Sat 07 May 2011

Another day that started brilliantly and then fell flat. An early start got me to a freezing Hrhov well before the light was on the track. The last shadow to clear was, of course, at the critical spot. As soon as the light was on I became aware of a barely audible rumble in the distance. A freight, and not just any old freight, the eastbound stone hoppers with a pair of 751s, perfectly timed for the best light.

By 07:14 the day was over to all intents and purposes. The next train, railbuses excepted, didn’t appear until after 09:00, by which time the light had gone round too far and I was on the move anyway. Soon afterwards the sky began to cloud over and by 11:00, when the morning passenger left Roznava, it was pretty overcast.

There appeared to be some chance of light in the north so I headed up to Stratena, on line 173. R811, hauled by 754.054, narrowly escaped being photographed in sun. Then it was on to Strba, on line 180, where the afternoon was spent sitting under a big cloud while the field half a mile away, but nowhere near the railway, was in almost continuous sunshine. Out of 10 trains that passed, only one was in sun and I wasn’t in a good position to get it.

On my last visit to Strba, in 2003, 183 hauled freights were a rarity so it was encouraging to find them hauling trains as well as banking them this time.

All the while, Kralova hola, the mountain above Telgart on line 173, appeared to be in sun so I drove down there in the hope of getting a shot of R810. The mountain might have been in sun but the valley, where the railway runs, wasn’t and I went all the way to Brezno before finding a half decent spot that stood a chance of being lit. The shot was in sun but it wasn’t as good as it looked from the train a few weeks ago.

Hrhov

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
751.129
751.036
  EB Stone Hoppers 07.14

Dvorniky-Zadiel

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
751.206
751.196
  EB Freight 09:29

Roznava

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.072 R932 09:05 Presov - Zvolen os.st. 11:01

Stratena

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.054 R811 06:37 Bratislava hl.st. - Kosice 12:17

Strba

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
163.056 Os7806 11:20 Kosice - Zilina 13:49
163.10213 Os7845 13:04 Ruzomberok - Spisska Nova Ves 14:30
131.095
131.096
banked by
183.020
  WB Iron Ore 14:37
183.035   EB Freight 14:45
363.145 R605 09:57 Bratislava hl.st. - Humenne 14:55
183.034
banked by
183.005
  EB Freight 15:00
363.133 IC504 13:38 Kosice - Bratislava hl.st. 15:00
163.054 Os7850 14:10 Spisska Nova Ves - Zilina 15:11
163.102 Os7813 12:52 Zilina - Kosice 15:26
131.041
131.042
banked by
183.006
  WB Iron Ore 15:33

Brezno

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.054 R810 14:52 Kosice - Bratislava os.st. 17:57