83-173 and other locomotives on the Šargan 8

Our locomotive for the few days we would spend on the 760mm narrow gauge lines around Mokra Gora was to be class 83 locomotive 83-173 which was built in the Đuro Đaković factory in 1949.

83 173 was built in 1949

83 173 had problems a short while before our tour started so the engineers from Lapovo had to come to Mokra Gora to fix this locomotive which in turn delayed the test run of the class 33 loco a little. I began to realise just how risky the entire trip had been – with no alternative locomotives available in any of the locations that we visited. In many ways, things could have turned out alot worse!

83 173 in steam on the Šargan 8

The other loco in service during our visit was a diesel, L45H-098, which was used to haul regular passenger services including a school run. The range of locomotives and rolling stock on the line is quite varied, which is in no small part down to the donations made by the Serbian narrow gauge museum. In our travels on and around the system we saw:

• Diesel L45H-096 (Bucharest, 1987) in the workshop at Šargan
• Diesel 745-097 under cover at Mokra Gora.
• 0-8-2 Steam locomotive 83-052 (Jung, 1923) under cover at Šargan
• 0-6-0T Steam locomotive 25-27 (ČKD, 1949) under cover at Šargan
• 0-6-0WT Steam locomotive “Elza“(Budapest, 1913) which was a gift to the railway from Zrenjanin sugar factory, under cover at Mokra Gora
• 0-8-0T Steam locomotive M.I.M.C. 764-427 (Reşiţa, 1956) plinthed near Mokra Gora
• 0-6-0 Steam locomotive 19-126 (Henschel, 1923) plinthed at Dobrun
• Snowplough 990-100 plinthed at Šargan

Apart from these, there were a few locomotives around the system that we didn’t catch sight of including one locomotive from the 600mm gauge forest railway.