2nd - 6th July 2005

Along Different Lines
Slovak Steel Rails

Route:

Notes :
(1) Hungarian royal coaches attached to service train.
(2) For depot visit.
(3) For bus to Poprad Tatry depot.
(4) Service train.
(5) Depot visit made at Kosice before departing.
(6) Service tram.
(7) Chris Totty comments: There are various tram routes from Kosice to US Steel; we went on route R1. When we got to the works, the tram laid over there for about 20 minutes. There were notices both in English and Slovak forbidding any photography, which was interesting as the terminus was next to a public road, so we asked the driver if he would take us round the turning circle. He was very reluctant at first but when we pointed out that we would all be waiting for his return journey, and all armed with cameras, videos, etc. he changed his mind but kept the doors closed whilst we waited the 20 minutes on the turning circle.
(8) From level crossing just south of station.
(9) Opposite Hutniky station. Chris Totty comments: The highlight of the tour - we chartered a motor car and trailer on the broad (Russian) gauge line from the steel works to the Ukraine border. You will see from the timings sheet that we had fun with the US steel officials as to where we could and couldn't go and what we could photograph and what we couldn't photograph. Apparently the tour had been all the way up to the main board meeting of US Steel in Chicago as they thought we were trying to steal their manufacturing secrets. Considering that there is a public station, Hutniky, right in the middle of the works what was the problem? Then off towards Ukraine on the broad gauge freight only line which brings in the raw materials to the US Steel works. The Ukraine authorities had tried to insist that we didn't get closer than 2.5 kilometres to the border. In the end a few of us went on the railcar right up to the bridge over the river (not named in my atlas) which forms the border between the two countries. This was done in order to run round the trailer car. The km posts were gradually getting down towards zero but at the bridge the one there still said 1.4 km. I believe this is so that one railway, the ZSR, has full maintenance rights over the bridge. Anyone following this line in the Ball atlas should be aware that it is shown in the wrong position. Ball shows it correctly as far as Planec then has it going via Slovenske Nove Mesto and Cierna nad Tisou to Chop. It actually goes via Trebisov, where it runs through the station and has its own platform, and onto Matove which is the Slovak border town. It then goes over the border, parallel to the standard gauge line, to Uzhgorod in Ukraine.
(10) 'Box situated on bank of river forming border between Slovakia and Ukraine. ZSR maintain line for another 1.4 km to cover the bridge.
(11) Train went into depot.

Source : Chris Totty

Service Train/Tram Details

Back to "The Railtour Files"