Vecumnieki Railway Station Infrastructure

Vecumnieki railway station is located south of the village of Vecumnieki.

Vecumnieki railway station was built in 1904 as a station on the Ventspils-Moscow railway line. Initially, it was called “Neugut” (during the German occupation in 1916/1917, it was called “Neugut Kurland”). It gained greater importance during the First World War, when a European-wide railway branch was built from it. In 1916, when the German army's front line had strengthened and stabilized along the left bank of the Daugava, on March 15, a decision was made to build a 25 km railway line with a track gauge of 1435 mm from Vecumnieki to Baldone (station: Mercendarbe - Merzendorf) for the needs of supplying the front. On March 30, about 5,000 workers began work, and by May 1, the line had been built to Skarbe station, and by May 6, to Mercendarbe. The sequence of stations from south to north was as follows: Neugut Kurland, Nougut Nord, Birsemnek, Gedeng, Skarbe, Merzendorf. At the largest of the stations, Skarbe, cargo was transshipped, from where it was transported to the front by horse-drawn transport. This railway existed for only a few years, as late as 1921, logs and firewood were transported along the railway line, until it was demolished in 1925. The location of the railway line is very different in different sections - in places it is crossed by roads of various importance, in places, as the embankment is clearly visible, it crosses forest massifs. There are places that are difficult to pass during the vegetation period.

At the former Gediņi station ("Bahnhoff Gedeng"), a narrow-gauge railway branched off in a northeasterly direction, the tracks of which continued towards the Daugava. At the Sila house it crossed Silupi (Kausupi) (former station "Bhf. Sille"), but at the Podnieki house it branched off. The first branch went to the right to Berkavas, and the second to the left to Vilki mountains and then returned to the broad-gauge (1435 mm) railway at the Skarbe station.

In September 1917, the Germans built another narrow-gauge railway line (gauge of 600 mm) from Mercendarbe and Skarbe to the Daugava, where they built a pontoon bridge and opened traffic all the way to Ikšķile on October 1. The flood of December 4 washed away the aforementioned bridge.

Since 1919, the station has been called Vecmuiža. In 1926, a stone building (architect J. Neijs) was built on the site of the wooden station building destroyed in the war. In 1940, the station was renamed Vecumnieki. On June 14, 1941 and March 25, 1949, several hundred Latvian residents were deported from Vecumnieki station, as well as from many other Latvian railway stations. In total, 44,271 Latvian residents suffered as a result of the deportation actions of March 25, 1949 (until March 30).

In 2000, passenger train traffic was closed on the Jelgava-Krustpils line; currently, this line is used only for freight train traffic.