The Mokra Gora Working Steam Museum, Serbia, June 2008

James Waite has sent some pictures dating from his visit in June 2008, which show the rapidly developing Mokra Gora 760mm narrow gauge operation, at this time the extension westwards from MK across the Bosnian border to Visegrad hadn't opened. It's probably just as spectacular as the Sargan stretch although quite different in character (will somebody please send us a report and pictures? RD)

One of the troubles with MK is that the public trains are diesel-worked for which the railway has several ex-Romanian locos, the usual Faur Bo-Bo type. You're therefore obliged really to join a group for the trip in order to have a steam run. This was a trip which Zoran Veresic arranged for Frank Stenvalls, the Swedish publisher, and a group of his friends. The usual pattern of operation seemed to be to start mid-morning from MK and run up the line with a few photo stops to Sargan Vitesi, the northern terminus, and to pause there for no more than 20 minutes or so while the loco took water and turned. Then there was a further run to Jatare, halfway along the route where there was a stop for lunch at the excellent restaurant there for two hours or so before returning to MK around 5.00pm.

The scenery of course is superb. The other real joy of the place is the hotel on the platform at MK station, a small and welcoming place and the only one we've ever stayed in in Serbia which is really up to an acceptable Western standard. Our room looked out over the track with an excellent view of the locos brewing up in the morning and the restaurant was good as well. (James notes that the timetable info may be out of date now that the extension has opened. RD) I gather that the part within Bosnia is run more or less as a separate operation by the Republika Srpska railway though I guess there must be large amount of co-operation.

The working 0-8-2 in these photos is no. 83-173, one of the post-WW2 Đuro Đaković locos like the ones at Banovici. There's also an older 0-8-2 no. 83-052 which seemed to be out of use, 0-6-0T no. 25-27, one of the Banovici CKD locos which arrived there by default as it had been on loan to the state railway to lift the Sarajevo-Visegrad-Mokra Gora railway before the civil war, a small 0-6-0T from Zrenjanin sugar factory which was in steam and pottering around MK station during our visit, a Resita 0-8-0T on a plinth a short distance up the line and some 600mm gauge locos on a separate line near MK station which was out of action because of political difficulty of some sort.

Click this link for a map which shows the railway in the Mokra Gora area.

760mm gauge locomotives:

83-052 0-8-2 Jung 3545/1923 in service
83/173 0-8-2 Đuro Đaković 129/1949 in service
"Elza" 0-6-0WT OK Budapest 1913 (wks no. seems to be elusive) ex-Zrenjanin sugar factory in service
25-27 0-6-0T CKD 2527/1949 ex-Banovici in service
MICI 764-427 0-8-0T Resita 1956 (wks no. seems to be elusive) plinthed at "Ninth Kilometre", the name of a stopping point a short distance out of MK and the farthest point that the Austrian-built line reached while building during WW1.

600mm gauge locomotives:

88 0-6-0T Đuro Đaković 88/1947 ex-Visnjicevo Forest Railway in service
"Planka" 0-6-0T OK 10965/1927 ex-SIP Sjemec Rogatica plinthed near MK station.

The view from our hotel room at Mokra Gora:

The Zrenjanin loco at Mokra Gora station:

No. 83-173 at Mokra Gora station:

Along the line a few km out of Mokra Gora:

No. 83-173 passing Golubin station. This isn't an original building at all but constructed as part of a film set not that long before our visit.

No. 83-173 leaving the long tunnel outside Sargan Vitesi station on the return run.

A view during a photo stop below Jatare station.

No. 83-173 on one of the viaducts near Mokra Gora