Kyustendil to Gyueshevo

The last day of the photo charter took us from Kyustendil to Gyueshevo. It’s quite a contrast to the busy stretch of line we were using yesterday and sees only three trains a week. That is not exactly surprising when you consider that the terminus currently serves a village with a population of just 275. That will all change if the missing link to Skopje, the North Macedonian capital, is finally built.

In October 2021 an agreement was signed between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Under the terms of the agreement, Bulgaria will complete the construction of the 2.5km line from Gyueshevo to the North Macedonian border, as well as modernising the line from Sofia. In turn, North Macedonia will construct a line from Kumanovo to the border at Deve Bair and modernise the existing line from Skopje. Funding will come from a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan and an EU grant.

A glint from the early morning sun at Kyustendil

Our day started early to ensure that we were in position at the S curves beyond Kyustendil ready for the sunrise. The local police took something of an interest, initially wanting folk to move away from the level crossing. Thankfully, our guides explained what was going on and allowed us to get our shot of 16.27 hauling her freight cars just after sunrise (08:10) followed by another from a curve through a nearby sweetcorn field (08:33). It was near perfect, though the loco didn’t have lights on as they couldn’t fix the generator. To add to that, we soon discovered that the superheater element has a crack.

We continued on our journey westwards (8:40). The photography was always going to be a challenge on this stretch of line as it is mostly overgrown, but we managed two runpasts at a tight spot near the mouth of tunnel 13 (finishing at 09:54); another runpast at another tight spot (10:40); three runpasts (11:30-12ish) near a level crossing; a shot at another crossing (12:30); two runpasts at Dolnoselo (12:45-13:00); a shot with hay bales (13:44); two runpasts from a meadow high above the curve at Prekolnitsa (14:15-14:30); a run through the station at Prekolnitsa (14:45); another hilltop view not too much further on (15:25); and a runpast at a level crossing on the outskirts of Gyueshevo (15:38).

Finally, we arrived at Gyueshevo (15:48). The day closed with false arrival and departures with cats, tempted into shot with pieces of ham. Over the years I have seen lots of attempts at shots with flocks of sheep but never cats – until now!

What an exhausting but exhilarating last day of photography. It was pretty much non-stop from start to finish today. I certainly feel that I have had a workout today, while my clothes and rucksack are now liberally coated in cement dust from the floor of our wagon! If we feel exhausted, I can only imagine how tired our crew must feel – especially as their shift started at 5am. They have done such an incredible job for us.

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Steam hauled freight to Kyustendil

Our travels have brought us to western Bulgaria. After an overnight stay in Pernik we travelled on by bus to Radomir this morning, ready to photograph a steam hauled freight train on a run to Kyustendil.

The line from Radomir to Kyustendil via Zemen is a non-electrified secondary line that sees dense traffic, so it can only be photographed in a handful of locations. To make even this possible, the regular passenger service has been retimed to run 29 minutes early. Any regular passengers who haven’t read the amended timetable would have to wait two hours, so we all understood how important it was that we didn’t delay this.

Our steam locomotive for the day – 16.27

Our motive power for the day will be 16.27, a steam locomotive constructed by the Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf, Vienna, in 1948 to a simplified wartime design (class 42) and exported to Bulgaria in 1952 along with 32 other locomotives of this class. The numbers in Bulgaria may have been relatively low, but across all the manufacturers 849 class 42 locomotives were built between 1943 and 1949.

In Bulgaria the locomotives were designated as class 16 and were an immediate success, hauling heavy freight trains on steep and curvaceous sections of network from their home depots of Ruse and Gorna Oryahovitsa in Northern Bulgaria. The class had a good lifespan, continuing to haul trains in regular service until 1990. Today, the only member of the class in operational use in Bulgaria is 16.27 following the completion of her restoration in 2015.

Our train arrived around 8.30am-ish with 12 freight wagons, a water tank and two passenger coaches, hauled by a Ludmilla (07.106-8), a heavy freight diesel locomotive mass produced at the October Revolution Locomotive Works at Voroshilovgrad in the Soviet Union, now Luhansk in Ukraine. Ninety Ludmillas were delivered to Bulgarian State railways (BDZ) between 1971 and 1977.

After the train arrived it was split into two trains. The first train will see the Ludmilla haul the water tank and two passenger coaches. The second train would follow behind, consisting of 16.27 and the 12 freight wagons. The plan was that we would use our buses and the diesel hauled train to get to our chosen spots.

Ludmilla 07.106-8 runs around at Radomir shortly after arrival

I was still feeling a little off colour, like a few others in our group, so didn’t join in all the photo spots but for the record these consisted of a false departure at Radomir (09:00); a level crossing at Priboĭ (09:30); a bridge shot at Egalnitsa (10:00) with the train carrying on to Zemen for a crossing with an express train; a false departure from Zemen (10:53); a runpast at the signalbox at Zemen (11:12); and finally, an industrial scene on the outskirts of Zemen (11:35).

The industrial scene was a quite superb setting offering a nice height to look down on the railway, with chimneys in the foreground, and easily accessible by a path behind the scrub. It was a great way to cap off the morning. After our final shot we walked back through Zemen and to a restaurant in the centre of town for lunch.

In the afternoon we boarded our diesel hauled passenger train and departed bang on schedule (13:45). Around ten minutes later we got off the train in the Zemen gorge, crossed a wooden planked walkway on a bridge over the Struma and then climbed up a path that took us over the tunnel mouth and up into the rocks. It led me to a somewhat precarious spot perched on a scree slope. And then we waited… with the occasional mini-rockfall to keep us on our toes lest we get too ‘comfortable’. And waited. It was always expected to be a long wait, around one hour, but in the end it was closer to two hours with the shadows creeping steadily into the shot. Our freight train finally crossed the bridge at 15:50, though it has to be said that our diesel produced more photogenic smoke than our steam loco! As always, it was easier getting up and much harder on the way back down.

Once again we had to marvel over the degree of research and planning that led to this moment. In our long wait we learnt that our tour leader had discovered this spot after exploring options from every bridge five years ago – in this case, spotting a path after taking a harder way up. It was impossible to deny that it was a glorious spot and the autumn colours looked absolutely glorious in the afternoon sun. It was also a marvel that I stayed upright for the shot – momentarily abandoning my grip on the rocks to take the shot! I certainly will not forget the story behind the picture anytime soon.

16.27 crosses the Struma in the Zemen Gorge

It was a relief to be able to stretch our legs again and clamber down. Once we were back on board we resumed our journey southwards along the Struma valley by train to Rajdavitza (16:30) and then switched to our buses. A couple of photographic opportunities presented themselves late in the day once the next service train was out of the way – the first at Shishkovtsi (16:55) and the second at Kopilovtsi (17:21). Finally, our buses took us to Kyustendil for a last look at our train for the day where a fresh load of coal was being transferred from truck to tender.

Tomorrow, we pick up the journey along this line to Gyueshevo, near the border with North Macedonia.

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