immediately. Construction didn't take long time. Already on 14th December regular traffic started. Interestingly, the railway was conducted by Austrian state railways.

An increasing number of passengers was the reason of constructing a new railway building in Tremesna in 1898, but it was again rebuilt already in year 1915. In 1901 a whole station was enlarged and rebuilt because of more trains and passengers. Traffic on the railway was provided by 3 steam engines, type U, 4 carriages, 3 covered and 4 open wagons. They used 4 trailers for transport of standard gauge wagons. Trains were mixed, i.e. passenger coaches together with wagons on the same train.

In 1907 the mayors of local villages asked for reconstructing the railway to standard gauge and an extension to Polish Rasselwitz without success (financial reasons). In 1928 new motor cars M 11.0 from factory Tatra Koprivnice were bought. This resulted into dividing the trains into passenger trains and mixed trains. The passenger trains started to dominate thanks to its shorter ride periods.

After the occupation the transport was considerably adjusted. German carriages were brought, together with German trailers, journey times stayed the same and because of lack of oil and coal, the number of trains was reduced.

Surprisingly during the frontal fights the railway wasn't damaged too much. On the other hand, villages including Osoblaha were destroyed (almost 70%). The situation with cars was also bad. Engine cars burnt, steam engines were damaged. Traffic resumed on 28th October 1945. The traffic was increasing as the transport had to deal with new settlers.

Unfortunately, on 23rd August 1945 the traffic was aborted because of repeating malfunctions of the locomotives. Reopening of the railway started with goods transport and the passenger transport began on 1st December 1946 after transfer of engine car M 11.0 from Jindrichuv Hradec. In the winter of 1946/1947 the railway was the only connection with the rest of the country because there was so much snow that the roads were totally blocked. The whole supply of the Osoblazsky vybezek was ensured by the railway.

In the period from 1st June to 15th September 1947 the traffic was stopped and huge repairs of locomotives and railway took place in order to get ready for autumn. In January 1948 four new engine cars M 21.0 were delivered and after their initial problems the old M 11 were put out of operation in 1950. The original steam engines were stll working but they had more and more problems. In 1958, four diesel locomotives TU 47.0 were finally delivered and they still work until today as class 705.9. They renumbered the trains on 1st January 1988. German trailers were replaced by new type in 1965. Army carriages were used until 1966 when five new passenger trains Balm/u were delivered.

As the time passed running of steam engines was getting more and more problematic. From 1948 to June 1957 locomotive U 58.001 ("Bufan") from Frydlant was used here. Although it was the most productive, it wasn't used very often because it damaged the track owing to its axle weight. In June 1955 locomotive U 47.003 ("Maletka") was delivered from Jindrichuv Hradec. Since 1958 they were slowly replaced by engine locomotives type TU 47.0. The last ride of train with steam locomotive in regular traffic happened on 16th December 1960. The last one was already mentioned, Maletka - U 47.003. Since then the steam engines operate only on Saturdays and Sundays in July and August and this operation is by a private company Olpas Moravio s.r.o. based in Krnov. The daily diesel operation is by Ceske Drahy.

THE STATIONS