Four of a Kind no.3 the type T669. HSH Class T669-1.
With the T669 Co-CoDE being the most prolific diesel class ever built with over 8200 examples thanks primarily to orders placed by the USSR (Soviet Union) for SzD (Soviet State Railways). It was no surprise other Eastern European Railways under communist control bought the locomotives too, namely Albania and Poland.
HSH (Hekurudhë ë Sqipërisë) the Albanian State Railways had 62 of them delivered between 1978-89, these were the second generation type T669/1's and became the mainstay of the countries locomotive fleet post the Civil war of 1997 which saw much of the state railways infrastructure and rolling stock damaged or destroyed. Foresight by HSH staff saw locos and stock moved to the remote mountainous outpost of Prenjas so when hostilities ended there was at least something to resume a train service with. Sadly HSH has never really recovered and is a Cinderella operation with the timetable determined by how many locos actually work on any given morning and coaching stock is a mix of worn out hand me downs from other European Railways.
Here T669-1048 stands light engine at Vorë waiting to take over the 16.47 to Shkodër while sister T669-1060 passes behind arriving with the 16.20 Tirana to Durrës.
Four of a Kind no.3 the type T669. HSH Class T669-1.
With the T669 Co-CoDE being the most prolific diesel class ever built with over 8200 examples thanks primarily to orders placed by the USSR (Soviet Union) for SzD (Soviet State Railways). It was no surprise other Eastern European Railways under communist control bought the locomotives too, namely Albania and Poland.
HSH (Hekurudhë ë Sqipërisë) the Albanian State Railways had 62 of them delivered between 1978-89, these were the second generation type T669/1's and became the mainstay of the countries locomotive fleet post the Civil war of 1997 which saw much of the state railways infrastructure and rolling stock damaged or destroyed. Foresight by HSH staff saw locos and stock moved to the remote mountainous outpost of Prenjas so when hostilities ended there was at least something to resume a train service with. Sadly HSH has never really recovered and is a Cinderella operation with the timetable determined by how many locos actually work on any given morning and coaching stock is a mix of worn out hand me downs from other European Railways.
Here T669-1048 stands light engine at Vorë waiting to take over the 16.47 to Shkodër while sister T669-1060 passes behind arriving with the 16.20 Tirana to Durrës.