Tito's Blue Train

The train on 28 May 1976, at the opening of the final section of the Belgrade–Bar railway with two Krauss-Maffei engines

Lounge

Tito's Blue Train (Serbian: Плави воз, romanized: Plavi voz; Croatian: Plavi vlak; Slovene: Modri vlak; Macedonian: Синиот воз, romanized: Siniot voz) is a luxury train, once used by Josip Broz Tito, while president of the former Yugoslavia. It is now operated as a tourist attraction on the 476-kilometre (296 mi) Belgrade–Bar railway, between Belgrade, capital of Serbia, and Bar, a coastal town in Montenegro. The train is stationed at the Topčider depot in Belgrade and can be visited for a fee.

Tito's era

The train was introduced in the 1950s with Art Deco interior design features. It was used to take Tito and his wife to the Brijuni islands in Croatia during the summer, and it also hosted meetings with important foreign dignitaries. Among those who travelled on the train as Tito's guests were Haile Selassie, François Mitterrand, Yasser Arafat, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sukarno and, in October 1972, Queen Elizabeth II. After Tito's death the train transported his coffin from Ljubljana to Belgrade.

Locomotives

Locomotives 666.003 and 666.004

The first dedicated locomotives for the Blue Train were three repainted JŽ class 11 4-8-0, one of them is now preserved in Belgrade. They were replaced by three Krauss-Maffei ML 2200 C'C' purchased from West Germany. These engines were based on DB Class V 200.

In 1978, four Electro-Motive Diesel, EMD JT22CW-2 locomotives, designated as ŽS series 666, were acquired by Yugoslav Railways for use with the train, hence their all-blue livery. Since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the locomotives have been used to haul freight and passenger trains. All four are no longer operational and stored awaiting overhaul. They were named after World War II battles:

• 001 - Dinara
• 002 - Kozara
• 003 - Sutjeska
• 004 - Neretva

External links

• Video of the train's interior
• Pictures
• Description of a tourist journey