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The Czech Republic formerly had a large number of narrow-gauge railways. Apart from the public lines listed below, there were many non-public industrial, forest and agricultural narrow-gauge systems; only a few of these are still running.
A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
Transport in Slovakia is possible by rail, road, air, or rivers. Slovakia is a developed Central European country with a well-developed rail network (3,662 km) and a highway system (854 km). The main international airport is the M. R. Štefánik Airport in the capital, Bratislava. The most important waterway is the river Danube used by passenger, cargo, and freight ships. The two most important harbours in Slovakia is Komarno harbour and Bratislava harbour.
Transport in Spain is characterised by an extensive network of roads, railways, rapid transit, air routes, and ports. Its geographic location makes it an important link between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Major forms of transit generally radiate from the capital, Madrid, located in the centre of the country, to link with the capitals of the autonomous communities.
In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to carry railway vehicles with wheels matched to two different gauges. Such track is described as dual gauge – achieved either by addition of a third rail, if it will fit, or by two additional rails. Dual-gauge tracks are more expensive to configure with signals and sidings, and to maintain, than two separate single-gauge tracks. It is therefore usual to build dual-gauge or other multi-gauge tracks only when necessitated by lack of space or when tracks of two different gauges meet in marshalling yards or passenger stations. Dual-gauge tracks are by far the most common configuration, but triple-gauge tracks have been built in some situations.
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, leading to passengers having to change trains and freight requiring transloading or transshipping; this can add delays, costs, and inconvenience to travel on such a route.
Railways with a railway track gauge of 5 ft first appeared in the United Kingdom and the United States. This gauge became commonly known as "Russian gauge", because the government of the Russian Empire chose it in 1843. Former areas and states of the Empire have inherited this standard. However in 1970, Soviet Railways re-defined the gauge as 1,520 mm.
The gauge for the most of the China national railway network is standard gauge. Currently, in the national railway network, only the 1,000 mmmetre gauge Kunming–Haiphong railway uses narrow gauge. In addition, there are some industrial lines still using narrow gauge, mostly 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge or 600 mm narrow gauge. As of 2003, 600+ km narrow-gauge railways, 50000+ km standard gauge railways, and 9.4 km broad gauge railways were in use in mainland China.
Rail transport in Montenegro is operated by four separate companies, which independently handle railway infrastructure, passenger transport, cargo transport and maintenance of the rolling stock. The four companies were a part of public company Railways of Montenegro until it was split up in 2008.
Rail transport in Slovakia began on September 21, 1840, with the opening of the first horse-powered line from Bratislava to Svätý Jur. The first steam-powered line, from Bratislava to Vienna, opened on August 20, 1848.
Jindřichohradecké místní dráhy is the company which operates the narrow gauge railway lines from Jindřichův Hradec to Nová Bystřice and Obrataň in the Czech Republic. Both lines are 760 mm gauge.
The DB Class V 51 and DB Class V 52 are classes of almost identical narrow gauge 4 axle diesel hydraulic locomotives built in 1964 for the Deutsche Bundesbahn, being built for 750 mm and 1,000 mm gauge lines respectively.
Steam traction was the predominant form of motive power used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn on its narrow-gauge railways. For certain duties diesel locomotives were also used, albeit these were usually second-hand or rebuilt engines.
Bosnian-gauge railways are railways with track gauge of 760 mm. These were found extensively in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as a standardised form of narrow gauge. The name is also used for lines of the same gauge outside Bosnia, for example in Austria. Similar track gauges are the 2 ft 6 in and 750 mm gauge.
Historically, Italy had two unusual dominant track gauges which were legally defined depending on the terrain encountered. The gauge of 1,445 mm was used for the national Italian rail network and was very similar to the 1,435 mm standard gauge commonly used elsewhere in the world.
From the 19th into the early 20th there were many 600 mm and 760 mm gauge railways in existence Bulgaria, some were dismantled and others were converted to standard gauge.
The first railway in Austria was the narrow-gauge line from Gmunden in the Salzkammergut to Budweis, now in the Czech Republic, this was 1,106 mm gauge. Some two dozen lines were built in 760 mm gauge, a few in 1,000 mmmetre gauge gauge. The first was the Steyrtalbahn. Others were built by provincial governments, some lines are still in common carrier use and a number of others are preservation projects. The tramway network in Innsbruck is also metre gauge; in Linz the rather unusual gauge of 900 mm is in use.
Most narrow-gauge railways in Italy were built with Italian metre gauge, which is actually 950 mm because historically the Italian track gauge was defined from the centres of the rail instead of the internationally accepted method of measuring the gauge from the inside edges of the rails. Several metre-gauge lines were built in northern Italy.
Most Slovenian railway lines were built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Europe inherited a diversity of rail gauges. Extensive narrow-gauge railway networks exist in Spain, Central Europe and Southeastern Europe.
Metre and 3 ft gauge lines are found in South America. Some of the 1,000 mm gauge lines cross international borders, though not as efficiently as they might.
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