The Ganz Balkan Bowl-Out

AKA Balkan Bash VI

This started as another Croatian bash, being extended when HZ closed the Split line yet again. Although I swore never to set foot in Italy ever again, Venice turned out to be the only sensible flight destination given that I could only have the afternoon off on my day of outward travel (note to anyone from EasyJet: firstly, start Bristol-Ljubljana flights immediately; secondly, fly to rancid shit-holes like Palma and similar tourist scum places whatever time you like, but please make the flights to bash-friendly destinations like Praha, Budapest and Copenhagen around 6pm to allow one to fly after a full day at work, to maximise utilisation of leave).

I decided to include Macedonia, as my two previous visits have been merely passing through, and more to the point didn’t involve any GMs. I also intended to visit Romania and Bulgaria, but found that the line from Bulgaria to Serbia is now 100% solid Sulzer junk, so that move was out. I also postponed my visit to Romania due to circumstances, and now that I have heard the good news that 57 of the rancid Sulzer heaps of shit are to be re-engined with GM power units, I might as well wait for them to reach full strength before I go!

The closure of Split gave me a chance to spend more time covering the other diagrams in Croatia, though I did end up spending more time than I would have liked on the Osijek 2044s out of a lack of anything else to do (bring back the Osijek 2062s! No need for turbo-chargers on GM!). I thought about covering the autovlak, but decided the move is just too rancid for so little.

The trip ended up as a (mostly) successful GM hunt, but with several Ganz bowl-outs in Serbia, and a mammoth trek of ten consecutive overnights. I still missed out on doing many of the things I set out to do – oh well, just have to go back at xmas, when Split should be open again!

Thursday 14^th October 2004

Off to a bad start! The bus to the airport was caped, and as I was already cutting it fine, I had to get a taxi. Fortunately there were three other people in the same position, to share the extortionate £20 fare. After check in, I watched the plane arrive on time, and we boarded on time. However, the Itie scum were already conspiring to bugger up my move. The stupid wops in Itie air traffic ‘control’ had decided they could only cope with two planes per hour, so we had to wait for a landing slot before we could even take off. Perhaps instead of going to Iraq to seek Weapons of Mass Destruction, Tony BLiar should go to Italy to seek and destroy  Wops of Mass Incompetence. Then again they’d have to introduce conscription to get the job done within a decade. Predictably, when we finally did land, the bus to town failed to show up, and I had to fester for the next one. Lazy itie scum. My only consolation was that I’d already got my Euro-Dominoes from DB, so I didn’t have to try to persuade the arrogant clowns at Venice booking office to do their jobs.

Once I crossed the border into a civilised country, things started to look up. Although the overnight is booked a 362, from experience I fully expected a lousy 342, so I was most pleased with a 363, plus the fact that the Itie veg that had invaded my compo had buggered off at Trieste.

Friday 15^th October 2004

I stayed on the overnight into Austria, to repeat the scratch move I used in July. This time it worked even better, as IC153 was headed by a 1044 in place of the booked 1116. Then, for even more fun, the returning 363010 was topped by a winning 342 from Maribor. Things seemed to be going unbelievably well when winner 664107 backed onto IC247 at Pragersko, considering I’d failed to score a single 664 back in July. I was also hopeful for later, as my winners 664104, 664109 and 664113 were all at Pragersko.

After a brief leap into Hungary which netted two winning M41s, dud 664110 was the traction back to Pragesko. I did the usual move to Celje and back, but as the eastbound Drava was 664110 again, and the winners were all still at Pragersko, I decided to cover IC516 in case. Drava was strengthened to load six, sadly the fresh-air stock was at the back. Even strengthened, the train was totally wedged. I bailed at Ormoz for the cart back to Pragersko, for another to Poljcane to cover IC152, even though this was booked to be 363010 again.

Back at Pragersko, I saw 664113 on the fuel road and 664104 on freight, so figured I was in for 664109. Wrong! 664107 had reappeared on a freight, and after shunting the rear coaches from IC152 to the far platform, headed off for Murska Sobota. I did this to Ptuj where I bailed for dud 664106, cursing myself for not heading over to Croatia for the Varazdin line in search of 2043s and 2062042. The previous time I had done IC244 it had just made the Zagreb train at Pragersko, but as this time I actually wanted to go to Zagreb, predictably we just missed it, so I changed at Zidani Most for the overnight to Vinkovci, giving a relatively civilised four hours of doss.

Saturday 16^th October 2004

After another three hours doss on the train back to Zagreb, I stocked up in the supermarket before heading off to the Osijek line. As usual all the cans had been dud, but I managed a winning 2044 on B783. Unfortunately it was not swapped for B702, and dud 2044027 produced on B703. This was especially annoying as Simon had texted me to say that all three of my other winners had worked in the last 24 hours, with a winning pair 2044028+011 working the 0400 Virovitica-Osijek, 2044021 working B258/9, and 2044011 working the previous day’s 1412 Koprivnica-Osijek.

After a beer, I caught the unit to Strizivojna Vrpolje on spec, as B450 was not allocated. The odds were not good, as I only needed three 2062s at Vinkovci, and one of them was out of service. The service from Beograd was considerably late, so I couldn’t risk the gronk move at Vinkovci, as rather fortuitously large green winner 2062018 had appeared for B450. Beast! Unfortunately there is no sensible move to do this beyond Strizivojna Vrpolje, so I just made my way to Zagreb for a Tomislav before catching the overnight to Beograd.

Sunday 17^th October 2004

Arrival in Beograd was predictably late, but I still managed to rush into the ticket hall, change some disneydollars to dinar, purchase a Balkan Flexipass and get back onto the same train (having convinced the gripper from Sid not to ching me up on the promise of buying said rover). However, having reboarded, I found that the ticket-office Ada had given me an astoundingly generous two travel-record sheets, allowing me to enter twelve journeys. Ok, that’s day one sorted…

I headed out to Kraljevo via Stalac. I was disappointed that the line up at Kraljevo yielded three duds, while winner 661119 sat on a freight alongside. I did a dodgy move to a passing loop in the middle of nowhere, then headed up to Kraljevo and back, intending a second return trip. However, back at Kraljevo, 661119 dropped on the front for the run to Raska. A quick check of the timetable (ok, had to blag Bert to borrow one…) revealed I couldn’t get back from anywhere south of Kraljevo. I was even more pissed off when another winner, 661158, produced for the late stopper going south. Fucking cheers then! No winners when I can cover them, then two out that I couldn’t cover. I then had a long fester before the overnight moves, retimed even later due to the diversion of Beograd-Bar trains via Kraljevo, and was yet more pissed off when the alleged 24-hour bar closed.

Monday 18^th October 2004

My mood improved somewhat when having flagged dud 661247 on the diverted sleeper-only overnight, winner 661266 produced on the second overnight, which incorporated the Stalac portion. This was taken to Cacak for 661247 back, with 661129 taking over at Kraljevo for the run to Stalac, where I was a little displeased to have 441315 again to Nis, even more so when it promptly went on the Skopje train I was doing.

At Nis, I tried to get some more pages for my Flexipass. At first Bert didn’t understand, then when he finally did, he peeled off one sheet, looking startled when I dared to ask for five!

Despite delays at the border waiting for the northbound train, the connection for Bitola was comfortably made at Skopje. I took a phot of the 661, and was immediately hossed by two Policija. The conducted a bag search, noted all my passport details, and interrogated me as to my motives for photting, plans, etc. I was eventually allowed to go, and did a return trip to Prilep. Thomas Crook shows the distance as 170km each way, though the mileposts suggest it is more like 147km – possibly TC shows tariff KMs.

Tuesday 19^th October 2004

I awoke to my alarm clock at 2.30am, hoping to find myself arriving in Nis. However, we were late, but the train to Zajecar was waiting with winner 661232 when we got in. This was done Zajecar, where there were three trains to cover. The Majdanpek was Ganz filth, and therefore rejected. Winner 661278 arrived from Prahovo Pristiniste, so I hoped it would return there. However, it went to shed and was replaced by more Ganz junk.  A third Ganz then arrived from Majdanpek for the run to Nis. Faced with this no-win situation, I returned to Nis for some scratching, courtesy of borrowing the station’s only timetable. Having seen the Nis loop trains swapped frequently in the past, I was unimpressed when 441010 stuck all day.

After a few leaps, I returned to Zajecar on 661232 again, and did Ganz shite 641326 again to Vrazogrnac, hoping for something better back to Zajecar. I was bowled yet again. Zajecar seems to be the new Tunisia – plenty of decent locos, but they seem determined to use the rancid Ganz on passenger wherever possible. Then again, I suppose it’s because they want the 661s for the freights, since the pathetic Hungarian junk would struggle to pull more than about three wagons.

661278 had arrived in Zajecar at about the same time as 661232, so I hoped it might work the last train to Nis, but sadly 661232 came out again. Still, at least it was real. I did this to Knjazevac for winner 661248 back, before adjourning to the Irish pub for some excellent Slovak dark beer and a large pizza.

Wednesday 20^th October 2004

The bar closed at 1am, so I wandered back to the the shack for the ridiculously early 0230 to Beograd, hoping for a 661 or 666. I was absolutely fuming when I saw shitheap 641323 on the front!  I had no choice but to take it, as I intended to do the Beograd-Bucuresti train, and there was no way to make it via Nis.

I did a couple of leaps around Beograd, before heading out on a cart to Pancevo Glavna to cover the Vrsac local, as this had recently been viewed as a 666 vice shitbus. I was less than impressed to find the train was caped, especially as the was no way to get back to Beograd for the overnight, meaning my only option was a fester. On the plus side, dud 661118 was on a freight, so couldn’t bowl me out, or so I thought. Instead of arriving at Pancevo with the expected 661, the overnight was hauled by winner 461014, having been diverted via Novi Beograd and the suburban line. Still, 661118 is still on freight… However, 661224 appeared from nowhere, this being the loco I’d had last time I visited this line. I gave up on Serbia and decided to head back to Croatia, having had a completely wasted day. The final Serb move was a wither, being the same can I’d arrived on, and it hadn’t even been a winner then!

Thursday 21^st October 2004

Another trip to Osijek netted one winner, though when I first arrived winner 2044022 seemed to be in position to drop on for the 1215 Zagreb, but then buggered off light engine before 2044018 ran round. Winners 2044011 and 2044028 were on shed to wind me up even more. All I want to do is have my last couple of 2044s so I can ignore this turbopiffle-infested line in future!

I headed down to Vinkovci on spec, and was extremely pleased when 2062024 produced, as this was my last working Vinkovci 2062. After a couple of celebratory beers I headed back to Osijek for pizza and more beer.

Friday 22^nd October 2004

As predicted 2044018 did the Sarajevo diagram, so I was left with the 0001 to Zagreb. On shed were 2044028, 2044022 and the infinitely superior 2062014, but the train was worked by the only dud in the area, 2044027. I decided to bail for a fester at Virovitica, as 2044011 should be the 0400 to Osijek if it had stuck to diagram. I wandered over to the stabling road, only to discover dud 2044019 and 2044016 for the Osijek and the 0445 to Varazdin respectively. I hurried back to get back on the Zagreb train, but it started moving just as I was nearly there. D’oh!!!

I decided to head to Varazdin to score the Koprivnica-Varazdin line for loco hauled. As I cursed my luck during the two hour fester, 2062014 rolled in on a freight. Bert came out and gave it the RA, and returned to his office, only to come running out seconds later to stop it again. After a complicated shunting manoeuvre, the 2062 sat on the platform road. 2044019 was started up and shunted both rakes of stock into the platform road, with 2062014 seemingly in position to work to Varazdin. I daren’t hope for for such luck, but the 2062 dropped onto the stock and was attached. Woo-hoo!

I was understandably gutted when the 2062 was uncoupled from the stock and went away. I tried to find out what was going on, and my limited Croatian allowed me to figure out that Bert was saying ‘two locomotives’. Ok, so the 2044 will be dead in tow – excellent, extra weight! Unfortunately, the fault with the 2044 must have been something minor, as it was started up, so with the 2062 being in front the thrash was masked somewhat by the turbo drone of the 2044, especially when the driver of the latter antisocially applied power. Still, a massive move, and the 2062 was excellent. I’ve never been so pleased to miss a train! At Koprivnica, the 2062 was replaced by 2043002. Not quite as rateable, but at still hellfire, and I was able to score the line for unbent GM.

On arrival at Varazdin, 2043005 was heading to Zagreb, while 2043004 was heading to Kotoriba. I thought about taking 2043004 to Cakovec for B791 to Zagreb as 2062042 had been performing lately, but as Simon hadn’t replied to my request for gen, I didn’t risk it in case the cart had been resurrected. It later transpired that the 2062 was working, and Simon had sent the gen, but it hadn’t been delivered, so no thanks to Orange and Cronet. After a wasted spin on the Osijek line, Simon phoned me to say that the 2062 was allocated. Unfortunately, my position didn’t allow a long run, but at least I had it. A shame the gen hadn’t come through, as I’d have enjoyed a day on the Varazdin line with a 2062 and three 2043s out!

As 2062042 arrived at Cakovec, I saw that the 1725 to Ormoz was delayed, so I piled on, making for a –10 connection made! I was extremely pleased to have cleared three depots for real GMs within 24 hours, and headed back to Slovenia for another shot at the Hodos line.

Saturday 23^rd October 2004

After a few more OBB leaps, gaining another ‘Gale’ vice 1116, I had a breakfast break in Celje. I went to the station bar for a much-needed coffee, but two local lads all but force-fed me two beers and two vodkas. They tried to persuade me to stay drinking with them all day, but there were GMs to be scored! Back at Pragersko, having viewed winner 664109 and dud 664101 earlier, I was unsurprised to find the latter waiting to take over. I was more impressed to see winner 664104 waiting at Hodos for the return, and after a fruitless return to Zalalovo (withering the passport grippers when I returned immediately!), this was enjoyed back to Pragersko.

After an unprecedented (for me) combination of a 363 to Celje for another back, I was surprised to see 664101 had reappeared, but stuck to the move anyway. I was extremely pleased that I had, as 664109 was waiting for the return. I withered the passport grippers even more at Hodos, though this time I went for a beer instead of the Zalalovo move. When I bought my beer, I was given a free shot of vodka – is this Slovenian National Free Drinks Day?! 664109 was taken to Ptuj, where I bailed for 664108 to Ormoz, for the last cart to Maribor to await the overnight. I went to the brewpub, but arrived five minutes too late for food, so after scoring the beers I headed to the pizza restaurant I had used in March, before the overnight for a rancid midnight fester at Zidani Most.

Sunday 24^th October 2004

Bowled out by Sunday diagrams! The gripper on the overnight told me I couldn’t change trains at Leibnitz, but I did so anyway, only to find that having had a dud can on the overnight, the local was a cart on Sundays. Cheers then. Can’t even count the track! I did a few leaps, though winners were thin on the ground with the Sunday diagrams. I headed down to Graz Flughaven to check the route to the airport, however I could see no sign of an airport due to dense fog. I walked in what looked like the right direction, soon losing sight of the station, before the airport became dimly visible. There can’t be more than 300 yards between the station and airport, but they were invisible to each other, so I began to fear the fog might ground my flight home, however by midday it was bright and sunny, and the flight was back in Stansted on time, and I was home by 9pm.