Railway Embankment on Stara cesta Road

10 min.

To supply the Isonzo Front, a narrow-gauge military railway (Feldbahn) was built in 1916, with the point of departure at Logatec. This railway soon became insufficient for the daily delivery of 370 tons of goods to the front, so it was decided in November 1916 that a 25 kilometres long standard-gauge railway in three sections would be constructed:

1. Logatec–Kalce; 7 kilometres
2. Kalce–Hotedršica–Godovič; 8 kilometres
3. Godovič–Črni Vrh; 10 kilometres

The railway line was planned by Maks Klodič and laid out by land surveyor Leon Novak.
First, the drilling of tunnels at Logatec and Godovič was started as well as the construction of embankments and larger excavations. As many as 20,000 POWs of various nationalities were deployed along the railway line: Russians, Italians, Bosnians and others. Many locals also participated in the activities.
The section of the railway from Logatec to Kalce was the most time consuming and diifficult, mainly due to the connection to the Southern Railway (Vienna–Trieste). One of the problems in supplying the front from Logatec was its railway station that was too small. Therefore, the construction of a new military railway station was started at Pusto polje, which was planned to have 22 tracks and a large storage area for supplies. It was connected to the Southern Railway in the northern part of today’s industrial zone Zapolje, near Mali Raskovec, while the problem of connection to the existing railway station was solved with a large embankment, which in a large curve descended by means of a flyover junction over the Stara cesta road from the higher-lying railway to Logaško polje. From there, the line continues through the tunnel under Naklo.

Text/Photos: Renata Gutnik