from Saturday 29 September to Tuesday 9 October 2018
162 photos
A week long visit to Bulgaria for the "Balkan Circular" tour, which maybe should have been renamed a mystery tour. Four sets of stock were used, a 36 hour blockade in Serbia, a bridge closure in FYROM and two loco failures, but it did everything (apart from the dodgy bridge!). The route was Sofia - Niš - Bitola - Kočani - Veles - Thessaloniki - Alexandroupoulis - Svilengrad - Podkova - Sofia. Locos had over the trip were 07.001, 666.001, 441.710, 661.410, 661.234, A-506, A-451, 120.027, 07.077, 43.514 & 43.533. Apart from the excellent MLW traction another highlight was former BDZ 07.077 now in very distinctive blue PIMK Rail livery. After the tour I flew to Charleroi and two nights at Antwerpen having one day in Belgium and then one in Netherlands and a Flybe flight to Doncaster making it an easy journey home