Tue 03 May 2011

The day was forecast to be dull and wet and, although it was cloudy, there was no rain in the morning. The sun even threatened to break through on a number of occasions but never quite made it. I went out to Detva to see how the freights ran during the morning. Two eastbound trains were seen and their timings were consistent with those of 63113 and 67271, the only trains booked to run during the period I was there. The first train should have gone to Lucenec but the locos returned, light engine, after just 40 minutes, meaning they couldn’t have gone any further than Lovinobana. I didn’t hang about to see what the second pair did, I had a train to catch.

Plan B for a cloudy day was to ride up to Vrutky and back to check out the photo locations. Ada got into a bit of a tiz and had to phone a friend when I said I was going out via Banska Bystrica and returning via Kremnice. Both routes are 96km according to the timetable, so the fares should be identical. She ended up issuing a ticket via Banska which was accepted without quibble on the train back via Kremnice.

I almost cried off at the last minute when the sun came out at Zvolen but it didn’t last long and by the time we reached Martin it was raining heavily. The deluge continued for the rest of the afternoon.

Concentrating on potential photo locations meant that I missed getting the loco numbers of most of the trains we passed but there were quite a few freights, including a southbound at Harmanec Jaskyna banked by a pair of 746s. There was also a northbound hauled by a pair of 751s, seen at Diviaky on the way back. All the passengers seen appeared to be as booked but I couldn’t tell whether the locos were 750s or 754s.

There were a few potential spots on the section between Banska Bystrica and Turcianske Teplice but it’s pretty flat and uninspiring northwards to Vrutky. The line from Turcianske Teplice south to Hronska Dubrava is extremely scenic but almost totally overgrown.

Detva

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.005 R930 06:06 Kosice - Zvolen os.st. 09:06
736.001
banked by
746.001
  EB Freight 09:39
736.001
746.001
  WB Light Engines 10:22
736.014
736.019
  EB Freight 11:40

Slatinka, W of Zvolenska Slatina

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.035 Os6211 12:11 Zvolen os.st. - Filakovo 12:20

Zvolen os.st.

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.054 Zr1842 13:18 Zvolen os.st. - Zilina 13:05
240.105 R832 12:40 Banska Bystrica - Bratislava hl.st. 13:05
754.072 R932 09:05 Presov - Zvolen os.st. 13:23
210.007   Station Pilot 13:25

Sliac

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
750.300 Os7303 11:06 Vrutky - Zvolen os.st. 13:35

Banska Bystrica

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
754.003 Os7729 13:57 Banska Bystrica - Brezno 13:53
736.011
736.015
  Stabled 13:53

Martin

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
751.200   Stabled 14:50
730.619 (*)
725.070 (*)
  Stabled 14:50
(* track contractors locos)

Vrutky

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
750.094 Os7505 14:37 Zilina - Zvolen 15:08

Hronska Dubrava

Loco Train
No.
Train Details Notes
730.621 (*)   Stabled 17:09
(* track contractors loco)