8th October 2012 - It wouldn't happen in the UKMonday 8th October 2012 The choice for our last full day in Slovenia was new locos for haulage or more new track, we opted for the latter despite being tempted by the sight of 342 005 on the train to Budapest which would be leaving some 35 minutes after the one to Beograd that we waiting for. This turned up around 10 minutes late and departed after a couple of minutes of faffing around but then stopped suddenly a short distance further on. A careful scrutiny out of the window revealed us to be in the carriage sidings with the loco and just two coaches, the rearmost of which was in the process of being detached. The loco then drew the remaining coach (and it’s passengers) forward a short distance before reversing back onto a replacement carriage in another road then propelling both of them back onto the remainder of the train which was still in platform 6. This must have been planned judging by the number of staff in attendance and the slickness with which the move was carried out but it was a revelation to the likes of us who are more used to the paranoia surrounding such ad-hoc moves prevalent in the UK these days. Back home you could guarantee that everybody would be thrown off the train whilst the move took place or, possibly more likely, the whole train would have been cancelled. The train eventually departed for the second time some 25 minutes late meaning the extra shunt only took 15 minutes but we were then further delayed at Ljubljana Zalog due to waiting for a path through a section of single line working which set us back a further 20 minutes and put our intended connection at Sevnica in doubt. Not wishing to chance if it would be held or not, we changed our mind about trying for some new locos sand and hopped off at Zidani Most to wait for 342 005 to catch up; there were only around six of these locos still in service so it was very much a case of get them now or they might not be around next time we visit. 342 005 at Pragersko This train / loco was taken to Pragersko where it was terminating due to engineering works, a bit of a shame as the forward loco from here to Hodoš on the Hungarian border would have been a class 664 diesel but at least we would be on the same train for the whole journey tomorrow so we were not missing out completely. The following EMU was used to get us to Maribor for the Vienna to Ljubljana EC in the opposite direction which we were very pleased to see arrive behind 342 010 but we had noticed what we thought was another 342 standing south of the station looking like it was ready to drop onto the front of the train. We were seated far enough back to clearly see the front of the train as it snaked round the curves on the journey south to see that there was in fact a 363 on the front, then a 342 with its pantograph lowered then another 342 (010) with pantograph raised. Whilst walking to the front of the train in order to make sure that we saw all the loco numbers before it pulled away we bumped into another refugee from the Croatian tour who had got on at Celje and advised us of the numbers of the three locos. When we checked at Zidani Most to see which locos of the three might or might not have been working, it appeared that only the 363 was hauling the train. Whilst 342 010 had its pantograph raised and a driver on board, it was not actually working so we can only assume that it was merely providing power for the on-train services such as heating and lighting as the dead loco in the middle prevented the leading loco from doing this; this bashing lark can get a bit complicated at times! 342 010 at Maribor There was then a run of three hauled trains in relatively quick succession heading north so we hopped from one to the other on the way back to Pragersko, they were all class 363 hauled and, of course, the third one just had to be 363 023….. The loco-hauled trains then dried up so it was either an ICS to Ljubljana or wait for the local EMU which would take ages so we decided to give the ICS a go despite it needing a reservation. This turned out to be free from the ticket office on production of our tickets (Interrail and FIP), there is a charge if you board the train without and get one from the conductor. The ICS train was as expected, no surprises really as they are virtually identical to the Italian ETR470 and Portuguese Alfa Pendular which we have travelled on in the past. 310 005 at Laško We were about five minutes late arriving at Ljubljana but still just had time for one last new class 363 on the 17:45 IC to Koper which we took to Borovnica for a supposed 20 minute wait for a unit back the other way which turned into something more like 40 minutes in the gathering gloom. Our conclusions? Slovenia isn’t the easiest country to “bash” as there are not huge amounts of loco-hauled trains and the infrequent services mean doing all the track the country has to offer takes some time but there is enough left to do to keep us amused for at least another two trips and probably more if such delights as the Autovlak continue to run. 363 032 at Borovnica
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