Amrum

Amrum possessed a 900mm gauge railway from 1893 to 1939, a bare 46 years. It was the shortest-lived of all the island lines despite having great potential: It had a wide reaching network, and the roads on the island were very poor quality for many years so the railway carried out the local transport tasks for the island. For two years it even used electrical power with railcars.

Misadministration and difficult circumstances meant that the railway almost never functioned to the satisfaction of the Islanders. Several owners tried their fortune on the ailing railway until a metalled road was built on the island before the Second World War making the expensive railway superfluous. Despite this, by the people of Amrum have never forgotten their little railway.