European Railroad Discussion > Three questions from my recent trip to Austria and Croatia

I was in Austria (Vienna and Salzburg) and Croatia (Zagreb and Split) in late May and early June, and while train-watching wasn't the main purpose of the trip, I did manage to squeeze in a fair number of hours at trackside. Thanks to online research (and some helpful folks here on Trainorders), I was able to uncover a lot of information to help me understand what I saw. Still, I have three questions that I thought I would pose here.

1. Why are there so many PKP Intercity coaches on trains running through Vienna? On my first day there, I saw a train arrive from Prague (Praha) with a CD locomotive and an all-PKP Intercity consist, and then a couple of days later, a train arrived from Budapest with a MAV locomotive and again, an all-PKP consist (see photo #1 below). Why is PKP Intercity such a big player on these international trains?

2. What is the very colorful building in the background of the photo below, near the Salzburg HBF (image #2)? I'm just curious whether this is a residential or an office building. It certainly stands out!

3. My wife and I took the train from Zagreb to Split. Along the way, at every station, an employee with red hat, white shirt and black pants would emerge to give the train a proceed signal (image #3). Given that the line had wayside signals, I'm not sure what the need was for the manual signals from these employees. Is this some form of manual block train control system?

Thanks to anyone who can help answer these questions.

By the way, if you're interested, here's a report about the rail aspects of this trip, on our travel blog:
https://tomandmarcia.blogspot.com/2017/08/spring-2017-railways-of-austria-and.html

Cheers,

Tom Murray
tmrail.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/17 11:45 by tmrail.

---

---

---

Regarding question three, the station master gives clearance for the train to proceed, even with a clear signal a train can not leave a station without his authorization, used to be a wide spread procedure all over Europe, but with all the reduction in personnel, this function is usually taken over by the conductor in most places.

Thomas Eckhardt

Thanks for the information, Krokodil. I guess that, having grown up with North American traffic control systems (mainly timetable and train order, CTC, and track warrant), the role of the station master is not quite clear to me. It sounds as though he is effectively giving the train the right to occupy the next section of track, presumably upon the authority of someone who is in charge of this (in North America, that would be the train dispatcher or rail traffic controller). Next time I'm in Europe I'll have to spend some time learning local practices for train control.

Tom

Well, over time, many things changed. Returning back from Switzerland, I noticed that most local trains don't have conductors anymore. In this case, the engineer is not only responsible for track observation., he is also responsible for opening/ closing doors for passengers.

I rode the train from Zagreb to Split and back in 1986,still under the post-Tito Yugoslavia. At that time the line went through what is now Bosnia where the stations signs were kyrillic. Was a long, but lovely trip, plenty of mountain railroading, every village with plenty of plum trees loaded with fruit. In Bonac were still some steam engine stored. Did not imagine that this area would become war torn soon.

Presently, only the line from Kanin down to Split is the same. Looks like mostly tilt type MUs are used. At the time EMD diesels were used. One of the blew a cylinder in the middle of nowhere, fortunately there were those plum trees Cole to station.

Thomas Eckhardt

No Tom, in Switzerland the Conductor is only telling the Engineer that the train is buttoned up and ready to depart. Woe unto the Engineer that forgets to check the signal, as happened a couple of years ago. The train he was to meet was running a couple of minutes late with the inevitable result, fortunately not a head-on. As I witnessed at Arth-Goldau the Conductor opened a Red Box mounted on a post on the Platform which turned on two horizontal white lights on a very small signal mounted just below the Departure signal at the end of the Platform, then very quickly boarded the train. As the Departure Signal was Green the train departed almost immediately with just enough time for the Conductor.

Krokodil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I rode the train from Zagreb to Split and back in 1986,
> still under the post-Tito Yugoslavia...Did not imagine
> that this area would become war torn soon.
>
> Presently, only the line from Kanin down to Split
> is the same. Looks like mostly tilt type MUs are
> used. At the time EMD diesels were used...
>
> Thomas Eckhardt

Hello Thomas --

Thanks for your observations about the Zagreb-Split line as it used to be. I'll insert some pictures below to give you an idea of what it's like today. We took train 521, which leaves Zagreb at 07:35 and is due to arrive Split at 13:37.

1. Our train consisted of a class 7123 DMU, built by Bombardier in 2004. HŽPP has seven of these trainsets. About midway, at Lovinac, we met the northbound train, shown here.

2. Here's the interior of one of the coaches.

3. Here's another station master, this one at Unešić.

More to follow...

---

---

---

More from Croatia...

1. An engine house at Gračac, about three-and-one-half hours south of Zagreb. I don't for sure, but my guess is that the damage is a result of shelling during the war of the early 1990s.

2. I was surprised to find, just south of Knin, a station named Kosovo, hundreds of km from the disputed territory of Kosovo, which is south of Serbia. I understand that the area around Knin was one where there was intense fighting between Serbs and Croatian forces in the early '90s, and this station name is certainly evocative of that era.

3. EMD-designed units are still used on the night trains between Zagreb and Split. This train arrived at Split with unit 2044 030 running long-hood forward. Right behind the engine was an auto carrier, which has now been spotted at the loading ramp a couple of tracks over from where the train is standing. The crew has tied onto the four-car train (one first- and second-class sleeper, one economy sleeper, and two second-class coaches) and is ready to take it to the nearby HŽPP yard for servicing. This locomotive is part of a group of EMD-design GT22HW-2 A1A-A1A units built from 1981 to 1984 by Đuro Đaković, in Slavonski Brod, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), under license from General Motors.

More photos from this trip can be found on my travel blog at http://bit.ly/2fqpBU7.

Tom Murray



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/17 18:36 by tmrail.

---

---

---

Interesting that the signals have wooden crosses on them which suggests that they are inactive. When we were in Croatia in 2007 I shot one of the Split to Zagreb DMUs at Gospic, again the signals were inoperative - a flagman was positioned to guard the grade crossing until the train passed.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/17 09:48 by 86235.

---

---

tmrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Hi Tom,

No answer for Qu 1, in Salzburg PKP cars are either seldom.

Qu 2:
This building is a residential building. An architectural derailment in my mind, because it is to dominant seen from the surrounding mountains and hills. But people living in are saying it is good to live there.

Qu 3:
This guy is station master and dispatcher for his small section. He has to give the clear signal to the engineer when train stopped here and he has to check running through trains for irregularities. On most railroads he is replaced by conductors, even the engineer when he has to conduct the train, and he is replaced by hot boxes and other devices for safety, and he is replaced by CTC.

Thanks for posting your report and pic´s, you did a lot of things.

Erwin from Austria



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/17 16:50 by spandfecerwin.

Thanks to all for your information and insights on railway operations in Austria and Croatia, and in Europe generally!

Tom Murray

Was in Salzburg in May. Walking tour guide(very good I might add) said Salzburg was the most expensive city in Austria. She does her shopping just across the border in Germany. For what it's worth.

Mexrail