Steam locomotive 46100 Royal Scot passes through Carshalton station with the ‘Bognor Belle’ on 21 October 2017.
Railways
A trip on the Drachenfels railway
A trip on the Drachenfels narrow gauge rack railway near Bonn in Germany in September 2017. I was looking to have a go at filming something using a mobile phone, and this seemed a handy excuse.
Black 5 passes through Hackbridge
Black Five number 45212 passes through Hackbridge in south London on the evening of 5 October 2017 with a Steam Dreams train from Swanage to West Brompton.
Croatian armoured train
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. Armoured vehicles used in Homeland war, Brodosplit] The vehicles were sent to the shipyard in August 1991, and following conversion were displayed to officials on 31 January 1992.[1. Armoured Trains An Illustrated Encyclopaedia 1825-2016, Paul Malmassari]
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.”[1. Collection of railway vehicles and parts, Croatian Railway Museum] However it was not used in combat.[1. Malmassari]
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.[2. Croatian Railway Museum]
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.[1. Surviving Croatian Improvised Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Rafał Białęcki, updated August 2016] The bogies are protected with 10 mm steel.[2. Malmassari]
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.[3. Croatian Railway Museum]
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.[1. E-mail from Brodosplit public relations department, 17 April 2015] 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
Crystal Palace FC steam train
Crystal Palace FC organised a steam-hauled train from Clapham Junction, Selhurst and West Croydon to Southampton for their final league game of the 2015/2016 season on Sunday 15 May 2016. Here it is passing through Wallington in south London, hauled by 34052 Lord Dowding (34046 Braunton in disguise), with diesel loco 67023 on the back.