Traffic on the Kysuca – Orava Logging Railway

From the beginning of 1949 the management of the traffic has been divided into two parts: Oščadnica – Chmúra (KLR) and Chmúra – Lokca (OLR). The management of the KLR was seated in Stará Bystrica, whereas the managment of OLR was in Lokca at first, then – after rebuilding the steam saw-mill in Zákamenné to a steam house – it was moved to Zákamenné. Each management had its operation regulations. After the fusion of properties of both the railways, in 1949, the management of the whole KOLR was seated in Zákamenné.

The admissible maximum velocity was set at 12 kmph for the division Oščadnica – Chmúra, 8 kmph for the division Chmúra – Gontkula and 15 kmph for the division Gontkula – Lokca.

The bulk of timber transport: 142 121 m³ (1927), 160 000 m³ (1956), 83 531 m³ (1961), 53 407 m³ (1966).

The three-line station Chmúra was a station where the empty timber trucks were forwarded from Oščadnica in the direction of Orava and the loaded timber trucks from Orava backwards. To the first dead end the steam-engine reversed and pushed the empty timber trucks upwards, to the second dead end the engine tugged them, to the third dead end it pushed again and up to the Beskyd Pass the timber trucks were hauled. In the Beskyd Pass there was a two-line turnout enabling the engine to bypass the timber trucks heading then the train to Tanečník. In the opposite direction the train was driven in such a way that the engine was ranged in the middle of the loadad timber trucks. When needed, two steam engines were ranged at both ends of the train. The descent of a train weighing several tens of tons along such a difficult sloping track required a considerable dexterity of the whole train crew. In the dead-end part every timber truck was manned by a brake man operating a hand screw brake. The difficult operation conditions caused several serious accidents. In the last of them V. Grofčík from Zákamenné was killed. A cross commemorating the accident can still be found between the first and the second dead-end.

The dead-end part was constructed in such a way that the engine passed the longer divisions with the stack against the slope. Thus the time was minimalized when the engin went stack down and the boiler with a lower level of water could be damaged owing to an unfavorable tilt of the engine.