South Sakhalin Railway

Sakhalin Railway was a subsidiary of the Russian Railways from 1992 until 2010, when it was made part of the Far Eastern Railway.HistoryThe Treaty of Portsmouth following the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 placed the northern half of Sakhalin under the control of the Russian Empire, whilst the southern half (Karafuto) was under control of Japan.On the Japanese half of the island, a 42.5km railway was built from Korsakov (大泊) to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (豊原), with a gauge of. This section was later converted to the normal Japanese railway gauge of.In 1911, a 53.9km branch was built from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Starodubskoye (Sakaehama). Between 1918 and 1921, the towns of Nevelsk (本斗), Kholmsk (真岡), Chekhov (野田) and Tomari (泊居) were also connected to the network. The Japanese railway network consisted of the Western Karafuto Railway from Naihoro (Gornozavodsk) to Tomarioru, and the Eastern Karafuto Railways from Otomari to Koton (Pobedino) until 1944. Its total length was over 700km.After the Second World War, control of the whole of the island passed to the Soviet Union, including the island's complete rail network and rolling stock. Wagons from the Soviet railways were re-gauged for use on the island. The locomotive factory in Lyudinovo produced diesel locomotives of the models TG16 and TG21 specifically for use on the island's narrow gauge network.