Usora Valley Railway

Usora Valley Railway and Teslić Forest Railway
Routing of the state Usora Valley Railway Usora – Teslić – Pribinić
Route length:	Usora – Teslić:     25.7 km Usora – Pribinić: 40.8 km Total:       310 km
Gauge :	760 mm ( Bosnian gauge )
Maximum slope :	Usora – Teslić: 12.0  ‰
Minimum radius :	Usora – Teslić: 50 m
Legend formerly Bosnabahn from Bosanski Brod 6.5 Rudanka Bosna Standard gauge line from Samac Doboj (formerly narrow-gauge station) Bosna, standard gauge line from Tuzla Doboj (today's standard gauge station) Usora Bosna, Bosnabahn to Sarajevo Usora 3.2 Karuše 8.6 Tešanjka 13.4 Jelah 15.9 Unkić 17.9 Kalošević 20.6 Vrela 25.7 Teslić Velika Usora Connection Borja AD Mala Usora Memic Brdo Rasputnica Javorna Tedin Han Rastelica Ostružnja Mala Ukrina Kulaši 40.6 Pribinić 45.1 Klupe 50.0 Lukovac 55.3 Ladjovac 62.6 Bistrica 67.1 Zelenika 68.2 Vrlelnica Velika Ukrina Milovo Brdo 35 Crna Rijeka Velika Usora 38 Kamenica 41 Slatina 45 Rajćeva 49 Blatnica 56 Jurkovac 57 Jezera Velika Usora 58 Krivaya 61 clan 63.5 Crkvena 66 Očaušrsica 69 Besača Očauš Maslovare Kotor Varoš Čelinac Vrbanja Vrbas Banja Luka Standard gauge line to Novi Grad Swell: Route scheme Forest railways around Teslić in 1922 , Borja archive, Teslić Forest railway connections between Doboj and Banja Luka, 1931 , Borja archive, Teslić Maps Franzisco-Josephinische Landesaufnahme , Österreichisches Staatsarchiv Route profile Usora – Teslić: JŽ, route profile 65 Slavonski Brod – Teslić

The Usora Valley Railway and Forest Railway Teslić were narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of 760 mm , which, starting from Usora in the Bosna Valley , supplied the timber industry in Teslić with wood from the extensive forests between Teslić and Banja Luka and transported their products to the narrow-gauge main line, the Bosna Railway . During their greatest expansion, between the world wars, they consisted of four routes with a total length of about 310 kilometers.

history

Identical locomotive of the DD series with kkStB T and workers building the railway in Pribinić

As industrialization of Bosnia after the occupation by Austria-Hungary Triester company Morpurgo and Parente completed with the state government in 1886 a long-term contract for utilization of the colossal oak trees that are in the west in the woods between Bosna and Vrbas found . They built the corresponding railway infrastructure in the form of solid towing tracks to the west, to the main blows. This is how the 40 kilometer long railway line from the village of Usora in the Bosna valley along the Usora to Pribinić was created. At km 26, at the confluence of the Velika and Mala Usora rivers , the young town of Teslić developed around the woodworking industry that settled there (1904: Bosnian Holzverwertungs Actiengesellschaft Teslić).

The forest railways going out from Teslić ran south, west and north, and Renner wrote as early as 1896 that one fine day they will probably reach the Banja Luka-Doberlin line . The named company produced u. a. Barrel staves and supplied all 6 blast furnaces in the country with charcoal from the wood distillation and dominated the market in Austria-Hungary and Germany with their by-products . After the contract expired, the railway line should fall to the state government. After the First World War, the company was known as Destilacija drva Teslić (Wood Distillation Teslić ), and since communist times as Drvna industrija Borja Teslić .

Route sketches from 1922, 1930, 1931 and 1960 suggest that at the beginning of the 1930s, 310 kilometers, the largest expansion of the route network that led to Banja Luka was reached. The transport performance at that time was around 500,000 tons, which corresponds to almost 5,000 trains.

In 1960 only the Doboj – Teslić line and the two forest railway lines from Teslić to the south and north were left. The connections with Banja Luka no longer existed. In total, around 150,000 tons of wood were transported away in 1965, of which 60% were still by rail. Since the 1980s at the latest, rail operations have been suspended on all of the routes described.

Route description and traffic

Main line Usora – Teslić – Pribinic

Train of the Usora Valley Railway in Vrela

The Usora – Pribinić route was 40.8 kilometers long and led unspectacularly through the wide Usora valley. It was initially carried out directly on the body of the road. Until 1918 the route was owned by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian country of arars and was operated by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian forest administration on its own account. In the 1965 timetable it is listed as part of route 80 ( Bosanski Brod - Teslić). The section to Pribinić had been dismantled for a long time. Three pairs of passenger trains ran daily, which took around an hour and a half to cover the 26-kilometer route from Teslić to Usora. It was possible to continue on the former main line of the Bosnabahn , whose section Usora – Bosanski Brod (83 km) was still preserved at the time. Since Usora did not have a station on the standard-gauge main line Sarajevo – Šamac (route 65), there was no direct transfer option there.

Teslić – Očauš – Čelinac – Banja Luka

This was the southern and, at 133 km, the longest connection between Teslić and Banja Luka. The villages along this route, which followed the Velika Usora to the highest point (Očauš tunnel, 581  m above sea level ), are Blatnica, Crkvena, Maslovare, Kotor Varoš and Čelinac. From Blatnica a branch led into a southern side valley to Jurkovac and Jezera. The Očauš tunnel, 1.7 kilometers long according to the route diagram from 1930 (69.1 & - 70.8 km from Usora), led in a north-westerly direction into a valley that leads to Maslovare.

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  Log wagon at the loading ramp in Krivaja, with locomotive no.7, 1967

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  Forest railway train with logs, logs and stumps between Krivaja and Blatnica, 1967

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  A forest train consisting of 12 wagons and locomotive No. 7 in front of the Blatnica station building, 1967

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  Ascent of a 3-car train near Crna Rijeka, test drive of locomotive no.4, 1967

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  Locomotive No. 4 taking water with the suction pump, Slatina, 1967

Teslić – Pribinić – Čelinac

The track of the former forest railway ran next to today's road, near Kotor Varoš, 1967

The middle connection ran roughly where the road R476 / R476a Banja Luka – Kotor Varoš – Teslić runs today. In 1922 the railway from Pribinić continued 27.6 km to Vrlelnica. The route to Milovo Brdo was planned in 1930 and in operation in 1931. The connection from Banja Luka to Milovo Brdo already existed in 1930.

Doboj – Rudanka – Kulaši – Milovo Brdo – Čelinac

The shortest connection between Doboj and Banja Luka (95 km) ran roughly where the standard gauge railway Doboj Novi – Banja Luka Predgrađe (94 km) operates today. The villages on this route are Rudanka, Kulaši and Milovo Brdo (325 m above sea level). The Doboj – Kulaši line has not yet been entered on the route diagram from 1930, nor is it planned. But it was already drawn in 1931. There was a tunnel at Čardak (km 19.5).

Teslić – Kulaši

The route from Teslić to Kulaši led according to the scheme from 1922 via Memić Brdo, Tedin Han (with a branch to Rastelica), Ostružnja to Kulaši. This northern forest railway is shown in more detail on the route map from 1960 (1: 150,000): At Rasputnica Javorna a branch branched off in a westerly direction: Vlavl km 2.1 - junction to Velika Jama km 7.2 - 2 km further a 2 km long branch route, Lipovača km 7.1, and shortly afterwards the fork into the valleys of the Mrka Rijeka → Šnjegotina, and Bjela Rijeka → Čečava km 15, Kruševica km 22, Trdin Han km 25, Kulaši km 31, Kamenica km 36 , Počina km 44, Zelenikovać km 65.

Borja railway systems

Boiler house

Two-track repair shop. Front left locomotive 1

There were several long service tracks. A double-track locomotive shed with two large lathes was available for the maintenance and repair of the vehicle fleet. The boiler house had four tracks.

Locomotives

Usora Valley Railway

The machines No. 1 to 8 used on the Šumska želježnića Usora-Pribinić ( Forest Railway Usora-Pribinić) were procured between 1898 and 1913 by the state as well as the timber processing company. There were wet steam tank locomotives the wheel arrangement B to D. According to the World Wars in operating machines were taken the no. 5595, JŽ 71-005 and no. 6 ( Jung 1953).

In the 1960s, the train service between Teslic and Doboj was mainly of a Tender locomotives series JDZ 83 settled.

Borja

Horn has named four wet steam machines for the company Destillatia Drvar Teslić , 1DD to 4DD. In 1967 the locomotives belonged to the fleet of Borja AD (AD: Akcionarsko Društvo, joint stock company) and were also serviced and repaired there. The following locomotives could be found near Borja in August 1967:

• The number 1 from Orenstein & Koppel was converted into a diesel locomotive in 1965 and was given the number 10.
• No. 1: Krauss Linz 1371, 1924 ex 7 "Beograd" by Holzindustrie Turbe ;
• No. 2: Krauss Linz 3838, 1898;
• No. 3: Jung 10149, 1944;
• No. 4: Krauss Linz 5399, 1905;
• No. 5: Krauss Linz 5316, 1905;
• No. 6: Jung 11933, 1953;
• No. 7: Krauss Linz 6702, 1912;
• No. 8: Krauss Linz 3639, 1897–1962 retired;
• No. 3DD Maffei 1910.

There were also motorized draisines , which were built up from a car or openly powered by a motorcycle engine.

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  A car draisine in the Slatina station, 1967

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  Locomotive No. 1, whose Klien-Lindner hollow axles have been removed for revision, 1967

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  Former locomotive no.1, converted into a diesel locomotive (no.10) in 1965. The steam cylinders are still there, 1967

Current condition

None of the mentioned narrow-gauge railways exist anymore. The Doboj – Kulaši – Čelinac – Banja Luka line was replaced after the Second World War by the construction of the 66 standard-gauge line.

Web links

Commons : Usoratalbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pospichal: Locomotive inventory of the "Borja" at Lokstatistik.at
• Pruga Usora – Teslić – Pribinić (Usora Valley Railway) on the Serbian-language "Forum ljubitelja železnica", with lots of photos
• GoogleEarth map showing the terrain
• MT (Mrazović) Preindlsberg Bosnian Sketchbook , Leipzig 1900
• Heinrich Renner: Through Bosnia and Hercegovina all over the place . Geographische Verlagshandlung D. Reimer, Berlin 1896
• Youtube: Usoratal Waldbahn

literature

• Keith Chester: The Narrow Gauge Railways of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Stenvall, Malmö 2007, ISBN 978-91-7266-166-0 .
• Keith Chester: Bosnia-Hercegovina. Narrow Gauge Album. Stenvall, Malmö 2010, ISBN 978-91-7266-176-9 .
• A. Horn: The railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: Railway. Magazine publisher Ployer & Co., Vienna 1964 (special issue).
• J. Pojman and CA Neufeld: Illustrated guide to Bosnia and Herzegovina. A. Hartleben's publishing house, Vienna and Leipzig 1910.
• MT Preindlsberger (Mrazović): Bosnian sketchbook; Landscape and culture images from Bosnia and Hercegovina. E. Pierson's publishing house, Leipzig 1900.
• Heinrich Renner: Through Bosnia and Hercegovina all over the place. Geographische Verlagshandlung D. Reimer, Berlin 1896.
• Johann Rihosek : The locomotives of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian state railways. (Reprint 2005).
• Red Vožnje 1965/1966 (course book), General Tourist Zagreb.

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Victor von Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System. Bosnian-Herzegovinian Railways. Retrieved December 1, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Historical maps of the Habsburg monarchy on mapire.eu
3. ↑ Pruga Usora - Teslić - Pribinić (Usora Valley Railway) on the Serbian-language "Forum ljubitelja železnica"
4. ^ Heinrich Renner: Through Bosnia and Hercegovina all over the place . Geographische Verlagshandlung D. Reimer, Berlin 1896, p. 12.
5. ^ MT Preindlsberger (Mrazović): Bosnian sketchbook; Landscape and cultural images from Bosnia and Hercegovina , E. Pierson's Verlag, Leipzig 1900, p. 6.
6. ^ MT Preindlsberger (Mrazović): Bosnian sketchbook; Landscape and culture pictures from Bosnia and Hercegovina , E. Pierson's Verlag, Leipzig 1900, p. 5.
7. ^ A. Horn: The railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: Railway. Magazine publisher Ployer & Co., Vienna 1964 (special issue).
   Keith Chester: The Narrow Gauge Railways of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Stenvall, Malmö 2007, ISBN 978-91-7266-166-0 , p. 316 ff.