European Railroad Discussion > Lithuania and Latvia, September 2018

A really productive five days running around Lithuania and South-eastern Latvia in pursuit of trains. Weather was miraculous and trains were plentiful. I stayed two nights in Kaunas, Lithuania's former capital city, two nights in Daugavpils, Latvia's second city and two nights in Lithuania's current capital, Vilnius. I flew in and out of Kaunas on Ryanair, Kaunas is something of a low cost airline hub with both Ryanair and Wizzair flying to destinations in the UK from there.

I started off on the east west mainline which connects the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad with Kaunas, Vilnius and Minsk in Belarus. West of Kaunas there's a junction with a line which heads S-SW across into Poland. Alongside the existing broad gauge line a new standard gauge line has been built, connecting the standard gauge network of Western Europe with Kaunas. Not sure how busy it is just yet, all I saw was a railcar bound for Bialystok in Poland.

1: Since independence from Moscow Lithuanian Railways - Lietuvos geležinkeliai - has invested in new equipment, both freight and passenger. This is their principal freight locomotives from Siemen's Eurorunner range (now superceded by the Vectron), it's classed as ER20C and is powered by the same MTU prime mover as our very own HST. This is eastbound with loaded auto racks from Kaliningrad where the Avototor assembly plant assembles models of a number of big name producers - BMW, Kia, Chevrolet - specifically for the Russian market.

2: I kept driving west to the Kaliningrad border at Kybartai, I watched a long distance passenger train arrive and then this transfer freight with a TEM TMH heavy duty switcher. The passenger train changes power at Kybartai, dropping the RZD TEP70BS and picking up an LG TEP70BS. Its ultimate destination is Chelyabinsk east of the Urals, a journey of 3200 kms. Leaving Kaliningrad at Monday lunchtime it reaches Chelyabinsk early on Wednesday morning

3: I finished the afternoon at a grade crossing near a small village west of Kaunas, saw three freight trains, a couple of local railcars and the Kaliningrad to Moscow express, complete with RPO. Here's one of the freight trains. A 2M62M up front



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/18 08:54 by 86235.

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Tuesday was a bit of a dead loss owing to the work window on the Klaipeda line so I headed off to Daugavpils in Latvia earlier than I expected, glad I did though

4: Before discovering the lack of trains I stopped at Kaišiadorys, the junction between the Klaipeda line and the east-west mainline. It's not particularly great for picture taking but it does sport this astonishing steam era water tower. The EMU is a Czech built Skoda on a Kaunas to Vilnius stopping train.

5: Reaching Daugavpils late afternoon I drove straight to the footbridge west of the station. I walked up to the yard and saw a train was ready to depart. It's a mixed freight heading west carrying among other things coal, wood chips and pre-stressed concrete beams. The loco is a 2M62UM rebuilt from a 2M62 by Czech rebuild specialists CZ Loko

6: As it left it passed an MoW train with loads of spent ballast behind a classic Alco derived TEM2

I hoped for better luck on Wednesday



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/18 08:24 by 86235.

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Wednesday was spent on the line which heads east from Daugavpils to the Belarus border and on to Vitebsk. It is quite busy, I saw seven trains in about eight hours but there was a long gap in the middle of the day, which made me wonder whether this would be a complete dead loss. Thankfully it wasn't
7: Motive power on almost all the through freights is provided by Belarus Railways  - BCh - and is invariably a 2TE10 with the Khar'kov FM derived 10 cylinder OP engine. This was the first train, westbound coal.

8: This local hauling wood chip cars for the plant at Kraslava behind an elderly M62, the almost universal Soviet built road locomotive. Originally designed to a Hungarian requirement it was built and sold across Eastern Europe and, eventually, adopted by the SZD in the USSR.

9: After sitting on this embankment waiting for an hour or more I caught the sound of something different above the rustling leaves, that different note. It heightens your senses as you try and pick it out again, then there's a horn blast which leaves no room for doubt and this is what sailed into view



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/18 07:10 by 86235.

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10: Another look at that last train, this time from the A6 overpass on the outskirts of Daugavpils

11: A couple of shots of Daugavpils trams, this is a low floor Russian built KTM 31

12: Another KTM 31 in front of the Lutheran Cathedral with the RC Cathedral behind. To my left is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Princes Boris and Gleb and round the corner the cathedral church of the Old Believers. All very spiritual

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 I enjoyed your informative series of photos!

Thursday started off at the yard at Daugavpils, my stay curtailed by the security guard. Here are some examples of what I saw

13: A CME3 switcher arriving from the engine terminal, these are also CZ Loko rebuilds, in this case of ChME3 switchers

14: Estonian Rail Services 2TE116 approaches the yard from the south on coal empties

15: A view of the engine house, the 2TE10 which has just been fired up is about to go through the wash rack

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Thursday evening I was due in Vilnius so I limited my afternoon efforts along the 62 kms of the mainline to Riga between Daugavpils and Livani
16: An eastbound Baltijas Ekspresis 2M62 on empty oil tanks. The women on the left had just emerged from the woods, Latvians are very big on foraging for fruits, berries and fungi

17: Another eastbound, this time with one of the 2M62UM rebuilds

18: A 2TE10U powered westbound crossing the Dubna River at Livani. After this I was off down to Vilnius, a three hour drive.

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Final day culminating in what I think may be my favourite picture

19: East of Vilnius heading towards Belarus an ER20C on a mainly intermodal train. Interestingly the refrigeration units of each reefer was wired to a central generator car.

20: West of Jonava a  train of 73 chemical tankers bound for Klaipeda behind two ER30Cs

21: And here's my favourite, the 17:45 Vilnius to Klaipeda. I'd seen the 16:45 and it was two of the new PESA 730 ML DMUs but what roared in to view at about 18:45 approaching Jonava turned out to be TEP70 0235 on nine cars. Great end.

This is just a small sample of the pictures I took, the remainder are here if anyone's interested.  https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2018/Lithuanian-Railways/i-CtSM2kV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/18 08:11 by 86235.

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Great series, good looking physical plant.

ghemr Wrote:
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>  I enjoyed your informative series of photos!

jtwlunch Wrote:
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> Great series, good looking physical plant.

Thanks, yes both Latvia and Lithuania maintain their railways in first class order. And there's no grafitti.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/18 08:29 by 86235.

Definitely like all your outstanding photos and concise narratives.
Thanks for posting on TO.
ALLEN

Very nice series of photographs.

Excellent photos, and very informative as well.

Well maintained track. No intrusion of trees close to the track. In yards, almost appears that the grass and weeds are cut occasionally. Makes for great visibility during train operations. No trip hazards from track materials scattered about. Thank you for the superb photography and narrative.

Thanks everyone.

I visited Latvia and Lithuania in 2016.  I didn't have a good camera, and photography was only one of my goals.  I appreciate that you went and took photos of the scenes I didn't have the equipment or patience for.  

Railfaning in the former Soviet Union is pretty fabulous, I thought.  Lots of long, heavy freights.  No tagging.  Busy lines.  Stuff you don't see in western Europe.  And, that there is little private property fussiness to impede wanderings is an added bonus.   

Thanks for sharing.  

Ted in OR