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Chemin de Fer Moudania Brousse

The new Bursa metro revives the memory of the ill fated "Chemin de Fer Moudania Brousse", a narrow gauge line that once existed in Bursa.

The following text about the Bursa Mudanya Railway is quoted from "Steam in Turkey" by E.Talbot:

This short line was another project initiated by the Ottoman Government in the 1870s in an attempt to establish railways without granting concessions to foreign companies. On 14th August 1871 the government authorised the construction of a railway from Mudanya, a port on the Sea of Marmara, across the fertile coastal plain to the provincial capital of Bursa. Later, the concession was extended to Bozüyük. The construction work was at first undertaken by the government itself but was frequently held up for lack of capital; in 1874 it was taken over by two French contractors who pushed the line forward and reached Bursa, a distance of 26 miles, the following year. The extension to Bözüyük, 31 miles west of Eskisehir and later a station on the CFOA, was never built, and the completed section remained unopened. It is alleged that the locomotives were of the wrong gauge and that the track was badly laid and distorted by frost during the severe winter. The Yorkshire Engine Company 0-6-Os delivered to this line were apparently 1100 mm gauge, but what the original gauge of the line was, if it was different from this, is not known.

However that may be, on 2nd January 1891 George Nagelmackers paid £27,000 for the existing track and materials, and undertook to open the line. In August he formed the Chemin de fer de Moudania-Brousse, the Société des Batignolles rebuilt the line to a gauge of one metre and on 17 July 1892 it opened. If the CFOA had used its concession to build a branch to Bursa, the Mudanya-Bursa Railway might have been more prosperous; but as things were, it was never more than a barely profitable local railway.

It was taken over by the TCDD in 1932 and was closed by 1948.

Line

This 42 km line ran from the Mudanya harbor where the train offered direct connection with the boat from Istanbul. Less than a kilometer after the Mudanya, the line made a sharp turn to the right, leaving the seaside, to start climbing the hills. The summit is reached at kilometer point 11, shortly after Yörükali station, at an altitude of 217 meters. Then the lines goes down for another 10km to the Nilüfer river valley. Both the climb and the descent have an almost constant incline of 2% achieved thanks to several meanders along the hills contour lines. At the bottom of the descent, there was a station known as Koru which was about midway along the line. This station did not seem to serve any meaningful village, but was needed to provide water to the locomotives. From Koru, the landscape if fairly flat all the way to Bursa. The line crossed the Nilüfer river twice: once shortly before Koru, and a second time before the station of Çekirge. After Çekirge, the line reached Mudanye station, now known as Merinos station. This station was closer to the historic monuments of Bursa that the terminal station which was past the Eski Gemlik Yolu, to the east of the city at the time. The line stopped short of crossing the Gökdere river. It is said the terminus location on the northern edge of city was conveniently chosen to extend the line towards Bözüyük, where it could provide a connection to the Istanbul Ankara line. In reality, Bözüyük is 100km away, at an altitude of about 900m on the Anatolian plateau. This was beyond reach for the modest Chemin de Fer Moudania Brousse.

1911, "De Paris à Constantinople, les Guides Bleus" Hachette This map is showing the Mudanya Bursa line	1911, "De Paris à Constantinople, les Guides Bleus" Hachette This maps shows the location of the terminal station.
1C meter gauge engine for Bursa Mudanya line	A tentative map showing where the line would be on a modern background
Koru station during contrustion	Portrait of loco n°6 and crew
First bridge over the Nilüfer river, shortly before Koru station	Second bridge over the Nilüfer river,
Inaugural train in 1892 with what apears to be a Yorkshire Engine Company locomotive. The car is mixed 1st and 2nd class.	This picture is most likely taken at the passing siding near the line summit, at Yörükali station.
A train with open sided car, in a tram like fashion.	A glimpse of freight traffic, Mudanya station is visible on the left

The Bursaray is a distant relative of the Moudania-Brousse Railway. Since 1948, Bursa grew very much and increased its position as one of Turkey most industrial city. the Moudania-Brousse Railway which would have been in the countryside at the time, would be now in a densely urbanized area, at least until the Balat. The modern alignment of Bursaray branch to Balat is not very far from the old railway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_de_Fer_Moudania_Brousse