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Industrial railway of Tootsi/Lavassaare

At Tootsi (30 km north of Pärnu) the company "Tootsi Turvas" since 1937 produces briquettes of the peat found in the large swamps around. To get the peat from the digging area to the factory they operate a 750 mm industrial railway network, which also is the last leftover of the former large estonian narrow gauge network.
Since peat almost went out at Tootsi in the late 80s, they built a 20 km connecting line to the swamps near Lavassare where an identically gauged industrial network already existed. There is also a narrow gauge museum at Lavassare (I have not been there).
In former times larger parts of the network were electrified, nowadays electric locomotives are only used for shunting within of the factory area, the network itself is diesel-operated. They have at least three identical electrical locos, which are painted in blue, yellow and green.

The pictures document all those of the vehicles I found when I went there in August 1997, which could easily be photographed. There are several types missing, especially the newer diesel locos with the drivers cab in the middle, which are nowadays used for the traffic on the outer network including the trains to Lavassaare.
"Disclaimer": I don't know much more about this network - I really was surprised finding such an interesting railway system in such a small village in the middle of nowhere when I went there for some other reason :)

All shown photos from me are taken on 23.08.97 or 24.08.97. Photos and scans by David Jürgens .


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