Narrow Gauge Railways of Jindřichův Hradec

In the neighbourhood of the Southern Bohemian town Jindřichův Hradec you can find two narrow gauge railways. One of them heads south to Nová Bystřice near the Austrian border (the total lenght of the line is 33 km), the second heads north to Obrataň (46 km). The line to Nová Bystřice was completed and put into operation on 1 November 1897. The second branch is younger by nine years, because it was opened on 24 December 1906. At the beginning both lines were in private hands, but the train operation was provided by state railways at the owner’s expense. In 1924 both lines were nationalized and became a property of the state railways ČSD (and since 1993 ČD). In 1998 the line to Nová Bystřice and shortly after also the second line were hired to a private company Jindřichohradecké místní dráhy (The Local Railways of Jindřichův Hradec; JHMD). Then both lines including buildings, vehicles and other fixture of the railway were sold to JHMD for one Czech crown.