Bulgaria 2009

1st October 2009 to 10th October 2009

This was my second visit to Bulgaria. From Sunday 4th to Friday 9th October I was on the "Great Bulgarian Track Bash 2009" railtour organised by PTG Tours - another excellent trip by them.

The railtour routes were:

4th: Sofia to Bobov Dol, Petrich and Kulata (on the border with Greece), mostly hauled by 87012-1.
5th: Dobrinishte to Septemvri on the narrow gauge line, then to Plovdiv via the branch to Peshtera.
6th: Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo via the branch to Panagiurishte.
7th: Veliko Tarnovo to Pleven via the branches to Svishtov and Trojan.
8th: Pleven to Vidin via the branches to Cherkvica and Zlatna Panega.
9th: Vidin to Sofia via the branch to Lom.

An add-on visit was made on 10th October to the Koncar works in Sofia where the ex-BR Class 87s are having their finishing touches applied before use with BZK in Bulgaria - see this collection.

Other days:
1st & 2nd: from Wien to Sofia on the overnight train via Budapest, Beograd and Nis.
3rd: service trains from Sofia to Pirdop and back.

Spare time in Sofia was taken up doing tram routes.

N.B. BDZ = Bulgarian State Railways, BZK = Bulgarian Railway Company, an independent freight operator.

N.B. This collection is "Work in Progress"

OBB/GySEV electric locomotive 1116 061-1 at Wien Westbf with the 18:50 overnight train to Budapest (and in my case on to Beograd and Sofia). 2009-10-01 18:34:39	Serbian Railways diesel locomotive 661-157 heads out of Nis towards the border with Bulgaria at Dimitrovgrad. 2009-10-02 13:48:42	87012-1 stands at Sofia's main station ready to depart with the first part of the PTG railtour. 2009-10-04 09:00:02	87012-1 is dwarfed by 07042-5 at Dupnitsa. The 07 worked the railtour to Bobov Dol and back. 2009-10-04 12:43:34
07042-5 at Bobov Dol, the terminus of the branch from Dupnitsa. 2009-10-04 13:22:27	87012-1 at Dupnitsa, the junction station for the branch to Bobov Dol. 2009-10-04 14:15:21	87012-1 at General Todorov, the junction station for the branch to Petrich. 2009-10-04 16:41:49	87012-1 at Petrich, the terminus of the branch from General Todorov. 2009-10-04 17:07:28
87012-1 on arrival at Kulata, just north of the border with Greece. Kulata is the farthest south a Class 87 locomotive has ever been. 2009-10-04 17:59:14	87012-1 after running round the train at Kulata, with Greece visible beyond the train. 2009-10-04 18:10:25