© Slovak Post, 2005 In the first half of the last century, narrow-gauge forest railway lines were the typical forest transport in Slovakia. These railways were built at the beginning of the 20th century with a view to replacing the obsolete transportation of wood by water, and to secure the fast and reliable transportation of wood from the forests to places where it was further processed or to state railways stations from where the wood was transported to customers. The Kysuce-Orava forest railway was one of the most significant and largest forest railways in Slovakia. This railway, with a gauge of 760 mm, was built in 1926 by connecting two independent forest railways, the Kysuce railway, leading from Oščadnica to the Chmúra valley, and the Orava railway leading from Lokca to Erdútka (present Oravská Lesná). The original railway length of 110 km in 1927 was later reduced by the gradual shortening of its branch lines and the shutting-down of its track. The railway was steam-driven, using steam engines made by MÁV, Henschel, Krauss and the ČKD locomotive works. At that time, flat timber rolling-stock was mostly used for the transportation of long lumber. This forest railway is unique due to its terrain system. When crossing the Beskyd saddleback, the railway had to overcome a gradient of 218 m over about 1,500 m (in a straight line). The railway designer solved this problem by locating 3 terrain stations on the line, whilst the Chmúra station forms one of them. The highest point of the track is located on the Beskyd saddleback. This railway is the only preserved narrow-gauge railway system in Europe. For this reason, the section Chmúra - Tanečník was listed as a significant technical monument in 1972, after the railway as such was closed down. The railway is currently operated over an approximately 3,6 km long section, and is known as the Vychylovka historical narrow-gauge forest railway. This is part of the exhibition of the Kysuce Village Museum, a section of the Kysuce Museum in Čadca. The stamp shows the 1909 U 34.901 steam engine, one of the oldest narrow-gauge steam engines in Slovakia, which was used to pull timber carriages loaded with lumber. The FDC shows a view of part of the railway track with a steam engine and carriages loaded with wood. Jozef Strišš