Suvey
In Belgrade we found the well known 11 022 of Tito's blue train plinthed in front of the main station. In front of the railway administration building stands 99.4-084 (Schwartzkopff 6316/1917).
On the way from Beograd to Lucani we passed Vreoci. 62 127 was shunting some wagons on the standard gauge. On the narrow gauge (900 mm) we saw the new electric loco 17E2. A short visit to the plinthed locos in Lajkovac with 83 182 (Duro Dakovic [DD] 138/1949) and with 85 005 (Budapest 1930) in Cacak was made. Lajkovac was a main station of the former Yugoslavian narrow gauge network. In busy times Lajkovac had an allocation of more than 50 locomotives. 85 005 is waiting for overhaul and transfer to the museum railway in Mokra Gora. The repair in Zrenjanin will cost about 70.000 Euro, which will be donated by the state railway of Yugoslavia.
In Lucani we had a special train with the fireless LBV 001, the former 62 678 of the sugar factory Zrenjanin. After about seven years without overhaul the loco is leaking steam and can shunt only half the time as it could in fresh overhauled condition. So our special train was limited to two wagons. We didn't hire the passenger cars, because passenger service to the state railway station was abandoned a long time ago. Freight wagons will still be exchanged with the state railway by the fireless loco. These days there are only a very few trains to the factory, in winter about one train per week (to supply coal to the factory), in summer about two per month.
The munitions factory Lucani "Milan Blagovic" was built in 1948/1949 and connected to the narrow gauge state railway (760 mm). The freight wagons for the munitions factory came in by state railway locos. Inside the factory's area was established an eight kilometres long narrow gauge system (760 mm) which was served by battery locos. All main parts of the factory are underground in the caves, so the factory covers a large area and need this long railway. For the transport of workers they introduced a passenger service. The connection from the state railway station to the factory is about three kilometres long.
In 1976 the state railway was re-gauged from 760 to 1435 mm and electrified about three years later. The munitions factory also converted their line to standard gauge. They ordered an explosion-protected diesel locomotive from a domestic loco factory. The narrow gauge battery locos were used for another three years before all traffic went over to the standard gauge. As the reliability of the diesel loco was too poor the management decided to buy a fireless loco. Yugoslavia had only a very few fireless locos. Six locomotives of the class 62 where delivered as fireless locos, but none of them was for sale. The workshop of Zrenjanin converted a locomotive from the sugar factory into a fireless loco in 1987. The fireless LBV 001 fulfilled all requirements and replaced the diesel loco. So in 1987 there was a railway line in Europe, which was converted from diesel to steam!
Milan Stamatovic was a railway employee who saved several locomotives from the scrap yard. After he collected four narrow gauge locomotives the railway supported Mr. Stamatovic and donated some money to establish a museum in Pozega. The collection in Pozega is not complete but gives an impressive overview of the variety of narrow gauge locomotives used on the huge network of the Yugoslavian Railways. Beside many interesting wagons we found:
Beside the exhibition we found the dumped 1121-19 from the forestry railway Forca. Chrzanów built this loco in 1948; the boilerplate says Babcock-Zieleniewski-Sasnowiec 11969/1948 and Sarajevo 981.
The 1923 built Henschel loco 61 023 of the paper mill Cacak was dumped due to boiler problems in 2001. Because the factory has no money for repairing the locomotive the rail service was ceased. The loco was for rent to other companies several times a year before.
The open cast mine of Kostolac is only working during the winter season (October - March). During our visit only nr. 14 was serviceable but failed in the morning of our arrival. This loco was fresh overhauled by Zrenjanin workshop. So the loco still was in the warranty limit and they had to wait for the workers from Zrenjanin to repair the loco. In the roundhouse (18 stands) we found no. 10 used as stationary boiler, no. 12 (revision of the super heater elements) and no. 13 under repair. No.9 was dumped near the turntable. The loco burnt out and is now waiting to be sent to Zrenjanin for overhaul.
Kostolac was re-gauged from 600 mm to 900 mm during the World War II. Once they owned an extensive network to different mines. Now only some 4 km to the open cast mine Klenovik remains. Between 1945 and 1965 Kostolac was home to about 50 locomotives of which 17 were UNRRA locomotives. Ten of these were original American built locos and seven were built by Duro Dakovic.
In Cirikovac, very close to the Klenovik mine, is another company using a 900 mm railway for transporting coal to the power plant Kostolac. This line is some 5 km long and electrified. All together they own six electric locos of which one is dumped and one Diesel loco.
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Number
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Manuafacturer
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Builders number
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Diesel loco
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Duro Dakovic
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1965 Bdm |
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El 1
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LEW Hennigsdorf
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14861/1975 |
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El 2
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LEW Hennigsdorf
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14860/1975 |
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El 3
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LEW Hennigsdorf
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16432/1978 |
The passenger service Pozarevac - Kostolac was ceased in 2003 after the old German Uerdingen railcar needs a heavy repair. For several weeks they used a loco plus one passenger car for the 14 daily trains. However, the loco was too heavy for the poor condition of the track and so they closed the line for passenger service.
Bad news: after one an a half years of overhaul they are expecting to get their diesel loco back in December 2003. Mid November they had only one serviceable locomotive, the two others need repair. To finance the repair of one 62 class they want to sell the other loco.
The cable factory of Jagodina was established in 1954. The line to the state railway is 4,8 km long. The railway owns one diesel; three steam locomotives and 17 two-axle passenger cars. They had six pairs of passenger trains for changing the shifts. The night shift was stopped in 2002, so they suspend the night trains. Beside the six pairs of passengers there are another six pairs of freight trains in the schedule. These trains have not run for a long time. Only in the winter months from October until March they have some freight wagons for transporting coal for the heating of the factory. Normally they run mixed trains if they have to transport coal. Only two pairs of pure freight trains per month remained.
In their best times they had to use all 17 passenger cars for the passenger trains, these days the trains for changing the shift consist of one to six coaches only. From 7000 employees in their best times they are down to only about 1000 employees.
There was a plan to dieselise the line at the beginning of the '80ies. But the first diesel they bought wasn't reliable. so they never bought a second diesel. Today they have no money to spend on another locomotive. The passenger service is only for employees and it's free of charge. So this railway is only a cost factor in the eyes of the management. After the diesel loco came back from its overhaul it should take over the whole traffic. Steam is only for spare. As mentioned, the reliability of the diesel loco is poor, so there is a good chance to enjoy steam service in Jagodina for some more years.
The coalmines Vreoci and the power plant are served by four different companies, which are related with railways. The 900 mm railway lines to the mines are electrified. In use are about 20 electric locos. We found:
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Number
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Manufacturer
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Builders number
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Remark
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1
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BBC
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5601/1952
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in service |
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3
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BBC
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5603/1952
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repair
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4
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BBC
|
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dumped
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6
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BBC
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5606/1952
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in service
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7
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BBC
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53-55/1942
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in service
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9
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LEW
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scrap
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11
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LEW
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8618/1959
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in service |
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12
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LEW
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11476/1966 |
in service
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13
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LEW
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11477/1969
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in service |
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14
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LEW
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|
in service
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|
15
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LEW
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12476/1971
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in service
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16
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LEW
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12479/1971
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in service
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17
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LEW
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16431/1978
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in service
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|
23
|
|
|
in service
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The electric loco no. 7 is the oldest working electric loco of Serbia.
Every year in summer there is a period of two to three weeks of repairing the overhead electric wires. For doing this work they have two vehicles. One is a special railcar with a platform, built by Masinska Industria Nis in 1992. The other is a two-axle wagon with a work platform. The latter is of special interest. As this wagon has no engine, it needs an engine for moving. For this purpose the Vreoci coal mine still has some of the Decauville 0-6-0-tank steam locos class 53. Of this class were built 30 units, which were donated to Yugoslavia after World War II. 20 locos of this type came to Vreoci. Beside they had some other Belgium engines. Of the 20 class 53 locos five still remain, four complete and one (53 023) in parts with many parts missing. This loco was involved in a heavy accident with an electric locomotive. The remaining locomotives are:
The factory numbers were indicated on a small plate at the frame and do not fit the numbers given by other authors.
One locomotive will be probably sold to France in 2004. Which loco is still unclear.
Beside the narrow gauge system Vreoci has a connection to the state railway. There are standard gauge tracks in the coal washery, which are served by class 62 locomotives. The workshop for these locomotives belongs to another private company, which is not issuing permit to foreign visitors. On the other hand it is possible to enter the mine and the two loco sheds in Vreoci and Rudovci with an official permit, which will be issued by (and has to be paid to) the local coal mine authorities.
In service at the standard gauge we found:
The Kreka Coal Mine administration still operates four coalmines: Bukinje, Mramor, Dubrave and Sikulje. All the other mines are closed now. The loco shed is situated in Bukinje. To visit the loco shed and the other mines you need a permit from the coalmine authorities in Tuzla. In addition, it's very wise to come along with the chief of the depot in Bukinje, Mustafa Saracevic. It's quite simple: it's only a question of some cups of coffee and a certain donation to him.
The depot of Bukinje is able to carry out heavy overhauls by itself. A heavy overhaul on a class 33 (German Kriegslok class 52) takes about one year.
A visit to the depot produced the following observations (19.11.2003):
In service we found:
The coal mine of Bukinje is closed for overhaul and exploring a new mine area (all underground) for six months. They will reopen the mine in May 2004. So here was no train operation between Bukinje and the power plant.
The coalmine of Banovici was opened in 1947. The terminus of the standard gauge line of the state railway is in the village Oskova, the station itself is called Banovici. Above the standard gauge station the narrow gauge station can be found. The 760 mm gauge station is officially called Oskova, but the locals call it Brioni. From Brioni it's about two kilometres to Banovici, were the loco depot is situated. The depot for the diesels is separated from the steam and wagon depot. After another three kilometres the terminus is reached in Grivice, were the mine is. In May or June 2004 they'll reopen the about 2,500 metres long section to Turia, were a new mine will be opened up in the next few months. The railway line has been rebuilt on an old trackbed and is ready for use. Between Oskova and Grivice the line is double tracked.
In the beginning the railway used ten 0-6-0-tank locomotives, built by Skoda, and some second hand engines with Hungarian origin. In the mid 1970ies they purchased five additional 0-8-2 locomotives class 83 from the state railway.
The following locomotives were observed:
On the diesel front we found:
The class 720 was a former 4-4 loco with two engines (like a Fairly). They were separated into 0-4-0 units because the original construction wasn't to the mine's satisfaction. These small locos are in use for shunting in the Grivice station. For Oskova they are not strong enough. So the last stand for the steam locos are the shunting duties in Oskova. Normally one steam loco is sufficient. The output of the mine was on a medium level during our visit, so they used only one 740 class diesel on the line, one 720 class for shunting in Grivice and one 25 class loco for shunting in Oskova. If the production is on a higher lever, there are at least two diesels for line service and a second steam loco in Oskova in use. Sometimes they use also steam for the shunts in Grivice.
The class 83 is only for spare in the case one or more diesels failed. Usually a coal train consists out of 15 wagons, with a class 83 they have to shorten the train or to take a second loco to pull it. On old pictures you can see a combination of class 83 and 25 in front of a normal train with 15 wagons. During the civil war they had a shortage of diesel. This caused the use of steam for both, shunting and line works.
They have about 140 freight wagons. Most of them are four axle self-unloading wagons.
Empty trains have to work uphill up to 2 %. There are several interesting photo positions on the short line, which curves around the hills and lies in a beautiful valley after Banovici town was passed.
On the standard gauge they have four locomotives:
There is at least one standard gauge loco in use every day. The Skoda locomotive was overhauled last year, so there are no plans to put it out of use. The three serviceable locos will be changed every month, so every third month the Skoda locomotive is in use.
The steelworks Zenica are a shadow of its former self. The production is down to 5 % of the pre war output; the number of employees went down from 25,000 to 2,800 plus another 1,200, which are on stand by with minimum wages. The steelworks were founded in 1892 by Austrian companies (Austria annexed Serbia in 1878).
Before the civil war started they had about 15 steam locomotives and 20 diesel locos in daily use. There are some furnace blast areas which diesel locomotives are not allowed to go through, so the future for the steam locomotives is safe at this time. Now they need only one steam locomotive and one or two diesels for the remaining tasks.
The railway network of the factory is about 80 km long. Now there are only 50 km usable and less than 25 km in use. For the extensive network they had their own passenger service. As steel workers can be very rough guys, they had wagons especially made for woman. The passenger service was ceased several years ago. The wagons still exist. The "woman's wagon" are in white and blue livery. These are rebuilt freight wagons. Although there is no plan for re-introducing the passenger service the workshop carries out a heavy overhaul to one of the passenger cars, originally built in the 1930ies.
Photography in the steelworks was strictly prohibited in the socialist times and restriction got even harder since parts of the steelworks were sold to foreign companies (negotiating with other companies for the major part of the steelworks still continue). Visitors were allowed to visit the dumped locos only, a working engine they normally brought in front of the steelworks for taking some pictures. So we were really surprised that our group got permission to enter the steelworks, the loco depot and workshop and even to take pictures of the working engines inside the steelworks. By the way, there is nothing special in the steelworks, which could justify the restrictions, just a steelworks among hundred others in the world. However, socialist thinking in "protecting" factories by prohibiting visitors and cameras was very common in former Yugoslavia.
The following steam locomotives could be found:
Diesel locomotives:
The coalmine Zenica is in the city of Zenica near the steelworks. The government is going to close this mine. In a city with such a high unemployment rate it's nearly impossible for the miners to find a new job. That's one of the reasons why the miners were on strike during our stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The strike started three days before we arrived. Therefore activity was limited to maintenance of the pumps, which keep the water off the mine. The loco under steam, 62 650, was used for hot water supply to the buildings and the showers. Just after our visit they dropped the fire. 62 648 was dumped.
As there is an overproduction of coal there is no need for the small coalmine in Zenica. In addition, the quality of the coal is not very high. So if you would like to see one of the last coalmines of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a wooden coalbunker you shouldn't postpone you visit.
This coalmine administration owns three coalmines: Catici, Haljinici und Vrtliste.
This is a new mine which is scheduled to open in 2004. It's a Japanese investment. They built about a two kilometres long railway link to the state railway station. It is not sure but seemingly they'll use steam to this new mine at least in the first months. The railway link is already finished but not in use. They have to wait about six months to be sure there will be no settings on the embankments.
This mine owns a 600 mm railway of about 7 km length. This line was electrified until somebody stole the overhead electric wires during the civil war. After this war Italy donated four diesel locomotives to the mine. These four locos are still in use.
The management of this mine do not allow visits of foreigners. It's (unusually) not a question of money; it's a question of good will.
Railway enthusiasts know this place as Kakanj, which is slightly incorrect. Catici owns three steam locomotives:
A fourth locomotive class 62 was scrapped some years ago.
62 031 was ready to send to Zrenjanin workshop in 1991 as the civil war broke out. Hereafter it was not possible for the mine to send this locomotive to Zrenjanin. Finally a French person or society will purchase this loco. They'll send the loco to Zrenjanin for overhaul. The costs for the repair were quoted to be 108.000 Euro.
62 366 was in use for shunting in the mine's station and for picking up wagons from the state railway station. Catici has a coal washery. Coal from Breza to the power plant Catici is to be sent over the state railway to Catici. This causes loaded trains from the state railway to the mine (about 1,5 km) to be hauled by 62 366. The loco has to work hard to pull up to eight loaded eight wheel wagons from the station up to the concrete bridge just before the yard of the coal mine starts.
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Coal Mine BrezaThis coal mine still has a sign photography prohibited. However, to shoot with a machine gun was obviously not prohibited, you can clearly identify the results of the fights. The mine owns two class 62 locomotives:
62 672 was in use without any overhaul since the civil war started. They used it as long as possible. In autumn 2003 62 672 finally failed and Breza was without a serviceable loco. So they rented an ex DB class V100 (West German diesel loco, latest number 211/212 xxx) from the state railway, depot Sarajevo. As they had to rent the loco plus crew, the price was 140 Bosnian Marks per hour. This was by far too expensive for the coalmine. So they asked for renting the original American 62 020 from Kakanj (Catici). This loco is in use now. The staff are satisfied with the technical condition of the engine. However, they have to send their own loco to the workshop. Renting a locomotive is too expensive. On the other hand, if 62 366 of Catici will fail; they have to rent a diesel loco from the state railway again. So renting a locomotive is no solution. The coal to the power plant in Catici will be delivered by rail and not by truck. It's essential for Breza to have their own locomotive in running order. |
The tramway in Sarajevo operates only one line. But this line is very busy. In the city centre are several nice positions possible.
The number series:
We visited the depot and found:
In the workshop could be found:
In the locoshed of Zrenjanin we saw the following railcars:
Another Sinobus was waiting for passengers in the station.
In the city we found the plinthed 2-6-2 tank loco 51 037. In a freight station is 20 149 still waiting for money to repair this 2-6-0 loco.
In the station we found 01 070 dumped. Sinobus B812 211 and B818 211 arrived at 12.35. Without a shay attempt of a switchman nobody harmed us while taking pictures in the station.
Travelling through Serbia and Bosnia seems to be safe. If you're travelling with a car you should arrange a garage or another save place for the night. Especially in villages and towns you'd better not exceed the speed limit, radar controls are frequent. Petrol was available without problems.
The exchange rate Euro : Dinar is 1 : 67 and Euro : Bosnian Mark 1 : 1,97.
Food is available in any quantity and quality, good hotels can be found in the large cities and tourist resorts. Smaller cities often offer hotel with basic or socialist standard.
Around the frontier lines of the civil war there are still many minefields. Not every minefield is marked clearly. Therefore people should stay on the beaten tracks in these areas. About 100 people will be injured by mines every year, be careful!
The European troops are still active in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Although there are no visible borders inside BiH the Muslim federation and the Republika Srpska are de facto two different states. Tensions between the ethnics are still in place. Many people are still not satisfied with the current situation of the borders. We were told that another civil war might start after the European and US troops leave the country.
The steam situation is nearly unchanged for several years. However, many locomotives missing overhauls or sufficient maintenance. In Addition, several coalmines, steelworks and factories are working on a very low level compared to the pre-war time. The steelworks of Vares (north of Sarajevo) has an output of less than 10 %, the Zenica steelworks one of a bout 5 %. Durdevic coalmine went down to one shift Monday to Friday in the winter period only. Jagodina cable factory stopped the night shift and work on weekends. Many mines, which took over the empty trains from the state railway in the station of the state railway and delivered the full wagons to it, do not do this any more. Diesels from the state railway come into the mine and hand over the wagons. Examples are Dubrave, Sikulje and Durdevic. In Durdevic the class 62 is even not able to haul the trains to the Zivinice station any more. Many coalmines are closed for several weeks in the summer for maintenance works. Some of the coalmines are even not working during the whole summer (Kostolac, Durdevik). Many coalmines haven't the money to send their locos to the workshop. It's more difficult now to send a loco from BiH to Zrenjanin in Serbia but still possible. There are quite a reasonable number of locos, which are in use with expired boiler certificates. Conclusion: as I always said, better go there now than too late. Steam will probably fade out in the most active steam countries BiH and Serbia in the next five to eight years.