A Glimpse of Croatian Railways

Croatian Railways (HZ) class 1141 electric loco 301 at Rijeka on the 13:58 to Zagreb

A visit to Rijeka in Croatia on 8th October provided the opportunity for a brief look at Croatian Railways (Hrvatske željeznice). Although Rijeka is the third largest city in Croatia, spending some time at the main railway station would lead you to believe otherwise. Apart from the occasional container train passing through on their way to or from the docks, there was very little in the way of passenger train activity. The class 1141 25kV electric locos still in use by Croatian Railways are based on a 1960s design by Swedish company ASEA, they were originally built for Yugoslav Railways prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.

Two HZ Cargo class 1141 electric locos on a container train at Rijeka, with 221 leading

Graffiti covered class 6111 EMU 005 at Rijeka station

Croatian Railways class 1141 electric loco 310 at Rijeka station

Class 2132 shunter 310 on an empty container train passing through the city

PPD Transport class 2044 diesel loco 005 outside Rijeka station

Former Yugoslav Railways 2-6-2T steam loco 51-032 on display at the station

Ancona Trolleybuses

Solaris Trollino 18 trolleybus 012 in Piazza Camillo Benso di Cavour

Ancona is a seaport on the Adriatic coast of Italy and its trolleybus system is comprised of a single route. Route 1/4 runs from Piazza IV Novembre to Tavernelle and is operated by a small fleet of 9 trolleybuses. Three Solaris Trollino 18 articulated trolleybuses were purchased in 2013 and numbered 010 to 012, the following year six AnsaldoBreda F22s entered service. The AnsaldoBreda F22 trolleybuses had originally been built for the city of Nancy in France in 2002, but due to technical difficulties they never entered service there and were returned to the manufacturer in 2011. After a lengthy modification and re-certification process the F22s entered service in Ancona in 2014 with the fleet numbers 013 to 018. Service 1/4 is rather unusual for a trolleybus route in that the majority of the vehicles operating the route are actually motorbuses, with a small number of trolleybuses making up the balance of buses in service.

Solaris Trollino 18 trolleybus 012 on Corso Stamira

Solaris Trollino 18 trolleybus 011 on Via XXIX Settembre

A rear view of Solaris trolleybus 012 on Via XXIX Settembre

AnsaldoBreda F22 trolleybus 013 on Via XXIX Settembre

A rear view of AnsalsoBreda F22 trolleybus 013

Iveco CityClass 287 is an example of one of the motorbuses in use on route 1/4