[Photoplug] Sargan 8 narrow gauge railway, Serbia

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Here are two albums of photos of this 76cm gauge tourist line taken in June.

It is a reconstructed section of the long closed narrow gauge railway that used to connect Belgrade with Sarajevo. Tracks are now in place from Visegrad, in the Srpska Republic part of Bosnia-Hercegovina, to Kotroman, just inside the Serbian border. At the time of my visit this 20km section was out of regular use. But the Rly Touring Co steam charter travelled over the 10km section from Kotroman to Mokra Gora, and 38 photos can be seen here:
http://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Yugoslav-trains/Serbia-Sargan-mountain-railway/43449127_p9BsQ5#!i=3440074225&k=Kz2GLsW


It is at Mokra Gora that the Sargan 8 mountain railway begins its tortuous climb to Sargan Vitasi. The Yugoslavs opened the line in 1925. It linked the 76cm network built by Austro-Hungary in Bosnia-Hercegovina before the First World War with the entirely separate 76cm system in Serbia. The link created a 444km (265 mile) direct line from Belgrade to Sarajevo. It was single track, and the journey took about 15 hours.

The 'Sargan 8' takes its name from the figure of 8 made by the railway as it climbs over itself on the way from Mokra Gora (567m) to Sargan Vitasi (805m). The 16.33km (10 mile) route was devised by Yugoslav engineeers to keep gradients manageable. The average is 1.53% (i in 64), the steepest is 1.922% (1 in 52). There are 20 tunnels.

Yugoslavia closed its very extensive narrow gauge system from the 1960s, and the Sargan 8 section closed in 1974. Reconstruction began in 1999.

Fifty photos of the Sargan 8 railway can be seen here:
http://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Yugoslav-trains/Serbia-Sargan-8-railway/43532944_MPVsT2#!i=3448563413&k=dCzZSFt

There is a good selection of photos of the Yugoslav 76cm system at work in the 1960s and 1970s here:

http://www.penmorfa.com/JZ/

Cheers

Andrew N

 

I visited the line in July 2013 during a mad ' by rail round as many Eauropean countries as you can in 14 days tour'. Sadly my camera had been pinched in Prague so I had to make do with my camera phone! Nice to see steam in operation, as ours was a casual visit it was a regular diesel hauled service, as are most I would guess.

I had visited the old Jugoslavia back in the 1960s and managed a handful of shots, not realising it was one of the most notorious countries for persecuting railway photographers until I was chased away from Dubrovnik ng station by railwaymen ,police etc.

Here is a link to the shots old and new - http://mickpope.zenfolio.com/p310018064