In an effort to make each article in some way exclusive with rare archival materials, this time we are publishing sketches of the tunnels on the narrow-gauge railway Sarajevo – Zelenika from 1955.
While reviewing the archival material, we observed the following data: The total number of tunnels is 34. The longest is tunnel no. 4, “Ivan,” measuring 3,223.04 meters, which was put into service on April 9, 1931. The shortest is tunnel no. 15, which is 9.3 meters long, located between Raška Gora and Vojno. The lowest is tunnel no. 13 (Prenj – Grabovica), which is 4.07 meters high. The highest is tunnel no. 4, “Ivan,” with a height of 5.46 meters. The greatest incline is on the route from Brđani under Ivan to Bradina, at 57 to 60 per thousand, and between Mihanići and Glavska, at about 35 per thousand.
On the construction of the narrow-gauge line, history
The Uzana route from Sarajevo to Zelenika was built in two stages. The Sarajevo – Gabela – Metković line was opened for traffic on August 1, 1891. The Gabela – Hum – Uskoplje – Zelenika line was put into operation on July 16 and 17, 1901. The length of the railway from Sarajevo to Zelenika was 329.3 km until 1953; after 1953 (due to the new route caused by the reservoir of Lake Jablanica and the trains departing from Sarajevo Novo station), the length was 321.1 km.
Abolition The narrow-gauge railway line Sarajevo – Zelenika was phased out in three stages. With the construction of the standard gauge railway line Sarajevo – Gabela – Ploče and its inauguration on December 1, 1966, that year marked the end of this route. The Uskoplje – Zelenika section was closed on June 1, 1969, and the Čapljina – Gabela – Uskoplje section was closed on May 30, 1976.
We remind that the archival material on this page is the property of the website vremeplov.ba and may not be published or reused without explicit permission.
