Croatian national railway Hrvatske Željeznice and the Brodosplit Shipyard in Split converted two wagons and a diesel locomotive into an armoured train (oklopni vlak in Croatian) in 1991.¹ The vehicles were sent to the shipyard in August 1991, and following conversion were displayed to officials on 31 January 1992.²

According to the Croatian Railway Museum in Zagreb, which now owns the train, the intention was that it would be used for “carrying out military operations against the aggressor’s forces.”³ However it was not used in combat.⁴

Front wagon

Croatian Railways’ rolling stock maintenance unit in Split completely rebuilt the wagons for the armoured train, retaining only the wheelsets, bogies and underframes.

The UIC Class G (covered van) four-axle wagons were originally 16.52 m and 16.79 m long, with loading surfaces of 39.60 and 40.30 m² and a capacity of 90 and 92 m³ or 41.50 tons.⁵

The armour is formed from 6 mm steel outer plates and 8 mm steel inner plates encasing 30 to 50 mm of concrete. There are armoured turrets for 12.7 mm machine guns on the roof of the wagons.⁶ The bogies are protected with 10 mm steel.⁷

Locomotive

Croatian Railways Class 2062 (ex-Yugoslavian Railways Class 664) Type G26 diesel-electric locomotive number 2062-045 was built by EMD in Canada in 1973, entering service with Yugoslavian Railways in August of that year. Before being armoured, it weighed 99 tons and was 17 m long.⁸

Rear wagon

The buffers are a different shape on this wagon.

Location

In 2006 the Croatian Railway Museum loaned the armoured train to Brodosplit for exhibiting. It was later moved as part of an upgrading project in the shipyard.⁹ As of April 2015 the train was in the railway yard at Split Predgrađe where it was freely visible by going down Hercegovačka Ul. There is a station nearby and it was more-or-less walkable (albeit not a very inspiring walk) from the more touristy part of the centre.

This is where the armoured train was in April 2015.

However, in February 2017 the train was not visible on Google Maps dated 2017, suggesting that it had been moved elsewhere.

References