Karaganda Children's Railway

[3] On 22 August 1956, the Day of the Miner, several test runs were conducted on the originally only 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) long track, but regular use began only on 1 May 1957.

[1] In the era of steam locomotives the trains consisted of three light wooden carriages with a length of less than seven or eight metres each.

When the management of Ispat-Karmet (Испат-Кармет), the successor of the Karagandaer smelter (Карагандинский металлургический комбинат), which had their own locomotives and carriages, heard about the financial problems, they requested to re-animate the children's railway.

To increase the profit, a wedding train was introduced similar to that of the Qostanai Children's Railway (Кустанайской ДЖД).

In November 2001 most of the personnel of the children's railway was made redundant, and the director was given a position as security guard.

[2] In summer 2004 the railway was operated by adults, because it was not possible, to find enough sufficiently qualified youths, after years of stand-still.

During this time, the track was damaged by inappropriate construction work, when new pipelines were laid through the park, but in July 2007 both the track and the rolling stock had been repaired, and the service was re-instated by adults, although without the obligation to train youths to become future railway employees.

[1] Initially the trains were moved by the steam locomotive WP1-805-27, which had previously probably belonged to an industrial railway, according to the unusual number.