seen and we believe he is convinced of the reality of all the above. The vigilant people at Nevrokop have high hopes". After the Law on Construction of the Sarambey-Ladzhene to Nevrokop Narrow Gauge Railway with Branches for the Village of Eli Dere - Tatar Pazardzhik, the Village of Batak and the Chehlyovo State Forest was adopted in 1920, the construction started in 1921. In the hard years after the war, the progress was poor, with work done primarily by hand. The track reached Ladzhene in 1926, and the section opened on Aug 1, 1926 with three trains per week in each direction. The next short section to Chepino (now Velingrad south) was completed on June 3, 1927. When Sarambey became the starting point of the line, the population of Pazardzhik feared their town would be away from the traffic and requested a branch of the new railway, which was completed and opened on Oct 27, 1928. This path was chosen to be the main and the railway became Pazardzhik - Chepino with a branch from Varvara - Pazardzhik - Sarambey. The section remained a branch until its closing in 2002, when the track to Pazardzhik was removed. Construction of the hardest section, Chepino–Yakoruda continued up to 1937, when on 12th Dec it was opened for temporary service. The final opening was Jul 30, 1939, together with the section Yakoruda–Belitsa. The final sections Belitsa–Bansko and Bansko–Dobrinishte were opened on Mar 3, 1943 and Dec 9, 1945 respectively. The original plan of the law to continue the track to Gotse Delchev was never realised. Route description Septemvri–Velingrad This first part is 39 km long. It starts at Septemvri, where it meets the standard-gauge railway line Sofia–Plovdiv. After almost straight 6 km long section in the plain, the route reaches station Varvara, the former junction with the removed branch to Pazardzhik. Then the route passes the river Chepinska (also known as Elidere) and the road to Velingrad onto a steel bridge and continues on the left (eastern) bank of the river. As a part of the road widening work, some time between 2013-2016 the bridge was replaced with a new one. Along the gorge, the line passes Marko Nikolov (ex Mineral baths), Tsepina (ex Dorkovo) stops, the river again and the road at manually operated level crossing, to reach station Dolene, where it continues in the opposite direction on the other side