A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 29. 2002-2003 (Debrecen, 2003)
Tanulmányok - Simonyi Alfonz: A Debrecen-gúti "Zsuzsi" vasút
320 Simonyi Alfonz: A Debrecen-Gúti „Zsuzsi” vasút half of the 19th century, the forests extending to the east from Debrecen also began to be utilized. However, this region, already belonging to the Nyírség, was interspersed with bodies of still and flowing water, which made the transportation of the large volume of wood (approximately 431,000 cubic meters per year) into Debrecen more and more difficult. The steam railroad reached the city of Debrecen in 1857, which gave rise to the idea of transporting this immense volume of wood by rail. The construction of the Debrecen-Nagykároly section of the North-East Railroad specifically inspired the proposal that this line should be used for the transportation of the wood produced from the forests east of the city. However, the owners of the private railroad did not agree to the task at that time. Then, around 1880, Henrik Berger set up a steam- driven sawmill in the Epreskert district of Debrecen, and therefore, he made a proposition to the city for the construction of a narrow gauge freight railroad line between Debrecen and the forests of Gut. Afterwards, it was not him, but two other entrepreneurs, Dávid Kopt and Gyula Steinberger who won the tender of the city for the construction of the line. The railway line, opened in 1882, was constructed with a gauge of 950 mm and tracks of 15 kg/m and lightly carved sleepers embedded in the sandy soil. In accordance with its license, the railroad was still used exclusively for carrying freight at that time. The entrepreneurs building and operating the railroad transported the wood produced to Debrecen for hire, and they always placed the temporary tracks to the part of the forest where the tree felling was taking place. Therefore, when the part of the forest situated south of the above-mentioned North-East Railroad line (Рас, Fancsika, Bánk) was worked, it was necessary to cross the lines of the two railroads. It was in this crossing that the country’s first, rigid iron reinforced concrete structure railway bridge was designed and constructed by Szilárd Zielinszki, the engineer who introduced the French ’’Hennebique” system in Hungary. The transportation costs of the forest railroad, however, placed such an increasing financial burden on the city, that the leaders of the city decided in 1902 to buy the railroad line from the entrepreneurs, which thus became city property and was renamed as “Debrecen Forest Railroad”. The city immediately set out to develop and extend the railroad line. As a result, in 1923, the railroad got a license for carrying a limited number of passengers also. Although suffering significant damage in World War II, the railroad line survived the war, and its tracks were extended in 1950 all the way to Nyírbéltek. The railroad line was nationalized, and operated from 1961 as the light railway line of MÁV, the Hungarian State Railways, while its tracks were modified to 1000 mm gauge. All the same, the closing of the line was eventually declared with reference to its uneconomical operation. The last train traveled on the almost 40 km long line, commonly referred to as the “Zsuzsi” Railroad, on 31 August, 1977.
