Vingo Park - this is a place where Vilnius residents, especially on warm summer days, like to go for a walk, run, bike or roller skate and just have a good time with friends. Today's children may find it hard to believe, but many still remember - there used to be a Little Children's Railway here, where children went not only for fun, but also to develop professional skills.
During the Soviet era, the Little Children's Railway ran along the main street running across Vingis Park. During the war, there was actually a railway in this place, which was later partially dismantled. One part of it is specially reserved for the children's railway.
It is interesting that the railway could be operated by children and teenagers themselves. The small railway was intended for professional guidance and skill training of future railway workers.
"In the park, you will hear the whistle of the train and the rhythmic screeching of the wheels. Every summer, these sounds are heard from a railway built in the forest with several stations. Traffic is regulated by the children themselves - future railway workers: they are of the station watchmen, drivers, conductors. Here is the real world of children...", V. Ozadavinis wrote in the publication "Po Vilniaus apylinkes" (1958).
Until 1960 the railway ran through almost the entire park, but the situation changed when the Vingis Park stage was built. It was then that a large part of the railway was dismantled. However, the rest of the railway (from the platform to the pedestrian bridge over the Neris) operated until 1980.
"As a child, I worked for two days. My school did not belong to the group of young railwaymen. I was a conductor", writes Aleksandr Machoveckij in the Facebook group "Vingio vaikii".
"The instructor didn't want to accept me. I wanted to be a dispatcher. The training lasted three years", Kazimierz Raube shares his memories in the same group.
After the decision In Vingo Park to build a thermal track, we had to say goodbye to Mažu children's railways.
