Narrow gauge railways Bornia and Heidestein

In 1904, a sand-lime brick factory was established in 't Haagje, a hamlet at the entrance to the Bornia estate in Driebergen-Rijsenburg. Pure white sand was needed as raw material for this. This sand was excavated at the border of Bornia and Heidestein and transported to the factory in tipping carts via a 1 km long narrow-gauge railway. The factory went bankrupt in 1909. The narrow-gauge railway was then extended to a length of 5 km that ran across the entire estate. The materials of the garden railway consisted of a diesel locomotive, a passenger car, tipping carts, and flat wagons used for forestry. The owners and their guests could ride around the estate, where rattan chairs were placed in a special passenger car and on a flat wagon. The route led past large sand drifts. Along the narrow-gauge line, unique in the Netherlands, four small platforms were built, of which only the vertical walls are still visible today. This allowed passengers to get off in between and enjoy a picnic and the landscape. There was also a narrow-gauge railway for recreational purposes on the Heidestein estate. Both narrow-gauge railways were removed in the late 1950s.

Rieno ✅ Routes