Sunday evening Bitola departure 2013-03-10--064
A three-car DMU of MŽ (Makedonski Železnici - Macedonian Railways, or Македонски Железници in Cyrillic script) stands at Bitola, waiting to depart as train 644 to Skopje at 18.53; it had arrived as train 643, 14.30 from Skopje. The DMU is formed of cars 712-102 (nearest the camera, on the rear of the train), 716-101 and 712-101.
These DMUs were built for JŽ (Jugoslav Railways) from 1975 onwards by Đjuro Đjakovic in Slavonski Brod (in what is now Croatia) under licence from the Spanish company Macosa. They still carry JŽ livery. At the time of this visit, MŽ's DMU fleet was in a very poor state (at least one car of this unit had holes in the floor!) but new Chinese-built DMUs (and EMUs) were on order. These DMUs have since all been withdrawn, and, over a decade on, many of the new DMUs are out of service, with many passenger services cut.
The train is actually operated by Makedonski Železnici Transport (MŽT), MŽ having been split into separate infrastructure and train operating companies in 2007, although in 2019 MŽT was renamed Železnici na Republika Severna Makedonija Transport (ŽRSMT) to reflect the official renaming of the country
This photo was taken on the fourth day of a six-day trip to the former Jugoslavia. On the first day, we'd flown from Stansted to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and then travelled by train to Zagreb (Croatia). That evening and the following morning were spent doing some passenger train diversions around the capital (due to resignalling work around the main station), and then we travelled on to Beograd (Belgrade, Serbia). The following day was spent on just one train, the daily daytime service to Skopje (in what is now North Macedonia, but then was known as the Former Jugoslav Republic of Macedonia), where we stayed for two nights.
Having spent the morning as tourists, we then took the afternoon train to Bitola (as seen here), and the following morning went to Kičevo and back (loco hauled - see this picture) and then attempted to travel into Kosovo by train. However, a lorry had failed to take a bend on the main road and had overturned onto the railway, blocking the line; the train was cancelled just minutes before departure (we were already on board), but we were able to take a coach from the adjacent bus station. We crossed the border in time to catch the Kosovan portion of what was advertised as a through train (although in reality required a change at the Kosovan border station, Hani i Elezit), and made it to Fushë Kosovë, where we stayed the night. The final day saw us catch the train the short distance to the capital, Prishtinë (Pristina) - see this photo - and then take the train to Pejë (Peja), returning by bus (we didn't trust the train to run on time!) for our flight home via Geneva.
I took this simply as a record shot as it was close enough to sunset that the whole scene was in shadow. It wasn't completely sharp and was quite noisy, but I've had a go at reducing the noise over many parts of the image. The line to Skopje curves off to the right at the far end of the station, while the tracks in the foreground, going off to the left, are the goods yard - passengers have to cross these tracks to get from the station entrance to the platform. The line continued (off to the right of the picture) to Kremenica and over the border into Greece, but that was all out of use at the time - although there were plans to reopen it to provide a second route into Greece.
Unfortunately, I didn't take very many photos on this trip, mainly because the opportunities were limited (being early March, it was dark when we reached our destinations), but the best have already been uploaded to this album. Having recently been encouraged to upload photos of my trip to Bosnia the following year, I thought I'd see if there were any from this trip which might be suitable for additional processing in Photoshop and potentially be uploaded, but found very few.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.
Sunday evening Bitola departure 2013-03-10--064
A three-car DMU of MŽ (Makedonski Železnici - Macedonian Railways, or Македонски Железници in Cyrillic script) stands at Bitola, waiting to depart as train 644 to Skopje at 18.53; it had arrived as train 643, 14.30 from Skopje. The DMU is formed of cars 712-102 (nearest the camera, on the rear of the train), 716-101 and 712-101.
These DMUs were built for JŽ (Jugoslav Railways) from 1975 onwards by Đjuro Đjakovic in Slavonski Brod (in what is now Croatia) under licence from the Spanish company Macosa. They still carry JŽ livery. At the time of this visit, MŽ's DMU fleet was in a very poor state (at least one car of this unit had holes in the floor!) but new Chinese-built DMUs (and EMUs) were on order. These DMUs have since all been withdrawn, and, over a decade on, many of the new DMUs are out of service, with many passenger services cut.
The train is actually operated by Makedonski Železnici Transport (MŽT), MŽ having been split into separate infrastructure and train operating companies in 2007, although in 2019 MŽT was renamed Železnici na Republika Severna Makedonija Transport (ŽRSMT) to reflect the official renaming of the country
This photo was taken on the fourth day of a six-day trip to the former Jugoslavia. On the first day, we'd flown from Stansted to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and then travelled by train to Zagreb (Croatia). That evening and the following morning were spent doing some passenger train diversions around the capital (due to resignalling work around the main station), and then we travelled on to Beograd (Belgrade, Serbia). The following day was spent on just one train, the daily daytime service to Skopje (in what is now North Macedonia, but then was known as the Former Jugoslav Republic of Macedonia), where we stayed for two nights.
Having spent the morning as tourists, we then took the afternoon train to Bitola (as seen here), and the following morning went to Kičevo and back (loco hauled - see this picture) and then attempted to travel into Kosovo by train. However, a lorry had failed to take a bend on the main road and had overturned onto the railway, blocking the line; the train was cancelled just minutes before departure (we were already on board), but we were able to take a coach from the adjacent bus station. We crossed the border in time to catch the Kosovan portion of what was advertised as a through train (although in reality required a change at the Kosovan border station, Hani i Elezit), and made it to Fushë Kosovë, where we stayed the night. The final day saw us catch the train the short distance to the capital, Prishtinë (Pristina) - see this photo - and then take the train to Pejë (Peja), returning by bus (we didn't trust the train to run on time!) for our flight home via Geneva.
I took this simply as a record shot as it was close enough to sunset that the whole scene was in shadow. It wasn't completely sharp and was quite noisy, but I've had a go at reducing the noise over many parts of the image. The line to Skopje curves off to the right at the far end of the station, while the tracks in the foreground, going off to the left, are the goods yard - passengers have to cross these tracks to get from the station entrance to the platform. The line continued (off to the right of the picture) to Kremenica and over the border into Greece, but that was all out of use at the time - although there were plans to reopen it to provide a second route into Greece.
Unfortunately, I didn't take very many photos on this trip, mainly because the opportunities were limited (being early March, it was dark when we reached our destinations), but the best have already been uploaded to this album. Having recently been encouraged to upload photos of my trip to Bosnia the following year, I thought I'd see if there were any from this trip which might be suitable for additional processing in Photoshop and potentially be uploaded, but found very few.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.