The Vychylovka Switchback Railway
Pecik / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Distance12 km return by draisine to Sedlo Beskyd
- Duration20 min by train · 90 min by draisine
- Best seasonDaily, 1 May–31 October
Introduction
Between 1915 and 1918 two forest railways were built into the hills of north-west Slovakia, one up the Kysuce side from Oščadnica to Chmúra, the other up the Orava side from Lokca to Erdútka. In 1926 they were joined across the ridge between them, and the 760 mm network that resulted, the Kysuce–Orava forest railway, grew to more than 110 kilometres, 61 of them main line, with branches laid and lifted as the felling moved on.
The join is the reason to come. Between Chmúra and the Beskyd saddle the line had to gain 217.69 metres in 1,500 metres as the crow flies, and it does it by switchbacks: the train runs forward into a dead-end spur, stops, and reverses up the next leg of the hillside, zig-zagging to the top. The Kysuce Museum, which owns it, says it is one of only two such switchback systems still preserved in Europe.
The railway closed at the end of 1971 and everything was lifted except the eight kilometres from Chmúra to Tanečník, kept for the switchbacks. The museum took its half over in 1974, has run passenger trains since 1995, and the line has been a national cultural monument since 1991.
The Journey
The railway begins at the Skanzen station inside the Museum of the Kysuce Village at Vychylovka, in the parish of Nová Bystrica, and the open-air museum and the line are one site: the track runs past the log farmsteads and the depot stands among them. There are two ways to ride it, and in 2026 they go to different places.
By train, to the first switchback
The regular train is a small diesel-hydraulic DH 120, built at Kladno in 1982 for the ironworks at Podbrezová and here since 1994, pulling an open excursion car of 48 seats. The museum's two excursion cars began life as tramcars, were rebuilt as passenger cars by the Považská forest railway, and were restored again in 1994 and 1999. The train climbs out of the station past the old junction at Chmúra and up to the first switchback, the start of the zig-zag, and returns; the ride takes about twenty minutes. In 2026 the museum ran it on a reduced timetable that goes no further.
The museum also owns steam. U34.901 was built by MÁV in Budapest in 1909, worked the Čierny Hron forest railway until 1975, and was bought by the museum that year for the price of its scrap; after an overhaul at Podbrezová it came to Vychylovka in 1977. In 2026 it was away under repair, and every train on the timetable was diesel.
By draisine, over the switchbacks to Sedlo Beskyd
To ride the whole climb, take the draisine V 760/2004, a light motor car for ten passengers. It runs from the Skanzen station over all the switchbacks to the station at Sedlo Beskyd, 935 metres up on the ridge between Kysuce and Orava, stops for fifteen minutes while passengers climb the wooden lookout tower, and comes back: twelve kilometres and ninety minutes in all, with views over both regions. It has to be booked by telephone, and it carries neither children under three nor dogs.
Beyond the saddle the track carries on down into Orava to Tanečník, the section run as the Orava Forest Railway by the Orava Museum.
Along the route
Michał Derela / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026 · croppedSkanzen station and the depot
Every train leaves from the station inside the village museum. The timber-framed depot beside it keeps the diesels, the draisine and the steam engines, and the excursion car seats 48.
Nils Öberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 2010 · croppedChmúra
The old junction in the Chmúra valley, where the Kysuce line ended and the connecting line of 1926 began its climb. In 2010 the frames of old log wagons still stood in the sidings.
Kysucké múzeum, collection H0532 / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · croppedThe first switchback
The train runs into a dead-end spur of about 210 metres, stops, and sets off again in reverse up the next leg of the hill. In 2026 this is where it turns back to the station.
Teslaton / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 · 2012 · croppedSedlo Beskyd
The saddle at 935 metres on the ridge between Kysuce and Orava, reached in 2026 only by draisine. It stops for fifteen minutes, long enough to climb the wooden lookout tower.A bit of history
Culture & experiences along the way
young shanahan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · 2020 · croppedThe village museum
The railway runs through the Museum of the Kysuce Village, begun in 1974 to save houses from Riečnica and Harvelka, two villages about to vanish under the new Nová Bystrica reservoir. Log farmsteads, shepherds' huts, a water mill and sawmill from Klubina and fields worked in the old three-field rotation fill the valley.
Janahuu / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 · croppedThe chapel from Zborov
The museum's one masonry building is a chapel from the first quarter of the nineteenth century, brought from Zborov nad Bystricou, with a cemetery of iron crosses beside it like those of Kysuce villages a century ago.
young shanahan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · 2020 · croppedKapustnica at the Krčma z Korne
The eight-room log inn from Korňa is the museum's restaurant, with the Bufet pri Depe by the station. On its Grandmothers' Kitchen Sundays the museum serves a slaughter-day kapustnica, the sauerkraut soup, alongside tlačenka and black pudding.Timetables
Both rides leave from and return to the Skanzen station in the Museum of the Kysuce Village. The season runs daily from 1 May to 31 October, and the departures are the same on weekdays and at weekends. The times below are the museum's own 2026 timetable, read on kysuckemuzeum.sk in October 2026.
Diesel train — to the first switchback and back
About twenty minutes, in an open excursion car of 48 seats. Prams and bicycles are not carried (there is somewhere to leave them at the station), and dogs travel only on a lead and muzzled.
| Leaves Skanzen |
|---|
| 09:30 |
| 10:30 |
| 11:30 |
| 13:00 |
| 14:00 |
| 15:00 |
| 16:00 |
Draisine — to Sedlo Beskyd and back
Ninety minutes over twelve kilometres, with a fifteen-minute stop at the top. Ten seats, so it must be booked in advance by telephone on +421 41 43 97 219; it cannot be booked online.
| Leaves Skanzen |
|---|
| 09:30 |
| 11:00 |
| 13:00 |
| 14:30 |
The museum around it
The village museum opens from 9:00 to 17:00 in May, June, September and October, and in July and August until 18:00 at weekends. Outside the season it opened on 6 December and 27–30 December 2026, from 10:00 to 15:00. Check the departures page on kysuckemuzeum.sk (opens in a new tab) before travelling: notices of changed running are posted there.
Tickets
The train and the museum are ticketed separately. A return on the diesel train costs €10.00; children of seven to fifteen, students up to 26 and over-60s pay €5.00, a child from three to six pays €2.50 for a seat, and under-threes on a lap ride free. A family of two adults with children pays €25.00 plus €2.50 for each child's seat. The draisine is €15.00 for everyone.
Train tickets are timed and valid only for the departure printed on them, so buy them early, online or at the station; the draisine is booked by phone. Entry to the village museum is €8.00, or €20.00 for a family. Cash and cards are taken. Prices from the museum's 2026 price lists, October 2026.
Book your tickets
Diesel train to the first switchback
€10.00 · €5.00 ages 7–15, students and over-60s
A timed return ticket for one departure, sold online or at the station.
Book Tickets (opens in a new tab, on kysuckemuzeum.sk)via kysuckemuzeum.skDraisine to Sedlo Beskyd
€15.00, all ages
Ninety minutes over all the switchbacks and back, ten seats, booked by phone only.
Book Tickets (opens in a new tab, on kysuckemuzeum.sk)via kysuckemuzeum.skVillage museum entry
€8.00 · €20.00 family
The open-air museum the railway runs through, ticketed separately from the train.
Book Tickets (opens in a new tab, on kysuckemuzeum.sk)via kysuckemuzeum.skRail Passes
No pass covers this railway. It is a museum ride, paid at the museum's own fares, and Interrail's railway-companies table, updated on 21 October 2026, names it in neither of its Slovak lists. The Oravská lesná železnica, the other half of the same switchback line, is listed by name among the trains not included in the pass in Slovakia.
Whether it is worth buying
Not for this. An Interrail or Eurail pass is valid on ZSSK's ordinary trains, including the main line through Čadca, the district town, so it is useful only if Vychylovka is one stop on a longer journey around Slovakia. For the railway itself, buy the €10.00 train ticket or book the draisine.
Places to Visit
The railway and the village museum fill most of a day, and the hills around them hold the rest: the other half of the switchback line on the Orava side, the reservoir that drowned the villages the museum rescued, the highest peak of the Kysuce Beskids and the museum's manor house down the valley.
Ingo Mehling / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2019 · croppedThe Orava Forest Railway at Tanečník
The other half of the switchback line climbs from the valley station at Tanečník, near Oravská Lesná, three kilometres up to the same saddle, run by the Orava Museum since 2008 with panoramic cars behind a diesel. The round trip takes about an hour and ten minutes. It closed for track repairs on 19 October 2026 until further notice, so check before going.
Vegetator / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 · croppedThe Nová Bystrica reservoir
Built between 1983 and 1989 on the Bystrica just below the museum, the reservoir holds 32.8 million cubic metres behind a rock-fill dam 57 metres high and supplies drinking water to most of Kysuce and part of Žilina. It drowned Riečnica and Harvelka, whose houses now stand in the museum. Fishing is banned; a 27.9 km cycle route runs round its edge.
Hornokysučan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2023 · croppedVeľká Rača
At 1,236 metres the highest peak of the Kysucké Beskydy sits on the Polish border in the Čadca district, its slopes a national nature reserve since 1976 for their remnants of near-primeval forest, with two small pseudokarst caves, the Malá and Veľká skalná diera. The easiest way up is the green trail from Dedovka above Oščadnica, about two hours, and the partly open summit looks out to the Krivánska Fatra and the Silesian Beskids.
Pavol.janis / Wikimedia Commons · Public domainThe manor house at Radoľa
A Renaissance manor near Kysucké Nové Mesto, first recorded in 1575 as the house of the Suňog family and rebuilt in 1658 with early baroque touches such as the sundials on its south-east front. Since 1983 it has housed exhibitions of the Kysuce Museum, the same museum that runs the railway, at the lower end of the Kysuca valley.Where to Sleep
Vychylovka is a museum in a forest valley rather than a village with hotels, so the place to look is around Čadca, the district town. The hotel below is in the Javorníky hills on the far side of Čadca, twelve kilometres out of town.
Where to stay
Hotel Severka
At Zákopčie, in the Javorníky
A mountain hotel of twelve rooms twelve kilometres from Čadca, with a restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, and a stream running through its grounds.
Check Availability (opens in a new tab, on hotelseverka.sk)via hotelseverka.skQuestions or corrections
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