At the beginning of the last century, Hungary was a paradise for narrow gauge railways. Almost all major farms or remote settlements were given a small railway to connect the people living there to the rest of the country. Many of these railways did not even have a fixed track and were often adapted to the actual requirement. In the large forested areas of the country, small logging railways served to transport the timber.
The developments after the Great War a hundred years ago cut off the motherland from most of the logging railways in the Carpathian Mountains, they were now neighbours, unfortunately most of them have already been closed and dismantled. In Slovakia, practically none remain, only a beautiful museum is operated on the rest of the huge Cierny Balog network. In Ukraine almost all small railways are still in operation, although they are no longer in a relationship with the original, they were quite “sovietised” in Soviet times. Even in Romania, smaller networks of the once extensive forest railways remained in operation.
In Hungary, however, the development took a completely different direction and more than twenty of the many small railways remained, and even new ones were built. They serve almost without exception for tourism purposes apart from one that will be discussed today. This is none other than Zalaerdö RT State Forest Railway, ÁEV, in
