The beast from the East
This post is going to be a rather long and personal story, so if you're just interested in the down-to-earth, objective description of the photo, feel free to scroll downwards.
I started visiting Lithuania regularly in 2024 and it was the last of the Schengen countries bordering Poland to get a visit from me. By then, there had been nothing much interesting left on the Lithuanian network and I mainly visited all of my family members who live here. All LTG companies invested a lot of money into modernisation of rolling stock, and the 2022 escalation of the conflict in Ukraine brought a total downfall of railway traffic in the country. LTG Cargo now operates almost exclusively on modern ER20 and TEM TMH locomotives (with the exception of normal-gauge traffic between Poland and Kaunas), LTG Link mostly uses its modern PESA and Škoda units, though they occasionally throw the odd DR1AMv in. The famous Gargždų geležinkelis (also known as GG Rail) has very few contracts nowadays, after their main job with Беларуськалий (Belaruskali) was cut abruptly by the sanctions. I therefore started digging deeper to extract the best of what the country has to offer and I turned to industrial railways.
The start was rather slow and unambitious. I was at the famous Achema plant in Jonava and I visited a couple of enterprises around Vilnius, where I unsuccessfully tried to see smaller diesel shunters working (I succeeded upon furhter trials later on, but that's a story for another time). I still kept digging though and stumbled upon a faint and uncertain trace of six classic TEM2U/TEM2UM locomotives working in the North of the country, around Akmenė. After thorough research, I thought "why not give the place a go?". There aren't many pictures on the web, but a plant with 6 heavy shunters surely gets some traffic.
After waking up at 3am and throwing out unreasonable amounts of money for transport, I went by train to Akmenė on a warm day in April of this year... only to come back with nothing. That really took a toll on my psyche, and it was at this moment that I knew, this is a battle which I can't afford to loose.
I had some free time in September of this year and I paid a visit to my family. Additionally, I booked a stay for 3 nights in Akmenė to finally get to see those charming engines. I arrived at Akmenė station (6km from the town) on an afternoon train and started walking along the line towards the cement plant, finally stopping after around 7km at Mantartiškiai, a hamlet of 12 people (some of whom I later on spoke with). After around 1,5h of waiting, a bright light appeared far in the distance, shining from the direction of the cement plant. The stretch here is an 18km long perfectly straight line and I had no doubts about the fact, that what I was seeing was in fact a train.
The picture presents what passed by me after a solid 15 minutes of waiting. TEM2U-8190 (produced 1985 at Брянск) of AB «Akmenės cementas» with the internal designation "4" was heading a nearly 2 thousand tonne heavy train from the cement plant station Karpėnai towards the Akmenė station, for LTG Cargo to pick up the load. It passed by Mantartiškiai in a brief moment of sunlight on the 9.09.2025.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
The beast from the East
This post is going to be a rather long and personal story, so if you're just interested in the down-to-earth, objective description of the photo, feel free to scroll downwards.
I started visiting Lithuania regularly in 2024 and it was the last of the Schengen countries bordering Poland to get a visit from me. By then, there had been nothing much interesting left on the Lithuanian network and I mainly visited all of my family members who live here. All LTG companies invested a lot of money into modernisation of rolling stock, and the 2022 escalation of the conflict in Ukraine brought a total downfall of railway traffic in the country. LTG Cargo now operates almost exclusively on modern ER20 and TEM TMH locomotives (with the exception of normal-gauge traffic between Poland and Kaunas), LTG Link mostly uses its modern PESA and Škoda units, though they occasionally throw the odd DR1AMv in. The famous Gargždų geležinkelis (also known as GG Rail) has very few contracts nowadays, after their main job with Беларуськалий (Belaruskali) was cut abruptly by the sanctions. I therefore started digging deeper to extract the best of what the country has to offer and I turned to industrial railways.
The start was rather slow and unambitious. I was at the famous Achema plant in Jonava and I visited a couple of enterprises around Vilnius, where I unsuccessfully tried to see smaller diesel shunters working (I succeeded upon furhter trials later on, but that's a story for another time). I still kept digging though and stumbled upon a faint and uncertain trace of six classic TEM2U/TEM2UM locomotives working in the North of the country, around Akmenė. After thorough research, I thought "why not give the place a go?". There aren't many pictures on the web, but a plant with 6 heavy shunters surely gets some traffic.
After waking up at 3am and throwing out unreasonable amounts of money for transport, I went by train to Akmenė on a warm day in April of this year... only to come back with nothing. That really took a toll on my psyche, and it was at this moment that I knew, this is a battle which I can't afford to loose.
I had some free time in September of this year and I paid a visit to my family. Additionally, I booked a stay for 3 nights in Akmenė to finally get to see those charming engines. I arrived at Akmenė station (6km from the town) on an afternoon train and started walking along the line towards the cement plant, finally stopping after around 7km at Mantartiškiai, a hamlet of 12 people (some of whom I later on spoke with). After around 1,5h of waiting, a bright light appeared far in the distance, shining from the direction of the cement plant. The stretch here is an 18km long perfectly straight line and I had no doubts about the fact, that what I was seeing was in fact a train.
The picture presents what passed by me after a solid 15 minutes of waiting. TEM2U-8190 (produced 1985 at Брянск) of AB «Akmenės cementas» with the internal designation "4" was heading a nearly 2 thousand tonne heavy train from the cement plant station Karpėnai towards the Akmenė station, for LTG Cargo to pick up the load. It passed by Mantartiškiai in a brief moment of sunlight on the 9.09.2025.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus