Štrbské Pleso - Štrba rack railway
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The Štrbské Pleso–Štrba rack railway is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge narrow-gauge railway in the High Tatras. It was built in 1896 and reconstructed in 1970. At the valley terminus (Štrba railway station), it connects to the standard-gauge main line between Bratislava and Košice, and at the mountain terminus (Štrbské Pleso railway station), it connects to the Tatra Electric Railway.
With the completion of the Košice–Bohumín Railway in 1871, the High Tatras received their first railway connection. Tourism to Štrbské pleso arising from this led to the opening of hotels, footpaths and mountain huts.
Under the management of Emil Várnai, the Košice–Bohumín Railway developed plans for a metre-gauge rack railway connecting Štrbské pleso to the station at Štrba. On 30 July 1895 the railway received a concession from the Hungarian Trade Ministry. Building began quickly and the railway opened on 30 July 1896. The Košice–Bohumín Railway founded the Csorbatói Fogaskerekű Vasút (Slovak: Ozubnicová železnica Štrbského plesa, English: Štrbské Pleso Rack Railway) to operate the railway. The line was only operated during the summer season between June and September and in winter for the ski season. For more than six months of the year there was no traffic.
From the 1920s there was strong competition from motor transport and the railway was no longer profitable. In 1924 the railway (together with the Košice–Bohumín Railway) was taken over by the Czechoslovak State Railways. The Tatranská elektrická vicinálna dráha (TEVD) was founded in 1927 to operate the Tatra Electric Railway but refused to take over the old and inefficient rack railway.
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Wikipedia