The Upper Silesian Narrow Gauge Railway

For most of its life the Upper Silesian Narrow Gauge Railway had very little use for passengers. Its first lines opened in 1853 to move coal, zinc and lead ore, dolomite and mine waste between the works of Upper Silesia on 785-millimetre track. By the end of the century it reached almost every important mine, smelter and quarry in the region, and even a hospital at Piekary Śląskie had its own siding. In 1955 it carried more than six million tonnes over 233 kilometres of line.

Passengers came late. A separate line from Gliwice to Racibórz carried them until the early 1990s, but the rest of the network scarcely ever did. Trial tourist trains between Bytom and the Nakło-Chechło reservoir ran in the 1970s and were dropped. They returned in 1993 and have run every summer since, and for eight years they shared the track with the last freight, which stopped in May 2001.

Now passengers are all the line carries. Twenty-one kilometres remain, from Bytom through Tarnowskie Góry to Miasteczko Śląskie, owned by those three towns since April 2002 and run by an association of enthusiasts. In 2025 they carried 29,961 people. The association calls this Poland's oldest narrow-gauge railway and the second oldest in Europe after the Ffestiniog in Wales; its home page goes further and claims the oldest in continuous operation anywhere, which the Ffestiniog's closure from 1946 to 1955 leaves room for.

Trains start at Bytom Wąskotorowy, on the Zabrzańska street side of the main station, timed to connect with Koleje Śląskie trains. Within minutes the three chimneys of the Szombierki power station stand over the line, and the train reaches Bytom Karb, the depot and yard that hold the railway's locomotives and workshops, then runs on along the edge of the city to Sucha Góra.

Through the mining country

North of Sucha Góra the line crosses the old mining land between Bytom and Tarnowskie Góry, with the beech woods of the Segiet reserve not far off, to Kopalnia Srebra, a platform seven minutes' walk from the UNESCO-listed silver mine. Tarnowskie Góry Wąskotorowe is beside the Blachnicki roundabout, on the edge of the town.

On summer trains the journey continues through pine and birch to Lasowice Zalew and Miasteczko Śląskie Zalew, about five minutes' walk from the Nakło-Chechło reservoir. The line ends at Miasteczko Śląskie Wąskotorowe, rebuilt in 2024–25 with two platforms, three tracks and a place to service a steam engine. The whole journey takes about an hour and ten minutes.

A frontier across the tracks

The 1922 division of Upper Silesia ran the Polish-German border through the network in several places. The management, the workshops and the main junctions stayed in Bytom, on the German side, so Poland built new lines between 1925 and 1930 to get around it. The railway now stages a border check at the old frontier one day each September, with customs men and smugglers, on trains between Bytom Karb and Sucha Góra.

Locomotives and coaches

Most trains are hauled by a red Lxd2, a Romanian-built FAUR diesel of a class bought in the late 1960s and 1970s to replace the heavy steam tank engines. Behind it come open summer coaches or closed ones with windows and heating, and the railway also keeps a saloon coach of 1912.

Selected trains are steam-hauled by Ryś (the name means lynx), built in 1950 and numbered 2002 on the cab side as TKb 27. Its cab still carries the name of the Szopienice zinc works in Katowice, where it spent its working life. The association and the city of Bytom bought it in 2019 and had it restored by the end of 2021. It is small, and limited to short trains. The last of the big Tw47 "Bytom" tank engines, built at Chrzanów for this railway and retired in the late 1970s, is being rebuilt at Bytom Karb; it was taken apart in 2024 and its boiler work was funded in October 2026.

The 2026 season ran from 1 May to 25 October. Trains ran on weekends and holidays in spring, between Bytom and Tarnowskie Góry. The whole line to Miasteczko Śląskie was open from 20 June to 13 September, with extra trains on Fridays in July and August. From 27 September to 25 October trains ran on Sundays only, as far as Tarnowskie Góry. Selected trains are hauled by the steam engine.

Summer weekends

A short working also leaves Bytom Wąskotorowy at 14:45 for Bytom Karb and returns from Karb at 16:10. On summer Fridays the through train left Bytom at 10:45, reached Miasteczko Śląskie at 11:55 and came back at 13:30, reaching Bytom at 14:40. Szombierki Elektrownia and Dąbrowa Miejska are request stops. Bicycles are not carried on the short Bytom Karb to Tarnowskie Góry trains.

Times are the operator's summer 2025 timetable, the last full one we could read. The operator adjusted some 2026 departures and has since taken that timetable down, so treat these as the pattern. As of November 2026 scheduled trains have ended for the year and the 2027 timetable (opens in a new tab) is not yet published. A New Year's Eve special is planned. The railway answers on +48 666 904 142, in English on +44 7907 766 712.

Getting to Bytom

Bytom Wąskotorowy is next to Bytom's main station, served by Koleje Śląskie lines S8 and S18, and the narrow-gauge trains to and from it are timed to connect with them. Bytom Karb is at the end of ul. Reja.

Tickets are bought on board from the train crew; the railway has no advance or online sale for scheduled trains. Fares go by zone: the whole line costs 32 zł one way, either half 27 zł, and the short hops into Bytom or Tarnowskie Góry 10 zł. Children under 4 travel free, and statutory Polish reductions apply on production of the usual documents.

Adults travelling with a child under 7 or a student pay 15% less. From the railway's fare page, as of November 2026. Special events have their own prices.

No rail pass covers this railway. Interrail's table of railway companies lists PKP Intercity, POLREGIO and the regional operators for Poland, and no narrow-gauge line. Everyone pays the fare on board.

A pass can get you to the start. Koleje Śląskie regional trains to Bytom are covered by a Global Pass or a Poland Pass, with no reservation needed.

For this trip alone a pass is not worth buying: the whole line costs 32 zł. It pays only as part of a longer journey through Poland or beyond.

Checked November 2026 against Interrail's table of railway companies (opens in a new tab), last updated 21 October 2026, and the railway's fares (opens in a new tab).

The railway was built for this region's industry, and much of what is worth stopping for was left behind by it: a silver mine, a drowned sand pit, and two old market towns at either end of the ride.

Tarnowskie Góry is the handier base for the mine and the northern half of the line; Bytom suits the first train out of the depot.

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