Railway mountain pass Bradina and Tarčin viaducts -- Bosnia and Herzegovina -- Sarajevo - Ploče [4K]

Railway line Sarajevo - Čapljina - Port of Ploče (Adriatic Sea) has one of its significant landmarks - great railway mountain pass Bradina. On its way from the inland of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Southeastern Europe, towards the Adriatic Sea, this railway line passes through some of the most beautiful natural areas in the Balkans. South of Sarajevo, and between Sarajevo and Konjic, there is a large mountain massif, which consists of the Bjelašnica and Prenj mountains slopes. In that place, the railway line overcomes a large height difference in a short distance. It climbs from the north side, overcoming deep valleys with very high and grandiose concrete bridges and viaducts. The most prominent are the 5 large, connected viaducts above the village of Tarčin. After the highest point at Bradina station, the steep and long railway descent towards the Neretva river valley begins. On that southern side, above the town of Konjic and between the village of Ovčari and railway station Grad, several long railway serpentines were built, in order to overcome the height difference of about 400 m. Along that way, numerous tunnels, bridges, viaducts, deep cuts and notches were built in the rocks of the steep mountain slopes.

There are few passenger and mostly freight trains, which mainly supply heavy industry inland, for the needs of the big and dirty industries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Of the passenger trains, there are only 2 pairs of daily Talgo fast trains between Sarajevo, Mostar and Čapljina. Train traction is performed by old, electric ASEA locomotives, ŽFBH 441 series (ŽFBH - Željeznice federacije Bosne i Hercegovine - Railways of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). As the gradient, or track slope is over 23 ‰ in some places, heavy freight trains are generally consist of 11 to 13 loaded wagons, for trains that go uphill. Such trains are usualy hauled by two locomotives traction. Often one locomotive is at the front of the train and the other is banker locomotive at the back, pushing the train. Such freight trains usually transport various coal ores and weigh around 700 t.

In addition to several filmed freight trains, a special passenger train was also shown. It is a Golden Eagle Danube Express luxury train, chartered agency train that traveled on its multi-day journey from Paris across the Balkan Peninsula to Istanbul and Bucharest. On that long journey, the train made a detour from the main route for two days, so that tourists could ride this railway line and visit Sarajevo and Mostar. It consisted of 14 special luxury passenger cars, which were pulled by two locomotives over this mountain pass.

The most outstanding and interesting shots were taken around the Ovčari railway station, on the viaducts and at the tunnel portals above it. In order to create most of the video material, it was necessary to do a lot of hiking and walking in the surrounding terrain, which is mostly very difficult to access. Being there live, waiting for the trains and carefully and precisely choosing the video shots, is something that cannot be described in words. The sounds made by the trains winding small radius track curves through this mountain massif is something that needs to be experienced live and I hope the video managed to capture and transfer even a small part of it to the screen and speakers. Also, a particularly powerful sound is produced by the locomotives as they pull heavy trains up the steep track, as well as the train horn sounds, which echoes and can be heard from faraway places.

It took 5 years of recording to collect enough material for this trains compilation. The recording was done in all seasons. In winter, the dense pine forest on the northern side was covered with white traces of snow, while during the summer, on the southern side, a particularly loud sound of crickets appeared, which shows how hot it was. Perhaps the most beautiful and most represented during this video is the late autumn period. The mix of colors of coniferous and deciduous forest is something really vivid and calming to watch. The appearance of fog in the valley during autumn and the view of it deep under the railway line or along the railway line is something special. The lower levels of the line are covered in fog, the middle level is on the edge of the fog, and the upper part, high up in the mountain is in the sun and with an unreal view of that fog below. In a few parts, this video shows the appearance of the train deep below the fog, that is only audible and then the train slowly climbs and breaks through the fog, until it climbs high enough to emerge from the fog behind and continue its journey high above the misty mountain ridges and valleys. There are also special landscape views that make it fulfilled this railway line scenic nature and mountains surroundings.