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Home / 2003 / Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia - August/September 2003 / 26 August 2003 35

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Today's route: Sarajevo - Doboj - Petrovo Novo - Kreka - Šićki Brod - propel to Bosanksa Poljana (to complete the triangle) - Banovići; 760 mm gauge lignite mine railway, Banovići Stanica Separacija - Stanica Turija - Banovići Stanična Separacija; Banovići - Tuzla; bus to hotel.
Back down the main line from Sarajevo to Doboj with the same loco as we had last Saturday! Doboj to Petrovo Novo has a passenger service, and was being worked by regular ex-DB 212 019-4 in largely original condition except for "Željeznice Republike Srpske" in large letters on the side - still apparently allocated to Darmstadt shed! Petrovo Novo to Tuzla has no passenger service despite being in the published timetables. We were hoping to travel over some of the tracks of the Kreka mine/power station, but the owner thinks he can make money out of people coming to see his steam engines - so we didn't and he didn't! 33-248 was in steam at one of the mines. However we did go around the west-to-north side of the main-line triangle west of Kreka, which was a bonus. We used the freight branch to Banovići to travel on the narrow gauge system there. Very heavy traffic here bringing the lignite from the open-cast mines down to the separators and transfer station. Steam locos 62-677 (standard gauge) and 25-30 (narrow gauge) were working at Banovići, along with numerous narrow gauge diesel locos. Quite a few 661s at the small shed near Kreka station, most of which we had on our specials over the next two days.