Bulgaria State Railways 2-8-2 steam locomotive 01 23, built in Switzerland by Winterthur in 1935, on an excursion near Khardzhali, August 25, 2006. One of 6 such locomotives known as "Tabaloks" because Bulgaria paid for them with tobacco.
Photograph (C) copyright 2010 Ivan Safyan Abrams. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
The landscape is reminiscent of Mexico. This railway was completed in the 1960s as a strategic route from the center of Bulgaria to an area near the border with Greece, in the middle of the Cold War when Greece, a NATO nation, was considered a possible threat to Bulgaria. Now both nations are members of the European Union and of NATO; times do change, but few would have predicted so great a change in so little time.
Bulgaria State Railways 2-8-2 steam locomotive 01 23, built in Switzerland by Winterthur in 1935, on an excursion near Khardzhali, August 25, 2006. One of 6 such locomotives known as "Tabaloks" because Bulgaria paid for them with tobacco.
Photograph (C) copyright 2010 Ivan Safyan Abrams. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
The landscape is reminiscent of Mexico. This railway was completed in the 1960s as a strategic route from the center of Bulgaria to an area near the border with Greece, in the middle of the Cold War when Greece, a NATO nation, was considered a possible threat to Bulgaria. Now both nations are members of the European Union and of NATO; times do change, but few would have predicted so great a change in so little time.