European Railroad Discussion > On IC44 from Kosice to Wien Hbf

After five brilliant days chasing trains around Slovakia with dwatry we parted company this morning in Kosice. Duncan was heading to Romania and Hungary but I had to return home. The first leg was on IC44 ZSSK's relatively new limited stop service from Kosice to Vienna. Leaving at 07:11 it covers the 530 Kms in six hours and eleven minutes. Not high speed rail but the route through the mountains of North east and north central Slovakia preclude any really fast running. Only over the flatlands south of Puchov did we reach 160 kph. But I didn't want this to end, the nicest long distance train I've been on for many years

1: 350 019-6 was our motive power, a product of Skoda the 350s date back to the early 1970s and are being displaced from front rank services by new Siemens Vectrons.

2: And here is a Vectron, it will power the next Bratislava bound service, a semi-fast, just under an hour later.

3: IC44 is a limited load train, consisting of three second class cars, a first class car and a diner. This is the first class car, marshalled behind the loco and in front of the diner.

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4: The dining car has a central kitchen with a bar / cafe area at one end, and the dining section at the other.

5: Whilst rolling through the countryside east of Poprad I had a coffee in the cafe

6: And later still a late breakfast / early lunch.

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7: The summit of the line is at Štrba, this is the view of the High Tatras approaching Štrba.

8: At Ruzumberok (birthplace of Hollywood star Peter Lorre), between Poprad Tatry and Zilina, one of ZSSK Cargo's biggest customers is the Mondi Group paper mill which receives and ships by rail.

9: ZSR the infrastructure owner is working on a line relocation project just north of Puchov, a junction for the Czech Republic. This is a new bridge over the River Vah



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/19 12:10 by 86235.

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10: At Bratislava Hlavni Stanica (Central station) we said goodbye to 350 019-6, reversing direction heading to Vienna via Bruck an de Leitha

11: We made a final stop at Bratislava Petrzalka where this ZSSK Cargo Vectron was sitting on a short freight.

12: The Austrian border is no more than a few miles from Bratislava, the flat Danube plain is liberally covered with wind farms which were busy generating today in the keen wind.

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Very nice ! Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

I have often wondered what those people from other
countries would think of the crap trains that the good
old USA has?

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

No need to wonder Joe, you know what they think!

mexrail

mexrail Wrote:
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> No need to wonder Joe, you know what they think!
>
> mexrail

I am really afraid that you are right, but of course the trains are the least of it!