Sakhalin Railway
Sakhalin Railway () is a division of the Far Eastern Railway that primarily serves Sakhalin Island. Due to its island location, the railway is the second isolated 1520mm gauge network in Russia, like the Norilsk railway. The only main connection to the mainland is the Vanino–Kholmsk train ferry. The management is located at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. History The Treaty of Portsmouth following the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 placed the northern half of Sakhalin under the control of the Russian Empire, whilst the southern half (Karafuto) was under control of Japan. On the Japanese half of the island, a railway was built from Korsakov () to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (), with a gauge of . This section was later converted to the normal Japanese railway gauge of . In 1911, a branch was built from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Starodubskoye (Sakaehama). Between 1918 and 1921, the towns of Nevelsk (), Kholmsk (), Chekhov () and Tomari () were also connected to the network. The Japanese railway network consisted of the Western Karafuto Railway from Naihoro (Gornozavodsk) to Tomarioru, and the Eastern Karafuto Railways from Otomari to Koton (Pobedino) until 1944. Its total length was over . After the Second World War, control of the whole of the